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Week
of Oct 12 1998
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Oct
16
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Adobe says Premiere 5.1 will
be available by the end of October.
Features of 5.1 include:
- Compile
time improvements in Premiere 5.1
result in significantly faster render
times for both Preview and
Export.
- "Smart"
Preview files from the Timeline can be
exported from Premiere 5.1, enabling
drastically reduced final export
times.
- Premiere
5.1 offers multi-threaded performance:
transparency takes advantage of dual
processors for faster compile
times.
- Users
can also work more efficiently within
Premiere 5.1, with enhanced Timeline
and Trim window performance that allows
for faster, more precise
edits.
The
addition of core QuickTime 3.0 support in
Adobe Premiere 5.1 allows users greater
flexibility and creative freedom. Users
can easily produce streaming audio for the
Web with QuickTime 3.0 audio compression,
which enables them to export Qdesign and
Qualcomm audio formats, among others, from
within Premiere 5.1. Users can also choose
to work natively in the DV format, with
the ability to import .dv files from
QuickTime into Premiere 5.1. In addition,
core support in Premiere 5.1 will allow
users to take advantage of the built-in
effects of QuickTime 3.0, with the release
of a QuickTime 3.0 effects plug-in from
Adobe later this year.
Adobe
Premiere 5.1 will be available free to
registered users of Premiere 5.0.
<www.adobe.com
web page "Premiere">
Macromedia's recent abandonement of
the Authorware Mac market was
hardly a surprise (I must admit, I've
never been a big fan of the product) but
it seems that Macromedia must have got
some complaints from users. Only a few
weeks after announcing Authorware 5 would
not be available for the Mac they have
announced a Mac Player which will be
available in the first quarter 1999 (which
suggests the decision was made only after
the initial announcement.)
Interestingly,
only today we were on the phone to
Macromedia because we needed QuickTime 3.0
support for an Authorware product and the
only way to get that is by upgrading to
Authorware 5 (or playing a Director movie
from within Authorware 4; not a great
solution.) Today, when we called
Macromedia about this they didn't even
mention this announcement, and we decided
to switch development to Director -- maybe
we'll have to go back and revisit that
decision.
The
Mac Player will be available in two
versions: as an Authorware Web Player for
delivering learning applications via the
Web, and as a stand-alone runtime player
for delivery on LANs and CD-ROMs. The Mac
Player will include support for:
- Flash
animations and Quicktime 3.0.
- Web-authoring
and delivery through Knowledge Stream
and Voxware support for high-quality
low-bandwidth voice-overs.
The
Authorware 5 Attain Mac Player will be
freely available to all Authorware 5
Attain customers. It will ship during the
first quarter of 1999.
<www.macromedia.com
web page "Mac
Player
info">
The following is perhaps a bit off
subject, but I think it's important. It
edited from a posting to DIRECT-L (the
Director mailing list) by Glenn
Picher, an author of
Xtras for Director
(and the principal of Dirigo mentioned
below.) g/matter is a
company that has been well known in the
Xtra market.
As
many of you may know, g/matter shut down
at the beginning of this month. On October
1st, San Francisco Superior Court
confirmed the terms of a binding
arbitration award made on August 4th,
which assessed about $53,000 against
g/matter relating to their breach of their
publishing contract with
Dirigo.
The
arbitrator, based on the evidence
submitted, resolved the questions of fact,
for the record, in this way:
- g/matter
failed to pay a large portion of the
royalties on collected
funds.
- For
every 4 sales that g/matter conducted
and collected funds for, they only
reported 3 sales
The
confirmation of the award, culminating a
six-month proceeding, was issued by the
judge on October 1st. The next day, on
October 2nd, g/matter filed for Chapter 7
bankruptcy.
I
want to stress that the arbitrator was
*not* making a finding of criminal fraud
against anyone for under-reporting
royalties, rather, the arbitrator found
only that g/matter promised to tell me
about all sales, but that they did not
keep that promise
Zuma Digital (New York) used
Sonic DVD Creator to produce
DVD content for the "Premises"
exhibit which opened October 14 at the
Guggenheim Museum in New York.
