However, if the editor is one that transcodes to an intermediate I-frame format for editing and compositing, there's a new challenge in handling material with a datarate of around 14MBytes per second for 1080i material at 50Hz. And all that's on top of the large frame size of 1440x1080 pixels, as opposed to PAL DV's resolution of 720x576.

A year ago, when standard definition DV was king and even the most affordable PC was able to cut it like butter, we thought that editing hardware companies had had their day. Now, it seems, they're being called on to save the day again.