I'm a bit rusty on all this having been out of the video editing game for a couple of years.
I want to edit my HD video simply in Final Cut Pro and for my purposes can choose between:
1) Apple Intermediate Code (AIC) or
2) Apple Pro Res 422 HQ (or just Apple Pro Res 422)
... both 'native' Apple codecs that need no time consuming pre-rendering in FCP.
I'm shooting in AVCHD and can convert to these two codecs using ClipWrap. I need to do this as I'm using FCP v6 on a MacOS 10.5.8 machine and cannot afford an upgrade at the moment so I cannot import AVCHD natively.
I will show the edited HD video at full res directly from harddisk to a 1920x1080 TV screen, and also burn STD DVD disks (maybe later BluRay). I'll also no doubt render some 640x360 H.264 for posting online etc
My camera only captures in 4:2:0 so 4:2:2 editing may be a little redundant, tho ProRes 422 HQ is broadcast quality I believe.
What compressor format should I use and why?
Cheers! Nick