Actually, HDV and any Long-GOP codec still have major drawbacks and slowdowns when editing with them natively. I don't remember a time when Final Cut didn't edit HDV natively.
Long GOP isn't as efficient as I-frame...I agree wholeheartedly. But let's face it, Long GOP workflows are pretty workable these days. FCP moves through 50 Mbit XDcamHD effortlessly on a properly configured Mac.
"40 Mbits/s at 960x720 is nearly SD" Really, nearly SD, when it's more HD than H.264, HDV, or any other 4:2:0 highly compressed Long-GOP? Need to recheck your fact, my friend.
Breathe man... My dismissive tone was aimed at Adobe, not the format. DVCProHD looks great and I use it often, and when it's off a P2 card and shot at 720p24 PN mode, it's stored resolution is 960x720 and it's bitrate is 40 Mbits/s...it's incredibly fast. My remark was that if Adobe was going to show off Mercury in what is a "real-world editing scenario" for ME, I'd like to see some full-frame 1080 with a bit rate. DNxHD is OK, but even on Windows where I can't encode to it, I think ProRes is a really good example of high quality footage that runs pretty easily. I end up using CineForm for most of the projects that initiate with me only because it's completely cross-platform.
What's "more HD" is a ridiculous argument in itself...XDcamHD/EX is everywhere...DSLRs are grabbing hold regardless of a number of compromises that have to be made...and H.264 isn't restricted to 4:2:0...what do you think AVC-Intra is? MPEG4 field acquisition is not going anywhere...and transcoding to I-frame won't be a big advantage for long, and it isn't a necessity now.
FCP imports PSD files made on a Mac just fine, always has, there has never been any documented issues with it. It imports as it's own Sequence. You can use any combination of layers you want, manipulate them independently. Always has been like that. Very flexible. Not sure what you mean by "generations behind"
Have you used PPro and imported a multi-layered Photoshop File lately? FCP supports ALL the features of ...Photoshop 3.0...anything else is dumped on import. No layer styles...you can't sort the layers on import...take one, or two, merge them in subgroups, I can choose to flatten the document on importing it...i don't need to do that in Photoshop, preserving my ability to alter it later, etc.
Premiere Pro can import a 16 bit PSD and handle it (along with 10 bit DPX image sequences, etc.) in 32 bit float...and give me a 10 bit overlay...no I/O cards or custom sequence settings...
What do I mean by generations? Photoshop 3.0? We're on Photoshop 12 now...
I've never seen a single clip put into an FCP Sequence that needed rendering. But when you start to pile them up, apply composite modes, filters, keyframes, yes, I've seen both NLE's bog down and need rendering. That's a simple fact of life. There is no such thing as an NLE that "never" needs rendering.
I'm not referring to effects, I'm talking about placing media that does not have the same frame rate, size, or codec as the FCP sequence is specified for...
For a recent class, I created a DSLR native 1080p23.976 timeline.
I placed a DSLR 1080p23.976 clip on it...
then an XDcamEX 1080p23.976 clip on it...
then a 1080p29.97 AVCHD clip on it...
then another DSLR clip at 720p60, which I took down to overcrank by clicking on it in the project bin and simply changing it's framerate to 23.976...
then I dropped a 720p23.976 DVCProHD clip on it...
then I added a ProRes HQ 1080p30 clip...no red line...I played it back.
...I did get a red line when I last dumped a 4K RED R3D file onto the timeline...I dropped frames on that...but I could still see the image...chug through it with dropped frames...adjust the RAW parameters...etc.
Ben...can FCP do that? FCP needs to have that 720p60 clip converted to 24 fps through compressor or Motion to get it to the timeline as overcranked.
How skewed are my facts?
As far as marketshare...I think the Sony guys would even laugh out loud at the assertion that Vegas has more marketshare than Premiere Pro...come on.
I had my edit suite in the same hallway as a friend with FCP for years and, yeah if he brought in media that was a different framerate, size or codec or whatever than his FCP sequence, in order to hit the spacebar and play through it, dropping frames or not, he had to render...
I'm scratching my head that there's even a point of contention here...please explain in more detail what I have wrong here.