Wow!
Canopus DVStorm Revisited (Now With Premiere 6)
by Charlie White
Senior Producer, Digital Media Net

The last time I fired up the $1799 Canopus DVStorm here at Digital Media Net's Midwest Test Facility, I had a rather frustrating time with it. For reasons neither I nor the Canopus support staff could determine, the hardware was not able to solidly perform with Adobe Premiere 5.1. I'd put together killer sequences using all the neat effects, transitions, color correction and filters DVStorm can muster, only to have the entire application simply disappear from the screen. Ouch. That's not acceptable. But as promised, this time I took a look at DVStorm strapped onto Premiere 6, and let me tell you: All is Right With The World.

What a difference an upgrade makes! The system now works as advertised. There was not a crash in sight as I executed real time dissolves, with color corrected video underneath, text supered over and a picture-in-picture effect on top. When you use this package, it's hard not to be impressed with its real time effects all over the place. And, anything you can't do in real time is supplemented by a package of SoftXplode effects that can curl, twist and roll up your video and practically tie it into a knot. But it would be nice to have 3D effects in real time, a la Matrox's RT2000, though. That's too bad considering the RT2000 costs about $800 less than DVStorm. It's for that reason that I think DVStorm is bit overpriced considering what its capabilities are compared to its competitors. But then in DVStorm's favor, you won't have to install two cards in your computer -- a video card and a capture card -- an important consideration if you're using a special video card that you're not willing to give up. DVStorm is easier-than-most to install, and after plugging in just the one card and a software driver for the DVStorm DV codec, you're ready to rock.

But don't let the lack of real time 3D effects scare you away. DVStorm's real time output to DV makes me forget all about that lack of real time 3D. In the course of editing real TV shows, you probably realize as well as I do that you'll use a 3D effect now and then, but you'll need to output to DV every time you've finished a project. Sure, you could go S-Video out to tape, but then hey, that's not digital! And, as you know there are too many cool things about that digital pipeline to go into here. By was of comparison, if you're using a Matrox RT2000 or a DV500 from Pinnacle, you'll have to wait for each effect to render back into the DV codec on its way back to DV tape. Not with the DVStorm. It streams back into DV in real time, a great plus if you've used lots of effects or have many titles strewn throughout your production. Of course, the RT2000 and DV 500 don't need to render every single frame going back to DV, but any effects that were so gloriously shown to you in real time while editing, are not-so-real-time on the way back to DV using those two cards. This could cost you some serious time. Bravo to Canopus for solving the back-to-DV rendering riddle!

Another great real time feature of the DVStorm is its real time chromakeying capability. For those of us who use chromakey on a daily basis, it's nice to see the key happening right there in front of your eyes with no waiting. That is, IF you have the horses under the hood. This brings up an important point: If you want to do lots of real time effects, you're going to need some serious processor power. With our 1GHz Intel processor and 256 MB of RAM, we were able to do lots of effects in real time at the same time, not to mention the ability to make mincemeat out of all the must-render SoftXplode effects included with this package. And, the more power you have, the more real time effects you'll be able to do simultaneously. To see which processors are capable of what real time effects, take a look at this table we made the first time we reviewed DVStorm. By the way, if you'd like to read my first, pre-Premiere 6 review of the DVStorm, take a look here. I generally had lots of nice things to say about it, but was put off by the trouble I had with it and Premiere 5.1.

Finally, here's more good news: If you bought DVStorm after November 11, 2000, Canopus is offering you an upgrade to Premiere 6 for just $20. Take it! This system works beautifully, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to get some DV editing done quickly. Just make sure you have a fast processor and lots of RAM, and you'll be amazed.

Charlie White has been writing about digital video editing since it was the laughingstock of the postproduction industry. He's an Emmy award-winning producer and director for PBS, and Senior Producer at Digital Media Net. Reach him at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com