Canopus Announces HDV Turnkey Systems


Reprinted from a Canopus press release:

Canopus Corporation, a recognized leader in realtime video editing technology, today announced a line of EDIUS SP Workstations built on the company’s new EDIUS SP for HDV video editing solution that captures and outputs HD video over FireWire. The new EDIUS SP Workstations provide an affordable transition for post-production facilities to move from SD to the world of HD video. To help editors with the transition from SD to HD, EDIUS SP Workstations edit SD content, such as DV, in HD resolution while providing realtime output to HDTV monitors using the onboard HD component output. EDIUS SP Workstations provide high quality, realtime up-conversion from SD to HD video with all project titles, graphics and effects performed in HD resolution.

EDIUS SP professional workstations deliver native editing and unmatched realtime processing of HDV, DV, uncompressed SD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 formats. In addition, Canopus is offering EDIUS SP Workstation customers the Canopus Codec Option Pack, which includes the DVCPRO HD software codec to provide full native DVCPRO HD (SMPTE 370M) compliance, so editors can capture and output native DVCPRO HD and DVCPRO 50 content over FireWire.

“Building a system with the power and stability to handle the demands of realtime native HDV editing and output is no simple task,” said Robert Sharp, general manager at Canopus. “With EDIUS SP Workstations Canopus is making the move to HD not only affordable, but much easier for video professionals. These workstations are optimized to deliver the best performance, as well as stability, so editors can focus on their video projects and not the computer.”

In addition to support for native editing of HDV clips in their original MPEG-2 format, EDIUS SP Workstations let users edit by way of Canopus’s variable-bitrate HQ codec for increased quality and realtime performance. EDIUS SP Workstations can transparently capture to the Canopus HQ codec, using intra-field coding with 4:2:2 sampling, to provide better-than-HDV quality and significantly increase realtime editing performance.

Powering EDIUS SP Workstations are the impressive dual Intel Xeon processors In addition, EDIUS SP Workstations include the Canopus EDIUS SP for HDV 64-bit PCI video capture card that provides hardware acceleration for realtime editing and video output performance, as well as sophisticated hardware line-scaling to expand the edited HDV 1440 samples per line to 1080i’s 1920 resolution for output. By having the EDIUS SP for HDV hardware accelerator handle this processor-intensive task instead of the PC’s CPU, editors gain improved realtime performance and output quality.

EDIUS SP Workstations provides high-quality video I/O, including FireWire for HDV and DV, as well as component, composite and S-Video connectors. Designed to seamlessly integrate into existing studio environments, EDIUS SP Workstations feature complete support for BetaCam SP with component video and balanced audio input/output, as well as frame-accurate RS-422 VTR control and external reference sync input connections.

At the heart of the EDIUS SP Workstations is EDIUS Pro 3, Canopus’s powerful nonlinear editing software. EDIUS Pro 3 redefines video production efficiency by providing a seamless workflow with realtime, multi-track, mixed format HD/SD editing, compositing, chroma keying, titling and timeline output capabilities. EDIUS Pro 3 is designed for maximum performance and supports realtime output of multiple video tracks, effects, and graphics and title layers.

EDIUS Pro 3 seamlessly edits any mix of HDV, DV, uncompressed, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 video in realtime. Conversions between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, as well as up-conversion and down-conversion between SD and HD, are processed in realtime, further streamlining the production workflow.

EDIUS SP Workstations feature the much-admired Canopus ADVC functionality to provide realtime bidirectional analog/DV conversion and capture, as well as direct deck control with AV/C to RS-422 control conversion to provide analog VTR control from within any Windows-based NLE by making the analog deck appear as a DV deck to the system.

Canopus is including Inscriber TitleMotion Pro for Canopus for professional, broadcast-quality titles with realtime preview and playback during composition, as well as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro. EDIUS SP Workstations also include a convenient breakout box that brings all input and output connections to a 1U 19-inch rackmount space, making it easy to integrate the workstation into existing production workflows.

Canopus Codec Option Pack
Canopus is offering EDIUS SP Workstation users the Canopus Codec Option Pack for $999. The Codec Option Pack includes the DVCPRO 50 and new DVCPRO HD software NLE codecs. Developed in collaboration with Panasonic, the Canopus DVCPRO HD codec provides high-quality HD video and unrivaled realtime HD nonlinear editing performance, with full native DVCPRO HD (SMPTE 370M) compliance The Canopus Codec Option Pack supports direct lossless HD capture and print-to-tape functions with the Panasonic DVCPRO HD VTR (AJ-HD1200A) in native 1080/60i/50i via EDIUS SP Workstation onboard FireWire connector. The Canopus Codec Option Pack will also allow for the direct import of DVCPRO HD QuickTime .MOV files into EDIUS Pro.

Another convenient option for EDIUS SP Workstation customers is the Canopus Video-out Plug-in Option that allows SD/HD analog component output for Alias Maya 6, Bauhaus Mirage 1.2, Discreet 3D Studio Max 7 and Combustion, and NewTek’s LightWave 3D 8. The Canopus Video-out Plug-in is priced at $499.

Product Availability and Pricing
The following EDIUS SP Workstation configurations will be available in December 2004 from Canopus and its authorized resellers and system integrators.

The EDIUS SP Workstation 300 will be available from Canopus for $7999.99 and includes the Canopus EDIUS SP for HDV video capture card, dual 3.2GHz Intel Xeon processors (800MHz front-side bus, 1MB cache), 2GB DDR2 memory, 160GB SATA removable system drive, 2x200GB SATA video drives, SIIG PCI-to-SATA RAID card, NVIDIA NVIDIA GeForce 6600 128MB PCI-express video card, Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 sound card, Sony DW-D22A B2 16x DVDR/RW drive, ADS PYRO 3-port FireWire card, 10/100/1000 network adapter, and a Logitech keyboard/wireless optical mouse.

The EDIUS SP Workstation 500 will be available from Canopus for $8999.99 and includes the system elements mentioned above, except it features the faster dual 3.4GHz Intel Xeon processors (800MHz front-side bus, 1MB cache) and additional memory for a total of 2GB of DDR2 memory. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.canopus.com.

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