I have a client who is asking if there is a card that will help in rescaling video.

His job requires that he takes a MiniDV format and then, after editing, outputs it as an .mov (or other format) rescaled down. He is complaining that the rescaling takes a lot of time and wants to know if getting a card will help.

Unfortunately I don't at this time know what his platform is. I know he works on a Mac but he may also transfer directly onto a PC with his camera if it is more economical.

I just want to know in theory if a card will help with rescaling processing (not effects or real-time editing).

From what I've read so far it looks like this is far more dependent upon the CPU than any accelerator card.

I think a video card would only help with the playback/previewing.

A CPU/Ram upgrade would probably do him better, as you mentioned. =)

I don't know if this will help for downsampling below SD resolution, but here's something to consider:

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUSNX_for_HDV/pa_EDIUSNX_Pro_02.asp

I assume you are talking about SD resolution footage? If so I
doubt the downscaling is what is taking the time. I bet the time
is really in the encoding (with the chosen codec) of the QuickTime.

Can you give us some more details on what he is doing exactly?
From which resolution to which resolution? What settings for
the QuickTime encode? Which program is he using? etc. etc.

Is this person working on a Mac at all (because of quicktime)...

It's easy enough to automate/script out the resample/export process in Quicktime Pro using Applescript. If it's time consuming to click through each one, it's pretty easy to set up a one time Applescript or macro to batch process.