Video News

I managed to wake up at 3AM (that’s three hours earlier than usual for me) to get on a plane to make my way here to Ontario for the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. A very smooth trip with a not-too-full airplane. The show floor has quite a few names that I’ve heard of, and many more that I need to learn more about. It should be a fun-filled day today for sure.

I’ll be sure to give you all a full wrap on Monday, and we’ll also have some video from the show on an upcoming Vidcast.

Reprinted from a 2b Media press release:

2b Media launch new royalty free music download site.

2b Media Services have just launched their new download site for royalty-free music:www.2b-royaltyfree.com - ideal for use in multimedia productions. The material covers all genres as well as sound effects with lots of original content. Their flexible search facility makes it easy to find the right music whatever your needs. You can preview and purchase tracks on-line. Prices start from $4 for downloads with CD collections also available.

2b have recently completed commissions for ITV1’s ‘Haunted Homes’ and Channel 4’s new international football magazine show ‘Goalissimo’ in the UK.

We’re happy to report that Amanda Congdon is back on the Net with Amanda Across America, which is being hosted online by Blip.tv. She will be producing the show daily with only a video camera and an Internet connection, and the project has gotten some impressive sponsorships (National Resources Defense Council, Envionmental Countdown and Ford Motor Company) to make it all happen. The show will take place over the course of five weeks, taking Amanda from New York to LA.

Welcome back to the Internet, Amanda! We’ve missed you…

Disc Makers has announced that its complete line of automated duplication systems will now be Mac compatible. So if you’re a Mac user looking for an automated disc publisher, such as the Pico ($699, see our review here), now there’s more solutions available. Thanks, Disc Makers.

Last week, Apple unveiled plans that included making it easier to bring online video content into the living room. The temporally named, iTV will let people stream video content from their computers to their TVs. However, there was no mention of this device including a hard drive. That additional bit of news came from Disney President Bob Iger earlier this week as he addressed reporters at a New York Conference. While the iTV is not set for release anytime soon, it appears Apple is vying for a bigger piece of the PVR pie.

Reprinted from an Avid press release:

Avid Technology, Inc. today announced that its Consumer division, Pinnacle Systems, Inc., is unveiling several new products. The additions include the Pinnacle Studio MovieBox and Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard families, both of which allow consumers to preserve analog video content in digital format and easily create movies for sharing via DVD, the Web or Podcasting. The company has also introduced two new TV viewing products - Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick and Pinnacle PCTV MCE Companion - for those who want to watch TV remotely on their personal computers or integrate their TV viewing experience with Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition (MCE).

“Building on the success we started in 1997 as the first company to offer video editing products to consumers, Pinnacle has also been leveraging its expertise for the past decade in the TV viewing space.
The trends we are seeing in video editing and mobile television today validate what we have been working toward all along,” said Jeff Hastings, Pinnacle general manager and Avid vice president. “With a broad range of tools for digitizing analog content, editing in HD, viewing television remotely, or offering easy-to-use products for the rapidly expanding web video market, Pinnacle offers the right mix of solutions for anyone interested in enjoying media whenever and wherever they like.”

Preserving Analog Videos and Creating Movies for the Web
Legendary ease-of-use and complete editing tools have made Pinnacle Studio the editing application of choice around the globe for preserving and enhancing memories. In fact, according to The NPD Group, Pinnacle Studio is number one in the consumer video editing software market, based on U.S. retail unit and dollar sales from January through June 2006. And likewise in Europe, based on GfK data covering sales within the PC video editing software market, Pinnacle Studio ranks number one in a cumulative total of three European countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom) from July 2005 through June 2006.

The new Pinnacle Studio MovieBox and Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard families are poised to bolster Pinnacle’s success even further. They are all-in-one hardware and software solutions that offer an easy way for users to preserve analog tapes, and work with the latest formats to create videos for sharing on DVD, on the web, social networking sites, or through video Podcasts. Advanced video editors who aspire to take their movies to a new level can benefit from additional features including advanced effects, a professional microphone kit and Chroma Key green screen backdrop.

Watching Full Digital and HD TV on a PC and On the Go
The PC TV Tuner market is steadily growing in Germany, France and the U.K. with 42 percent market growth in units sold from May 2005 to May 2006. The U.S. market, although smaller, is catching up with approximately 15 percent growth in units sold since July 2005. As demand continues, Pinnacle is well positioned to capitalize on this trend with its newest Pinnacle PCTV products.

The Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick offers a compact and portable, yet highly powerful TV viewing solution. With both a mini remote and telescopic antenna, the product enables laptop users to enjoy analog and high-quality digital television in both HD and standard definition anywhere without additional service fees. The product also provides comprehensive digital video recorder functionality and the ability to save TV shows direct-to-DVD, DivX, iPod and Sony PSP formats.

A second new product, Pinnacle PCTV MCE Companion, is an essential entertainment upgrade kit for Microsoft Windows MCE PCs, which currently account for more than 50 percent of the PCs sold to consumers in the U.S. market. This new product turns an MCE PC into a TV with fully functional DVR capabilities, offering an MCE tuner and compatible remote and an IR receiver to control set-top boxes.

Pricing and Availability
The new Pinnacle Studio and Pinnacle PCTV products are expected to be available starting in October. Consumers can purchase these products through the Pinnacle Systems website (www.pinnaclesys.com), at major retailers, such as Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Fry’s Electronics, and also at e-tailers such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, Dell.com and TigerDirect.com. USMSRP for each product is:

• Pinnacle Studio MovieBox USB - $99 and Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Plus USB - $149
• Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard PCI - $79 and Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard Plus PCI - $149
• Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick - $129.99 and Pinnacle PCTV MCE Companion - $99.99

Sony’s Business Solutions & Systems division has just announced the HVR-V1U, a camcorder which adds 1080/24p scanning, 2 XLR inputs, DVCAM recording, timecode syncronization via the FireWire port and native support for the HVR-DR60 hard disk recorder ($1,800) to the already long list of features of the HDR-FX7 recently announced in this blog.  http://www.videomaker.com/blog/2006/09/128-new-sony-fx7-announced
The V1U will retail for $4,800.

Canon recently updated the HV10’s page on their website. Most major retailers have the device in stock, going around $1300 on the streets. We can’t wait to get this in for review. Canon, did you hear that? We really can’t wait.

We’ll let you know when this one shows up at our front door.

Adobe Systems just announced the winners of its 6th annual 2006 Adobe Design Achievement Awards, giving honors to outstanding student designs.  There were more than 1800 student entries from around the globe that competed in nine categories, such as animation, live action and motion graphics.  After speaking with an Adobe representative, we’ve been able to secure a few winning clips and will be featuring at least one of these winners on our Vidcast’s Take 20 segment in the next few weeks, so check it out.