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Week
of Sep 7 1998
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Sep
11
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Nikon Electronic Imaging has released
Nikon Scan 2.1 for the Super
Coolscan 2000 and the Coolscan III. With
this new version of software users can
embed ICC color management profiles into
TIFF files providing greater portability
and color matching. Nikon Scan 2.1 also
allows users to batch scan up to six
images with thumbnails from the strip
adapter, or up to 40 images with
thumbnails using the optional Advanced
Photo System film adapter.
Existing
owners can download the software from
Nikon's Technical Support Website.
<www.nikon-euro.com/support>
Aurora Design is offering a special
promo on their Fuse video card for owners
of competing products. They can get the
Fuse card for $550 (this includes 2nd day
shipping). There is a link on Aurora's
main web page to this special offer.
<www.auroradsgn.com>
Pablo Media has just released version
2.1 of the Composite Xtra for
Director. The Composite Xtra lets
you allocate an image buffer in memory
with a specified DPI resolution, and
composite text, scaled images (from
external graphics files), and graphics
primitives (lines, rectangles, and ovals)
in that image buffer. You can also render
text on a curve, or rotate text by
90-degree increments. Then you can save
the image buffer as a bitmap castmember or
as a PICT or BMP file.
This
new version is faster on Windows 95, 98,
and NT. New commands have been added for
painting and outlining rectangles and
ovals. And a memory leak, which affected
you only if you were creating new
instances of the Xtra every time you
reallocated an image buffer, has been
fixed.
You
can download a free trial version, which
is identical to the retail version except
that it renders a red 'X' through images
before saving.
<www.pablomedia.com/>
Microsoft has announced Microsoft
Graphics Studio Picture It! 99, the
latest version of the company's
photo-editing software. The new version
offers expanded photo-editing and
enhancement capabilities, greater ease of
use and two CDs of templates, project
ideas and clip art. Features
include:
- Quick
Touchup allows users to correct tint,
crop, rotate and fix red-eye
instantly.
- Clone
brush
- Touchup
Painting gives users the ability to
paint brightness, contrast, tint, color
and transparency
- Save
for the Web Wizard gives users the
ability to prepare a picture or project
for the Web simply and
efficiently.
Microsoft
also supports the Intel Portable PC Camera
'98 Guidelines, which will enable PC users
to more easily acquire, enhance and share
images with programs such as Picture
It!
Microsoft
Graphics Studio Picture It! 99 is
scheduled to be available nationwide this
month for an estimated retail price of
$54.95 (U.S.).
<www.microsoft.com/pictureit/>
Sonic Solutions has announced
Online DVD -- a new option for its
DVD Creator and DesktopDVD production
systems. Online DVD provides a combination
of a D1 video disk recorder and MPEG
encoder. It enables DVD production
facilities to integrate non-linear video
editing systems with DVD authoring,
eliminating the need for intermediate
videotape transfers. Non-compressed D1
video from a non-linear video editing
system, such as those from Avid or Media
100, can be transferred as D1 video files
into a Sonic DVD production system. The
video can be encoded directly from hard
disk and authored and formatted straight
to DVD or other interactive media. In
addition, pre-edited material already on
digital tape can be loaded to hard disk
for direct MPEG compression from hard
disk.
Online
DVD is scheduled to ship in December of
this year as an option to both DVD Creator
and DesktopDVD systems, at a suggested
U.S. retail price (MSRP) of $14,999.
<www.sonic.com>
Sonic Solutions has debuted
Sonic Lightspeed, a Fibre Channel
networking solution for sharing video and
audio files at high speeds between
Macintosh and Windows NT systems. Based on
Sonic Solutions' Universal File
System™ (UFS) technology, Lightspeed
provides Mac OS and Windows NT users with
a common, 64-bit file system for real-time
collaboration in video and audio post
production environments.
Sonic
Lightspeed will be priced at $2,499 per
seat (excluding the cost of a Fibre
Channel card.) Sonic Lightspeed is planned
for release in December, for Macintosh
clients, with NT client support shortly
thereafter.
<www.sonic.com>
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Sep
10
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As expected, PLATINUM technology,
inc. has announced that it has
acquired Cosmo Software. Actual
details are sketchy; did they get the
browser too? Does this mean the Intervista
and Cosmo plugins will be integrated?
Their press release says only:
"PLATINUM
is committed to fully supporting the
adoption of open visual computing
applications and standards such as the
Virtual Reality Modeling Language
(VRML). The company plans to extend its
visual computing product line by
continuing to develop and support
products it has acquired from Cosmo and
[and previously] Intervista. As
rapidly as possible, PLATINUM plans to
consolidate the product line to provide
a sophisticated yet easy-to-use
authoring environment along with a
single web browser plug-in based on
open standards. In addition, PLATINUM
plans to offer a developer's kit for
customers to enable their existing
applications with 3D visualization
technology."
