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da Vinci shows Resolve Digital Mastering Suite at IBC 2007 (4/7/2007)

Resolve is da Vinci's 4K DI digital mastering suite and the choice of the world's leading post-production facilities for film DI and digital grading of television content. Scalable to fit any facility or budget, Resolve combines the highest image quality with speedy and efficient throughput in short-form and long-form workflows.

At IBC2007, da Vinci will be offering previews of the new Resolve 4.2 system. New features include Resolve TLC, which offers colorists full telecine and advanced machine control, and an Audio Ingest capability for total synchronization in the DI workflow. Additional file format support for Quicktime, .TIF, and TARGA are also included on Resolve v4.2.

Other Resolve features being demonstrated include a new 2K node providing da Vinci 2K functionality including six-vector corrections, Custom Curves, ripple, and support for external mattes to isolate regions or colors quickly for selective processing.

With the new Resolve Conform, tasks such as conforming, editing, quality checking, scene detection, and optional proxy generation can now be accomplished without affecting throughput of the main color correction theater by not tying up valuable color-grading technology or a skilled colorist's valuable time. Material that comes in during the day can be inserted into the project timeline while the colorist continues grading the same project. This allows post-production facilities working in a DI environment to save time and maximize resources.

Resolve's new Grading Exchange functionality allows colorists to import basic da Vinci 2K Plus grades from multiple dailies sessions directly into Resolve in a single operation, thereby providing the dailies grade as a starting point in the DI suite. da Vinci has also incorporated many of the film restoration and cleanup functions of its Revival restoration system into Resolve. DI workflows are greatly accelerated with a new Resolve option packaged under the name of Resolve DnD. A colorist grading in Resolve can now simply switch applications to quickly remove dirt and dust, or the clip can be marked for an assistant to clean up and reinsert into the timeline - all while the grading process continues.

da Vinci's Splice system is built on the Resolve platform and allows post facilities to transform their existing 2K grading bays in order to achieve nonlinear color correction workflows. At IBC2007, Splice will be shown in this context on the front end of a da Vinci 2K Plus. Facilities deploying Splice have the scalable hardware needed to transition to a full Resolve system when they're ready to switch to a file-based grading infrastructure.

Demonstrations of Splice will include "one-touch versioning," which supports standard commercial requirements for multiple passes, and a new laydown mode with dynamically sized handles to eliminate duplication of images, overlaps, and recursive timecodes when multiple deliverables are being created from the same content. Other Splice features include drag-and-drop editing to improve conform capabilities and scene detection with the export of an EDL to the 2K Plus.

2K Plus

While the da Vinci 2K Plus already supports resolutions of 2048 x 1080 and 10-bit RGB at the 23.98-sF and 24-sF standards used in today's DI environments, new 10-bit and 12-bit support has been added to meet DCI projection standards, as well as support for importing ASC Color Decision Lists (CDLs). Demonstrations will highlight enhanced functionality for append sessions so that multiple EDLs can be loaded into a single session while the same timeline is maintained.

The most current software version of the 2K Plus, version 5.0, makes the 2K completely Splice-enabled, allowing for a smooth transition to nonlinear workflow.

Revival

da Vinci continues to improve its Revival image restoration system with new high-speed processing hardware and features of the new Revival version 5.0 software. At IBC2007, Revival will be interfaced with an ARRI scanner for demonstration of Revival's built-in dirt detection matte. As film is scanned, Revival interprets the information embedded in the scanned files and creates a matte of the detected dirt area for later recall and viewing. This automatic process is so thorough that it requires no frame-by-frame analysis, thereby saving significant time in the repair process.

Revival 5.0 features new tools for sampling, adding and reducing grain, making it possible to sample different grain types for later matching to regions of interest (ROI) or entire frames. Revival's alpha channel now supports KODAK(r) DIGITAL ICE technology and allows users to selectively view and repair different levels of defect as defined in the matte imported from the scanning process.

da Vinci has expanded its Revival family with Revival GNR - a specially packaged workstation loaded with tools exclusively for grain and noise reduction as well as integrated dust and dirt removal tools. Revival GNR can reside on the same network as da Vinci's Resolve, accessing the same files on the SAN or local storage. This means that while the colorist is grading and marking areas for cleanup, the Revivalist can instantly access those areas and begin the cleanup process while grading continues, making the GNR workstation an ideal component of the DI workflow.

www.davsys.com

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