1/30/07 Santa Monica, CA Today, Grass Valley at their media summit has announced several key updates for EDIUS 4.1 and they introduced ProCoder 3.0 as well. First, the key updates for EDIUS include a new trimmer interface that draws upon more professional style clip trimmers allowing the user to pull/push in/out points in the preview window. This action will display your program timecode as well as the original clip timecode on both the out and in frames between clips. This allows for a much more simplified way of trimming up clips in your timeline without having to interface with each clip's in/out point individually. It should save EDIUS editors a bundle of time while still allowing precise control. Also, the latest update includes project sequences to be nested within each other, a feature we've seen in other NLEs, but a first for EDIUS. ProCoder 3.0 was also touched upon in their afternoon breakout discussion. This version will decode AVCHD footage to their HQ proprietary codec. There was no answer whether or not ProCoder 3.0 or later versions would support transcoding AVCHD to another, more flexible codec for use in other NLEs, but we were told that we'd find out soon. These presentations were good, but lacked some of the more technical issues we were after. Version 3.0 will also support multiple CPU MPEG-2 TS encoding of HD signals allowing users of multiple core processors (i.e., Intel Core 2 Duo) the added peformance they need. ProCoder 3.0 will be available as a standalone version priced at $499, or for upgrade or education use at $199. Later this afternoon, Craig van Horne of Scorched Ice Digital will be sharing with us a little bit about his tapeless work flow using P2 media and the Grass Valley REV Pro. We hope we can report on this later. UPDATE: Craig discussed his workflow briefly, which is by no means is revolutionary, as incorporating the REV Pro as medium for not only acquisition, but archival, playback and delivery. With REV Pro, Craig is able to take captures from his P2 media and back-up that footage quickly on a 30 GB disk using a laptop and the REV Pro drive. He then can archive that footage or use the disk as a playback source (either from the drive itself or simply putting the file back on a hard drive). Lastly, with Grass Valley TURBO he can then send the REV Pro disk as a deliverable, although, he admits there are not too many clients demanding REV Pro disks as a devlierable format (or medium). Nonetheless, the REV Pro got a lot of play during the panel's discussion and it seems to be helping Craig out by saving him a great deal of cash, both in media costs and by eliminating the need to rent a professional HD deck. So, we're naturally excited about it, too, and we're highly anticipating the arrival of the REV Pro 70 GB disks.
