CINEFORM SOFTWARE SUPPORTS BLACKMAGIC INTENSITY TO DELIVER REAL-TIME DIRECT-TO-DISK RECORDING INTO CINEFORM INTERMEDIATE FILES

Desktop PCs Now Capable of Affordable HD Digital Video Recording Using Professional-Quality CineForm Intermediate Software Combined with Blackmagic Intensity HDMI Hardware

Solana Beach, Calif., February 28, 2007 – CineForm^{ ®}, Inc. announced today that all of its software products now support direct-to-disk recording into professional-quality CineForm Intermediateâ„ ¢ files from HDMI video sources using the Intensity card from Blackmagic Design Inc. Recorded files are immediately available for playback and/or editing on Windows (and soon MacOS) computers using existing CineForm post-production software. Supported HDMI input sources are 1080i/p and 720p. Consumer and professional video equipment, including new HDV and AVCHD cameras, are quickly adopting HDMI as an output format. During recording, such cameras output uncompressed HD digital video through an HDMI connector prior to in-camera compression. To achieve high post-production quality, it is desirable to acquire the uncompressed HDMI stream through the Blackmagic Intensity card and apply CineForm Intermediate compression to the images in real-time. CineForm’s HDMI acquisition software also includes real-time telecine removal to extract 24p sequences that are embedded in 1080i sources. Recorded files are visually equivalent to uncompressed sequences but much smaller. This workflow enables a single SATA drive to record CineForm Intermediate HD files from HDMI sources, eliminating expensive and complex RAID storage, thus dramatically reducing the cost of direct-to-disk recording solutions. A complete professional-quality DVR is delivered affordably by combining CineForm software with a $249 Blackmagic Intensity card and a sub-$2000 PC. “The high visual fidelity of CineForm Intermediate files has been recognized in the post-production community for many years†, said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm, Inc., “but real-time acquisition from uncompressed sources has previously required expensive HD-SDI equipment. The emergence and rapid adoption of the HDMI interface, combined with aggressive pricing by Blackmagic for its Intensity card is changing that. Enabled by the CineForm and Blackmagic product partnership, a new generation of customers, including independent filmmakers, videographers, and even consumers, will benefit from the newly affordable price point and outstanding visual fidelity of HDMI acquisition into CineForm Intermediate files.† read more..