|
Week
of Mar 29
|
Fri
2
|
 
The RavWare WinShaper Xtra allows
Director developers to change the
shape of the display window for a
projector. The projector can be reshaped
into an elliptical, polygonal, textual, or
spline shaped window. Complex outlines can
be traced from a monochrome bitmap mask.
Stage borders can be completely removed
and the projector window's corners can be
rounded.
The
Xtra allows developers to add a user
defined activation area using the same
shape primitives to act as a handle bar
for dragging the projector. You can also
remove the application's icon on the
Taskbar..
A
demo containing the WinShaper Xtra,
documentation, tutorial, and sample D6 and
D7 movies can be downloaded from:
<www.ravware.com/winshape.htm>
 
A Beta of the Macintosh Windows Media
Player (Version 5.2 (Beta 2)) is
available. The new version supports
viewing live and on-demand, streamed audio
and video.
<www.microsoft.com
web page "Macintosh
Windows Media
Player">
 
We have previously mentioned the Pentax
Technologies Corporation VersaCam, a
webcam that doesn't need a PC to
operate. While not a lot more information
is available, their websote says that they
estimate that the VersaCam web camera will
be available summer in 1999, and that
although exact pricing has not been
determined, they expect that it will be in
the $800-900 range. Also, they have
begun demonstrating the system. The
Versacam is designed to automatically take
pictures, compress them, and transmit the
images to the Internet, LANs, email
addresses, CCTV networks, or personal
computers. The transmitted images can be
viewed with a standard Internet browser.
No PC is required to send the images, the
VersaCam needs only a communication link
and power supply to operate after it has
been configured.
<www.pentaxtech.com>
Want to create a QuickTime VR
panoramic scene by painting it
rather than using 3D software or shooting
a panoramic photo? André Plante has
a VR Painting Tutorial and demonstration
file at his website. It looks like a lot
of work, but some of the techniques might
be useful when manipulating existing
scenes.
<Web page: "VR
Gallery">
|
|
Thu
1
|
Very
little foolishness will be found on this
page
Curses!
Turns out that the FireWire 2.0
upgrade <Apple
has updated it's FireWire Enabler to
2.0>
does not fix the Sony timing
problem (newer Sony units have problems
with the built-in FireWire G3s.) Turns out
that problem is in the DV Enabler,
not the FireWire Enabler.
If
you are having this problem, your best
solutions are either to get the Promax
drivers, or get Edit DV 1.5 with it's new
drivers for the Blue & White
G3.)
[The
wild money is on Final Cut Pro being
released at NAB. Maybe there will be new
drivers
then-Ed.]
<www.promax.com>
<www.digitalorigin.com>
"The
tenants arrive here and are carried
along the corridor on a conveyor belt
in extreme comfort, past murals
depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards
the rotating knives."
Monty Python
Puffin Designs is shipping Commotion
version 2.0, the visual effects
application for video, film, and digital
content creation . Version 2.0 of
Commotion includes over 200 preset FX
Brushes for creating textured and stylized
media brush effects, dozens of filter
effects, text creation tools, multiple
undo, and support for 3rd party filter
plug-ins.
What's
New In Version 2.0:
- FX
Brush a texture-based paint engine.
Users can create textured and stylized
media brushes including chalk,
charcoal, clouds, crayon, and
neon.
- 3rd
Party Effects Plug-in
support
- Motion
Text Plug-In -- Users can create,
edit, and adjust animated TrueType and
Postscript titles.
- Multiple
Undo.
- Over
20 new Filter Effects -- including
keying, blurring/sharpening and full
geometric image transformations for
precise keyframeable position,
rotation, corner pinning, and scale
adjustments.
Commotion
2.0 is available from Puffin's worldwide
VAR channel at an MSRP of $2,495.00
(U.S.). Upgrades from Version 1.6 are
available for $249.00
<www.puffindesigns.com>
"Mars
is essentially in the same orbit...
