The folks at Boris FX are on a Universal Binary mission. They must love their Mac users because they are cranking out support for Intel Macs plus maintaining compatibility with PowerPC systems. The latest products to get in on the Universal Binary action are Graffiti and FX. Boris Graffiti 5.1 and Boris FX 9.1 are now available as free updates for 5.0 and 9.0 users.

Blackmagic Design has announced that DeckLink HD Studio is now available to the masses. DeckLink HD Studio is a capture and playback card that supports both HDMI and analog component video. The card allows you to work in 1080i and 720p along with NTSC and PAL video, plus provides instant switching between HD and SD. Check out the specs here, plus compare it to the other DeckLink products. MSRP is $995.

After the little encoding limit issue reared its head a few months ago in Sorenson Media Compression Suite, Sorenson now offers a solution for folks that need to process a higher volume of video files. A new licensing model is available for Sorenson Squeeze for Flash and Sorenson Squeeze Compression suite that will allow unlimited encoding for enterprise users. The Flash license is available for $1,238 per system per year and the Compression Suite license is available for $2,500 per system per year. If you have multiple systems running the software, discounts are available for higher quantities. There is no change to the pricing of the normal desktop version which has a limit of 1,500 encoded files per month.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is scheduled to be released on DVD January 23rd. This is one film I've been eager to see. In case you haven't heard about it yet, this documentary by Kirby Dick does some digging into the top-secret MPAA ratings system and even attempts to find out the identities of the secret-decoder-ring-wearing MPAA ratings board members.

The documentary asks whether Hollywood movies and independent films are rated equally for comparable content; whether sexual content in gay-themed movies is given harsher ratings penalties than their heterosexual counterparts; whether it makes sense that extreme violence is given an R rating while sexuality is banished to the cutting room floor; whether Hollywood studios receive detailed directions as to how to change an NC-17 film into an R, while independent film producers are left guessing; and finally, whether keeping the raters and the rating process secret leaves the MPAA entirely unaccountable for its decisions.

The MPAA also provided a little comic relief when it got caught with its hand in the cookie jar and admitted to making 10 copies of the movie to distribute to board members without the filmmakers permission. You gotta love it.

You might have used Media 100 in the past, or you might be curious about the product since there have been several announcements in the past few months. Media 100 is definitely trying to make a surge and get back in the NLE game. Nick Griffin used Media 100 around the 1995-2002 time frame, but switched to Final Cut Pro when new NLE's where hitting the market with additional features and Media 100 was kinda standing still. So Griffin decided to take a look at the new Media 100 Producer software and he shares his thoughts about where the software is today.

Previous users of Media 100 will enjoy this article that is written with the theme of "You never forget your first girlfriend, right?"

I wanted to see how well the Planet82 nanotechnology mega-sensitive sensor worked and CNET hooked me up with a brief video of the sensor in action! Well, they didn't exactly do it for me, but I was happy to see it. The CES demo shows how this technology in an auto could allow you to see what's behind you even when it's totally dark. This will be great in surveillance apps.

How about a break from all the new announcements today. Here's another tutorial on how to "blur" objects or people so they can't be recognized in your video. The previous tutorial I posted used Premiere and After Effects and this one shows you how to do it in Final Cut Pro. It all comes down to motion tracking. When you learn how to use it in your editor you can do all sorts of fun stuff.

Gorilla 4 was released today at Macworld by Jungle Software. In case you haven't heard of Gorilla (I hadn't), it is software that allows you to manage information during a film production like budgeting, scheduling, crew, cast, editing notes and film festival submissions. New features in version 4 include a new interface, element linking, element blackout, colored shot list and automatic email. It was also announced that Gorilla will be available in Apple stores nationwide. A new copy will cost you $399 (pro), $299 (standard) or $199 (student). Version 4 is available now. Any Gorilla users out there?

More you-can-never-have-enough-storage news, Buffalo Technology has introduced the LinkStation Live and the TeraStation Live network attached storage devices. The LinkStation comes in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 750GB models, the TeraStation comes in 1TB or 2TB models. Each supports 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, has two USB 2.0 ports and a print server for network printing. The higher-end TeraStation has a little more processing power and support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD.

