|
|
|
Week
of July 27 1998
|
Jul
31
|
  
Spazz3D is a VRML authoring
tool that is currently in beta. It
provides tools for building 3-D scenes,
animating the geometry and defining rules
of interactivity which can trigger lights,
sounds, and animations.
The
program can output animations in GIF and
AVI files as well as save the worlds in
the VRML 2 file format. An integrated FTP
utility uploads VRML world files, and all
their dependencies to a web site. You can
download it at the website.
<www.spazz3d.com>
Microsoft and THOMSON
multimedia yesterday announced that
they have signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) to develop and promote
interactive and enhanced television
products and services and to accelerate
the adoption of digital television
worldwide.
The
two companies will work to develop and
promote new "enhanced" televisions
(eTVs), which will feature an electronic
program guide, support for interactive
television programs and an integrated TV
receiver, in both analog and digital
versions. Microsoft will provide
HTML-rendering technologies based on the
Microsoft Windows CE operating
system for use in the eTVs.
As
part of this new relationship, Microsoft
proposes to take a 7.5 percent interest in
THOMSON multimedia, following the usual
due diligence and regulatory
approvals.
THOMSON
will license and sell WebTV set-top boxes
under its RCA brand in the United States
and the THOMSON brand in Europe.
<www.microsoft.com
press release "Microsoft
and THOMSON multimedia to Work Together on
Interactive
TV">
ComputerWorld has an interesting
"Quick Study" guide to web video
streaming technologies.
<www.computerworld.com
quick study "Masses
won't soon stream to PCs to watch
TV">
|
|
Jul
30
|
CORRECTION
Our July 28 piece on a CNET news
item about Macromedia was vague in
our reference to the fact that the article
made negative comments about Apple. Our
original posting could be interpreted to
mean that Macromedia had made negative
comments about Apple. Infact, it was the
authors(s) of the article itself, and not
Macromedia, who had originated those
comments. We apologize for not being
clearer about this.
Obviously
our lapse made no impression on
Macromedia's performance over the last
quarter: CNET reports that Macromedia
posted net income of $2.96 million when
analysts had been expecting a net profit
of about $2.1 million.
<www.news.com
news article "Macromedia
beats
expectations">
AX Logic has released AX
QuickTime Kit, a cross-platform
mTropolis modifier kit which provides
support for QuickTime 3 in mTropolis
2.0. This includes support for any
QuickTime codec including Sorenson. Other
features in this initial release include
Direct-To-Screen and buffered playback,
dynamic external asset linking, ink
effects, and cropping support. Support for
the standard mTropolis play control
commands and movie attributes is also
included. The kit costs $269 US.
<www.axlogic.com>
DirectXtras has announced a new
version (1.1) of the
DirectCommunication Xtra. This is a
Scripting Xtra for Macromedia
Director and Authorware
which provides direct access to
communication resources such as serial
ports, parallel ports, fax machines, and
modems.
The
new version is now cross-platform and
available for both Windows (9X/NT/3.X) and
MacOS(PPC&68K). All registered users
will receive a free copy of the upgrade.
A
fully functional trial version of
DirectCommunication Xtra can be downloaded
from their Web site.
DirectXtras
has also opened a 'DirectXtras Gallery'
section in our Web site, where developers
who use their Xtras share their
experiences and describe how they have
used them in their applications.
<www.directxtras.com
web page "DirectXtras
Gallery">
Black Diamond Consulting has
updated their Surround Video immersive
imaging product (previously at version
2.0) and have added support for objects
and sounds. The new package is called
Surround Video Freestyle Suite 1.0
and includes: Surround Video 3.0 Editor,
Rotate This! 1.0 and Hear This!
1.0.
Rotate
This! creates object movies from jpg or
bmp images and supports hotspots with
text. Objects can be displayed on
panoramas or on other objects. Hear This!
adds multiple sounds to images and offers
individual volume control for each
sound.
The
authoring tool is Windows only, but
browser plugins for Mac and PC are
available.
