June 13 - 5:25am EDT   EditShare this week introduced a software solution that creates a single media file type which can be used in both Avid and Apple Final Cut Pro video editing applications. Used in conjunction with Editshare's Flow Ingest software, the Universal Media File technology allows the seamless acquisition of media in one format, and simultaneous output to multiple other formats. In shared workflow situations, the Universal Media File promises to add a new dimension to work environments by eliminating the need for file conversion, file duplication or the congestion of valuable ingest channels. [full story]

May 22 - 11:20pm EDT   Aero Quartet has released version 3.7 of SimpleMovieX, the lightweight Mac OS X movie editor. Offering a feature set roughly similar to QuickTime Pro, SimpleMovieX extends editing capabilities to other popular video formats AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, the company said. "The main advantage of native editing is speed and quality, since no re-encoding is required to save edited movies." The new version improves support of iTunes library, as movies metadata, languages and artwork are now preserved through editing and saving. It also brings a significant speed increase to editing and chapter tasks. The software offers the ability to split movie into clips, a Batch Converter, ... [full story]

May 1 - 8:15am EDT   Apple on Thursday said that it has no plans discontinue its popular Final Cut software for video editing and post-production, after rumors began circulating at NAB that the company had plans to sell the software. Moving to quash rumors, the company told TVB Europe that the Apple had sold its millionth Final Cut Pro license and that its new Final Cut Server software is the company's latest addition to the product family: "I can categorically state, on the record, that is not the case," said Richard Townhill, Apple's director of marketing for professional video applications. The report also cites research by SCRI noting that Apple took 49 percent of the US professional ... [full story]

April 14 - 12:55am EDT   At NAB Adobe also announced native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in its Premiere Pro CS3 video editing and production software. Premiere Pro delivers a file-based workflow without transcoding or rewrapping, providing a software-only, tapeless High Definition (HD) workflow—from capture to output. Adobe will demonstrating the Sony XDCAM EX editing workflow during The 2008 NAB conference at booth SL3220. [full story]

April 14 - 12:35am EDT   At NAB in Las Vegas, Adobe on Monday launched a new effort for an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files, initiative to define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline workflows an ensure easy archiving and exchange. Built on the company's Digital Negative Specification (DNG) file format for photos, Adobe said it plans to work with a broad coalition of leading camera manufacturers, including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam, and ARRI—along with software vendors, including Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider CineForm—to define the requirements for an open, publicly documented file format that it plans ... [full story]

April 13 - 10:20pm EDT   Telestream on Sunday announced announced its Episode 5.0 encoding software which expands format support to a greater number of specific digital media workflows: the high-performance Episode Engine server software adds input support for RED camera, Cineon and DPX formats and for its core content repurposing to Web and mobile workflows, the entire Episode family adds support for the latest Flash 8, Flash 9 and Blu-ray formats. In addition, for Apple's new Final Cut Server media asset management and workflow automation software, Episode expands format choices beyond QuickTime and brings high-end 10-bit 4:4:4 processing. [full story]

April 10 - 11:05pm EDT   Ahead of next week's NAB conference, Apple on Thursday released its updates to its professional video editing applications with Pro Applications Update 2008-01. The company said that the update, which includes the Apple HDV Codec v1.4 for 4:2:2 support in Final Cut Pro, improves reliability for Apple's professional applications; it is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, Logic Studio, and Shake and includes an update to Final Cut Studio 2.0, including Final Cut Pro 6.0.3, Compressor 3.0.3--both of which address specific customer issues, installation issues, compatibility updates, general performance issues and improves overall stability. ... [full story]

April 10 - 4:10pm EDT   Media 100 on Thursday announced that it will unveil version 12.5 at the NAB 2008 exhibition held in Las Vegas next week. Media 100 v12.5 will feature HDV support for capture through Apple native FireWire and also the ability to input and edit multiple audio tracks. Using Media 100's user-friendly interface, the video editing package allows editors to easily and quickly assemble segments with very high picture quality using 2D/3D compositing features, professional-grade effects tools, and more. The company says that new Media 100 version 12.5 release expands on the systems workflow acquisition options and finishing capabilities with support for HDV formats and multi-channel ... [full story]

