Editmaster at NAB?
16 messages in this thread
Did anybody who was at NAB see the DMI Editmaster in action? Or was it not
there? Any impressions would be appreciated, especially how well it was working
and how good the output was.
Thanks, Terry Tabor
The Editmaster is gone. It is now called the Digital Broadcaster, and with
a name like that you would think it would be impresive. Oh well… They
were showing it running at 25:1 compresion ratio (lower than VHS quality).
It was pretty lame, the software is only Cuts only, and without a SCSI-II
card you cant get the lower compresion ratios to play back at 30fps so no
broadcast quality for the Digital Broadcaster yet. Im curios about the
compresion ratios they give, and the playback speeds they quote with an
SCSI-II contorler, where they came up with those numbers if they dont have
an SCSI-II contoler to use…
Forrest
Forest,
Thanks for the info. It doesn't sound to encouraging, though. My guess
is that their lower compression ratio figures are theoretical only. Certainly
for the A4000 which as of yet doesn't have any SCSI II controllers out. I
thought that maybe they had an inhouse version of one that they were using for
testing, but it seems like if they had it working they would certainly want to
show it off at NAB, if not for the controller's sake, then for the Editmaster's
sake. 25:1 compression ratio will be nice for playing around with, but nobody
will take it seriously until it can do broadcast quality (10:1 or better).
I called them recently and they said 4-6 weeks, which is what they told
me in January. I hope they eventually get it right, because if they do I think
they've got a hot product.
Thanks Again,
Terry Tabor
Terry, Impulse is currently working on a standalone JPEG board called the Dream
Machine. Also DPS, makers of the Personal TBC, showed a new product called the
Personal Animation Recorder. It uses a proprietary form of compression and
plays 3-5 minutes of animation on a 500meg hard drive. Combined with the new
Personal TBC IV, it can also grab motion video to the hard drive in real time.
–Rick Rodriguez
Rick, The first one that gets it right will also get my money!
Terry Tabor
It is now officially called the Digital Broadcaster. Yes it was there.
Looked good but did not have a way to compare the images it showe to the
originals. They claim that at 15:1 compression there ios no noticible
loss. I'd like to see side by side video of theo riginal and the
comprtessed as well as some scoping of compressed test patterns just to
see if that is true or not.
I'm not a good source of info for it as I am not that interested in it at
the moment. I'm more interested in Vivid24 which they claimes would soon
have Lightwave support. I'd like to believe that, but find it hard at
this point to do so.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne, From my experience with the software JPEG'ers and de-JPEG'ers, I believe
15:1 compression ratio should be pretty good. With ADPRO, I've never seen any
losses until about 25:1. But I've never really looked close enough to see very
small errors.
Terry Tabor
Wayne, That Vivid 24 idea may have been one of my "Wishful Thinking" msgs,
like a "Wishlist" I'd love to see a Lightwave for the Vivid 24 as a
"Differnt Dongle" than the Toaster, in fact I posted that somewhere as
something I'd LOVE to see.
Peter,
Aguy at the DMI booth told me that NewTek was going to make LW able to use
the Vivid24. However, that just may bhave been an attempt to sell a
confessed LW junkie. NewTek has n ot mentioned it, to my knowledge.
wmc – via Autopilot!
I think the Bloke was misinformed. While having a Version of Lightwave for
the Vivid 24 would be nice I somehow Doubt it will happen unless Newtek
were to buy the Rights to the Vivid 24.
Or it could be that LW output could be redorected tp Vivid24 by ARexx, or
that Syndesis or some other company would make a program to rneder LW
scenes in Vivid24. Or it could have just been "salesmanship".
wmc – via Autopilot!
A little disappointing after all this time to see that they still have lame
software that crashed several times while I was checking it out; that while
digitizing it dispayed in a green monochrome (will fix this); that until
Commodore released SCSI II controller, the high quality modes are theoretical;
that the editing software is rough cuts only. There were SO MANY GREAT
non-linear editing products at NAB giving full 60 field/sec. video with
excellant quality being touted (and delivering) broadcastable video for TV
news, etc. I think my favorite for the money was the Digital F/X Hitchcock,
about $7000 + Quadra + gig drive. Not cheap, but not bad for what you get as
far as overall production capabilities and quality. VERY nice user interface,
digital FX, titling, etc. Even AVID had a $10,000 system, though the good stuff
(with 16 channels of CD quality audio and full video) is $45,000. Anyway, I've
been rooting for the Editmaster for a long time, but they are getting run over.
Hope they, or someone, gets this together on the Amiga soon.
Chris, Yep I've been rooting for Editmaster since I first heard about it too.
If they live up to the claims on their flyer, they'll be heroes. I guess I'm
mainly concerned about the playback and recording of the board (especially at
the lower compression ratios) than their software. As long as they can use
standard JPEG files or at least have working conversion software to/from
standard (i.e., ADPRO and IM) JPEG files, I can do more sophisticated stuff
than cuts only with the software I presently have. It would be nice to have it
all handy in one package, but if I were them I would concentrate on the
hardware and compression ratios and the basic software and get the product out.
And then follow it up with a more comprehensive software package at a later
time.
Terry Tabor
A Zues 040 board will run SCSI II DMA at full speed no problem in an
A2000. Wonder if the Editmasters are going to be zoro III only?
….John
It is disapointing to hear all of this about the Editmaster… I don't get
it… is Mac and PC gonna get away with this one?
Jorge Escobar/MEGABYTE PRODUCTIONS (..and AutoPilot, of course!)
>is Mac and PC gonna get away with this one?
Too late. They already have. They are on their second generation of the
development cycle. DMI is shocked at the rate they are being eclipsed in
features and sophistication. This has made it impossible to release the
project for the last 8 months.
It is not likely you will see anything soon from DMI.
–Paul < Motorola Inside >