New products at NAB...........................................
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DVD, Apple, Adobe Dominate New Product Announcements at NAB '98
The annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) exposition in Las Vegas has turned into a hotbed of DVD-related announcements, and the 1998 show did not disappoint. If the new products are any indication, DVD is going corporate in a big way. NAB was also the setting for several other significant announcements, including the shipment of Adobe Premiere 5.0 and Apple's long-awaited QuickTime 3.0.
Sonic Solutions announced details of the next version of DVD Creator, its workstation-based DVD production system. New features include Divx support; seamless file import from Media 100 and Avid systems; and direct-to-disk, D1 compatibility. The product also boasts improvements in MPEG-2 encoding, multiplexing, and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound encoding. Pricing starts at $99,000 for a basic configuration.
Addressing the corporate market for DVD, Sonic Solutions announced the Desktop DVD production system. Available for both Macintosh and Windows NT systems, Desktop DVD includes DVD-Video authoring, MPEG-2 and AC-3 compression, final product proofing, and disc formatting for both DVD-Video and DVD-ROM. The Macintosh version has a suggested retail price of $39,999, as does the NT software (scheduled for July 1998 availability).
Daikin moved to further stratify the DVD encoding market with the Scenarist NT product family, which includes Scenarist NT Professional, Scenarist NT Advanced, and Scenarist NT Basic. Targeted at the entertainment industry or service bureaus, Professional addresses all relevant DVD encoding features, while Basic, aimed at corporate and kiosk developers, provides the ability to create only simple DVD titles. The Advanced product, targeted at DVD developers and publishers, sits in the middle in both feature set and price.
This multilevel product strategy struck a chord with DVD workstation producers, enabling several to offer a range of products starting at entry-level pricing. For example, FutureTel announced Crescendo, a family of upgradable DVD encoding systems built around Scenarist NT. Prices start at $21,300 for the "Basic Choice" for an entry-level system to $62,000 for the "Professional Choice," with full multiple pass Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MPEG-2 encoding and hardware AC-3 encoding, but no DVD emulation. FutureTel also inked a deal with DVD replicator Cinram U.S. Holdings, enabling Crescendo owners to send DVD program information and data to Cinram on Exabyte tapes-a much cheaper option than DVD-R or DLT tape.
Similarly, Minerva released Scenarist NT-based DVD-Professional EL, SL, and XL, priced at $49,995, $99,995, and $169,995, respectively. While Optibase plans to support Daikin's various products, they have no pricing or availability information, although they announced that DVD Fab!, based on Daikin's current Scenarist NT, began shipping in June 1998 at approximately $100,000 for a fully configured system.
Also on the scene in Las Vegas was Intec America, with DVDAuthorQuick 1.0, a Windows 95 program designed for corporate applications like kiosks, presentations, and training. Intec was also showing Windows NT-based Version 1.5, which adds Karaoke output and support for multiple language tracks and subtitles. The products list for $9,995 and $12,500, respectively, which doesn't include MPEG-2 or AC-3 encoders.
On the software-encoding front, HEURIS announced the shipment of MPEG Power Professional-DVD, a $3,500 MPEG-2 encoder. The product works with a number of standalone third-party AC-3 audio solutions and includes a multiplexor to combine the two streams. Power Professional runs on PowerPCs (MacOS 7.5 or later), and Intel Pentium and DEC Alpha systems (Windows 95 or NT), and accepts OMFI (Avid Media Composer), QuickTime MOV, and AVI files.
As most producers recall from the early MPEG-1 days, the lack of even simple cut-and-paste editing complicated production immeasurably. VITEC Multimedia, one of the first out with an MPEG-1 video editor, aims to help DVD producers avoid similar problems with MPEG-2 files with VideoClip MPEG-2, a software-only, frame-accurate cut-and-paste
editor with titling capabilities. Shipping now, the product retails for $1,300. NAB also saw some interesting MPEG-2 silicon announcements. Seeking to challenge C-Cube's hold on the MPEG-2 encoding silicon market, Israel-based VisionTech announced its single-chip MPEG-2 encoder and its first partnership for the product, with Sun Microsystems. VisionTech claims its technology will allow high-volume OEMs to build an MPEG-2 encoder for under $400, and was marketing a standalone MPEG-2 encoder/reference board for $3,995.
Of course, C-Cube wasn't sitting still. At NAB, the company announced three new chips. Targeted at the professional MPEG-2 encoding market, the Dvxpert 6110 includes both 4:2:2 encoding and dual-stream decoding on a single chip.
Seeking to expand the MPEG-2 market into non-linear editing, C-Cube introduced two single-chip MPEG-2 encoders/decoders, the DVxpress 7110 and 7112, both with frame-accurate MPEG editing. DVxpress 7110 offers 4:2:0 chroma sampling and is targeted at prosumer (high-end consumer) desktop-editing applications. The DVxpress 7112 offers 4:2:2 chroma sampling and the ability to output two video streams at 50Mbps each, and is targeted at professional and studio editing applications.
Both FAST Multimedia and Pinnacle Systems announced their intent to release Divx-based products, but prices or configurations were not announced. However, sources at C-Cube have consistently advised the media to expect consumer-level MPEG-2 encoder/decoder solutions in the sub-$300 range by early 1999.
The non-DVD/MPEG-2 arena was dominated by two announcements: Apple with the release of QuickTime 3.0, and Adobe with the announcement of Premiere 5.0. Shipping on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms simultaneously, QuickTime provides a number of lower-level services like transitions and other effects that make it easy for developers to ship products on both platforms. The new version also debuts AVI support on the Macintosh platform, simplifying cross-platform title development.
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