Video News

A couple days ago Pinnacle announced it’s HD DVD Pack ($49.95 upgrade MSRP) from it Pinnacle Studio Plus software, which is bundled with the Pinnacle MovieBox/Movie Boards products. This new upgrade will allow users to burn HD DVD content on typical DVD-R (4.7 GB) discs, which allows anyone with a DVD-R burner the ability to burn and deliver HD content.

The HD DVD Pack is capable of doing this because HD DVD players read typical DVD-R discs at three times speed. With a maximum bit rate of 10Mbps on a DVD disc, spinning at 3x, you’ll get a 30Mbps stream. That’s perfectly capable of displaying HD content. When Pinnacle was visiting us several weeks ago they demo’d this feature and the results we’re pleasing. Of course, to really benefit from this feature you’ll need to find an audience that has an HD DVD player (which currently is still a relatively expensive device, about $500), but isn’t it nice to know you can bypass an HD DVD burner for now. We’ll have a review shortly, so stay tuned.

reprinted from a Primera Technology press release:

Primera(r) Announces Lower Pricing on Water-Resistant Media

TuffCoat(TM) with WaterShield(TM) CD-R and DVD-R prices drop by up to 21 percent.

PLYMOUTH, MN, USA (November 29, 2006) - Primera Technology, Inc., the world’s leading developer and manufacturer of CD/DVD duplication and printing equipment, today announced new, lower pricing on its TuffCoat with WaterShield surface media.

As the world’s first water-resistant and smear-resistant inkjet-printable media with a glossy, photo-quality surface, TuffCoat with WaterShield has been reduced by 21 percent for CD-Rs and 13 percent for DVD-Rs.

“TuffCoat with WaterShield surface media is a revolutionary product in our industry,” said Mark D. Strobel, Primera’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Not only are printed images highly water-resistant - in fact, virtually waterproof - but the white, glossy surface produces the best-looking and highest-resolution images possible with any direct-to-disc printing technology. There’s simply nothing else like it.
Now, we’re reducing prices to make it more affordable for everyone.”

Pricing
TuffCoat with WaterShield CD-R media is now priced at $34.95 (MSRP) - a savings of 21 percent per 50-disc spindle.

TuffCoat with WaterShield DVD-R media is now priced at $42.95 (MSRP) - a savings of 13 percent per 50-disc spindle.

All of Primera’s inkjet-based disc duplication and printing equipment supports TuffCoat with WaterShield media, including the Bravo(TM) SE, Bravo II, BravoPro and Bravo XR-Series Disc Publishers as well as the Signature(r)-series inkjet CD/DVD printers.

TuffCoat with WaterShield surface is available now at www.primerastore.com as well as through Primera’s Authorized Resellers and Authorized Distributors in over 80 countries.

If you’re a fan of TuffCoat with WaterShield CD and DVD media, you’ll be excited to know that Primera has discounted the price up to 21% off the original sticker price for CD-Rs and 13% on DVD-Rs. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the TuffCoat discs, they’re basically a higher quality inkjet printable media with a water/smear resistant surface. We have a couple here in the office and it’s safe to say that if you’re looking for glossy looking disc, these will definitely please your clients. Furthermore, if you employ old CD media as coasters, these will perform much better in that area of your life as well. A spindle of 50 CD-Rs are now priced at $34.95 (MSRP) and DVD-Rs at $42.95 (MSRP).

Reprinted from a Pinnacle Systems press release:

Avid Technology, Inc. today announced that its Consumer division, Pinnacle Systems, Inc., has introduced the Pinnacle HD DVD Authoring Pack as the newest feature available within Pinnacle Studio Plus. The HD DVD Authoring Pack enables users to create High-Definition DVD movie discs – complete with HD motion menus – right within the Pinnacle Studio Plus software using current generation, non-HD DVD burners. Once consumers burn HD DVDs of their projects, they can show their home movies on available HD DVD players and HD TVs. The new HD DVD Authoring Pack is available as an add-on for existing Pinnacle Studio Plus customers.

