Why doesn't iMovie use ProRes 422 or native instead of AIC

Does anybody know why apple still uses AIC to transcode all captured video streams instead of ProRes 422? And why does it transcode in the first place? Why can't they use the native HDV or AVCHD streams?

I know that using native HDV, and especially AVCHD, loads the processor with all the decoding, but it should at least be an option for high-end machines. HDV editing on FCP works fine and the storage requirements go down to between 1/3 and 1/8 of what it is with AIC and ProRes.

I think the ideal workflow would be to capture in the native format, edit in the native format when no re-compression is necessary and only render to ProRes when effects/titles/filters are applied.

Is it just too much development work or is there an architectural consideration from the development group to force everything through AIC for some reason?

Is it a licensing issue? Does Apple pay royalties for ProRes for every FCP sale? Would it be prohibitively expensive to distribute ProRes with iLife?

Obviously only someone from the iMovie group would be able to answer all of these questions but we may be able to gather some insights from the community to get a better picture.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Feb 13, 2009 7:04 AM

Feb 15, 2009 2:44 AM in response to Steve Mullen

Editing long GOP codec movies with iMovie is all possible if you get them in the right container. But as for me HDV files didn't feel light and h264 almost impractical to edit on a 2GHz intel machine, but perhaps later machines would do better job.

I don't think longGOP codecs are referred to as not suitable for editing compared to intraframe format just because of steep hardware requirement. They are more of a final delivery format rather than one for editing and post processing. Tightly compacted 4:2:0 interframe codecs are efficient with bandwidth but not exactly flexible to manipulate, and it's why many prefers to transcode them to more flexible 4:2:2 intermediate codecs like ProRes or Cineform. AIC is 4:2:0, but i wish it was 4:2:2 which then would've been comparable to DVCPro HD.