Mars is somewhat the same distance from
the Sun, which is very important. We
have seen pictures where there are
canals, we believe, and water. If there
is water, that means there is oxygen.
If oxygen, that means we can
breathe."
Dan Quayle
Squamish Media Group now offers
three unique tools for QuickTime VR
authors.
soundsaVR
adds sound to QTVR movies using Apple's
wired sprite technology. 'soundsaVR'
allows you to place panning stereo sounds
directly into a 1.0 or 2.0 QTVR movie.
revolVR
adds an auto-rotate feature to QuickTime
VR movies.
Finally,
mapsaVR lets you add maps to QTVR
panorama movies. It supports overhead
maps, custom marker sets, and a background
image in panoramic movie. Maps and
background images can be in any image file
format supported by QT3.0. and when
imported into the movie they will retain
their format.
[This
sounds really interesting; unfortunately
the example at the website didn't work for
me when I tried
it-Ed]
<www.smgvr.com>
"The
other teams could make trouble for us
if they win."
Yogi Berra
Pinnacle Systems has announced
Studio MP10, a MPEG CD authoring
solution that allows users to capture
compressed MPEG-1 video, add audio and
special effects, edit it, and output the
finished movie to a CD, video tape, or the
Internet.
Studio
MP10 plugs into any PC's printer port and
allows users to capture video from any
source including camcorders, VCRs and DVD
players.
Studio
MP10 Features:
- External
parallel port device
- Capture
high quality stills and videos from
camcorder, VCR, or DVD
player
- On-board
audio capture
- Captures
and outputs in industry standard MPEG-1
format
- Easy
to Use MPEG CD Authoring Tool
- Controls
CD-R drive directly.
- Works
with Consumer CD-R and CD-RW
drives
- Create
streaming to add to a web page, or send
as a video email.
- Includes
RealNetworks RealProducer
Studio
MP10 is compatible with Pentium PCs
running Windows 95 or Windows 98, and is
now available with a suggested retail
price of $269.
<www.pinnaclesys.com>
Hollywood
Dictionary Phrases
to schmooze = befriend scum
to brainstorm = feign preparedness
to research = procrastinate
indefinitely
It needs some polishing = Change
everything
It shows promise = It stinks rotten
I'd like some input = I want total
control
It needs some fine tuning = Change
everything
<from: Television
Production
Jokes>
Philips
Electronics, and TiVo, Inc.,
have announced the availability of a new
"personal TV system." Essentially a
tapeless recording system
[which
a few other
features!]
Philips' and TiVo's Personal Television
System provides pause and rewind, as
well as slow-motion, frame forward and
frame back effects for any show they are
watching. The TiVo service also enables
viewers to teach TiVo what they enjoy
watching through the use of a "thumbs up''
or "thumbs down'' feature on the remote
control, building up a personal preference
profile.
The
Philips Personal TVO receivers are
available in two configurations: a 14-hour
model priced at $499, and a 30-hour model
at $999. TiVo Personal Television Service
subscribers have three options: $9.95 per
month, $99 per year or $199 for a lifetime
subscription. Personal TV receivers will
be available in limited quantities
initially and widely available this summer
at CE retailers. Strategic roll-out of
Philips receivers and access to the TiVo
service will begin March 31, 1999.
<www.tivo.com>
or <www.philipsusa.com>
"There
is a theory which states that if ever
anyone discovers exactly what the
Universe is for and why it is here, it
will instantly disappear and be
replaced by something even more bizarre
and inexplicable.
"There
is another theory which states that
this has already happened."
The Restaurant at the End of the
Universe
PictureWorks Technology has
announced the availability of
MediaCenter, a free digital imaging
software product with Internet
Explorer integration for users to
seamlessly acquire and publish content to
the World Wide Web.
MediaCenter
provides an easy to use interface to
download, organize, enhance and publish
pictures on the Internet within one
integrated interface. MediaCenter lets
users download images from any source and
organize them into folders in less steps
than any other product on the market.