“Given the growing availability and popularity of HD devices, such as camcorders, DVD players, televisions and wide screen monitors, it’s only natural that people who are creating videos in hi-definition want to show their movies to friends in full resolution HD” said Jeff Hastings, Pinnacle Systems general manager. “With our HD DVD Authoring Pack, home video enthusiasts now have an easy and cost-effective authoring tool that allows them to output their beautiful-looking HD projects to a DVD – with just a click of the mouse. It’s a great way for users to finish their video projects and then share them with friends in pristine-quality HD.”

Compelling and Professional-Looking Results
The HD DVD Authoring Pack completes the HD workflow for Pinnacle Studio Plus customers by allowing them to:

• Create HD DVD format movie discs complete with menus, as well as motion menus;
• Blend a combination of HD and SD (standard definition) footage, and still photographs to create stunning HD movies; all SD content is automatically up-sampled to the appropriate HD resolution;
• Use a standard DVD burner to convert HD DVD format discs straight to standard DVD media; and,
• HD DVD discs play on the industry leading Toshiba and new RCA HD DVD players, and display on any HD TV.

Pricing and Availability
Pinnacle Studio Plus customers can download the latest version from the Pinnacle Systems website: www.pinnaclesys.com. Once upgraded or installed, consumers can unlock the Pinnacle HD DVD Authoring Pack for $49.99 USMSRP by clicking on the Activate button to instigate an online transaction the first time the HD DVD option under Make a Disc is selected. From there, customers can download the content pack that contains the Pinnacle Studio Plus HD format menus.

First-time customers can also test Pinnacle Studio home editing software before purchasing by visiting: www.pinnaclesys.com/Studio_Demo/index.html.

Nat Tiffen, founder of the Tiffen Company (1938), passed away peacefully on November 21st. Mr. Tiffen, whose wife, Helen passed away in 2004, is survived by his four children, Ira, Barbara, Sandra and Steven and eleven grandchildren.
Videomaker Magazine would like to express our condolences to the Tiffen family. He was a trailblazer in the film and video industry and an inspiration to us all.

reprinted from a Tiffen press release:

Hauppauge, NY, November 21, 2006 - Steven Tiffen, president of The Tiffen Company, today announced the passing of his father, and company founder, Nat Tiffen. The senior Mr. Tiffen passed away peacefully on November 21st.

The Tiffen Company was founded in 1938 by Nat Tiffen, with brothers, Leo and Sol. Bringing with him a passion to provide professional cinematographers and photographers with new and innovative filter optics, Nat Tiffen became an icon in this industry, many of whose members have acknowledged his inventiveness and creativity to their award winning accomplishments.

In 1984, Mr. Tiffen was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the recipient of a Technical Achievement Award for his company’s filter lamination process. In 1999, he was again recognized, receiving a Scientific and Engineering award. Other notable awards include a Prime Time Emmy for Engineering Excellence presented in 1998.

Mr. Tiffen, whose wife, Helen passed away in 2004, is survived by his four children, Ira, Barbara, Sandra and Steven and eleven grandchildren.

Steven Tiffen said of his father; “He was a great man. And now this great man has peacefully gone to his resting place to be with his beloved Helen, my mother and the love of his life. My father contributed so much to so many people and to the industry he loved and served. He always considered it a privilege to work in an industry he loved, doing what he loved to do. We will forever remember his quiet way along with his great strength and we will forever be grateful for a full life well lived. My family and I want to thank all of you for your thoughts of kindness and your prayers.”

Got a big dinner? Got a few days off? Take the Videomaker Thanksgiving Challenge. Create and edit a short video, less than three minutes long, on the topic: Interesting Things About Leftovers. Upload the video to the online sharing site of your choice, and post the link to the video in our forum at: www.videomaker.com/forums/

Check back through the weekend to see all the entries from your fellow readers, and the Videomaker Staff. The deadline is Nov 27th, 2006.

The winner will receive a free subscription to Videomaker!