Pricing
has also changed. nSurround Video
Freestyle Suite costs $199.00, with
upgrades costing $99.00 if purchased
before March 12, 1998, free if purchased
after March 12. A Web Certificate,
required for additional domains hosting
Surround Video costs $99
<www.bdiamond.com>
PHOTO
The Digital Eyes website has a very
favorable review of the new Kodak DC260
camera.
<www.image-acquire.com
review "Kodak
DC260">
|
|
Jul
29
|
Canon has announced a new consumer
DV camcorder, the Vistura.
Incorporating what Canon claims to be the
world's longest integrated optical zoom
lens of any digital video camera (16X plus
a 64X digital zoom) the Vistura also
includes Canon's new Lens Shift Method of
Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) The
Vistura has a 2.8-inch LCD view screen
with 190,000 pixels, FlexiZone AF/AE Image
Control, composite and s-video out
terminals, and a Firewire connector,
The
Vistura will be available in September
with a manufacturer's suggested list price
of $1,999.00.
<www.canondv.com
info page "Vistura">
Veon is demonstrating their
HyperVideo technology for creating
and delivering interactive streaming
video. Veon says they offer complete
services, including tools for adding
interactivity to existing media assets,
production services to assist customers in
developing interactive content, and
application servers (the Veon
Interaction Server) to deploy the
content across distribution media;
Internet, broadband, cable, telco or
satellite. Their server supports
personalized and customized video,
e-commerce transactions, interactive
advertising and personalized one-to-one
promotions.
<www.veon.com>
The HyperCard 2.4.1 Update fixes
problems when using HyperCard with disks
larger than 2 GB, and uses the new
QuickTime 3.0 license installer. HyperCard
2.4.1 is available for $99 at the Apple
Store. Owners of HyperCard 2.3, 2.3.5, and
2.4 can download a free 5.2 MB update.
<www.apple.com
web page "Products
-
HyperCard"
The Wicked3D Board Company has
announced stereoscopic support for popular
gaming APIs such as Direct3D, Glide and
QuakeGL (QuakeGL is the subset of OpenGL
that is used by Quake, Quake II, Hexen II,
and other games based on the Quake
engine). WickedVision is a
stereoscopic vision solution that consists
of four components: 1) WickedVision
software, 2) Re2Flex variable refresh rate
and resolution utility 3) stereoscopic
eyewear (current support for H3D) 4) a
Wicked3D featuring Voodoo2 add-in card.
Prices start at $299 for board and
eyewear.
<www.wicked3d.com>
|
|
Jul
28
|
We
suffered a power failure on our database
server over the weekend, and lost at least
two records from the Consultants
database that we were unable to
recover.
We apologize to those people whose records
were lost. If you recently added yourself
to the consultant database, please make
sure that your record is still there. If
it is not, please add yourself again (we
have improved our backup procedures and
hopefully this won't happen again.)
CNET reports on Macromedia's
announcement that its Shockwave and
Flash players are preinstalled in
Microsoft's Windows 98 operating
system (and CNET doesn't resist the urge
to take a swipe at Apple in the article at
the same time: Intel is an investor in
CNET: The Computer Network. )
<www.news.com
news report "Macromedia
players on Win
98">
AT&T Labs (fromerly Bell
Laboratories) has released a demonstration
version of DjVu, an image
compression technology specifically
designed for scanned document pages such
as books, magazines, catalogs, newspaper
articles, technical publications, ancient
and historical documents. You can download
the free DjVu plug-in for Netscape
Navigator (3.0 and above) or Microsoft
Internet Explorer (3.0 and above). The
plug-in is available on Win95, WinNT,
Linux/x86, Solaris2.x, Irix6.x, and
MacOS8/ppc. It will be available soon on
other Unix platforms (Linux/Alpha,
HPUX,...).
According
to AT&T, a DjVu file for a typical
magazine page at 300 DPI in color is
generally between 40KB and 70KB. A Black
and White page at 300 DPI is generally 15
to 40KB. DjVu files are generally 5 to 8
times smaller than GIF or JPEG for a
similar level of subjective quality. For
color pictures that do not contain text
DjVu is better than JPEG, but not enough
to justify switching, except for very
large images. DjVu is generally 3 to 8
times smaller than with
CCITT-G4.
