Chroma Keying ProRes422
 

I'm used to chroma keying DV from a Sony VX2100. Today I tried chroma keying HDV (captured as ProRes 422) from XH-A1. It took about 7 minutes to render 20 seconds of footage.

I'm using a 20" iMac with 2.66 Ghz and 4 gb Ram.

Is there anything short of a Mac Pro that will get me down to 1 or 2 minutes of render for 20 seconds of chroma keying?

As you are now working with HDV instead of DV your iMac is having to do around four times the amount of work. I've not tried keying ProRes but i'm assuming it is much easier on your proccessor than HDV so i think this is your best bet.

What are you using for your keying?

I mostly used BCC chroma filters with an H-Chroma filter on top with DV (because I'm not great at keying and BCC did a good job). But the FC2 chroma keying filter with color smoothing 422 seems to work better for me in ProRes 422. I love results I'm getting, but I don't think I can afford the render time as is. I'm wondering if a faster processor would make a noticeable difference.