#The Flyer
I just got back from Orlando and had a chance to see the Flyer first
hand. The program that was being demonstrated was still a BETA
version. It did not have all of the features installed and the NewTek
rep. said that it is still under development. They expect to start
shipping to dealers in October.
However, what I did see looked just great. The quality of the picture
was excellent. I could not detect any strobing of any kind. The
resolution was excellent.
What I did learn is that the sound portion of the Flyer will not have
a lot of control. You will probably have to purchase a third party
product to have a full scale sound editor.
When I asked about slow motion and reverse motion, I got an answer
that I did not completely understand. It seems that you will be able
to do both of these, but not in real time. I think what I was being
told is that you have to create the slow motion or reverse motion
effect and then render it. Once rendered, it will then playback in
real time. As I said, the answer to my question was a bit fuzzy.
However, you can load an entire tape into the Flyer and then go in and
break down scenes. You create an insert by running scene A from the
point you want to start to the point you want the insert to occur.
Then you drop in scene B and run that for the length you want. Then
you duplicate scene A and go to the frame that you want to continue
(after scene B) and use that as the starting frame. You can then move
scene B to start anywhere you want in scene A. So, it is true NLE,
but maybe not the same way it happens on other systems. However, I
find this way of editing easy to understand.
While I was at the conference, several people told me that I was going
to need all kinds of extra equipment to run the Flyer. So, I asked
the NewTek rep. exactly what I would need for my system. My system
is an Amiga 4000 with an 040 speed. I was told that all I'll need is
the Flyer software, the Flyer board and external gigabyte hard
drives.
Oh, here was something else that I learned. The Flyer board has a y/c
input, but the output goes through the standard Toaster board output.
So, if you want to have both y/c in and out, you need to buy or have
a board like YC Plus or any other product that has YC in and out
capability.
Somewhere I thought that I read that the Flyer could do this, but it
can't.