Microsoft WMV9 & WMV HD Announcements

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Microsoft Announces Breakthrough High-Definition Video Production Solutions for Windows XP

Today at NAB2004, Microsoft Corp. announced that Windows® XP and Windows Media® 9 Series are powering leading software and hardware solutions for the professional film, video and broadcast production community, and enabling real-time, end-to-end, high-definition (HD) video production on the desktop for the first time. Solutions from Adobe, BOXX Technologies Inc. and CineForm Inc. are now available for Windows XP, making desktop real-time, multistream, 10-bit high-definition serial digital interface (HD-SDI) video editing a reality. In addition, real-time Windows Media Video 9 Series HD (WMV HD) encoding is being demonstrated at the show, with both software-only and hardware-accelerated solutions.

View: Press Release

Microsoft Announces Leading Broadcast Companies to Deploy Products and Services Based on Windows Media 9 Series

Microsoft Corp announced that leading broadcast companies are developing or deploying tools and services that support Microsoft® Windows Media® 9 Series. Among the companies adopting Windows Media 9 Series for its high quality and compression efficiency are Rainbow DBS, the satellite services division of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Akimbo Systems; Shanghai Broadcasting Lab; and U.S. Digital Television Inc. (USDTV).

View: Press Release

Microsoft and Sonic Unveil DVD Authoring Application For Windows Media Video High-Definition

Today at NAB2004, Microsoft Corp. and Sonic Solutions unveiled DVD Producer (TM) -- WMV HD Edition, a special version of Sonic's award-winning professional authoring application that supports the production of DVD titles using Microsoft® Windows Media® Video High-Definition (WMV HD). WMV HD delivers dramatically superior image quality with high-definition video at data rates comparable to standard-definition DVD video.

View: Press Release

News source: Microsoft PressPass

Magoo : (Ed.) How many people actually use ICQ these days? I found the UI hard to navigate, overwhelming and the whole thing was littered by ads. Sad as i am to say it, Microsoft (or MSN) Messenger seem to have out done another product on quality rather than placement.

(1 reply) #1 icecaveman on 19 Apr 2004 - 11:31

Very cool respond to Apple's Pro tools.

#1.1 Himosan on 19 Apr 2004 - 12:49

It's is not a "respond" (sic) nor is it "very cool". it's a vapid laundry list (or rather 3) of primarily 3rd party efforts, mostly hardware.

When you read about crowds of pros cheering over a Matrox demo you will have a response.

(4 replies) #2 shrike on 19 Apr 2004 - 11:42

yeah... but I tend to stay away from products that are announced/released just because of a rival company's product release.
...but that's just me

#2.1 noll3095 on 19 Apr 2004 - 11:57

So even though competing products are being developed at the same time and released at about the same time, you'll only go with the company who announces theirs first and not wait to compare them on features or quality? That kind of defeats the nature of competition.
…but that’s just me

#2.2 creamhackered on 19 Apr 2004 - 12:12

ha ha

#2.3 icecaveman on 19 Apr 2004 - 12:26

Don't bother noll3095, shrike is just a Mac zealot.

#2.4 shrike on 19 Apr 2004 - 12:52

well not really. I think it's just when Microsoft does it that it annoys me.

And also, icecaveman... I'm not a Mac zealot, I don't even own one. I wish I did.
I'm a PC/IBM Compat. zealot, if anything. I try different Linux distros, but because it's not MS and I'm not familiar with it.. I always go back.

I think I'm just in the mood where I respond to everything on this forum. Usually I stick to what I know, but lately I'm just making (more) useless random comments

(2 replies) #3 icecaveman on 19 Apr 2004 - 13:14

shrike when Microsoft does what? They have been developing this for some time now you know, they just reported more info about it short after Apple released the new Pro Tools info to remind people they are there and they are starting to sell superb HD video technology allowing even "Live" encoding with now coming support from more programs.

Please tell me what Microsoft is doing now you hate about this?

#3.1 Mav Phoenix on 19 Apr 2004 - 13:26

Some people just bash everything MS does.

#3.2 noll3095 on 19 Apr 2004 - 13:31

True, and they all look like third party tools anyway, they're just using MS technology.

#4 timdorr on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:01

Useless, that's what this is.

What we've got here is a varying bunch of tools that are strung together by one standard format. You can't have a good amount of integration when you're dealing with 3+ compnaies to get your job done. How many separate and barely compatible tools do you have to buy to get this sort of technology in a "complete" setup?

My work will be sticking with macs for a long time because they're cheaper in the long run and are much more productive due to better integration and real-time processing.

(4 replies) #5 Silver Dragon on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:03

I think it's great to see competition, but I don't really think this will hold a candle to Apple's offerings. I have seen BOXX before, and while nice, they are quite expensive. Adobe Premiere is a joke in broadcast, and I doubt that Adobe has a new editing interface just for HD... Really this is nothing new, just MS making a press release on technology that was already there.