MediaCenter
connects users to online digital photo
resources like PhotoLoft and iPrint,
digital imaging discussion groups, and
Internet-based image libraries. File
formats supported include: TIFF, BMP JPEG,
WAV, and AVI.
A
full-featured, functional version of
MediaCenter 1.0 is available for download
for free from PictureWorks at
<www.pictureworks.com/download>
Thought
for the day:
Big companies don't do business via
chain letters -- they're too busy in
meetings.
Happy
Birthday April!
|
|
Wed
31
|
Virtools S.A., a European developer
of authoring tools for 3D interactive
game development - has announced the
launch of its NeMo 3D interactive
authoring solutions for Microsoft Windows
in the US. The NeMo product line
developers - regardless of 3D programming
expertise - to prototype or simulate
behaviors associated with any 3D object
used in a game. NeMo speeds up the overall
game development cycle by enabling a
seamless transition from prototyping to
production. Virtools has also announced
the expected opening of a North American
sales and marketing office in San Jose,
effective 2nd quarter of 1999.
The
NeMo product family is made up of 2
software solutions: NeMo Dev and NeMo
Creation. NeMo Creation is a package
targeted at independent multimedia authors
and companies seeking to integrate
real-time interactive 3D into their
content.
NeMo
Creation includes:
- the
NeMo core engine, the foundation of the
NeMo technology
- the
NeMo application (the end user graphic
interface)
- the
standard behavior building blocks
library (including more than 200
behavior building blocks)
- the
NeMo Player (as a stand-alone exe file
and as an Internet Explorer/Netscape
plug-in for Web deployment)
NeMo
Dev comes with all of the features of NeMo
Creation, and also includes the NeMo SDK,
giving developers low-level access to
Virtools technology.
NeMo
Dev is priced at $3,490 US for a one-seat
use license, including six months tech
support. The NeMo Creation tool is $990 US
for a one-seat user license, including one
month of tech support. Both products will
be available direct from Virtools at the
end of April - contact info@virtools.com
for more details.
<www.virtools.com>
Last week Play began shipping
Amorphium, their new 3D
sculpting and painting tool.
Amorphium's Paint & Optics tools
allows users to paint on objects created
in Amorphium. In addition, it can
interactively paint or distort the surface
of the object. The Tasks feature records
painting and sculpting actions which can
be played back later or shared with
others.
Additionally,
Amorphium's Import and Export features
support high-end 3D formats ranging from
FACT (Electric Image) and LWO (Lightwave)
to DXF (AutoDesk) and OBJ
(Wavefront).
Among
Amorphium's other features is Biospheres,
a "blobby modeler." Using Biospheres is
much like working with simple balls of
clay.
Amorphium
is available now for Power Macintosh and
Windows 95/98 and NT 4.0 computers and
costs $150.
<www.amorphium.com>
Apple has updated it's Firewire
Enabler. Firewire 2.0 can improve
the quality of video recorded from blue
and white Power Macintosh G3 computers to
DV devices. FireWire 2.0 also contains new
services that enable the use of FireWire
disk drives, printers, and other new
devices. We hope that it fixes some timing
incompatibilities with newer Sony DV
cameras (though it's not specifically
mentioned in the released
documentation.
The
Read Me contained some interesting
information for the enthusiastic Firewire
user:
IEEE
1394 and FireWire support up to 63
FireWire devices (including computers)
connected together. Follow these
guidelines for connecting FireWire devices
to the computer:
- Do
not connect more than 63 devices at one
time.
- Do
not connect devices in such a way that
any two devices have more than 16
cables directly between them.
- Do
not connect FireWire cables in a way
that forms a ring of devices. Do not
plug both ends of one cable into the
same device.
- Unused
FireWire connections should be left
empty. There are no terminators for
FireWire connections.
- Connect
devices that require power from
FireWire directly to the computer.
- Do
not unplug a FireWire device while it
is being used. For example, do not
unplug a FireWire disk while copying
files onto it.
