(Continued from Page 3)

After all the editing's said and done, it's time to send it along to its final destination. If you're editing for broadcast, it's easy just to play your production out to tape or transfer it via its SMPTE-259 serial digital interface (SDI). But if you're dealing with streaming video, here's where the "i" in iFinish comes into play. It couldn't be simpler than the way it's done in iFinish. It's a matter of selecting Import/Media Cleaner EZ and there opens Media Cleaner EZ. Aptly named, this software package makes it a simple matter to select your compression options like Realmedia, QuickTime or Windows Media, and compress that footage until it's done. For my quickie test clip, I chose high quality RealMedia, where a file that's a bit more than a minute long gets crunched down into a file that's about 2.4 MB in size. Take a look at this file I produced as a reference site survey for some of my faraway colleagues with whom I'll be working on an upcoming production. In just minutes, I was able to take footage off my DV camera, edit it and compress it into a Real Media file. Then I emailed it to my engineers so they could see where they were going to park and plug in our production truck on our next big shoot.

I can't imagine what Media 100 could do to make this process any easier. The iFinish v80, even at a pricey $18,995, is a versatile, powerful and user-friendly system that's as good for broadcasters as it is for DV shooters and Web video streamers. They've done it -- taken an old favorite and made it even better. Bravo!

To Beginning of Article

Charlie White is an Emmy-winning producer/director of a PBS cooking show who's also been writing about digital video since it was the laughingstock of the video production community. He's the producer of this Web site.

We invite you to discuss issues or post questions on the DVFormat World Wide Users Group!