"Premises" marks one of the first times
that DVD has been used to support a major
art exhibitione. Using 45 DVD players for
continuous projection of interactive
content, this show is the largest use of
DVD for a single public exhibit.
"Premises"
explores 40 years of French artistic and
architectural practice, with an emphasis
on the creative engagement of space. In
addition to more familiar artists such as
Christian Boltanksi, Yves Klein, and
Annette Messager, and architects Le
Corbusier and Jean Nouvel, "Premises"
introduces a younger generation of artists
including Absalon, Thomas Hirschhorn, and
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, who
have not yet been widely received in the
United States.
The
project comprises over 25 hours of video.
Zuma Digital used Sonic DVD Producer to
author the project's interactive menus and
a control system that allows museum
visitors to choose which of three pieces
of art to view. Zuma Digital programmed
the kiosks to return to the "attract
screen" state at the conclusion of the
program segments, and also programmed the
DVD displays to automatically switch on
and off to reduce the maintenance time
required of the Guggenheim staff.
<www.zumadigital.com>
<www.sonic.com>
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Oct
15
|
Radius says it will ship EditDV
1.5 on November 1. EditDV is a
non-linear digital video editor designed
specifically for the DV camcorder owner.
This new release is much faster; dissolves
now render at less than 16 seconds, with
draft dissolves at less than six seconds.
The
most looked forward to new feature is
batch capture/timecode support using the
controllable deck capability included in
DV camcorders. EditDV 1.5 automatically
imports and keeps track of timecodes,
enabling users to log clips as they review
footage. This feature is also useful for
archiving projects, since all users need
to store is the completed project file and
original tapes.
Current
MotoDV owners can purchase EditDV 1.5 for
a software-only price of $499. Current
EditDV owners can upgrade to version 1.5
for $149. The suggested retail price of
EditDV 1.5 is $999.
<www.radius.com>
Radius has also announced a new
version of MotoDV Studio. MotoDV
Studio 2.0 integrates Radius' full-motion
DV capture and playback technology with
Adobe Premiere 5 to provide a complete
non-linear editing solution for DV
camcorder users on Windows 95, 98, and
NT.
Version
2.0 adds Radius Studio Plug-Ins for Adobe
Premiere, enabling a seamless workflow
from video capture through final output to
tape. Two of the plug-ins provide
integrated capture from within Premiere,
either manually or automatically from a
batch list, with control of the DV device
from the keyboard.
The
third plug-in, Radius LiveDV, is a
playback module for Premiere that enables
video and audio to be played over the 1394
connection in full-motion at full
resolution. The video is previewed on a
video monitor attached to the DV device.
In addition to playing back the video and
audio at normal speed, editors can scrub
or step through a particular segment -- an
important capability required to properly
evaluate a particular edit or effect.
MotoDV
Studio 2.0 for Windows has a US suggested
list price of $899 and is expected to
begin shipping in December, 1998. Current
MotoDV Studio 1.0 users can upgrade to
version 2.0 for $99. The upgrade price for
MotoDV users is $199.
<www.radius.com>
Terran Interactive has announced
the release of Media Cleaner Pro
3.1 which includes the HEURIS
MPEG Export Engine export. Media
Cleaner is a tool for compressing digital
media. This release also supports standard
QuickTime 3 Effects such as "Emboss,"
"Fire," and "Film Noise" and allows
developers to include up to four effects
per movie. The program also now offers
Video playback from RAM.
Owners
of Media Cleaner Pro 3.0 can receive a
free upgrade by contacting Terran
Interactive.
Upgrades
are available from Terran to the HEURIS
MPEG Power Professional product line for
enhanced functionality within Cleaner.
MPEG-1 is available for $499, MPEG1&2
for $1499, and MPEG1&2 with DVD for
$2499.
<www.terran.com>
And while talking about video,
emediaweekly reports that Ligos
Technology is working on inexpensive,
software-only codecs that could generate
high-resolution MPEG-2 video in real time
on ordinary Windows PCs. The GoMotion
MPEG-2 codec will be able to perform
real-time MPEG-2 encoding and can be used
with a third-party video-capture card.