<www.platinum.com>
Avid has announced that it plans to
ship Avid Cinema for Windows in
Q4/98 for a USMSRP of $139. It will be the
company's first Windows-based consumer
video editing product. Cinema provides a
simple interface that, using storyboard
templates, allows users to simply design
and compile video projects.
Avid
Cinema for Windows will include technology
from RealNetworks to enable users
to stream their finished movies across the
Internet. Avid Cinema incorporates
RealNetworks' encoder technology that
allows users to export movies in the
RealVideo format. Avid Cinema users can
stream their movies from a web site, or
send RealVideo files to friends, family or
colleagues as an email attachment. Using
RealNetworks' RealVideo player, the
recepient can then play the movie on their
PC.
Avid
Cinema will be available for the Windows
95 and Windows 98 OS with a 200 MHz
Pentium with MMX or Pentium II processors
with 32+MB RAM, CD-ROM drive and AGP or
PCI slot for video card. Avid Cinema
requires a video capture card and supports
a range of choices, including: ATI
All-in-Wonder (PCI), ATI All-in-Wonder Pro
(PCI or AGP), Hauppauge WinTV Model 404
(PCI), STB TV PCI, or Intel Smart Video
Recorder III (PCI).
<www.avidcinema.com>
Avid is now shipping Avid
Marquee software, a new
resolution-independent 3-D title animation
package for Silicon Graphics and Windows
NT workstations. Avid Marquee, which
enables television editors and artists to
create 3-D title animations in real time,
is available for $7,495.
Avid
Marquee supports online Avid editing
resolutions, so users can send titles
using a standard network and the AvidNet
Transfer Tool to an Avid-editing bay. This
includes augmenting title work in the
Media Composer system, or creating titles
needed in a finishing session with the
Avid Symphony system.
Features
include:
- 3-D
Manipulation of Text
- Real
Time Playback
- 500
BITSTREAM fonts included. Allows the
use of any True Type or Adobe Type 1
Postscript font.
- Avid-style
Timeline for Animation
Control.
- Nesting
Capability. Users can stretch, rotate
and flip strings of text, and can step
into layers and animate characters
individually, allowing more creative
options when developing title
sequences
- Customizable
Templates
<www.avid.com>
Pinnacle Systems has begun shipping
ReelTime NITRO, a real-time
nonlinear editing product based on their
ReelTime product, and incorporating the
company's Genie 3D digital video
effects technology. ReelTime NITRO
supports dual video stream playback,
multiple audio streams, and data rates as
high as 13.4 MB per second, per stream,
for mathematically lossless M-JPEG
compression. Features include real-time
wipes, chroma, luma, and linear keying.
Component, Composite, and S-video analog
input/output interfaces are standard on
ReelTime NITRO's rack-mountable breakout
box.
As
a limited time offer, ReelTime NITRO
customers who register their product will
receive a copy of the Pinnacle Systems
TitleDeko character generator. TitleDeko
is an Adobe Premiere plug-in version of
the company's Deko character generator
product.
Pricing:
ReelTime NITRO, $8,995 (US/Asia); $9,995
(Europe) (limited time introductory
prices) Reeltime to Reeltime NITRO
upgrade, $3,995 (US) (limited time
introductory prices) NITRO-Link, required
for Genie Plus upgrade, $495 DV/1394
Interface card, $1,695 601 Serial Digital
Interface card, $2,195
<www.pinnaclesys.com>
Kodak has previewed the
professional DCS 560 digital camera
which offers a six megapixel Charge
Coupled Device (CCD) sensor, a burst rate
of one image per second, and a flexible
ISO of 80 - 200. Jointly developed by
Kodak and Canon, the DCS 560 is an
integrated single lens reflex (SLR)
digital camera with a resolution of 6
million pixels and an 18Mb file size. The
camera also includes an IEEE 1394
interface.
The
DCS 560 will be available in October
1998
<www.kodak.com/go/professional>
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Sep
9
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New Media reports that Pioneer
is preparing an offline title-design tool
for DVD called DVDesigner. Priced
at $495, DVDesigner is expected to ship by
the end of September for Mac, Windows 95,
and UNIX. It's described as an
organizational and planning tool and it
does not handle compression.
<www.newmedia.com
news brief "Studio-Free
DVD">
E4 (Elecede Technologies, Inc.), is
shipping CoolDVD Mac SCSI DVD-ROM
Upgrade Kit (U.S.$479.) The CoolDVD
Mac SCSI DVD-ROM Upgrade Kit includes an
internal SCSI DVD-ROM drive, PCI MPEG 2
decoder card and Navigation software.
CoolDVD Mac SCSI DVD-ROM requires Mac OS
7.6x or newer, PCI 2.1, PowerPC 603 120MHz
or faster, 16MB RAM and 2MB of hard disk
space. Adaptec has licensed its UDF Volume
Access software to E4. UDF Volume Access
allows versions of Mac OS prior to Mac OS
8.1 to read DVD-ROM discs. CoolDVD also
includes output connectors for S-Video or
composite TV and digital audio for Dolby
Digital (AC-3) capable stereo receivers.