In
DjVu, the backgrounds and pictures are
coded with a Wavelet-based technique
called IW44, while the text and drawings
are coded with a new bi-level compression
technique called JB2.
The
DjVu compressor is available at no charge
for non commercial uses. It is a Beta
version, primarily for research and
evaluation. It can be used at no charge
for education and research purposes, but
not for commercial applications. Documents
produced with the free DjVu compressor
must be made available to everybody at no
charge on the open worldwide web. A
commercial version will be available soon.
The DjVu compressor is available for
several Unix flavors: SGI/IRIX, SunOS,
Solaris, and Linux/Intel. It will soon be
available for Win95/NT and Mac.
<djvu.research.att.com>
FileFlex 3.0.1 for Windows and
Macintosh is now available. FileFlex is a
database engine that can be used within
Macromedia Director. The new
FileFlex 3.0.1 provides 32-bit versions
for both Windows and Macintosh and fixes a
query and date bug in the Windows
release.
<www.component-net.com/fileflex/fileflex-hq.html>
|
|
Jul
27
|
A couple of weeks ago Bob
Doyle, New Media's video guru gave me
a quick tour of some new video equipment
he has been playing with. This included a
Sony w9000, a widescreen monitor,
and Radius' DV editing solution
EditDV. Read about it in the
Multimedia Musings column.
<"Desktop
Video
Tour"
Multimedia Musings column>
Last week we reported that
RealNetworks had accused
Microsoft of breaking
RealNetworks G2 media player with
the new Windows Media Player.
Microsoft posted a tech note claimimg that
infact there was a bug in the beta of
RealNetworks G2 media player.
Now
ZD Virtual Labs say they have
tested the beta RealNetworks G2 media
player using both Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator and that they agree
with Microsoft and that "It's completely
unjustifiable for RealNetworks to say that
Microsoft has changed something that broke
the G2 player."
<www.zdnet.com
announcement " ZD
Virtual Labs says RealNetworks is
wrong"
This
saga will no doubt continue; I'm more
interested in finding out from
RealNetworks how you are supposed to
author SMIL content, and whether there
will be a Macintosh version of the G2
player.
This is cool! Robert Purser created
a movie storyboard using Poser
3 from MetaCreations. All of
the figures (except the sunset and the
title) were created in Poser 3 using only
the figures which came with the program.
No modification was made to any of the
figures.
You can see it at the Digital
Puppets website, which covers issues
of using programs like Poser to create
movies and other entertainment.
<www.jps.net/puppet/mmguild/mb_sb_poser.html>
Artel Software has announced the
release of Boris FX 3.5. Boris FX
is a software plug-in for desktop
non-linear editing systems that enables
you to create 3D special effects and is
available for the following systems: Avid
Media Composer/Xpress and MCXpress NT,
Media 100, In:Sync's Speed Razor 4.0, FAST
Video Media Studio Plus 3.3, Adobe
Premiere 5.0, Discreet Edit 4.0
(D-Vision), Chyron Concerto, and Ulead
Media Studio Pro.
Boris
FX 3.5 delivers fifteen new filters,
including Particle Systems,
Directional/Gaussian blurs, Linear Keys,
Spill Supression and Posterize. Other
enhancements include support for images
using non-square pixels and a vertically
resizable timeline that allows "ripple
dragging" of keyframes.
<www.Borisae.com>
|
|
|
|
|
Multimedia
Workshop
| Industry
News
| Online
Reference
| Contact
Us
| Find
|
Copyright
1998 by Multimedia Workshop. All rights
reserved
Send news or comments to : news@m2w.net
All
trademarks, service marks, and graphical logos
appearing on this website are the property of
their
respective owners, and are used for identification
purposes only.
No endorsement of Multimedia Workshop by the
trademark owners is intended or
implied.
|
|