<www.emediaweekly.com
news report "Codec
does real-time
MPEG">
<www.ligos.com>
If you're in New York this week, check out
ResFest, an independent digital
film festival which happens in New York
City October 16-17.
<www.resfest.com>
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Oct
14
|
Looking for a way to store lots of digital
images while out in the field? Iomega
Corporation might have the solution
you are looking for. It's Clik!
removable drive holds 40 megabytes and
is designed for use with digital cameras
and handgeld personal computers. It's not
yet available. Don't want to buy a new
camera? You can still use the Clik! drive.
Iomega has already announced the Clik!
Flash Memory Reader which includes--and
connects to--a Clik! drive and is designed
to accept CompactFlash and SmartMedia
cards from most digital cameras. Just pop
out the memory card, place it in the
reader, transfer the pictures to the
drive, and continue on.
The
drive and cartridge is about 2/3 the size
of a Zip and will have an estimated street
price of $249 (U.S.) The disks will cost
about $9.95 each (U.S.), when purchased in
a 10 pack.
I
haven't been able to revify the link
below; I find it very hard to connect to
Iomega's website.
<www.iomega.com
info page "Clik!">
Credo Interactive has announced a
3D Studio Max plugin for Life
Forms Studio 3.0. Based on the 3DS
file format, the plugin allows 3D Studio
Max users to share both segmented models
and character motion with Life Forms
Studio 3.0. Life Forms is a character
movement application.
The
3D Studio Max compatible 3DS plugin for
Life Forms Studio 3 will be available
fourth quarter 1998. Current Life Forms
Studio 3.0 users will be able to download
the plugin free from the Credo Interactive
website. Life Forms Studio 3.0 has an
introductory price of $495 US (List price
- $695 US)
<www.credo-interactive.com>
Credo Interactive has also
announced that Life Forms Studio 3
can now exchange motion capture data with
Poser 3 from MetaCreations.
Life Forms Studio 3 gives Poser 3 users
more flexibility and precision for
character movement and animation. In
addition, Poser 3 users can take advantage
of PowerMoves 1 & 2, over 720
keyframed animations and motion capture
files, that ship with Life Forms Studio
3.
Through
the BioVision BVH motion capture format,
Poser 3 users can import files created
with Life Forms Studio and export Poser 3
movements to Life Forms for editing.
"For
creating character movement, Life Forms
has no equal," says 3D artist and
University of Texas choreography professor
Yacov Sharir. "Now that Life Forms works
with Poser, I can really combine Life
Forms' strengths with Poser's strength in
texture mapping, rendering, and modeling.
It's a great combination."
<www.credo-interactive.com>
At its Professional Developers Conference
yesterday, Microsoft demonstrated
the latest Extensible Markup Language
(XML) technologies it will add to
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and the
Windows operating system, including XML
1.0, XSL, XML DOM and XML Namespaces.
Microsoft will support the following
features in the next update to the Windows
operating system and its Internet Explorer
browsing software:
- Direct
viewing of XML. The Microsoft XML
implementation lets users view XML
using XSL or Cascading Style Sheets
with their Web browser.
- High-performance,
validating XML engine. The XML
engine has been enhanced and fully
supports W3C XML 1.0 and XML
Namespaces.
- Extensible
Style Language (XSL) support. Based
on the latest W3C Working Draft,
developers can apply style sheets to
XML data.
- XML
Schemas. Schemas define the rules
of an XML document, including element
names and rich data types, which
elements can appear in combination, and
which attributes are available for each
element.
- Server-side
XML.
- XML
document object model (DOM). A
standard object application programming
interface that gives developers
programmatic control of XML document
content, structure, formats and more.
The
next major release of Microsoft Office
2000, elevates HTML to a companion file
format and uses XML to store additional
document information. By using XML in this
way, Office 2000 users can save documents
as Web pages and then later return these
documents to their original Office state
for editing.
