For those who love Canon's XL H1 HD camcorder but want to avoid videotape, Focus Enhancements now offers two new portable disk recorders, called the FireStore FS-C series, that mount on the back of the camera. The FS-C HD60 (60 GB capacity, 4 1/2 hours of 1080i HD record time) and FS-C HD100 (100 GB, 7 1/2 hours) let videographers record direct nonlinear HDV or DV (25 Mbps) streams via FireWire, with or without a tape inserted in the camcorder. When in HD mode, footage is recorded as an .m2t file that is compatible with most HD editing software. ... »
Viewers watching programs on large home-theater displays are more likely to notice annoying lip-sync errors. Caused when synchronization is lost between audio and video signals, the problem has become more acute in sophisticated production environments with heavy signal processing.... »
Christie reports that its CP2000 DLP Cinema projector, introduced in March 2003, still continues to gain traction with post houses in the U.S. and overseas. Two more studios, Santa Maria, CA’s CafeFX and Los Angeles’ PlasterCITY, have both recently added the projector to their respective studios. ... »
AMD has recently been crusading for what some might think an unusual cause for a processing company—a grass roots movement within the music industry.
Before The Music Dies is an up-coming documentary by indie filmmakers Joel Rasmussen and Andrew Shapter that takes a hard look at the current state of the music industry, where it’s going and the role technology is playing. AMD relates to the film’s powerful message.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer sequel starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, received its digital premiere on June 24 at Disneyland, in Aneheim, California.... »
Proavio burst onto the scene two years ago with a line of low-cost disk arrays aimed at storing up the high-res video caches of growing digital media production facilities.... »
SGI today announced Altix XE, a new line of Linux-based servers and preconfigured clusters using Intel Xeon processors, as well as a new render-management system that integrates the Qube! System from PipelineFX.... »
Apple today announced the delivery of its compositing software Shake 4.1, but new features in this update are not the story, but rather the drastic price reduction - from $2,999 to $499 - makes this high-end compositing software available to virtually anyone. ... »
What to do if an effects shot requires a motion control system but you don't have the time or money to spend on a complex, expensive motion control system? ... »
The portable direct-to-edit disk recorder line from Focus Enhancements will support Canon's XL H1 HD camcorder next month, when the company ships the new FS-C HD60 and FS-C HD100 models.... »
Sailing on the horizon is the possibility for content creators and Web sites to join together via an intermediary to make money through Internet syndication. ... »
WGBH became a beta tester of Avid's new Symphony Nitris system as the first step in moving some of their programs to high-definition in 2007. Tim Mangini, broadcast director of FRONTLINE, oversees the Outpost, a facility that posts FRONTLINE and other client projects (usually documentaries). Mangini's Avid Symphony editors took the WGBH system for a test drive, and the Outpost ended up buying three. We talked to Mangini about the Symphony Nitris, HD delivery formats, and building a new post workflow.... »
Making further inroads into the Professional AV market, Grass Valley extends its Pro AV Line by announcing the addition of the new Indigo AV Mixer. Borrowing features, functionality and technology from its own already established lines of switchers and mixers (the Kayak, for one) for the broadcast market, Indigo combines mixing, switching, dissolves and keying capabilities along with built-in 2D and 3D effects.... »
It has been said here and there, that FMX is Europe’s answer to SIGGRAPH. Don’t believe it. FMX stands on it’s own as Europe’s biggest and broadest, most forward looking digital animation conference, with its own agenda and unique identity. ... »
Enamored of the super-compressed output from a Sony DSC-T1 digital still camera, director Jason Reitman blew it up to 35mm for Thank You For Smoking. We asked (via email) why he did it, and how his editors handled the task.... »
