Episode 6 is the latest iteration of Telestream’s comprehensive media encoding/compression product, ideal for laptop or desktop users who need to process one job batch of files at a time. Episode Pro 6 adds the punch of more professional encoding formats and the ability to encode two separate file batches simultaneously, ideal for busy production houses working on more than a single job.
Episode and Episode Pro 6
$495.00 and $995.00 respectively,
Intel-based Mac 10.6 or later including Lion 10.7, or Windows 7 systems running QuickTime 7.6.2 or later. Telestream, Inc. www.telestream.net
As if true 64-bit processing of files isn’t enough (available in Mac OSX 10.7 “Lion” and flavors of Windows 7), both systems allow easy clustering of computers to create even faster data pumps.
Those who are familiar with Episode Encoder 5 or 5 Pro or earlier will experience a redesigned interface which expresses the Episode input-output-where do you want it? workflow much more clearly, truly drag and drop, but in a right side Inspector window it provides access to the same array of encoding controls for video and audio bit budgeting, for those who know what they’re doing.
Windows WMV7 and 8 can be processed through Telestream’s Flip4Mac QuickTime component. WM9, WMA and WMA Pro are handled natively. Flash 8 (VP6s/VP6e) remain supported with its ability to hold an alpha channel—for those web page live action-against-white shots of CEO’s and such introducing their product or service. Today, web authors are moving toward HTML 5, which has been in development since 2007, to produce webpage multimedia of all kinds, but Flash remains a standard in many enterprises.
The most important new codec Episode offers in all versions to encode is professional AVC-Intra 50 and 100 Mb/s. Decoding to MXF and MOV formats is available in Episode Pro and the enterprise-scaled Episode Engine. DVCProHD formats are available with a separate QuickTime plug-in. The same for RED 2K files. A new card-based camera format, AVCHD, is now supported—although it appears camera card folder structure is not, so you access the MTS files inside them after copying the folder for each card to hard disk. Still, I dragged 6 MTS files, totaling 6 GB, and outputted these to 35 GB of ProRes422 at very good looking 1920 X 1080 with stereo audio preserved. This is a typical expansion rate for 1080. Dedicated utilities like ClipWrap (www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap) although just about as fast, provide only a limited subset of ProRes422 output and Avid DXnHD output. Episode now offers output to ProRes 4444, the highest end of Apple’s editing codec’s, supported on all Macs where it’s installed, and on Windows in Episode Engine. Episode also maintains the ability to transcode NTSC to PAL video standards.
Episode Pro is the first compression/decompression/transcoding utility I’ve seen with built in File Transfer Protocol (FTP) support. SMB and automatic publishing to YouTube are also offered, all welcome features comprising a robust version 6.
Avid Media Composer 6
$2499.00 retail for Mac OSX 10.7 Lion and Windows 7
Upgrades available for between $299 – $599.
Crossgrade for Final Cut Pro users- $1000.00 discount to 1499.00
www.avid.com
Finally 64-bit tastiness has arrived at the nonlinear editor banquet table, and all users with Mac Pro’s running Lion or PC towers running Windows 7 64-bit version can gorge on it. And the interface has been streamlined, with just a whiff of Windows 1.0 – lean and mean lines around title bars and frames — but more tasteful. Some changes are awesome, some obscure, but the package will please veteran Avid users, those returning to Composer from FCP7, and those in school learning it.
A lot of development work is apparent. Some interesting interface changes appear. The addition of stoplight colors for each window control corner (collapse, expand, close) is simple yet pretty. In – Out marks in the timeline are slimmer and almost timid on some monitors—I vote for a classic option. But the rest of the look is nice: cleaner, more contemporary. Locators are now called “Markers”—where’d they get that? Did anybody ever use the “Brief” bin view? Hope not, it’s gone. Text, Frames and Script view remain, accessible from a popup menu in each bin. Brief view can be made from Custom view. You can collect tool windows into groups by dragging their window tabs, similar to Adobe products. Bins can be aggregated into a single window this way. Workspace customization, which works across dual monitors, is well supported here.
The open timeline trend continues, utilizing increased RAM and processors to play many mixed formats and frame rates in realtime, depending on the power of your tower, without accessory boxes like Nitris and Mojo. For those producing stereoscopic 3D films, Media Composer now carries a robust set of tools for joining, editing, and tweaking clips shot for 3D. For professional colorists, Avid offers Avid Artist Color, requiring a driver for specific control surfaces supported by the system, which provides more intuitive color correction. Taking a page from the Lion-integrated Apple App Store, a fully integrated Avid Marketplace menu appears in version 6 with listings for video and audio plug-ins, media libraries, support and training.
The streamlining is everywhere. The title tool is now a separate application—you just don’t feel it. You invoke it the same way, as a title effect, and use it the same way, but many functions rolled into the main app menu now appear in Avid Title Tool menus.
A lot of tweaking of audio tools and functions show up. There’s a new Set Multichannel Audio dialog to specify channels and voices to be used for clip audio, from single-voice mono to 7.1 eight-channel surround. In the timeline, audio waveforms sport color change for off-project sample rates. If you defined your project with 48K, the waveforms display in black, and off-rate clips like 32K or 44.1 K display in white. MC 6 sports a new Advanced Panner tool for 5.1 and up surround.
I had shot a bunch of Sony HDV footage (that’s right! Tape!) and had already live captured/transcoded it to ProRes full raster HD ready for use in Final Cut Pro 7, but decided I’d load it instead into Media Composer to drive MC6. Using Import I selected clips and they all came in as transcodes to Avid’s flavor of ProRes in the MXF wrapper. For some reason, trying to transcode large batches of clips triggered some exceptions (crashes), but the alternative would be to assign the storage disk as an AMA volume, and I couldn’t use that method—the footage was in a Capture Scratch folder in use by Final Cut Pro. So I had to transcode it a few clips at a time to another volume, into an Avid Mediafiles folder, which, once done, worked just fine. Editing operations really showed off 64-bit snappiness. It is fun to watch Mac Activity Monitor display all cores engaged in playback and rendering. This show will stay in Composer until finished.
This is only a brief view of what’s new in the product—Media Composer 6 is a real feast. It remains a sine qua non cool tool for today’s working editors and students.
Loren S. Miller is a feature documentary and
dramatic editor working coast to coast. He reports for
Imagine News and other venues. Reach him anytime
at techpress@mindspring.com.