Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,rec.video (More info?)

Videoguys' NAB2004 Report (Part IV) – More new and exciting products
are coming soon!

Here it is, our fourth and final NAB2004 report! In this report we
bring you up to speed with the latest new products and promotions from
around the industry. Since NAB there have been several very exciting
announcements from some of our vendors:

1) Sony ships Vegas 5 and the Videoguys' announce our special Vegas 5
promotions
2) Serious Magic announces DV Rack and a $150 rebate on Ultra with
Master Set Library 2
3) Pinnacle shows Liquid Edition HDV and announces the FREE Hollywood
FX & TitleDeko Pro promotion with Liquid Edition purchases

Sony Ships Vegas 5!!

On the show floor, Sony announced that Vegas 5 was shipping! We'd been
hearing lots of rumors about the next version of Vegas and DVD
Architect, but we had no idea that they would be shipping the day
after it was officially announced. Now that's an exciting product
launch!

What's new in Vegas 5?
First, the interface got a bit of a face lift. I like the new look and
I think it will make learning and using Vegas even easier for new
users. Advanced users can now customize the layout of the interface.
This is really nice, especially when editing with dual monitors. I
like to go a bit crazy with 3D FX and flying PIPs all over the screen.
The new 3D track motion
and compositing tool is perfect for this. I also like the new
"Transition Progress Envelopes" which allow you to go in and keyframe
each transition. This means you can change the speed and other
parameters of each transition along its duration. Vegas 5 now allows
you to create sub-clips and add them to the media pool. Sony has also
added a couple of nice 3rd party software products to the Vegas 5
bundle. You get Boris Graffiti LTD for 3D animated titling and Magic
Bullet Movie Looks filters. Vegas 5 can now support network rendering,
making the final output to tape even faster.

DVD Architect has also seen some nice improvements. The biggest one is
End Actions. Now you can have a clip point back to a specific menu,
another video clip or even back to itself to create a loop. This
allows you to add some very advanced navigation to your DVDs. DVD
Architect now supports up to 8 audio and 32 subtitle tracks.

As part of our Vegas 5 launch promotion we're offering a fantastic
bundle. Vegas5 +DVD software with Screenblast Acid & Vision Series
Vol. 1, Class on Demand Vegas Workshop DVDs ($99.95 value) & WorldTech
Specialist Vegas Keyboard ($99.95 value) all for $699.95! That's
almost $200 worth of training and productivity for FREE!!

Click here for more info or to order one of our fantastic Vegas 5
bundles: http://www.videoguys.com/vegasvideo.html

Serious Magic introduces DV Rack

Serious Magic was one of the most exciting new partners we saw at
NAB2003. Their UltraKey product (now called Ultra) really blew me
away. Since it began shipping last summer, it has been getting rave
reviews from magazines, web sites and end users. At this year's NAB
they were showing off the new Master Set Library 2 with 12 additional
virtual sets for use with Ultra. These sets are incredible! Not only
are they exquisitely detailed, but you can control things like camer
position, lighting and more! We're now offering a $150 mail in coupon
when you order Ultra and the Master Set 2 together. That brings the
final cost down below $1,000!!

At NAB2004 the gang at Serious Magic blew me away again with a really
cool new software utility for Digital Videographers. The new software
is called DV Rack and it's like having over $10,000 worth of
production gear on the road with you when you shoot. Install this new
software on your laptop, plug in your DV cam via FireWire and you can
monitor your video and audio quality. I'm not talking about a few
simple meters and a preview screen; I'm talking about full broadcast
level monitoring gear. You get a DV Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope,
Audio Spectrum Analyzer, Shot Clock Timer, Video Analyzer and
Professional Field Monitor. Even cooler, it turns your laptop into a
Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
so you can actually be recording the video to your hard drive while
you shoot! DV Rack is expected to ship this summer with a target price
of under $500.

Click here for more info or to order Serious Magic Products:
http://www.videoguys.com/seriousmagic.html


Pinnacle Liquid Edition News

The broadcast division dominated Pinnacle's booth, but in a little
pod, off in the corner, I got a glimpse at the next version of Liquid
Edition and I was very impressed. Taking advantage of the new PCI-X
graphics bus standard, Liquid Edition will offer even more real-time
performance and effects. What was most impressive was their HDV
demonstration. They had multiple streams of native HDV footage with
all kinds of graphics, 3D FX and filters applied, all playing in
real-time on a dual processor HP workstation.

Back in 1999 Pinnacle launched a product called the DC1000 that was
years ahead of it's time. It allowed you to edit MPEG2 files using
Pinnacle's Smart GOPs technology. Unfortunately for Pinnacle, back
then a DVD burner cost $5,000. As a result not too many folks were
interested in MPEG2 editing. My how things have changed! Now DVD
production dominates our industry and the new HDV format is MPEG2
based. The next version of Liquid Edition (targeted for year end) will
be able to edit DV, MPEG2 and native HDV footage. The export to DVD
function will be substantially faster with even better quality. You'll
also get improved audio and, of course, more new filters and FX.

