• Price: 315 . 67 . 139 . 529

  • Company: Canopus

  • Our Rating: We rate this 7 out of 10 We rate this 7 out of 10

Edius has been an also-ran in the NLE market but Canopus hopes, with the emergence of HDV, the company’s expertise with codecs will give the software a boost. Pinnacle’s Edition was the first tool to include native HDV support, but Canopus hopes that its HQ codec will allow the editing of HDV without a huge performance hit compared to DV. It’s also the first company to offer hardware acceleration for HDV with the DVStorm-like Edius NX for HDV.

border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> Edius Pro 3 is the third version of Edius, with the Pro bit added because every NLE currently has to have Pro in its name somewhere. However, it is genuinely more ‘pro’ than before. </p> <p> Performance while editing 1080i HDV from the Sony FX1 (reviewed left) was impressive considering what you’re dealing with, but very sluggish compared to DV editing. The basic requirements for HDV editing – dual Xeon 2.8GHz processors – are very high too; hence we’re looking forward to the Edius NX acceleration board. </p> <p> We couldn’t get Edius Pro 3 to capture from the FX1 conventionally – instead we had to use a separate MPEG utility that didn’t offer device control. Once within Edius, HDV worked much better than using the MainConcept plug-in within Premiere Pro, though Edius wasn’t happy about working with HDV from other sources. </p> <p> <b>Dark on the outside</b> </p> <p> The interface looks quite different from version 2.5 ­– but it’s actually just been darkened. It’s a good look that makes video stand out, but the otherwise flexible interface still suffers from requiring two screens to be usable, and that the palettes don’t snap together when resized. </p> <p> Edius has always been an innovative tool, and version 3 adds the Layout tool, which makes cropping and resizing different formats with different aspect ratio for comping together much easier. The new Watch Folder utility keeps your bins up-to-date with folder contents. The ability to capture directly from DVD discs (not copyrighted ones though) could be a huge timesaver in an emergency.<BR> <BR> There are a large number of more minor enhancements, ranging from still image sequence and QT support to audio channel mapping. </p> <p> Edius Pro 3 is let down by its effects toolset, though. Its colour correction tools are weak next to those found in Final Cut or Premiere, especially if you’re in a hurry – automated tools are non-existent. The new white/black balance effect is, on its own, a well-designed tool, though, and the addition of a split-screen preview is welcome. </p> <p> <div class=floatedimage><img src= Print

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