Sonic Introduces DVD Publishing Tools For Avid Digital Editing Systems
Sonic Solutions introduced their Sonic DVD Fusion at the DVD Pro Conference, held this week in San Francisco. The Sonic DVD Fusion is a new solution for seamlessly publishing DVD video from Avid Technology, Inc.ís digital editing systems. Using technology from Sonicís industry-leading DVD Creator system, Sonic DVD Fusion for Avid systems allows for digital transcoding of Avid video and audio files into MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio, provides interactive DVD authoring, and allows for direct recording to DVD-R. According to Paul Henderson, Vice President and General Manager of Avidís Macintosh Products Group, ""We are excited to be working with Sonic Solutions in bringing a complete, end-to-end interactive video publishing system to market."" Henderson continues, ""Our users have been clamoring for DVD output, and Sonic s new DVD Fusion provides them an easy-to-use, inexpensive means of adding this capability."" Sonic DVD Fusion for Avid systems includes software and hardware transcoding technology that enables direct digital encoding of MPEG-2 video from Avid files without the need to lay video content off to tape. This results in high-quality MPEG-2 video and avoids the signal degradation that can occur with multi-step digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion. DVD Fusion also includes Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio encoding, as well as support for uncompressed PCM audio. Sonicís transcoder can function either within an Avid video workstation or across a network. Director of Product Marketing for Sonic Solutions Mark Ely comments, ""The majority of DVD-published content originates on non-linear video editing systems."" Ely explains, ""Sonic DVD Fusion links video editing and DVD publishing with a single, easy-to-use peripheral for Avid workstations."" Sonicís DVD Fusion, based on their DVD Creator technology, gives video producers and editors a comprehensive set of tools for DVD-Video authoring, including drag-and-drop authoring, Multiple audio streams, Complete subtitle support, Integrated DVD title verification, Motion video menus, Real-time proofing, and Direct DVD-R support. The Sonic DVD Fusion is available in two configurations for the Macintosh. First, it comes in a software-based version includes MPEG-2 video transcoding and Dolby Digital audio encoding, compatible with QuickTime video or audio files, for a suggested U.S. list price of $7,999. Also, a hardware-accelerated version speeds MPEG transcoding by as much as 500 percent and in addition enables real-time VBR and CBR encoding of video content from component and composite video inputs; it has a suggested U.S. list price of $11,999. Sonic plans to begin product shipments in August 1999. For more information, contact Sonic Solutions via their Web site at www.avid.com.