As I whipped across the Central Hall show floor, no doubt late to an appointment and well aware I hadn‘t eaten all day, I grabbed a free fortune cookie from a basket at someone‘s stand. Snapping it open, I read this ominous warning: “Be aware of those who try to sell you insurance.” Huh?

Was the cookie challenging me to “be aware” of all the spin and hard sell at NAB? Or to beware of desperate assurances that some latest incarnation of broadcast technology at the show would have a shelf life longer than its amortization?

Pressing on, pondering more Big Thoughts, I arrived at a meeting with Apple—which yesterday had neglected to hold its annual splashy press conference—only to be reminded that when it comes to hype, less is mo‘ better. As Apple‘s reps did their demo thing, the realization quietly stole into my mind that at least two of Apple‘s low-key announcements had the potential to rock my world. I guess the sugar had kicked in.

In the past year, I‘ve shot or produced a number of long-form documentaries and one drama in HDV. The two big editing obstacles I‘ve experienced editing HDV natively in Final Cut Pro are:

1) when cutting 1080i from a Sony Z1 or A1, the immense rendering time required to output an edited HDV sequence to tape or file (MPEG-2‘s 15-frame GOP must be re-calculated over the entire duration), and

2) when cutting 720/24p shot with JVC‘s HD100… well, hell, you can‘t.

That‘s right, there‘s been no way in Final Cut Pro to edit JVC‘s 24p flavor of HDV since, let‘s see, it was introduced a year ago at NAB.

I know of two 720/24p HDV projects shot in the last year that are sitting on their footage (and hands) waiting for Apple to make The Big Announcement at NAB this week that FCP is finally endowed with 24p HDV capabilities. (Actually, one of these projects took the plunge several weeks ago and switched to Adobe Premiere Pro using Cineform‘s plug-in. All week, I‘ve received exasperated emails about timecode crashes in the capture process, but that‘s another story.)

I‘m happy to report the great news that Apple today confirmed that FCP will have 24p HDV capabilities that encompass both JVC‘s 720/24p and 1080/24p from Canon‘s XL H1.

I regret to inform, however, that the wait isn‘t over yet.

“Soon” and “in months” are calendar targets Apple agreed I could quote. They did (seem to) confirm that 24p HDV capability will come in the form of an update to the recent FCP 5.1 update.

And a separate upcoming FCP update, also expected in the timeframe of “soon” or “in months,” will add native editing of MXF-wrapped MPEG-2 from Sony‘s XDCAM HD. Which, at 25 Mbps (constant bit rate), just happens to match HDV. Except for one small detail. Sony‘s XDCAM HD produces Elementary Stream MPEG-2, not Transport Stream, the basis of HDV. To edit Elementary Stream as HDV, it must first be converted to Transport, which calls for a $2,000 VTR board from Sony.

What, you thought any of this would grow cheaper or simpler?

As a consequence, editing 25 Mbps XDCAM HD natively in FCP is the way to go. But native editing of XDCAM‘s other two recording modes, 18 Mbps and 35 Mbps, both variable bit rate, will have to wait. Apple admitted that native editing of XDCAM HD would initially be limited to 25 Mbps. Assume a target date of way later than sooner.

The second shiny gold nugget at Apple today?

Matrox is introducing a small converter box called MXO, about the size of an external hard drive and wrapped in G5-like aluminum, which takes the DVI signal ordinarily sent to an Apple Cinema Display and instead converts it on-the-fly to HD-SDI with embedded audio, or analog HD with unbalanced audio.

Since FCP instantly plays back edited HDV in realtime—it‘s just when you have to output the edited results that forever-and-a-day rendering is required—MXO smashes the hated bottleneck associated with HDV output. Of course, you‘ll need a recorder capable of HD-SDI or analog HD input.

Whether God or the Devil is in these details, who cares? It‘s great news.

Racing along the show floor at warp speed, another sight I glimpsed (besides free cookies) was three kids clad in Avid purple tees enthusiastically conducting “Avid University.” Avid had announced at its Sunday press conference that it had invited college students to participate as Avid floor reps, which could be interpreted the wrong way (cheap labor) or seen in a better light (great experience for the kids). I say it‘s emblematic of Avid‘s penchant for fun ideas.

Anyway, the Avid kids were conducting group sessions to demonstrate Avid‘s software-only Media Composer, which I mentioned in yesterday‘s blog. There were 12 workstations on the show floor, each occupied by a young, hip creative type. What‘s so special about that? The 12 screens filled with Avid timelines in various states of editing were 23in. Apple Cinema Displays. These were Macs.

It‘s great to see Apple and Avid back together again. Like divorced parents who have buried the hatchet for the sake of the kids.