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

AIC is a much older codec so ProRes is the preferred format nowadays. I believe regular ProRes (non HQ) will suffice for HDV.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

ProRes is far superior. Also more compatible with current systems and workflows. It's also not that new anymore -- been in the game since 2007.


www.derekmok.com

Haha 2007 is about when I took a break from video editing! Thanks guys, looks like I'll be going ProRes. Thanks for the quick responses