David Newman from CINEFORM shares with us the reasons to use a digital intermediate rather than editing in native mode.  The MPEG type formats can be used for native editing, but by switching to a digital intermediate, you can get get better performance from your system.  In fact, when doing multi-layer work or mixing different sources, the digital intermediate is the logical answer.  The other issue is, Why use Wavelet for your digital intermediate?  Because with Wavelet, the compression does NOT work in 8x8 pixels blocks, but works across the whole image.  Rather than seeing little blocks as compression artifacts, Wavelet’s compression artifacts are a softening of the image.  In the case of CINEFORM’s system, it runs at a very high data rate to avoid compression artifacts.  Thanks to David for providing a wealth of very good information.