RxSinger.com - Your Prescription for New Media Trouble
What caught my eye is that Panasonic and Apple unveiled a joint venture of sorts. The cost of admission to high definition (HD) has been dramatically lowered for post-production using IEEE 1394 FireWire in combination with 100 Mbps DV-HD (downwardly compatible with the Panasonic DVCPRO systems). Not to be out-done, Avid has also annouced upgrades to their
Panasonic's new AJ-HD1200A is the first pro HD VTR to offer a FireWire interface. Apple changed the name of Final Cut Pro by adding an HD to the name. Otherwise the product is the same version 4.0 that was released late last year. Final Cut Pro can edit the DVCPro HD media in it's compressed native state. This means we can edit HD resolution images on an G-4 compatible system and even PowerBooks.
Avid continues to add features to Media Composer and Express building on the DNA technology, which made such a big impression at last year's NAB. On the lower end, their systems can edit the native DVCPro HD media, matching Apple in that arena. 
Later this year, Avid will be releasing a new hardware-compressed HD codec that looks extremely good while maintaining reasonable small file sizes. On the high end, the DS Nitris provides the ability to create HD-sized proxies of those huge uncompressed files.
Once transferred to the hard drive, the footage is instantly available for real-time editing. All footage maintains its camera-original quality, because the IEEE 1394 FireWire interface transfers the native DV-HD high definition files, as originally recorded on tape.
Panasonic still makes it expensive to shoot. The AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema camera costs half again what a standard definition (SD) camera costs.
The cost for cameras will drop when the demand goes up. With the advent of editing HD without purchasing any proprietary hardware, that can't be too far away.
And speaking of Apple, don't miss their real time compositing software "Motion". Because it doesn't require rendering, it doesn't require the steep learning curve, plus practice and experience which has been the hurdle with Adobe After Effects.
Manufacturer's Propaganda