LinkStation Live available late January
250GB = $229
320GB = $249
500GB = $349
750GB = $749

TeraStation Live available late February
1TB = $699
2TB = $1299

The folks at Corel have been busy bees the past couple months. They finished up the acquisition of InterVideo, completed an update to Ulead VideoStudio 10 which earned Vista certification and released an update to InterVideo DVD Copy 5 to support Tivo, Zune and iPod. What's next? Today they announced support for AVCHD in their InterVideo WinDVD 8 playback software. Future product releases of InterVideo and Ulead video and DVD products will also support AVCHD. At least we are starting to see some support for this format, hopefully other companies will be announcing support soon.

Bella recently released the new Bella Professional series 3.0 keyboard designed for video editors. If you've been thinking about getting one of these but haven't made up your mind yet, you can get some more information from this review over on EventDV. One thing I liked about this keyboard is the addition of international symbols on the front of the keys. This provides quick access to these characters without looking up the key combination to generate them. Nice feature. I've heard good things about the Bella keyboards and I think I just might add one of these to my arsenal.

Avid Technology is expected to give Intel Mac users a look at what's under development with the announcement of an open beta program next week. According to information on AppleInsider, the program will only be available to Avid contract customers that have licenses for the current versions of Avid programs. If you're behind a version or two, you'll have to upgrade to the current version before you can participate. More info should hit the streets next week at Macworld.

Canon announced plans today to scale back their MiniDV line for 2007. This is the result of the inevitable move to HD, plus consumers are looking for alternatives to tape such as recordable DVD's, hard drives or mega-big flash memory. The lonely Canon Elura 100 will no longer be carried and there will not be a replacement. The ZR series will have 3 new models, the ZR800, ZR830 and ZR850. Pricing ranges from $279 to $349 and they should be available in late January.

Canon also announced 4 new DVD camcorders, the DC210, DC220, DC230 and DC50. The DC50 is the big daddy and replaces the DC40. It records to 3-inch DVD-R/RW discs and can record up to 60 minutes of video on a single-layer disc, 108 minutes on a dual-layer disc. If you need a still shot, it can also shoot a 5.39 megapixel image to a MiniSD card. Pricing ranges from $399 to $799 and they should be available in February/March.

For additional info and detailed specs, checkout these articles from CamcorderInfo:

Canon ZR MiniDV Series Lives On Elura Says Farewell
Canon Offers Four New DVD Camcorders for 2007

They've compiled all the info and specifications in one location which makes it easy to do side-by-side comparisons of the different models.

CES is in the air! Up next we have new HD burners from LG and Toshiba.

Toshiba has announced the SD-H903A, a drive that is able to read and write to HD DVD, DVD and CD discs, plus it has the capability to read HD DVD-ROM media. It has a SATA interface and an 8MB buffer. Write speed for HD DVD is a blazing 1x. The drive is scheduled to ship this month, but I'm not sure what the cost will be.

LG is trying to give us the best of both worlds with their combo player, now they've announced their Super Multi Blue Dual-Format drive. The GGW-H10N drive is able to read/write Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs, and read HD DVD-ROM media. It boasts a recording speed of 4x to Blue-ray BD-R discs. This unit will be released Q1 with a MSRP of $1200.

So it's on in the world of HD recording. Look for tons of products to be released this year. The best advice I can give you is to read the specs carefully before you purchase anything. This game can get very confusing with all the different formats running around.

[via Engadget]

We were all waiting for it and here it is. Hitachi has announced the first terabyte hard drive. The Deskstar 7K1000 supports SATA 3.0Gb, PATA-133 interfaces and spins 7200 rpms. It will ship in the first quarter of this year with a MSRP of $399. Hitachi also announced a new 1TB CinemaStar 7K1000 drive for DVR systems. The specs are pretty much the same as the Deskstar drive, but this drive also includes SMART command transport and Hitachi's new Smoothstream technology. The CinemaStar will ship in Q2.