April 10 - 10:50am EDT   Red Giant Software has announced it will show five new products at the upcoming NAB convention in Las Vegas, including Trapcode Horizon, Instant HD Pro, Radium Glow, Magic Bullet Steady, and Primatte Keyer Pro 4. Trapcode Horizon is a new plug-in designed specifically for After Effects users doing 3D work. Due in the second quarter of 2008, the plugin is designed to help video editors match the camera with any virtual background, enabling the generation of motion in 3D in a true 3D space. It is priced at $100. [full story]

April 10 - 2:05am EDT   Synthetic Aperture this week announced Test Gear 2.0, a new version of its video and audio monitoring software specifically designed for Adobe After Effects CS3. Expected to be demoed next week at NAB in Las Vegas, Test Gear offers a waveform monitor, vectorscope, and other diagnostic displays that are now fully integrated into After Effects CS3's user interface. Version 2.0 also adds Universal Binary support for Intel-based Macs. Version 2.0 enhances all of the test instruments by adding full support for 32-bit floating-point projects. Test Gear provides motion graphics artists and video editors with a variety of test instruments to make objective measurements of their ... [full story]

April 9 - 11:35pm EDT   Norrkross Software has released version 1.2 of its video editing, compositing and effects application that offers realtime, non-destructive video effects and unlimited layers with transparency compositing. Norrkross Movie 1.2 improves the audio control, user interface and adds a new French localization. The software can be used to edit video in multiple layered tracks, add movie titles, or use the green screen effect. Leveraging a simple user interface that can be used with little or no training, Norrkross Movie can be used to quickly put together a video clip for YouTube or to make an advanced animated multi-track movie. [full story]

March 26 - 8:40pm EDT   Mien Software has released MediaEdit 3 for the Mac, a consumer-level video editing tool, which edits virtually all QuickTime readable formats and supports unlimited layers. The new release adds support for nlimited media layers can add video, audio and text and uses non-destructive editing. I talso sports multiple levels of undo, live previews and background rendering and can capture video and audio. MediaEdit 3 has a timeline, can resize and position clip display region and comes with standard effects, filters and transitions. Completed videos can be exported to QuickTime, DV, MPEG-4 and to the web. [full story]

March 25 - 12:15am EDT   Globalstor Data Corporation today unveiled the ExtremeStor-DI REDe drive array, an addition to its popular line of storage servers designed specifically to offer complete compatibility for RED Digital Video footage. The RAID system is capable of streaming 2K format video at a full 24 frames-per-second across Fibre Channel, to use with a video editing system such as Apple's Final Cut Studio 2. Pricing for the ExtremeStor-DI REDe was not available. [full story]

February 4 - 5:25pm EST   Kinemac today released Kinemac 1.6, an update to the 3D real-time animation and presentation software for Mac OS X. Kinemac plays animations in real-time at full screen, and exports those animations to QuickTime movie files or to a series of single still images. Users simply drag images, text, movies, and songs onto the Kinemac stage. The software supports creating 2D and 3D objects via a menu option, and is priced at $250. [full story]

January 23 - 10:15am EST   Adobe today released several updates to its software applications for professionals, including After Effects, InDesign, and InCopy. The Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional software 8.0.2 update provides Panasonic P2 format support, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard compatibility fixes, Mac OpenGL support for supported video cards under Mac OS X v10.4.10 and v10.5, and other important fixes. The update for its professional video editing solution is 106.3MB and is available online. Adobe also noted that the Adobe InCopy CS3 5.02 update, for its provides key fixes in the areas of character alignment, undo and redo, text and fonts, dictionaries, import/export graphics, and others; ... [full story]