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QUICK FACTS Company: FAST Multimedia Woodinville, WA; 800-249-FAST
Product: 601
Platform: Windows NT
Price: starting at $15,995 (including a 500MHz Pentium III (PC)
Website:
www.fastmultimedia.com
CIRCLE 210 ON INFO CARD
It's only fitting that the FAST 601 is the first MPEG-2 system to undergo an in-depth review in Video Systems as it was the first MPEG-2 system brought market (see "FAST Multimedia Scores a Hit with 601," February 1999, page 92). Being first to market is always a mixed blessing. If the market is waiting eagerly for the new technology - being first is great. But, when the market doesn't understand the new technology and hasn't yet come to desire it, then being first is problematic. The manufacturer must try to educate potential customers about the technology and its potential benefits. And it must simultaneously establish in the customer's mind that its new product is the best implementation of the new technology. For FAST, bringing to market an MPEG-2 NLE system was complicated by the widespread belief that MPEG-2 couldn't be used for editing.
As videographers have come to understand that I-frame MPEG-2 can be edited. (As there is still confusion about MPEG-2 editing and naming an MPEG-2 system "601," may have actually created confusion.) Suffice it to say that 4:2:2 Profile at Main Level (422P@ML) I-frame MPEG-2, used by the FAST 601, is about twice as space efficient as M-JPEG. (Hard-disk performance requirements are also halved.) On the other hand marketing implications to the contrary - editing using 422P@ML compression has no benefit when it comes to releasing a production using Main Profile at Main Level (MP@ML) MPEG-2 compression on CD-ROM and/or DVD. Whether one edits in M-JPEG or MPEG-2, the compressed video must be decompressed to "baseband" digital video prior to being recompressed MP@ML. The 601, when graphics are to be compressed with MP@ML, cleverly uses uncompressed graphics as the source. (Generating MP@ML output requires a $1,995 option) The table on this page gives a very approximate indication...