Panasonic Debuts New Turnkey DVD Authoring System
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company (PBTSC) has introduced a new turnkey, one-unit DVD Authoring System, the LQ-VD2000S, providing customers all the hardware and software tools necessary for developing high-quality DVD titles. The integrated, all-in-one LQ-VD2000S runs Windows NT and contains all the functionality to develop DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and Hybrid type discs; disc images can then be transferred to a DVD-R disc or DLT Tape for mastering and replication. A true professional system with unparalleled picture quality, the compact LQ-VD2000S is specifically designed for developers in post-production, interactive media, training, advertising, government and military, and corporate and business. Panasonic is on the leading-edge of DVD technological developments. Earlier this month, PBTSC and its parent Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. were honored with a Technical/Engineering Achievement Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their major contributions to the development of the DVD format. ""The top-end functionality and unparalleled image quality of Panasonic's current DVD Authoring System has made it the premier system,"" said Stuart English, Vice President, Marketing, PBTSC. ""The new LQ-VD2000S is an even more powerful, refined system, delivering an integrated software and hardware solution to rapidly create DVD-Video titles."" English added, ""The Panasonic system also stands ahead of others with our single-pass encoding process, which encodes two hours of MPEG-2 video and audio simultaneously in just two hours!"" The LQ-VD2000S is comprised of this hardware (Windows NT 4.0 workstation, Panasonic MPEG-2 Encoder, LQ-VD300 DVD Emulator, 2-channel AC-3/LPCM Audio Encoder, a DVD Decoder, DVD-RAM Drive, Dual-Channel SCSI card, 18 Gb SCSI hard drive, VTR (RS-422A) Control Card and 16M, dual 32-bit Graphics Card) and this comprehensive software package (includes authoring, extended MPEG-2 video and Dolby AC-3 audio encoding, subtitling, disk-based image creation, emulation and close captioning). The system's MPEG-2 Video Encoder allows the user to optimize the MPEG-2 data, permitting extensive changes to be made to each frame's gamma, modulation activity, quantization, bit rate and filters (horizontal and vertical). The LQ-VD2000S allows developers to take full advantage of the DVD-Video's powerful capabilities in the programming of parental lock, director's cut, seamless branching, seamless multi-angle scenes and full navigation controls. The LQ-VD2000S provides a highly efficient Incremental Re-encoding System, which allows developers to re-encode and re-multiplex only the items that have changed. As an example, if a navigation command is changed, the video and audio do not have to be re-encoded. The LQ-VD300 DVD Emulator is provided for extensive testing and simulation of the DVD-Video Title, permitting quality and performance evaluation of the DVD-Video Title prior to mass production of the DVD discs. (The LQ-VD300 is also offered as a standalone unit.) As part of the comprehensive software package, the LQ-VDS120 Off-Line Software delivers an additional Authoring Seat, allowing developers to define the video and audio segments to be compressed off-line. Development of the various menus, buttons, scenarios and navigation command programming can be accomplished on a separate workstation, and the resulting files can then be transferred to the LQ-VD2000S for video and audio compression and disk image multiplexing. The Off-Line software can be used as a Network Authoring Seat when used in conjunction with the LQ-VD2000S networked with a server. (The LQ-VDS120 functionality is included in the LQ-VD2000S.) The LQ-VD2000S is designed with easy expansion and networking in mind. Additional or upgraded PCs and components can be economically added to the system. The LQ-VD2000S DVD Authoring System is available at a suggested list price of $120,000. The LQ-VD300 DVD Emulator is available as a separate accessory at a suggested list price of $15,000. The LQ-VDS120 Off-Line Software Package is available as a separate product at a suggested list price of $22,500.