Roxio today introduced the HD QuickStart software for high-definition title production and the CineVision 2.5 high-definition encoding platform.
The Sonic HD QuickStart Program consists of special versions of Scenarist and CineVision, the company's professional authoring and encoding applications, as well as educational white papers that cover all aspects of the new formats and a range of informative live and web-based training and support services. The program finally addresses the needs of non-studio-aligned post production facilities, independent videographers, and film makers.
The Sonic HD QuickStart Program offers packages for HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc title creation. The HD DVD package includes a wide range of features for creating interactive feature programming that takes full advantage of the format's Advanced Content mode. These features allow authors to overlay rich menus on the main video program, include picture-in-picture elements, and even incorporate Web-enabled content that can be accessed by viewers using an HD DVD player's Ethernet port. The BD package is tailored for the creation of Blu-ray Disc HDMV titles with fine-tuning controls over BD player functions and a built-in interactive graphics effects editor.
Both packages include Sonic's CineVision encoding platform that provides cinema-quality MPEG-2 HD stream creation, tools for segment-based re-encoding, and support for Constant Bit Rate, Variable Bit Rate, and Constant Quality VBR encode styles. CineVision also offers ExpressQC segment-marking functionality, which significantly improves quality control efficiency.
Sonic Solutions also today unveiled CineVision 2.5, a significant upgrade to the company's high-definition encoding platform. The encoder supports AVC, VC-1, and MPEG-2 stream creation in one system. The latest version introduces a list of powerful technical enhancements including an expanded image processing filter-set from tools provider Digital Vision, extensive adaptive-quantization controls, an accelerated first-pass encoding mode that reduces encoding times by as much as 25%, and greater parameter accessibility for segment re-encoding. Also new with CineVision 2.5 is the debut of CineVision SD which offers powerful image control for encoding standard definition MPEG-2 for the DVD-Video format.
CineVision 2.5 is capable of outputting format-compliant streams for both BD and HD DVD from a single encode and workstation, providing a significant productivity boost by cutting encode time and cost by 50% for dual-format releases. CineVision enables fine-tuning by re-encoding individual segments with optimized parameters, and supports switching between multiple re-encoded versions so the compressionist may select a favorite. CineVision also provides a post-encode QC toolset with professional features such as HD-SDI output to professional monitors, and a timeline-based display of encode information.
CineVision 2.5 will be available later this month through Sonic's resale channels worldwide, and is being demonstrated at IBC (Stand 7.730), September 7th to the 11th, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.