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fred johnson · Oct 16, 2004, 08:11 PM

I saw a demo of the Optibase MovieMaker 200S hardware PCI card at Government Video Expo in Washington last week. It looked pretty slick. Does anyone have any more information about it? Pricing, reliability, etc.?

GeorgeLocassen · Oct 18, 2004, 12:38 PM

Hi,

I wrote something similar at Creative Cow. I am posting it here as well.

I received a loaner card for a few days during Optibase's beta program.

I ran it in CBR mode (it supports VBR, but I didn't use it), I used PCM audio, and SDI output from my deck.

I had to create the playlist (I wish that it imported directly from Final Cut), and the card controlled the deck and created multiple segments for me.

I used PCM audio so that I could create both DTS and Dolby. I used DVD Studio Pro 3 to create the tracks.

I was able to lay out DVDs in about 2/3 the normal time. The card worked flawlessly. The video was better than compressor (no surprise there). I think that it was better than the SD-1000, but this is from memory.

Unfortunately, I had to give the card back. I heard that it was released. I asked for a price, and I was told that it was $7K. It seems reasonable since I was able to create 1-2 extra DVDs per day.

-George