Where Apple is going to shine is pricepoint. While a DPS HD system will run somewhere around $30,000, A base non-RT BOXX system starts around $20,000, I can get a real-time HD editor that works directly with DVCPRO HD over Firewire for $4,000 from Apple. This is both good and bad. It's good because it brings HD to the masses. It's bad because the HD NLE market just bottomed out for VARs.

Both Apple and MS have been able to edit real-time HD on their respective systems for quite some time now. The difference is that before you had to buy an HD capture card for a couple grand and a lot of storage. Now, you no longer need the capture card, and I *think* you may be able to get enough oomph out of two SATA drives striped together (it will be close, and I don't suggest it). So really the MS announcement is all fluff while the Apple announcement will change the HD NLE market.

Anyhow, just my $0.02

#5.1 betasp on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:07

QUOTE

I can get a real-time HD editor that works directly with DVCPRO HD over Firewire for $4,000 from Apple

But keep in mind, it's compressed HD. I got away from compressed video about 4 years ago and have no intnetion of going back. I think the AJA cards wit the mac are still the way to go. Uncompressed 10bit HD at 1080 for under $3000. Can't beat that... of course, firewire storage does not cut it. Xserve all the way. I just finished an on-line of an HD feature this way and it rocked.

#5.2 betasp on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:09

One other rant. DVDs are not an exact sciect with today's tools anyway. I wish they would have cleaned up and expanded the spec. (see XML) instead of mudding up the waters with new compression formats.

#5.3 Mav Phoenix on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:11

Premiere Pro 1.5 was just announced, looks like a good upgrade. When was the last time you used Premiere?

#5.4 Silver Dragon on 19 Apr 2004 - 14:23

Yes, it is compressed, but so is the raw tape. If you want true uncompressed HD you have to go to a completely different format and spend millions. All you do with DVCPRO HD is send the raw footage to the drives for editing. Editing this footage is fine as long as you're not doing a lot of compositing work. If you are doing compositing, then it's a different story.

Always seemed silly to me to record 100Mbps, Capture uncompressed to output 100Mbps. Why eat the extra drive room? Is uncompressed better? Without a doubt. Is it worth the extra $15,000? I personally don't think so, but that's me and the market I work in.

As for Premiere, used it a couple months ago. Until I can get some real motion keyframing going on there, and they fix the traveling matte bug, and they add transitions to all elements (including audio), it's a toy interface. These are basic tools that an editor needs. I think the proof is in the market itself. I can't name a single post house or broadcast station that has any version of Premiere running, but I do know that every single post house and broadcast station in this market (14 or 15, we shift) uses FCP in one way or another. The only place I see Premiere is with hobbiests and low end consumer cards.

Last edited by 20792 on 19 Apr 2004 - 15:36

(1 reply) #6 betasp on 19 Apr 2004 - 16:35

I too have played with Premiere Pro, and it does have some useful features, but many pros will have a hard time getting over the promises of the past. Heck, many of the effects features are close to After Effects. I would consider it pretty useful at this point. Silver is right, we all use FCP in some way. As for me, I use FCP some but I will always be an Avid guy. It is not easy to learn, and can be a real pain sometimes, but it is the industry standard. Apple is making money mainly with the ipod, MS makes money on Office and Windows (and that is about it), Avid makes money selling editing systems. Got to repsect that... it is all they do and they do it pretty well.

One thing many people fail to learn about the video market, is that may people exist at diffrent levels, and none of tham are really better. Everyone does what it takes for them to survive. Silver Dragon gets to save money and use compressed video, I do not. I wish I could but my clients ask for uncompressed. So I am forced to go that route. To me it is worth the extra 15K, but to him it is not. I am sure in some ways he wished he could work uncompressed, just like I wish I could save some money and be compressed. Heck, HD looks good either way.

#6.1 Silver Dragon on 19 Apr 2004 - 18:39

Actually, I do have a CineWave HD... The results are not yet in, but I would be willing to bet that the 100Mbps firewire footage vs the uncompressed footage will look exactly the same. This applies only to DVCPRO HD though. The reasoning is that when you x-fer from firewire, you're just moving the data, you're not re-compressing. It's the same signal that's on the tape. Uncompressed re-caputres the footage in a much larger format. While this is great if you're doing compositing, animations, or high-end commercials, for 99% of the market it will soon be overkill. Same thing happened with MJPEG back in 2000 or so. Why do MJPEG when you can just to DV straight from the tape? Not good enough for all, but good enough for most.

I wil admiit though, having options is always nice. While I feel that Avid is a sinking ship, it's all about preference. There is no one right solution, and it's good to see options in the marketplace.

BJH

Last edited by 20792 on 19 Apr 2004 - 19:21

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