Avid Selects Canopus DV Raptor For DV Solution

[Jerry Jones]

We Canopus DV Raptors knew about the card's reliability all along. Now even Avid is recognizing it:
http://www.digitalproducer.com/aHTM/...s_dvraptor.htm

[Jerry Jones]

Interesting post from Jan De Wever
from Canopus DV Raptor forum:

>I visited the ACF today. It's
>kind of a mini-IBC for Belgium
>only.

>At the AVID booth they had the
>XpressDV (DVRaptor in an IBM
>Intellistation and under Avid
>software control) available for
>a demo. It comes in a PIII600/SCSI
>disk IBM tower. It comes bundled
>with all kinds of software to
>output your edits for the web
>or CDRM/DVD. Real Producer G2,
>Windows Media Tools, MPEG1 and
>2 export modules are all included.
>Full versions, not Lite or crippled
>versions! It was connected in the
>usual Firewire/YC way to a DHR1000
>and a Sony 21" pro video monitor.
>NT4, of course. For those of you
>that have seen previous (first)
>incarnations of the NT MCXpress:
>this is nothing like it! This is
>the same interface as the Mac
>highend Avids, with the same
>powerfull editing tools, fully
>Avid compatible (OMF, see
>later), same look and feel,
>same stability, same
>power. Don't let the seamingly
>uncluttered and simple interface
>misleed you!

(screenshot: http://www.avid.com/avidxpressdv/XpressREAL.jpg

>Let's make this clear now: it's
>not a realtime system: every
>effect, transition, filter and
>title has to >be rendered. Only
>cuts are real time.

>But it bypasses the OS completely:
>there is no 2Gig limit. You capture
>any length you want, the only limit
>is the disk. Downside: these are
>not AVI's, so you cannot import them
>in After Effects or whatever straight
>away. You need to export them first,
>and re-import them afterwards. Avid,
>and the XpressDV too, work with what
>Avid calls OMF instead. More on this
>later.

>The Avid software is a breeze
>to >work with. Very ellaborate
>media management, bins, sub
>bins, all kind of info available
>straight away (no right clicking
>necessary), strong search engine
>built in, ...
>You can have very large and
>difficult projects, with lots of
>clips, without loosing track or
>not finding a clip again after
>having captured it.

>The timeline is a bit
>different from what
>we're used to in Premiere
>or MSP. No video 1a/b
>track, but the base
>track is a single track,
>like in Raptoredit.
>Transitions are added on
>the cutline, like in
>Raptoredit. Other tracks
>are superimposed like in
>Premiere: track
>2-3-4. Audio tracks work
>the same way.
>All very easy. The whole
>look breaths
>Avid from top to bottom,
>with it's distinguishable
>purple-gray colour
>scheme. The Avid software
>has always
>been very strng when it comes
>to pure editing: cutting,
>slicing, roll edits, punch
>in/out, ... It comes with
>some very powerfull tools,
>still unrivaled by any
>application available. When
>you have the chance to see
>an Avid system at work, watch
>it.

>Great bonus is that when you place
>the hairline (timeline position
>indicator) on the transition, it
>shows the exact frame underneath
>it right away on both the computer
>monitor (in the timeline window) and
>on the external video monitor. What
>we're used to see in Premiere when
>holding down the 'alt' key and
>scrubbing, but only on the VGA screen,
>is under Avid software viewable on
>the video monitor right away. With
>the arrow keys going a frame backwards
>of forward shows each frame, again
>on the VGA screen and the videomonitor,
>instantly. That way you know exactly
>how a transition, filter, title, PIP,
>whatever, will look like on video. >Transitions enough btw: wipes,
>dissolves, pip's, tumbles, page peels,
>... very strong titler, good filters
>for colour correction, ...

>Another great benefit is the
>'background render' function.
>When this is 'on' in the settings,
>XpressDV will render anything that
>is to be rendered in the background
>when there's CPU time available.
>This means, when you're busy setting
>in and out points, capturing, or
>whatever that leaves a certain
>amount of CPU power, it will render
>these things. And by the time you
>need to output to tape, or wish to
>view a part of the timeline, it is
>rendered and plays back without
>additional rendering or previewing,
>like we know it now. It makes
>performance (opening windows, dragging >windows, ...) a bit slower, but
>this is still beta, and it still
>works very well.