I’m in the midst of finding the best software for burning DVDs full of contest entries to give to the judges (er, my Editorial department colleagues.) We ultimately got 181 entries. Drama was our most popular category this year (it’s usually music, but music didn’t fare badly, really.) We actually got one entry with a full Dolby Digital 5.1-channel sound mix–at 448kbps, no less. There were also a pretty decent number of widescreen entries as well. And I had to perform standards conversion on three PAL entries, but this was easier than I expected–the beauty of digital video is that you only have to deal with a bitstream, rather than an analog signal that you have to process with expensive, hard-to-find equipment.

We’re looking forward to watching all of your entries!

As editors of Videomaker Magazine, we see a lot of articles pass our desks. So, in honor of those articles that have proven to be quite helpful (we hope all of them are), we’re bringing them back around on the blog. Here’s one we hope you didn’t miss:

Intro to Genres 

by Morgan Paar

For the beginner this introduction will get you familiar with genres, including prime examples of each theme. If you find yourself on NetFlix trying to decide what to watch, keep this article handy. Enjoy.

reprinted from a Sorenson Media press release:

Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Now Available for Purchase

Latest Version of Sorenson Media’s Award-winning Software is up to 3x Faster and Offers More Formatting Choices, DVD Burning and Enhanced Adobe Flash Capabilities

SALT LAKE CITY (Nov. 16, 2006)—Sorenson Media®, the worldwide leader of video encoding and compression applications for digital video professionals and enthusiasts, today announced the immediate availability of Sorenson Squeeze® 4.5. With Sorenson Squeeze applications, users can easily compress and share videos on CDs, DVDs or over the Web by importing digitized video files, reference movies, or digital camera output and publishing it in any of the leading video production application formats or digital distribution options.

Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Compression Suite, Squeeze 4.5 PowerPack and Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 for Adobe Flash, available for both Macintosh and Windows operating systems, contain new features that boost compression and preprocessing speeds, offer improved H.264 quality, contain new 3GPP and PSP presets for cell phones and Sony’s PSP (Playstation Portable), and new presets for Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Along with providing compression rates two to three times faster than previous versions, scaling up or down between SD and HD is now twice as fast in Sorenson Squeeze 4.5. For Macintosh, Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 now works natively on both PowerPC and Intel-for-Mac using Mac Universal Binary code.

Other enhancements include the ability to burn DVDs and to include a menu within the finished DVD, if desired. Chapters for the DVD menu are created by Sorenson Squeeze. Another new feature allows Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 to read and write metadata input for QuickTime, Windows Media, Flash, Real, MP3 and MP4.

“Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 is fast,” said Hoss Gifford, a Flash developer and beta user. “I encoded a batch of movies with Sorenson Squeeze 4.3 on my top-spec Windows box and they were taking about 45 minutes each. But using Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 on a mid-level Windows box, they only took about 7 minutes each. It was so fast that I thought something may have gone wrong in the encoding, but the .flvs turned out great.”

“We are delighted to present Squeeze 4.5. We believe users will find this new version speeds up encoding, gives them more choices and allows them more flexibility,” said Matt Cupal, president and COO of Sorenson Media. “With Sorenson Squeeze 4.5, both professionals and enthusiasts can quickly encode the highest quality video in a wide variety of formats with an ease of use that is unmatched in its class.”

To see a list of features specific to each Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 product, visit ww.sorensonmedia.com.

Pricing and Availability

Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 is available immediately for electronic download and as a shipped CD starting December 6, 2006. Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Compression Suite costs US $499.00 new; $79.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 4.x, and $229.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 3.x and earlier. Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 PowerPack for Macintosh costs US $799.00 new; and $79.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 4.x. Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 PowerPack for Windows costs US $649.00 new, and $79.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 4.x. Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 for Adobe Flash costs US $249.00 new; $39.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 4.x, and $189.00 as an upgrade to owners of version 3.x and earlier. For more information about purchasing a Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 product, or to find a reseller, call 1.888.767.3676 or visit www.sorensonmedia.com.