John K.
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Apr 4, 2005, 9:52 PM
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Update in regards to HD...
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For those who couldn't make the Moline IL users group meeting last week (which was a huge blast, over 100+ users, folks from England, the CEO from Germany, etc.), I thought I'd pass along some updates with regards to HD and the direction our editors will be going. So, the following short summary is of info that was mentioned by the CEO at our final banquet dinner:
BluRay
First of all, we have decided to go with BluRay and not HD-DVD. We are in good company with that decision - Pioneer, Sony, Apple and many other big players have announced that they will take this route, too.
We will most likely offer Pioneer BluRay writers. Pioneer has been a fantastic business partner for us these last years, and we really liked their presentation (can't go into details as we signed their NDA).
BluRay writers store 25 GB on a single layer and 50 GB on a dual layer disk. They are, as far as we know, compatible with all the Arabesk-equipped units we have ever shipped. So there will be an upgrade offer.
The upgrade is planned for this year, and we hope for a fall schedule. This depends on the arrival of the writers - let's hope they come out on time.
Of course, it will take some time until a true HD codec standard for DVDs will be there. The industry will have to agree about the details, then there must be inexpensive players on the market, then there must be content (High Def Hollywood DVDs). I estimate that this will take 2 more years. We will offer software to produce such disks on the Casablanca with the BluRay writers in the future.
The main purpose for getting the BluRay upgrade soon: Extra storage. It is needed for DiskTransfer. You can put over 2 hours of native DV material, OR over 2 hours of native HDV video on a single layer BluRay disk. Such a material can be used for archiving DV and, more important, HDV material (or finished projects). It can't be stored in a High Def DVD standard yet, as there is no such standard by now. But the DV or HDV files are compatible with Casablancas, Macs and PCs. So there is some kind of standard already.
A video that is stored on a BluRay disk can be played by the Casablanca. If it is a HDV video, then it will play in native HDV. Your Casablanca will also be your High Def DVD player in the beginning.
So if a project has been shot in HDV, you can give the customer a regular DVD now, show him the HDV version on your equipment and offer a future consumer level HD DVD whenever there's a standard. If the customer has a powerful PC with a BluRay reader or writer and an HDV software codec, then you can even give him a BluRay disk - he can play it on his PC using software like the Windows Media Player.
Yes, BluRay will be a little expensive in the first few monthes. But if you are serious about HD, then it is a must have.
HDV
To make it short, we have decided to make the HDV support a standard feature of SmartEdit 5.
Our concept has been presented here already, so I won't go into details now. Just let me say that the concept allows full speed editing even on the slowest Avios ever shipped, as the editing happens in DV mode. The HDV editing follows automatically in background. Slower machines may take a very significant time to finish the HDV mode. That's unavoidable. But you can finish the DV master and standard def DVD as fast as usual, then passively wait until the HDV version has been generated. I think that is the best possible solution.
SmartEdit 5
So SmartEdit 5 will include HDV. That makes it a free update for Solitaire owners!
There will be more goodies in it, such as adding a DVD film in background (this locks the project that is beeing added, but you can keep working on other projects).
Take care, happy editing...
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