>Firewire deck control is there
>too, timecode is preserved. The
>DHR1000 used to preroll 17s before
>capturing, and jogged frame by frame
>the last second before the actual
>in-point. But that's more deck
>related than Avid or software
>related. This happened no matter
>what preroll you set in the Avid
>software. For the rest it was very >responsive. You choose which machine >controller you want to use. Avid
>has allways an RS422 controller
>built in, so you should be able
>to connect a Beta deck over the
>DV deck's inputs and capture Beta
>that way. TC is brought in over
>RS422 in that case.

>You can add voice overs straight
>away. Just call up the voice
>record window, select to which
>audio track you wish to record it
>and record the voice over. While
>recording, the timeline plays the
>video and audio already there,
>from the place you did start
>recording. This makes it easy
>to add markers for later volume
>adjustments and for your narrator
>to see and hear what he's adding
>a voicetrack to. All the AVX
>(Avid's plugin system) are
>supported too: BorisFX, Digidesign
>(high end audio post production
>tool), ... You name it, it's
>supported.

>Also, OMF (Open Media Format)
>is fully implemented. OMF is
>the excahnge format in the whole
>Avid line (Mac/PC independant,
>and cross compatible). It's a
>bit like AV, but much more than
>that. It incorporates EDL's, added
>graphics and titles, music, ...
>media in 1 word. Benefit is that
>you can eg. take out the
>harddisk of 1 system, take to
>an audio workstation, insert
>it, and do your audio post
>production. Or, you can output
>an OMF file without the video
>and audio. This gives you a file
>with all the EDL data
>(including effects, title- and >transitions/filter and position
>info) and take this to a higher
>end Avid Media Composer and
>conform everything there, from
>the original DV tapes or a Beta
>dub with identical TC. All
>titles and effects and graphics
>you had on your system are
>included and will be preserved
>and on the same place in the
>online edit. Or you can network
>it together in a bigger environment
>and excahnge files between
>different workstations.

>All this is the Version 1 software,
>and is still in beta. Release is
>due shortly. It will be sold, in
>this first incarnation, as a turnkey >solution by IBM or Avid. That's not >determined yet. The current price
>is 8900 USD, with a 18GIG SCSI
>LVD disk. But, probably by the
>time it's shipping, IBM will have
>new motherboards for this, without
>onboard SCSI and they will be using
>IDE disks by then. This should
>bring the price down, or give more
>storage.

>But THE great news I got confirmed
>was that this IBM deal ends in
>April 2000. Avid is planning to
>release the updated (what will be
>updated they don't know yet) Version
>2 software only version as a stand
>alone product for current Raptor
>owners. They will make a 'this
>hardware is guaranteed to work
>with it' list available by then.

>That would add a very great piece
>of software to the list that's
>allready Raptor compatible. After
>Media Studio Pro, Premiere 5.1 and >Raptoredit, is now Avid Xpress
>software following. And that's a
>really great asset in my book.
>This opens a lot of doors. I know
>in the area I work in a lot of
>producers who don't consider you
>a serious editor unless you work
>on/own an Avid. This software
>release would open a lot of doors!

>But it will not come cheap. I dare
>to guess it will be at least 2000
>USD! This is a very professional
>piece of software. It is designed
>from the ground up wuth the editor
>in mind. Avid is the market leader
>and trend setter in the broadcast
>and professional editing world,
>when NLE is considered. They are
>in this business for over 10 years
>now, from the very first time that
>video on a Mac became possible.
>Avid is the company to consider
>when in the market for a
>professional NLE system. Now they
>are coming down to the lower end,
>the videographers. They added
>PC/NT to their productline, and
>have embraced the DVRaptor. Let's
>hope that Canopus develops a
>DVRaptorRT soon, and that it will
>be supported by avid too. Or maybe
>they are going to come out with
>an Avid version or the RexRT!
>That would be a killer.

>BTW, I mentioned to this rep.
>taht Canopus is thinking about a >RaptorRT. 'Yes, I know!', was his
>answer, with a very mysterious
>grin on his face!

>Way to go!

>For more info, descriptions,
>links screenshots and democlips
>(they show the interface at work!),
>see:

http://www.avid.com/avidxpressdv/index.html

>Jan De Wever - Leuven, Belgium
>Anyvision Media Services



[This message has been edited by Jerry Jones (edited 18 November 1999).]