Adam Wilt, DV videographer
Marshall Spight, DV filmmaker
Josh Mellicker, ProMax Systems
Brady Bruce and Joe Klingler,Digital Origin
Jan Pirosand Hiro Yamada, Canopus Corp.
Sean Safreed, Silicon Graphics Inc.
TomPhillips, Neil Neubert and Howard Kirsch, JVCDigital Broadcast System Group
6:30 PM social hour + Equipment Demo
7:30 PM presentation begins
Our meeting will focus on high-quality but affordable non-linearediting technology made possible by DV and IEEE-1394, the lossless digitallink called "FireWire" by Apple and "i.Link" by Sony.
For the first time in video history, producers can build or buy PC-and Macintosh-based systems off the shelf from either computer companiesor traditional video vendors and get truly professional,"broadcast-quality"results. National television audiences have already seen shows shoton DV gear and post-produced on FireWire-based editors, with subjectivequality rivaling high-end productions. DV has also been used for theatricalmotion pictures including "The Celebration", "The Cruise", and "The LastBroadcast".
Adam Wilt, SMPTE-SF manager, video engineering consultant, andvideographer, has shot on DV since 1995, and now edits video on his PCwith the DPS Spark system featured in our January 1997 meeting. Adam willdescribe the benefits and pitfalls of the various DV formats and thevariety of DV non-linear editors (NLE) that have sprouted up in thepast few years.
Filmmaker Marshall Spight will show some examples of what's possibleusing the well-known Sony DCR-VX1000 "prosumer" 3-chip DV camcorder anda PC-based DV NLE, including 4:1:1 chroma keying and sophisticated AfterEffectswork. While DV encodes color in 4:1:1, some proponents of high-endsolutions insist that proper post production cannot be done with 4:1:1,that only 4:2:2 yields acceptable quality. See Marshall's reel and judgefor yourself.
With their range of FireMAX boards and drivers, ProMax is a leadingsupplier of Mac-based DV NLEs. FireMAX now supports the "new blue"G3 Macs with built-in FireWire ports. Josh Mellicker will discussthe challenges and rewards of integrating Macintosh DV NLEs, and demonstratethe unique features that FireMAX pioneered, including the "impossible"low-resolution off-line capture mode and fully-integrated operation withAdobe Premiere 5.1.
Digital Origin, the company formerly know as Radius, has bet itsfuture on DV NLE on both the PC and Macintosh platforms. Brady Bruceand Joe Klingler will tell us why and talk about EditDV, its draft-moderendering, cross-platform support using QuickTime 3.0, and future directions.
Canopus is the only supplier to offer both hard-codec (DVRex) and soft-codec(DVRaptor) DV editing packages for the PC platform. They recently introducedthe Rexfx, a display card with built-in acceleration for transition rendering.Canopusis rapidly becoming the hot ticket in the PC-based DV market, withan enthusiastic user base. Jan Piros and Hiro Yamada willexplain the tradeoffs between hard and soft codec systems and show offthe capabilities of Canopus products, using both their own RexEdit softwareand Ulead Media Studio Pro.
Silicon Graphics now supports DV with 1394 I/O and DV codecsin their NT product line and the O2 Irix workstation. Sean Safreedwill present the case for moving up to SGI for video-intensive work, anddiscuss how the 320, 540, and O2 systems incorporate DV support and enhanceediting operations.
JVC created the D-9 Digital-S format, which gangs two DV codecs in parallelfor DigiBeta-like pictures at DVCAM/DVCPRO-like prices. Now, JVC hasthe TimeGate non-linear editor for D-9 and all other formats. Unlikesingle-stream, software-rendering editors, TimeGate provides two real-timevideo streams with 2D and 3D effects, proc amp controls, and color correction.The system costs considerably more than the other DV NLEs discussed, butis intended for time-critical or heavy-duty editing. Tom Phillips,NeilNeubert and Howard Kirsch will offer the perspective of a traditionalvideo company getting into the world of PC-based NLEs.
Meeting attendees will be able to try out these NLEs during theequipmentdemonstrations before and after the meeting.
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Some other web resources for DV NLE:
Ross Jones' "Golden List"of Mac-based systems
RichardLawler's "Silver List" of PC-based systems
These two sites link to almost every other useful DV NLE site imaginable.
SMPTEsf welcomes members and friends to attend without charge.
Silicon Graphics Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy. Mountain View, California
Building 40 -- the newSGI Presentation Center