Microsoft touts High-Definition video production tools for Windows XP

Chicago (IL) - Microsoft highlighted HD production capabilities under Windows XP at this year’s NAB in Las Vegas. Based on Adobe technology, companies such as BOXX and CineForm provide tools, which enable users to create HD quality video.

Video enthusiasts now have a new possibility to create visually appealing videos in HD quality. Based on Adobes Premiere Pro software, several vendors demonstrated at the NAB2004 conference solutions for creating High Definitions videos with a Windows XP machine, ranging from HDV to uncompressed 1080i format.

Complete systems from BOXX and CineForm start at about $5000, according to Adobe. The recently released video editing software Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 is available for $699.

Microsoft also demonstrated real-time Windows Media Video 9 Series HD (WMV HD) encoding with software-only and hardware-accelerated solutions. Digital Rapids showcased its multiformat HD capture card CarbonHD, which can capture any format of video delivered over SDI in either 8 or 10-bit formats, according to the manufacturer.

Inlet Technologies demonstrated HD Workbench, an application that streamlines professional encoding from AVI, MPEG-2 and other formats into WMV HD content. Other features of the application include batch-mode encoding, StreamRepair for reliable two-pass encoding, and controls for frame-accurate encoding from a file or tape, the company said.