Final Cut Pro 5: About HDV and the Apple Intermediate Codec
Summary
Final Cut Pro 5 features HDV video editing, making high definition video production approachable in new ways. With Final Cut Pro 5, you have the options to edit in native HDV, working with the data directly from your HDV camera. Alternately, you can edit the same HDV footage after Final Cut Pro transcodes it to Apple Intermediate Codec. Read on for an overview of these formats.
Products Affected
Final Cut Pro 5.X
About HDV
HDV (High Definition Video) is a new video format that allows you to record high-definition video onto standard DV media (such as mini-DV tape) using a supported consumer-priced camcorder. You can connect an HDV camcorder to your computer through FireWire—just as you would with a DV device—to capture and output footage.
HDV uses MPEG-2 compression to achieve a maximum video data rate of 25 Mbps (megabits per second), which is the same data rate as DV. This means you can fit the same amount of high-definition video on your scratch disks as you can when using DV.
There are several resolutions and frame rates defined within the HDV specification. HDV formats are usually distinguished by the number of lines per frame (the height of the image), the scanning method (progressive or interlaced), and the frame or field rate. For example, 1080i60 describes a format with 1080 lines, interlaced scanning, and 60 fields per second (fps).
Standard Definition Recording with an HDV Camcorder
In addition to recording high-definition video, most HDV camcorders can also record standard definition video. You can capture, edit, and output standard DV video from an HDV camera just as you would with any other DV video.
Important: Avoid recording DV and HDV video on the same tape. This can cause issues during capture and playback.
About the Apple Intermediate Codec
The Apple Intermediate Codec is a high-quality video codec that Apple developed for use as an alternative to native MPEG-2 HDV editing in an HDV workflow. Instead of editing the MPEG-2 HDV data directly, you can capture video from the tape source and then transcode it with the Apple Intermediate Codec to optimize the video data for playback performance and quality.
Working with the Apple Intermediate Codec is less processor-intensive than working with native HDV. Unlike MPEG-2 HDV, the Apple Intermediate Codec does not use temporal compression, so every frame can be decoded and displayed immediately without first decoding other frames. The drawback of this codec is that it requires three to four times as much bandwidth and hard drive storage space as MPEG-2 HDV.
Data rates for the Apple Intermediate Codec are variable; the data rates and storage needed may vary slightly, depending on the complexity of your footage. Images with a lot of detail have a higher data rate, while images with less detail have a lower data rate.
Format Details
| Format | Data rate |
| MPEG-2 HDV 720p30 | 2.5 MB/sec. (equivalent to 9 GB/hr.) |
| MPEG-2 HDV 1080i60/50 | 3.3 MB/sec. (equivalent to 12 GB/hr.) |
| Apple Intermediate Codec HDV 720p30 | approximately 7 MB/sec. (equivalent to approximately 25 GB/hr.) |
| Apple Intermediate Codec HDV 1080i50 | approximately 12 MB/sec. (equivalent to approximately 42 GB/hr.) |
| Apple Intermediate Codec HDV 1080i60 | approximately 14 MB/sec. (equivalent to approximately 49 GB/hr.) |
Frame Aspect and Dimensions
MPEG-2 HDV and Apple Intermediate Codec feature a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for all resolutions.
The 1080i format features 1080 lines (1440 pixels per line), interlaced, using non-square pixels to display a screen ratio of 16:9 (equivalent to 1920 x 1080). The 720p format features 720 lines (equivalent to 1280 x 720) with a progressive scan.
Color Recording Method
Both MPEG-2 HDV and Apple Intermediate Codec HDV record a 4:2:0 component (Y´CBCR) digital video signal. Each sample (pixel) has a resolution of 8 bits.
Note: This article was based on information from the HD and Broadcast Formats document (in Final Cut Pro 5, choose HD and Broadcast Formats from the Help menu).