David,

Exactly what features will the cineform codec for the mac have?

I understand it won't do any more real-time stuff for FCP like it does with PPro.

Thanks

Stacy

It other a high bit-depth, high quality compressed solution that should outperform ProRES in quality (certainly at 4:4:4) while supporting a cross platform compatibly. Just an excellent codec today with more tools support coming.

It other a high bit-depth, high quality compressed solution that should outperform ProRES in quality (certainly at 4:4:4) while supporting a cross platform compatibly. Just an excellent codec today with more tools support coming.

Will this require a third-party capture card like Pro Res? Or will it (please) work like AspectHD and convert from HDV firewire capture on the fly to Cineform.

That's the one thing that puzzles me that FCP can't do. I was so used to it in PPro/Cineform.

Just a codec now, all the fancy stuff we do on the PC is yet to come for Mac.

Is there an ETA on the Mac "AspectHD"? I'm beginning to evaluate options for a computer upgrade, and a Mac is figuring quite prominently in that evaluation, with CS3...

Thanks,
Matt

Matt, we won't have Aspect HD or Prospect HD directly on Mac. More than likely we'll keep the Neo family (HDV / HD / 2K) and grow the functionality to include increasing performance based on the NLE engines we have access to on Mac - operation is different than on Windows. If you've been with us for a while you know that we constantly roll out new features.

We're currently already Mac CS3 compatible, but there are some things we'll do in Neo later this year to increase performance for CS3. Mac performance might not quite get up to AHD, but computers are getting faster, so what do you need 6 streams for anyway? :-)

Our Mac and cross-platform strategy will become more clear shortly. We're preparing for the announcement, but we're solving a few niggles (technical term) before we make the announcement.

Any chance you could tell us when to expect the announcement? hehe

"Very soon" as compared to the more generic "soon". :-)