Power
Macintosh G3 computers can transfer
perfect digital video (DV) on FireWire
when no other devices are using the
FireWire bus. If you have problems with
digital video transfers, make certain that
no other FireWire devices are being used
at the same time.
<www.apple.com
software page "Firewire
2">
Agfa Desktop Products Group
announced it is shipping the ePhoto
CL50 digital camera. The CL50 offers
an optical resolution of 1.3 million
pixels (1280 X 960) and through Agfa's
PhotGenie image enhancement technology,
the ability to produce images of 1.9
million pixels (1600 X 1200). The ePhoto
CL50 features four resolution settings
(1600 X 1200 - Super, 1280 X 960 - High,
1280 X 960 - B/W text, 640 X 480 - VGA)
and four flash modes. In addition, the
ePhoto CL50 features a 3X optical zoom
lens and a 2X digital zoom&emdash;in both
capture and playback mode.
Included
are: the camera, cables (PC, video),
powerful software, an 8MB SmartMedia
removable memory card, four AA-sized
alkaline batteries and a soft protective
case.
Other
features include a built-in prism that
directs sunlight behind the LCD screen,
conserves battery power and enhances its
overall brightness. Also included is a
built-in microphone and a burst mode that
allows up to 10 continuous pictures in VGA
mode (640 X 480) resolution. The ePhoto
CL50 features both automatic and manual
control over exposure, focus and white
balance. The camera costs US $799
<www.agfa.com>
SEARCH
AltaVista has added a new
multimedia search service, AV Photo
& Media Finder, to their AltaVista
Internet guide.
AV
Photo & Media Finder, developed by
AltaVista with technology from Compaq's
Cambridge Research Laboratory, provides
users with the ability to search for
photos, video and audio clips. They claim
it links to more than 17 million distinct
photos, video and audio clips. Results are
delivered as thumbnail sketches with brief
descriptions, ranked by relevance and
importance.
<www.altavista.com>
SEARCH
ME
In my Multimedia Musings about
IPIX <IPIX
funding a lesson for
business>
I wondered how to search for a particular
media type on the web. Reader Douglass
Turner provided the following
suggestion:
- Go
to <www.hotbot.com>
- Select
"More Search Options"
- Scroll
down the page to where it says "Pages
Must Include"
- Insert
you favorite file suffixes.
|
|
Tue
30
|
MetaCreations has released Bryce
4, an upgrade to its
terrain-generation and animation software.
Bryce 4 can now export fully textured
terrains to virtually all 3D
modeling/animation applications such as
MetaCreations Ray Dream Studio (.rds),
Infini-D 4.5 (.id4), and NewTek's
Lightwave (.lwo). In addition, it includes
the capability to export terrains to
MetaStream (.mts), MetaCreations' 3D file
format for scaling and streaming 3D
content on the Web. Bryce 4 also features
new object import formats.
The
program features the all-new Sky Lab, an
area within Bryce that provides deep,
precise access to all controls governing
aspects of sky generation. Bryce can also
now import United States Geological Survey
DEM (Digital Elevation Maps) and SDTS file
formats.
Bryce
4 can export scenes to HTML with
image-mapped links, export options that
include RealPlayer movies, VRML and QTVR
for animations and still images on the
Web.
Bryce
4 is available for Windows 95/98/NT and
Power Macintosh on two hybrid CD-ROMs, for
an estimated selling price of US $199. An
upgrade is available to registered users
for US $99.
<www.metacreations.com
web page "Bryce
4">
Canon has announced the
PowerShot A50, which they claim is
the world's smallest and lightest zoom
lens-equipped megapixel camera.
The
PowerShot A50 features all-metal body and
is equipped with a 4.3-10.8mm f/2.6-4.0
zoom lens (equivalent to a 28-70mm in 35mm
format) and a built-in flash. Measuring
4.1 (W) x 2.7 (H) x 1.5 (D)-inches, it has
an optical viewfinder, a 2-inch LCD
monitor for image preview and playback,
auto white balance with manual override,
video out and exposure
compensation.
