The new black box.(the moving picture)

This past spring, just before the start of the National Association of Broadcasters convention, Apple introduced real-time HD editing to its line of video post-production tools [see "NAB 2004: How Ya Like Dem Apples?," May 2004, p. 6]. As is usually the case with Apple, it was an impressive demonstration. However, less usual for Apple, and no doubt thanks to the increasing years of software maturity and revisions, it was a presentation that was relatively free of the oft-noted "reality distortion field."

A simple G5 machine (actually it was a top-of-the-line dual-proce