媒体100 iFinish 4.5: A Web 生产商’s Dream Box

With versatile new software editors, like Apple's Final Cut Pro and Adobe's revamped Premiere, 在更强大的机器上运行，包括Mac和Windows平台, 问题就变成了:为什么需要像iFinish这样在创意上有些缺陷但功能强大的系统?

It Comes in a Wide Assortment of Flavors

Media 100 offers several versions of iFinish. We reviewed the fully tricked out iFinish V80 ($14,套件995, which comes with boards and software). 这是18美元,交钥匙费4995美元, which includes: Inscriber’s Title motion, 更清洁的, DV电缆, 猪尾线, P6000卡, 鲍里斯外汇, and the SDI I/O daughter board. 交钥匙系统本身包括一台1.7 GHz Intel Xeon processor, 512MB RAM, an 18.2GB a 10,000rpm Ultra160 SCSI驱动器, 16X/40X DVD-ROM驱动器和Windows 2000 Professional其他捆绑包可供选择:

V20DV- $2995 ($6495 for turnkey): Comes with Inscriber Title Motion, 更清洁的, DV I/O电缆, video I/O cable (with composite and S-Video connectors), and P6000 board with DV daughter card. 不包括鲍里斯外汇.

V40 - $4995 ($9,990 for turnkey): Includes all of the above plus 300KB image quality, real-time monitor and waveform vectorscope, 实时静态图形, 鲍里斯外汇, Analog breakout box with Component, 复合, S-Video and balanced and unbalanced audio I/O.

V60 - $9995 ($16,995的交钥匙，包括RT MPEG Pro):包括所有上述加一个实时, dual-stream效果, real-time YUV colorcorrection and real-time parametric audio EQ.

V80 - $14,995 ($18,495 for turnkey): Includes all of the above plus lossless video quality, SDI I/O daughter card and SDI junction box with one SDI video input, 两个SDI视频输出和一个AES/EBU音频输入输出通道对.

Note: You can upgrade 的V40 and V60 to lossless for $3995.

Media100旗舰产品发布的最大新闻可能是其8位“无损”编解码器技术的引入(作为V40和V60用户的选项出售)。. Media 100声称其系统要求远低于真正的未压缩无损系统, 这通常需要一致的数据吞吐量远高于什么是视觉上难以区分的结果.

Media100's famous image quality, 曾经每帧300千字节(NTSC)的上限现在可以在必要时达到每帧600千字节的峰值. 因为无损编解码器使用可变速率，只将非冗余信息数字化，并将冗余信息记录为可重复的数学方程, 这个比率可能会有所不同. 在坚实的背景下，一个会说话的头会有很多多余的信息，可以很容易地以较低的速率流到你的驱动器上, 说, 自行车比赛. This compares favorably to a true 8-bit uncompressed system, which would treat all the digital 信息 the same way, at a consistently high data rate, using considerably more disc space.

编者按:Media100表示，他们的无损功能最终将用于Media100的Mac系列产品.

软件的故事

Although Media 100 sold 更清洁的 to Discreet, 在Media100的保护伞下购买该程序的清洁器所有者将继续得到Media100的支持, iFinish的“文件”菜单下还有一个“导出到清理器”功能. But before exporting a program for compression in 更清洁的, iFinish用户现在可以在视频时间轴中编写和嵌入交互式“事件”, a trick Media100 picked up from CineStream. 稍后会详细介绍.

All modern editing software wants to be all things to all people, meaning that they also claim to be effects generators, 字幕, 最重要的是, 合成工具. With its two-track plus one graphic limit, this has always been a sticky spot for iFinish and Media100 users. 而不是从头开始重新设计软件(或者可能是实时功能的硬件), Media 100通过包含第三方软件组件解决了这个问题, which it integrates into its main application, such as the new 鲍里斯外汇’s version 6.0 software, which is included with iFinish 4.5. The new Boris gives iFinish users the ability to composite, 层, and assign effects to clips from within the iFinish app, without having to export a timeline to After Effects.