The
PowerShot A50 incorporates a newly
developed 1/2.7-inch, 1.31 million pixel
CCD sensor that creates high-resolution
images up to 1280 x 960 pixels. There are
two JPEG compression settings: Fine Mode
(approximately 7.5:l) for high quality,
and Normal Mode (approximately 14:1) for
maximum storage capacity. The PowerShot
A50 also offers a "CCD Raw'' recording
mode that permits image data to be stored
without compression (at 1280 x 960
resolution).
The
A50 supports the new Digital Print Order
Format (DPOF), which allows the camera's
built-in LCD monitor to be used for
tagging individual images with printing
instructions such as quantity and
size.
The
PowerShot A50 comes with interface cables,
one 2CR5 lithium battery, and an 8MB
CompactFlash Card. It will be available in
the second half of 1999. Estimated street
price for the camera will be established
closer to the availability date.
<www.canon.com>
RealNetworks has announced the
finalists for the second annual
Streamers Awards, dedicated to
recognizing excellence in streaming media.
Streamers Awards winners will be announced
at the third annual RealNetworks
Conference & Exhibition '99, held at
the San Francisco Marriott, May 5-7,
1999.
The
public voting, which ran from February 8
through March 25, attracted nearly 7,000
votes for the Streamers Awards nominees. A
complete list of the finalists can be
found on the Streamers Awards Web site,
located at
<www.real.com
web page "Streamers">
RealNetworks
Conference & Exhibition '99
Web
To register online or get more information
about conference registration, visit
<www.real.com/conference>
or call (800) 632-5537. To register for
free to attend only the exhibits, visit
<www.real.com/register/>
The standard registration fee for the
conference and exhibition is U.S. $995.
Register before April 15, 1999 and save
$100. RealNetworks Real Developer Program
members receive a $100 discount,
regardless of their registration date.
Aurora Design has posted new
drivers. Version 1.8 drivers add or
correct the following:
- Corrected
a problem which forced NTSC playback
mode after every capture.
- Playback
mode now correctly gets updated to the
capture mode.
- Improved
smoothness of playback in the Computer
Only mode.
- The
drivers now display single fields only
on the computer monitor when the movie
is scaled to less than half the height
to provide a better image.
<www.auroradsgn.com
web page "Software">
Replay Networks, developer of the
ReplayTV set-top device and Replay
Network Service, announced today that
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the
venture capital firm, is lead investor of
a group investing some $8 million in the
company. Vulcan Ventures, Inc., the
investment organization of Paul G. Allen,
and Tribune Company round out the group of
companies forming the investment
syndicate.
ReplayTV
is expected to begin volume shipments in
April, starting at $699.
<www.replaytv.com>
|
|
Mon
29
|
Canopus Corporation has made
several product announcements:
They
have announced an update to Rexfx,
the company's 3D DVE solution. The update
to Rexfx includes effects such as
Picture-in-Picture and Page Peel. Rexfx is
codec independent and can be used with
Motion-JPEG and DV nonlinear editing
boards compatible with Adobe Premiere 5.1
and Ulead MediaStudio 5.x. Rexfx is a
hardware-based 3D effects engine and
transition package that provides a
near-real-time alternative to more
expensive real-time DVEs. Suggested retail
price is $699. This update is available
free to current Rexfx
customers.
Canopus
has also announced Rex Navigator, a
software utility for DVRex-M1 users for
video capture, cataloging and batch
capturing. Users can scan videotapes and
catalog the clips automatically or
manually for use in Rex Edit. Rex
Navigator includes a DV camera controller
and automatic batch capturing features.
Users can add comments and other reference
information and create a batch capture
list that can be printed out for future
reference. Rex Navigator will be available
March 29, 1999 for a suggested retail
price of $99.
