Apple Final Cut Pro 6 - Manual (Page 1423)

638 Part IV Real Time and Rendering
Supported Real-Time Playback Codecs
RT Extreme is not capable of playing back all video codecs. The processor speed and
amount of RAM installed in your computer affect which codecs can play back in real
time. The following codecs are supported for real-time playback:
 DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO (25), and DVCPRO 50
 IMX
 OfflineRT (this is a Final Cut Pro preset that uses the Photo JPEG codec)
 8- and 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 video formats
 Apple ProRes 422 codec (standard definition)
The following high definition codecs have higher system requirements:
 DVCPRO HD, XDCAM HD, HDV, Apple Intermediate Codec, and Apple ProRes 422 codec
To see a complete list of real-time codecs supported by your system:
m Choose Final Cut Pro > System Settings, then click the Effect Handling tab.
Using a Third-Party Video Effects Accelerator Card
Instead of using RT Extreme, you may want to use a supported third-party video effects
accelerator card. A video effects accelerator card is a video interface card that supports
real-time effects processing and can take the place of the built-in RT Extreme effects
architecture of Final Cut Pro.
All codecs capable of real-time effects playback appear in the Effect Handling tab of the
System Settings window. The Effect Handling tab allows you to choose whether
Final Cut Pro uses RT Extreme or a supported video effects accelerator card for
processing real-time effects. For example, you could choose to have RT Extreme handle
media using the Photo JPEG codec while using a video effects accelerator card to
handle DV NTSC footage.