Porsche Design Firewire Video Editor

Review: Pinnacle Liquid Edition Pro 6

Features, price, intro

Windows real-time analogue/digital video editing software with breakout box

Liquid Edition 6 Pro (hardware and software), £600 (inc VAT)
Liquid Edition 6 standard (software only – not tested), £300

Pinnacle's Liquid Edition 6 is a featured-packed hardware/software combination. The supplied breakout box is well-endowed with sockets – including component in/out - but provides no hardware acceleration. So, a PC with a powerful CPU and graphics card is required – and that card and the PC's USB 2.0 port must be compatible with LE 6 too.

Features

Liquid Edition Pro hardware
Breakout box - 50(h)x150(w)x150(d) mm - that connects to PC by single USB 2.0 cable, and features analogue and DV capture and output; real-time video preview; and real-time MPEG-2 encoding. Sockets - single six-pin FireWire port; inputs and outputs for S-video, composite video, component video and stereo audio (phono and optical); outputs for 5.1 surround audio and headphone

Liquid Edition 6 software
Integrated DVD authoring with chapter marking and motion menus; scene-detection by timecode or content; storyboarding; unlimited timeline tracks; three-point editing; drag-and-drop editing; trim editor; multi-camera editing interface; direct timeline trimming; slip-and-slide trimming; match-frame editing; effects editors - 2D, 3D, colour, key, filter, wipe; speed control; title-generator; 5.1 surround sound mixing; audio output routing; rubber-band audio editing for volume and panning; parametric three-band equaliser; echo effects; maximiser; instant save; dual-processor support; background rendering; batch capture; live capture; standard EDL support; JKL shuttle; extend edit; instant add dissolve button; containers; waveform display on timeline

Supplied software

All Pinnacle-branded - Edition 6; TitleDeko RT; Hollywood FX Plus RT; Alpha Magic FX

Prices above from DVC, 01273 707200; www.dvc.uk.com
Pinnacle, 01895 442003; www.pinnaclesys.com

Introduction

Real-time acceleration in the prosumer DV arena has typically been in the form of PCI boards offering analogue audio and video in/out, and, sometimes, limited real-time performance.

When Pinnacle launched V5 of Edition Pro, the video editing/DVD authoring software was accompanied by an AGP graphics card that doubled as a real-time accelerator, plus an external breakout box for inputs and outputs.

This was a good solution, as it fed out video overlay through analogue channels for high-quality monitoring on a TV set. But, the board had the disadvantage of only supporting one computer monitor, and it left users stuck with one particular graphics card rather than being able to upgrade as new-generation cards arrived on the scene.

Showing how far the evolution in real-time editing has come, that hardware is replaced in the new, feature-packed, V6, simply by a slightly more sophisticated breakout box so all acceleration is left to the PC, which must have a powerful CPU and graphics card. And, if that seems odd, read on.

The rather elegant breakout box - designed by F A Porsche – connects to the PC by USB 2.0 rather than FireWire as with Avid's more expensive Mojo. It also offers control of digital camcorders via USB, which feels strange to write, but perfectly natural to use.

Some effects are handled by the CPU, and others by the graphics card, while Codecs are handled by the CPU alone, so what's required is a PC having not just a speedy editing hard disk or two, but also a fast CPU and modern and powerful graphics card.

The breakout box – mains-powered from an inline adapter - is 50mm tall and 150mm front-to-back and side-to-side. It has a single six-pin FireWire port for DV in/out and, along with the usual selection of analogue inputs and outputs, there are also ins/out for component plus a full set of audio outputs for 5.1 surround-sound output.