<www.microsoft.com
web page "XML">
ELECTRONIC
BOOKS
SoftBook Press has announced that
components of its electronic book content
structure are being used by
Microsoft as part of the Open
eBook content structure standard for
the delivery of electronic content to
eBooks. SoftBook Press' SoftBook is a
specialized hand-held reading device,
expected to ship mid-fourth quarter.
Open
eBook will incorporate SoftBook Press'
content structure and markup language
which is based on extensions to HTML 3.2.
SoftBook Press' content structure
implementation enables the delivery of
page-oriented material that includes text,
tables, graphics and images. In addition,
eBook content can be evolved to take
advantage of the emerging XML standard.
SoftBook Press' copyright security
technology maintains digital rights and
copyright protection ensuring the secure
distribution of eBook content.
SoftBook
Press has also developed two different
types of content formatting and publishing
tools compatible with the Open eBook
standard. An automatic publishing tool
translates content into eBook format ready
for distribution on reading devices,
providing a quick and easy way to deliver
largely text-based documents. For more
complex content structures, SoftBook
Press' interactive publishing tool enables
easy editing and previewing, making it
possible for publishers to retain control
over the look and feel of content.
<www.softbook.com>
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Oct
13
|
Nikon has updated the Coolpix
900 and is calling the new model the
900s. As can be guessed from the minor
change in name, the changes are
improvements of the basic model, not
revolutionary changes. A Flash-Sync port
and more precise exposure control are the
most notable improvements. Price is $799.
More information is available at Nikon's
website. The Coolpix is one of the highest
rated under $1,000 cameras.
<www.nikonusa.com
camera spec sheet "Nikon
900s">
In a hint of problems to come as the
Internet further dominates our
lives, and the capability to deliver
digital audio and video increases the
Recording Industry Association of
America is going after Diamond
Multimedia because its Rio MP3
player stores music files downloaded
from the Internet (rather than just play
and not save them.) The RIAA claims this
is promoting illegal copying of
music.
MetaCreations has released the
latest build (version 25) of the Poser
3 - Ray Dream Studio 5 Plug-In.
Version 25 of the plug-in fixes issues
with morph targets, IK, animation when a
prop is attached to the Poser figure and
other miscellaneous bugs when working with
Poser 3 files in RDS 5.0.2.
<www.metacreations.com
resources page "Poser
3">
MetaCreations has also released new
versions of the MetaStream
exporters: Ray Dream MetaStream
Exporter version 2.0 and Infini-D version
4.5m
<www.metastream.com>
Canon U.S.A., Inc.has announced the
Canon USA XL1 Owner's Club. Once
enrolled in the service club, members will
receive a club card and membership number
which will assist in identifying a
specific product's service history and the
owner's XL1 camera settings, i.e., gray
scale, color balance, etc.
Additional
benefits offered through the program
include: access to a specially trained
team of XL1 consultants who will trouble
shoot and provide operational assistance
via a special "Hot Line" number,
1-800-OK-CANON (1-800-652-2666); 5-day or
less repair service or accommodation of a
loan unit until the customer's unit is
repaired; and a discount on the first
year's annual maintenance.
Membership
to the Canon XL1 Owner's Club is
free.Owners may register via the Internet
at.
<www.canondv.com>
In the October issue of
Interactivity Ralph Labarge writes
one of the few articles I've seen in favor
of DIVX. The most interesting part
of the article (and something I wasn't
aware of) has very little to do with DIVX.
It covers the Burst Cutting Area on
a DVD, which is an area on a DVD
that can be used to record up to 188 bytes
of data after the disc has been
manufactured. This data is stored as
low-reflectance stripes arranged in an arc
between the center ring and the recorded
data on the DVD. It's written using a YAG
laser system which makes a barcode-like
pattern that can be read by DVD players.
He explains how this code can be used for
serial numbers etc.
As
to his points about DIVX, I don't agree
with his statement "when $100 million gets
pumped into a DVD-Video related product,
it has to have some positive effects on
the overall DVD market." If that $100
million results in consumer confusion I'm
not sure that it is a good thing.
<www.interactivity.com
article "DIGITAL
VERSATILE DELIRIUM: DIVX vs.
DVD-Video">
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Oct
12
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US
Columbus Day
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