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They said it couldn't be done, "Editing MPEG-2 is impossible." But I have news for you. MPEG-2 is editable, as FAST proves with its new editing system called 601 [six-o-one]. At $12,995 for a turnkey system (not including monitors and storage), it's the newest entry in the hard-fought, sweet spot of digital video editing systems, units that cost between $10,000 and $15,000. The good news is that you get a lot for your $13,000 with 601. Its video is exceptionally clean and so is its interface. The technology used is an original idea surrounding a little-known part of the MPEG-2 spec, which allows for compression using only I-frames, but not either of the voodoo-like P frames (that predict what may happen next in the video) or the B frames (that are bidirectional in their compression duties). These P frames and B frames serve their purposes well, but prevent one important thing from happening -- frame-accurate editing. Toss these two elements out of the mix, and you get compression that's even better than motion-JPEG compressed at 2:1 while using 40% less bandwidth and disk space. The result is Editing MPEG (E-MPEG), which is the compression scheme used in 601. It's a truly unique idea whose time has come.
All the tech talk aside, let's take a look at 601's gorgeous new interface, called FAST Studio. It's a dark, but comfortable world, where each icon seems backlit as if it were a sconce on the wall of some mysterious jazz nightclub. Mouse-over effects are everywhere, and if you don't like where any of the icons reside, chances are you can...