Canopus
is now offering a new version of DVRaptor,
the DVRaptor SE. Targeted at video
editors who already own Adobe Premiere or
Ulead MediaStudio Pro, DVRaptor SE comes
without a video editing software bundle,
allowing the company to offer the DV
editing board for $549. DVRaptor SE does
include the Raptor Video and Raptor
Navigator utilities.
Finally,
the company has also announced
Rex'n'fx, an editing and 3D effects
bundle combining its editing system,
DVRex-M1, with the company's Rexfx and
Artel Software's Boris FX 3D DVE, effects
modules that offer video editors a range
of professional effects. Rex'n'fx is
available now for suggested retail price
of $2995.
<www.canopuscorp.com>
Discreet, a division of Autodesk,
has announced a joint worldwide incentive
with Pinnacle Systems combining
Discreet's edit* nonlinear
Windows-NT finishing system and Pinnacle
Systems' TARGA video cards at a
greatly discounted price. The Discreet and
Pinnacle Systems price promotion offers
edit* option 1 for more than a third off
the list price; taking $2000 off the $7995
edit* price, and $5000 off the $9995 cost
of the TARGA boards for a total cost of
$10,990 and a savings of $7000. The joint
promotion is effective immediately and
ends on April 30th 1999.
edit*
option 1 supports Pinnacle System's TARGA
2000 RTX and TARGA 2000 SDX Studio video
capture/playback cards, and offers
dual-stream real-time effects capability
with multiple concurrent realtime effects,
complete with realtime graphic channel
overlay. The combined software runs on all
the X-series Pinnacle Systems hardware,
including the new SDX Studio with SDI
in/out.
<www.pinnaclesys.com>
<www.autodesk.com>
MasterApp Xtra for Mac, a
Director Xtra that launches and
controls external applications from
Director, has been released. This release
replaces the old XObject version and makes
MasterApp fully Director 7 compatible. The
release includes a new comprehensive user
guide. A demo is available at:
<www.updatestage.com
web page "MasterApp">
MULTIMEDIA MUSINGS
A reader wrote with regard to the recent
announcement of IPIX getting 28 million in
funding:
"I
spent five minutes and came up with the
following search results for multimedia
content on the web:
IPIX:
1110, LivePicture: 1,650, VRML: 18,920,
QuickTime: 116,510
"How
can a company with such a small
deployment convince investors to give
them such a huge amount of
money?"
It's
a question that crossed my mind too,
though I'm not sure that the numbers above
are accurate (for example, not all of the
QuickTime movies are VR type movies.)
Also, I don't know how the numbers were
arrived at - I tried to come up with
numbers using Altavista but ran into a
problem searching for IPX, the file type,
because it occurs in other
words(!)
Almost
independent of how well IPIX is doing (and
I have no idea) IPIX has been very good at
"playing the game," and there are lessons
here for anyone running a
company:
They
have been very good at getting press;
including articles in national
publications. Good press coverage means
that people have heard of you (or think
they should have when you tell them you
appeared in The Wall Street
Journal.)
They
have a number of strategic relationships;
with Discovery Channel and in real estate
photography. It's rumored that many of
these arrangements are loss-leaders -
they're doing them at discounted prices to
establish themselves - but that seems to
be the way the game is played these
days.
They
have successfully defended a patent, so
they have a patent protected
technology.
Finally,
it appears to me that an important part of
their strategy is to make money from
taking the images, not just from selling
the technology tools. They provide a
picture taking service, and the license
strategy - they charge per node -
conceivably provides a larger income
stream than other business
models.
For
all of these reasons - and also because
they previously received sizable
investments from some large companies -
investors are willing to pony up more
money. There's some lessons there for
anyone attempting to get second round
financing!
Though
I don't use the IPIX technology (primarily
because I can't use it easily in Director,
and because of the licensing) I think that
IPIX continuing to exist is actually good
for technologies such as QuickTime
VR.
The
real question is; are today's investors
just plain nuts? But that's a question for
another day.
-Michael
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