Final Cut Pro 6 was announced yesterday, and there’s no question that it’s a major update. First, there’s support for mixed resolutions, formats, and even frame rates in the timeline — all conversion is done in the background. For example, drop 960×720 native clips from the Panasonic HVX200 onto the timeline, and FCP auto-scales them to match the native 1920×1080 clips that you’ve already cut together. (Read the press release at The Briefing Room: 2007 NAB Newslink)

One of Apple’s biggest announcements from yesterday was its new ProRes 422 codec. This is a 4:2:2 (obviously), 10-bit, variable bit-rate, full-raster HD codec that Apple is claiming is much more edit-friendly and effects-friendly than previous attempts to limit the bandwidth of HD video. Apple showed a demo of a ProRes clip — from a project that had gone from 1TB uncompressed to 170GB in ProRes — that had suffered ten encode/decode cycles and displayed it side by side with the uncompressed version. There was no distinguishable difference.

This codec relies on a new box from AJA for hardware-based I/O into Final Cut. The aptly named iO HD — based partially on technology from the Kona board and existing (standard-def) iO box — was co-developed with Apple. It’s currently the only device that supports ProRes in hardware, and there are no proprietary cables — FireWire 800 takes the material into your Apple system. As you might expect from AJA, iO HD is housed in a slick aluminum box with a handle for easy transport. After all, you’re going to want to take this with your Mac Book Pro out into the field for some 10-bit HD editing in the field on a laptop. (Read the press release at The Briefing Room: 2007 NAB Newslink)