ProMax Announces ProMedia Converter
April 16, 2004
Irvine, CA - The new ProMax ProMedia Converter (PMC) has many enhanced features, such as uncompressed video over FireWire, genlock, and SDI with four channels of embedded audio, as well as uncompressed video over FireWire, the company has announced.
The final release of the PMC includes newly developed components that recently became available. It was ProMax's desire to go forward with higher quality rather than use older parts that offered somewhat lesser conversions.
The ProMax ProMedia Converter is compatible with Macintosh and Windows video editing applications that include Avid XpressDV and XpressDV Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro 3 and 4, Adobe Premiere Pro, Sonic Foundry Vegas Video, and others.
The PMC works with DV, Beta SP (analog component) and DigiBeta (SDI) tape decks. It has two RS-422 ports to support tape deck control directly from the editing application (message forwarding) or FireWire AV/C RS-422 control conversion.
The ProMedia Converter is compatible with BlackMagic's DeckLink and AJA Kona cards, as well as, external FireWire drives. Other converter boxes which lack an on-board hardware DV CODEC can not support external FireWire drives since most of the FireWire bandwidth is used by the uncompressed video / audio.
The PMC will operate as a stand-alone transcoder for component SDI, analog audio digital (AES/EBU) audio, embedding/de-embedding audio into/from SDI. The PMC has a simple front panel (or web-based) control that allows users to select their desired input. The PMC, with an external reference input, can be configured as a stand-alone frame synchronizer for studio applications.
The PMC supports the full range of analog and digital I/O, including composite, S-Video, and component analog video, SDI with embedded audio, 4-channel balanced and unbalanced analog audio, and 4-Channel AES-EBU digital audio. The PMC supports compressed DV and 10/8-bit uncompressed video with 16/20/24-bit audio over FireWire.
Included with the PMC is a wide range of video and audio proc amp controls accessible by the LCD front panel or via a remote web-based PC. Advanced features such as digital noise reduction, gamma control, and sharpness filters as well as hue, saturation, contrast and brightness are readily accessible. In addition it has a built-in test video and audio test pattern generator for calibrating downstream equipment, thus eliminating expensive single function devices.
A second generation DV CODEC, used in the PMC, supports direct connection with DV camcorders and decks, via FireWire. This new CODEC, with enhanced video quality, also reduces the host CPU burden on both playback and capture, since the compression or decompression is performed inside the PMC, virtually eliminating the possibility of dropped frames, especially on slower computers. It also allows the use of external FireWire drives.
The PMC offers excellent video and audio quality that is comparable to converters selling for many times its price. It also eliminates the need for TBCs, frame synchronizers, proc amps, and patch bays thereby lowering overall cost.
The ProMax PMC is scheduled to ship in volume during May, 2004 at a suggested retail price of $2,295.
For more information, visit
www.promax.com
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