然而, 如果你习惯了建立多层和/或关键帧视频就在那里，在同一时间线与其他一切, a la Final Cut Pro, you may not appreciate even Boris 6.0是非常有用的工具，因为它仍然是一个程序中的一个单独的程序.

One big advantage to this system, though, is that Boris 6.0 can now use any After Effects compatible plug in. 虽然After Effects仍然是大多数人的选择工具，他们没有足够的现金来购买一个主要的独立硬件合成/效果机, 事实上，你可以与这些过滤器的工作将是一个真正的加很多人谁不觉得需要学习After Effects, 但仍然想享受完全可定制的效果和实时预览的好处.

顺便说一下, in case you are of the After Effects persuasion, iFinish能够将项目直接导出到After Effects中，并在相应的图层中添加过渡和音频, 准备好调整.

轻轻地顺溪流而下

iFinish 4的大新闻.5 for streaming mavens is Media 100's EventStream technology, 它可以让iFinish用户专门为互联网编写视频剪辑，并带有触发各种事件的交互式热点.

The kinds of events that can be programmed to occur at the markers, 包括文本显示, opening another URL in a Web browser, 一个热点，可以指定视频上的形状和位置，最多有10个相关动作, 去找时间, which jumps to a different time in the movie, 取代电影, 它为在特定时间点开始的新电影指定了一个新的URL, 和暂停, which pauses the playback of a movie.

Graphics can be exported as a separate track from the video data, which maintains the graphic's integrity, saving it from compression artifacts while reducing total file size. The authoring all takes place in the iFinish application, 然后完成的节目被发送到更清洁的以准备流媒体. Metadata can be attached to files in the iFinish authoring environment, but can also be revised later in 更清洁的 (i.e., if your copyright 信息 changes in the middle of your project, 你可以在更清洁的中修改它，而不必回到iFinish中重新打开程序).

Media 100声称这个系统的真正优点在于，您可以在iFinish时间轴上为所有流媒体格式编写一次交互式Web演示文稿, 然后直接导出到更清洁的，以您喜欢的任何格式编码您的流, maintaining a single source for all data.

性能问题

While everything worked fine during our tests, we did experience a few GUI anomalies, including a bad case of disappearing cursor, slightly sticky timeline scrubbing, and seemingly long renders of effects in Boris. 考虑到iFinish的性能和实时性, these don't seem like big issues, and might be addressed by a future software patch.

iFinish最终是为需要从高质量视频开始的制作人而构建的, edit and output various streaming formats for the Web. V80s能够在无损编解码器中工作并接受SDI连接(作为选项), 这个版本的iFinish将非常适合广播/Web制作后期商店. If you’re working in wit DV or Betacam doing corporate or event videos, 的V40, may be just what you’re looking for. iFinish的易用性和与更清洁的的集成是无可比拟的, and no one will deny it’s a powerful two track editor, but from where we’re standing, 在过去的几年里，媒体100似乎把自己逼到了一个角落. There are solutions from Canopus, 顶峰系统, and Matrox that can do practically everything iFinish can do, 和更多的. We’re not 说ing steer clear of iFinish at all costs, 我们只是说，在你做出决定之前，评估一下所有其他的选择.

优点:1. One of the simplest interfaces to learn and use. 2. “一体化”解决方案面向那些需要获取和编辑高质量内容并重新用于Web交付的用户.3. “无损”编解码器提供优秀的图像质量，同时节省磁盘空间.

缺点:1. 除了最简单的编辑任务外，只有两条视频轨道加上一张实时图像，这使得依赖插件(比如Boris)成为所有编辑任务的必要条件.2. We did encounter a few minor bug-like anomalies during testing3. 考虑到更快的计算机，购买iFinish交钥匙解决方案可能不合理, 更好的操作系统, and powerful new software editors.