Naturally, I wanted to check out the beast inside Apple’s PowerMac Quad. It has two dual core PowerPC processors running at 2,5GHz. Here’s a benchmark test:

Definitely has the WOW effect in terms of Gigaflops but what’s the improvement for the applications you’ll be using:

Final Cut Pro

After Effects

All in all, the improvement over Apple’s PowerMac G4 is about 3.7 times. Considering the video coming out of the new Panasonic HVX200 is 100Mbps DVCPRO HD, you’ll definitely will need this additional horsepower.

Even if you stick to “regular” HDV cameras, you’ll find it a lot faster to edit on a dual core PowerMac G5. Most of us are no Walter Murch but if you spend 6 months working on the edit, you’ll be able to save substantial time if you upgrade to the new beast. Starts from just $1,999!

Update: Jonathan at VFCPUG Online has already ordered one, so I’m harassing him to do a review

Regardless, professional reviewers did their job and gave the new iMac top ratings:

The combination of the new, improved hardware, plus Front Row, makes the iMac G5 the best consumer desktop you can buy this holiday season, period. For mainstream consumers doing typical tasks — Web surfing, email, office productivity, photos, music, home videos, etc. — it’s the finest desktop PC on the market, at any price. …the top-of-the-line model, with a 20-inch screen, is now $1,699, down $100 from its predecessor. The 17-inch model is still $1,299, despite the added features.

The new iMac G5 has native support for HDV editing as well as DVCPRO HD, the 100Mbps standard used in new “Varicam” – the Panasonic HVX200.

If you’re a serious editor obviously you’ll need a more professional platform but if you’re going to edit your first short, the iMac makes a lot of sense. Apple did price it competitively to other desktop systems so you should take advantage of this iMac.

So how is this helping filmmakers? Let’s look at Peter Jackson’s production diary for King Kong. Instead of HTML pages linking to videos, he could’ve uploaded the videos to a server, saved an XML file, and asked you to sign-up for his vodcasts. Once you’re subscribed to his production diary vodcast, iTunes will start downloading videos as they become available.

Most vodcasts will probably be low-rez, mainly for bandwidth reasons. You should be able to view them just fine on your new video iPod while driving to work… Wait a minute! I meant while riding the Tube to work.

There’s a simplistic, yet useful step-by-step guide to vodcasting published at Playlist’s site.

Update: You can read my tips on producing video for iPod.

For starters, let’s look at the tech specs: it sports a 2.5-inch LCD display (320 x 240 pixels) that supports 260,000 colors. That’s good enough for downloadable porn but I don’t think it cuts it for movies. It’s not widescreen (being 4:3 instead of 16:9) and there’s limit on the resolution of the movies that can be imported (480×480).

Just consider that Sidney Pollack brought a lawsuit against a Danish TV station for the use of its pan-and-scan (4:3) showing of his film “Three days of the Condor”. The court ruled that the pan-and-scan was a “mutilation” of his work and a violation of Pollacks ‘Driot Moral’, his legal right as an artist to maintain his reputation by protecting the integrity of his work.

As an even more extreme example, imagine you somehow get “Lawrence of Arabia” on your new iPod. How long would you wait until you see the black speck that Omar Sharif is in the famous scene? It takes a while to spot it even on the DVD edition.

Despite its shortcomings, the new iPod sets a trend that might eventually lead to an alternative means for distributing “pocket” movies. This could enable indie producers to distribute their movies cheaply and easily. Even now you can find plenty of sites that have torrents for iPod.

The Zen Vision from Creative Labs already sports a 640×480 LCD. I’m hopeful SONY will have the last word on this one. I love the LCD on my SONY VX2000, I’m sure I’ll be able to find Omar Sharif in under a minute if I manage to play it there.

Update: You can read my tips on producing video for iPod. A must-see for your video iPod is Steve Ballmer’s Developers video.