E4's
CoolDVD family of MPEG 2 decoders also
includes CoolDVD Mac DVD-ROM Upgrade Kit
for the Power Macintosh G3 series, CoolDVD
Mac DVD Playback card and CoolTNT DVD
Playback Card for Windows NT.
<www.e4.com>
For a very limited time the Apple
store is offering the Sorenson
Video Developer Edition for $399 --
$100 off the normal price. This sale is
good until Sept. 12
<www.apple.com/store>
VideoScript, the video scripting tool
is at version 1.1b6 and commercial release
is expected 14th Sept. 1998.
<www.videoscript.com>
MacDirectory has updated a chart of
digital camera features. The chart,
though limited, also includes some
detailed reviews of a few of the
cameras.
<www.macdirectory.com
feature chart "Dare
to Compare: Digital
Cameras">
MAGAZINE
Digital Content Creation magazine
is a new magazine for web and multimedia
developers. The website is currently in
preview and you can't yet get information
on how to subscribe.
<www.dccmag.com/>
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Sep
8
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Rumors abound that a sale of
CosmoSoftware (the VRML
software division of Silicon Graphics)
will be announced this week. Possilbe
purchaser; Platinum
<www.cosmosoftware.com>
Digital Puppets, an upcoming magazine
devoted to video production using software
such as MetaCreations Poser, has
posted a couple of samples to their
website.
The front cover sample provides little
more than a table of contents, but a
storyboard for a princess-and-the-frog
story is a cute example of the uses of
this kind of software. The samples are in
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
<www.jps.net/puppet/>
FAST Multimedia last month unveiled
the world's first MPEG-2 based
nonlinear editing solution, 601
[six-o-one]. Many consider
MPEG-2 the standard of the future. In
addition 601 will be the first editing
product in its class to offer a "Print to
DV" feature allowing users to generate a
fully DVD compatible MPEG-2 (IPB-format)
video data stream. FAST calls the flavor
of MPEG-2 used in 601, 'Editing-MPEG'
(MPEG-2 422P@ML, I-Frame) and it lets
users frame accurately edit the format
with outstanding quality and versatility.
601 (MSRP $9,995)
A
PCI plug-in board, the 601-CoDec, provides
two real-time video streams in full
broadcast quality, an additional real-time
track for graphics and titles (including
still, roll, crawl), plus 8 real-time
audio channels. A professional 601-CG
program is also included. The external 19"
box, 601-Box, has I/O ports for SDI(Serial
Digital Interface), Y/C(S-video, Hi-8),
CVBS(VHS, Video8), as well as digital and
analog audio. Upgrade options for i.LINK
(IEEE 1394, FireWire), and YUV/Component
signals will be released later this year
or in early 1999.
<www.fastmultimedia.com>
The MEDIA shoppe, Inc. has
released mPrint Designer/Xtra 2.0,
a printing solution for Macromedia
Authorware and Director on Win95/98/NT
platforms. mPrint generates elaborate
reports with virtually no code. A WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) design
solution, it allows you to send live data
from Authorware and Director, including
contents of display icons from Authorware
and castmembers from Director. mPrint
Designer/Xtra 2.0 features
include:
- mPrint
Designer now accessed via
Authorware/Director Xtras
menu
- Dockable
toolbars provide access to common
mPrint functionality.
- Expandable
Tree View to explore all regions in a
single view.
- All
mPrint functions are now "Global"
meaning they look like functions called
from a UCD. No
CallObject().
- Images
in RTF files and page spanning
supported.
- New
print screen function to print a
specified portion of a
screen.
- New
save screen function to save a
specified portion of a screen to an
external BMP file.
mPrint
Designer/Xtra retails for $299.00.
Registered users can upgrade to version
2.0 for $99.00. Registered users of any
competing Xtra or UCD/U32 printing product
can cross-grade to mPrint Designer/Xtra
2.0 for $249.00.
<www.mediashoppe.com/products/mprint>
Atticmedia has made available to
the developer community some
Director development tools that
they developed for in-house use. One of
these is a debug window for the
projector which lets the developer examine
and change variables just like the watcher
window in authoring mode, and to examine
the messages which would normally be put
into the message window.
Some
extra lingo handlers are available to make
debugging in authoring mode a little
easier as well - basically to let the
developer turn message window reporting on
and and off. It uses a simple trick of
replacing "put" with a "debug"
handler.
An
object analysis feature lets you 'watch'
all the properties in any Lingo object,
just by typing in it's name!
There
are also a couple of visual basic
applications for use with Director; one
which is a .scr file which will launch any
executable, but will also take a
screengrab of the desktop, and another
which stops the projector launching more
than once.
These
are available free from their site:
<www.atticmedia.com/atticsite3/tools.htm>
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Sep
7
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U.S.
Labor Day. No update.
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