Studio and Premiere users - Now is the perfect time to get into Liquid
Edition!
Pinnacle has extended the upgrade and trade-up programs through June!
You can continue to upgrade to the Liquid Edition software for
$399.95. Owners of old video capture cards can still trade them in
towards the purchase of Liquid Edition Pro at $499.95!

Pinnacle has also brought back their popular Hollywood FX Pro and
TitleDeko Pro promotion. Buy the full verison of Liquid Edition 5.5
$649.95 or Liquid Edition Pro 5.5 and get free upgrades to the full
versions of both titles. As an added bonus, we are still including the
Adita Training CD tutorial. That's over $250 worth of FREE software
and training!

Click here for more info or to order Liquid Edition:
http://www.videoguys.com/pinnacle.htm


Canopus Edius HD

The big focus at the Canopus booth was Edius HD. Canopus was showing
multiple layers of HD footage with all kinds of filters and FX in
real-time. Very exciting - but also very expensive. This was a
broadcast level product demo and a fully configured Edius HD system
will cost around $50,000. But this was still very important, because
today's $50K technology becomes tomorrow's affordable NLE!

While Canopus was not showing any HDV technology at their booth, they
were showing a version of Edius in the JVC booth that was editing HDV
footage. When we asked them about a potential new DV Storm card that
would support multiple layers of HDV footage in real-time all we got
were big smiles from the Canopus guys.

The Canopus DV Codec is regarded as the best in the industry. It is
what sets their line of real-time NLE solutions and ADVC converter
boxes above the competition. At the show they introduced a pair of new
HD Codecs that were given very high marks and it looks like they'll be
setting the standard for HD as well.

I also spied an interesting little box over in the corner, attached to
one of the machines running Edius HD. It looked like an ADVC1000, only
with more new inputs and outputs. I think it was converting HD SDI to
HD Component, but it also had a FireWire port. My guess is it's an
HD/HDV/SDI/SD/Analog converter box - just what we are going to need
while we transition our studios to HD!

Click here for more info or to order Canopus Products:
http://www.videoguys.com/canopus.htm


Medea G-RAID

For the past few years Medea has been concentrating on the higher end
of the video storage business with products like VideoRAID RT3, RTR
and Fibre Channel based products. These massive Raids have tremendous
throughputs that support real-time uncompressed video and networked
editing environments. At this year's NAB they are getting back to
their roots with a new line of affordable external storage for the DV
editor.

The new G-RAIDs are small external FireWire Raids available in 160GB,
320GB and 500GB sizes. G-RAID features two high-performance FireWire
800 ports and one FireWire 400 port. You'll be able to attach them to
your laptop or workstation and edit multiple DV streams using Adobe
Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, Avid Xpress DV/Pro, Pinnacle Liquid Edition
or Apple Final Cut Pro. At $399.95, we think the 320GB unit is going
to be very popular with DV editors.

Click here for more info or to order a Medea G-RAID:
http://www.videoguys.com/medea.htm

Black Magic Design

Are you looking to edit uncompressed SD or HD footage with either
Adobe Premiere Pro or Vegas 5?
With a Black Magic I/O card you'll soon be able to do it. DeckLink
cards start at $295 for the 10 bit uncompressed SDI only version. The
new DeckLink Extreme ($895) connects to any deck in broadcast video,
because it combines both 10 bit SDI and analog component video into a
single compact low cost PCI card that only uses a single PCI slot.

The drivers for Premiere Pro and Vegas 5 are still being worked on,
but as soon as they are certified we'll let you know. We hope to be
offering exciting bundles that will include both a DeckLink card and
NLE software at a great price! We are also looking at offering special
upgrade bundles for those customers who already own Premeire or Vegas.


More info on DeckLink coming soon!:
http://www.videoguys.com/blackmagic.html


Ulead HDV plug-in for MediaStudio Pro 7

Ulead was showing off their HDV plug-in for MediaStudio Pro and DVD
Workshop. I've always been a big fan of Ulead's higher end software
titles. I don't think Ulead gets the recognition they deserve.
MediaStudio Pro was one of the first full-featured NLEs to offer OHCI
FireWire support, software based real-time previews, FireWire
previews, MPEG2 editing and now HDV support. MS Pro 7 is a
surprisingly powerful NLE given its very affordable $299.95 cost.

With the HDV plug-in, JYHD10 users can use the MediaStudio Pro 7 HD
Plug-in to natively capture, edit, and output high-resolution HDV
content within MediaStudio Pro 7, without requiring additional tools
or interfaces. The MediaStudio Pro 7 HD Plug-in automatically detects
the JY-HD10U, loads the proper device settings and converts the
'Transport Stream' video coming from the camcorder to 'Program Stream'
specification for editing. The plug-in gives users access to the
advanced features in MediaStudio Pro 7, including device control
and capture, professional multi-track editing, and output to tape or
disc.

Click here for more info or to order Ulead products:
http://www.videoguys.com/ulead.htm

More NAB2004 news
If you missed any of our previous reports you can read Videoguys'
Complete NAB2004 Report: http://www.videoguys.com/NAB2004.html


Gary
The Electronic Mailbox http://www.videoguys.com
The Desk Top Video Editing & Production Experts
800 323-2325 or Free DTV tech advice (516) 759-1615

All DTV purchases include our 30 day customer assurance program
and FREE tech support