Jon Pepper
Powerful desktop computers combined with new video-editing programs are delivering professional video-editing capabilities to the PC, Mac, and Power Mac platforms. These new video-editing programs with hardware can replace analog editing systems that can cost as much as $100,000.
Of particular note is
Premiere 4.0
from Adobe, a professional-level program that can create and edit video, film, and CD-ROM movies. Premiere's status as either a replacement for--or a complement to--more expensive video-editing packages, such as Avid Technology's (Tewksbury, MA) turnkey Media Suite Pro and Data Translation's (Marlborough, MA) Media 100, will depend on your production needs, budget, and willingness to mix and match products and technical support from different vend
ors.
The Windows and Mac versions of Premiere 4.0 have many new features that will appeal to the video professional. Among these are support for SMPTE time code, movie capture and creation at the true NTSC rate of 29.97 frames per second, EDLs (Edit Decision Lists), batch digitization of analog video clips, batch movie compilation, support for up to 99 video and 99 audio tracks, and the ability to create custom effects and custom filters.
Premiere's nonlinear video-editing tools make the PC and Mac more flexible than analog video-editing tools, but it can take even a Power Mac or a Pentium-class machine several hours to render a complex special effect in a digital movie and then transfer it to videotape. Premiere 4.0 lets you preview your preliminary video construction in real time, but not the movie's special effects and transitions, which you still have to render.
Premiere 4.0's ability to read SMPTE time-code numbers lets you create an EDL that you take, along with your source videotap
es, to a post-production studio. In the studio, the movie's various elements are combined to create a high-quality analog movie that you've already designed in Premiere. The package's support of the major industry EDL formats from such companies as CMX, Grass Valley, and Sony, combines the best of analog and digital editing.
Premiere's new capabilities, combined with improvements to its interface, make the program a formidable competitor in the video world, according to analysts and video professionals. However, some video directors will opt for more integrated products for the Macintosh, such as Media Suite Pro and Media 100, or Fast Electronic's (Redwood City, CA) Video Machine for the PC.
For example, Elizabeth Coker, who creates corporate training and other videos for Fortune 500 companies at the Tennessee Industrial Training Service, says she likes the approach that Avid takes with Media Suite Pro. Avid certifies its products' capture boards, specially modified Micropolis hard drives, sound
boards, and SCSI-2 controllers to ensure the creation of high-resolution, frame-accurate videotape movies with synchronized audio and CD-quality sound. She also likes the fact that all her technical-support concerns are handled by just one company and that she can upgrade Media Suite Pro to Avid's top-level video-composing products.
Avid says it will release a Windows version of Media Suite Pro early this year. Premiere's low price ($495 for the forthcoming Windows version; $795 for the Mac version) is attractive, but the program requiresyou to mix and match video-capture and audio-compression boards with high-performance, high-capacity hard drives.
Several video producers that we interviewed said that if you can afford it, you should get one of the higher-end products, such as Media Suite Pro. However, if you don't mind mixing, matching, and verifying different hardware and software components, Premiere 4.0 can deliver professional video less expensively.
Contact Informatio
n
Media 100
Prices for this hardware/software digital-video package for creating broadcast-quality video on the Mac start at $8995. Data Translation, (508) 460-1600 ext. 100.
Media Suite Pro
This integrated digital-video editing system for the Mac (a Windows version is slated for spring) starts at $9995. Avid Technology, (800) 949-2843 or (508) 460-1600.
Video Machine
Video Machine for the PC is a complete desktop video-editing suite ($3995); the $6995 Digital Player-Recorder add-on board offers simultaneous linear and nonlinear broadcast-quality-video editing. Fast Electronic, (415) 802-0772.
Adobe Premiere 4.0
The Mac/Power Mac version costs $795; the Windows version costs $495 through February 15, $695 thereafter. Adobe, (800) 833-6687 or (415) 961-4400.
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Premiere 4.0 for Windows' support for EDLs, SMPTE time code, 99 video and 99 audio layers, and other features make it a contender in the professional world of desktop video production.
Professional Video Prices Drop
