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Canopus DVRex R3
A Powerful, Rack-Mountable,
Real-Time DV Editing System
by Alan Edward Bell
The number of editing tools
available is growing at an amazing rate. Sometimes it seems
that there are more systems to choose from than word
processors. As professionals we know what these tools must
do for us. Unfortunately, many lack key features we would
consider essential, such as ‘3 point editing’
(standard dialog overlaps), adequate trim functions, SMPTE
timecode, film cut and
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the included software is limited. |
The system is a standalone, rack-mountable PC, running either a proprietary editing program called Rex Edit or Adobe Premiere (it comes with both). It’s one of a family of related DV editing products from Canopus that offer a variety of similar capabilities. The Rex R3 includes everything you need for cutting, preconfigured into a clean-looking box with a few straightforward input and output connectors on the front. To use it, simply add a monitor. It’s designed to cut and produce DV material, but it also makes it easy to digitize dailies from other formats. Out of the box, the Rex R3 is designed to work with DV material acquired via Firewire. It can digitize from other formats as well, but to do it you’ll need extra hardware. The Rex R3 comes with everything you need and consequently costs more – about $10,000.
The hardware is impressive: a dual-processor 550 Mhz Pentium III (recently upgraded to dual 700 Mhz) with Windows NT 4.0, 256MB of RAM, an Ultra Wide SCSI card and an 18 GB internal drive. Also included is a hardware graphics accelerator called Xplode, a CD-ROM drive and a floppy disk drive. In late ’99, Avid selected the Canopus DV Raptor capture card for its new DV system, Xpress DV. This was a key endorsement of the quality and stability of Canopus’ proprietary DV codec.
The system’s greatest strength is its hardware – its Achilles’ heel is its software. Rex Edit, Canopus proprietary program, can’t handle either SMPTE or DV timecode, has limitations in the way it handles multiple audio tracks and lacks a comprehensive editing interface. Though it is capable of Firewire deck control, without support for timecode functions, redigitizing is impossible.
What the program excels at is using the hardware to create real-time, multi-layer visual effects, titles and graphics. It offers 10 layers of effects with real-time luma keys, color correction, slow motion, titles, picture in picture, as well as a host of transitions. In fact, you can stack multiple real-time effects and the combination will play without rendering. This worked very well in my tests. I was able to stack dissolves and several text layers and all played smoothly. According to Canopus, with a faster processor and more RAM, one can stack as many as eight layers, and all will play without rendering. This is a very unusual feature in a system at this price point – no Avid at any price can combine so many real-time effects. The system also offers many real-time audio effects, including a graphic equalizer, parametric equalizer, reverb and echo. And it can intermix and play material digitized a variety of sample rates.
Rex Edit also offers another unique feature. It allows you to open multiple copies of the program, each one running a different sequence or project and each with its own windows and timeline. You can then easily drag and drop material from one timeline to another.
Why did Canopus leave out timecode functions in Rex Edit? It may have stemmed from the fact that DV editing systems produce full-res output, which is nearly equivalent to Beta-SP. That means that the DV systems are essentially online devices – the first low-cost editing systems that can claim this functionality. As a result, DV changes the editing paradigm, blurring the distinction between offline and online. From that vantage point, timecode could be seen as less important. You never need to output a list because there’s no higher quality to go to. Instead, you output your show and when you’re done, you’re done. Few Guild members work this way, but as hardware continues to improve we may do so in the future.
Of course, the system can be used in a traditional online/offline environment. Timecode functionality comes with Adobe Premiere, which is included. The program also offers a more robust editing interface than Rex Edit and better audio flexibility. Initially I had some problems getting the capture settings to work within Premiere, but after a quick call to the Canopus support hotline I was directed to a new set of beta drivers and got up and running. From various posts on their website, it appears that many users are cutting with Premiere for longer pieces and mixed media projects, then using Rex Edit Software to generate effects.
What makes the Canopus/Premiere combination unique is that all the Canopus real-time effects are available within Premiere as plug-ins and, depending on your hardware, you can theoretically layer multiple real-time effects and play them live. Unfortunately, I was unable to test these real-time features because the necessary drivers weren’t ready during the testing period. In my tests, I found Premiere to be slow and cumbersome when using any more than two video tracks. I tested the system with Premiere 5.1. By the time you read this, it should be shipping with version 6.
A full review of Premiere is beyond the scope of this article. It offers a broad feature-set and many low-budget filmmakers use it successfully. But for basic editing functions, cutting dialog and building a scene, Premiere felt crude, slow and awkward compared to the equipment that most of us are familiar with, including Avid, Lightworks, and Final Cut Pro.
In my tests, the DVRex hardware was very stable, capable and fast. It was easy to set up and simple to use. It makes conversion of standard-format materials to DV particularly easy: there are no switches or input selectors to worry about and the quality of the resulting DV material is very good. I compared rendering speed to a single processor Mac G4 and found that the Canopus system could handle After Effects composites about twice as fast. I was able to use the Rex Edit software to capture and generate a title sequence, which I then imported into After Effects. I added a ripple effect and introduced some blur, then output the sequence back into Rex Edit and finally into Final Cut Pro on my Mac with no visible degradation in DV image quality. That simple test illustrates the power and utility of the DV/Firewire standard – the ability to move full-res., online quality material from application to application and even across platforms without degradation.
With its currently limited software, it’s hard to recommend this system for professional long-form use – unless its unique multi-layer real-time features are critical to you. But Avid has recently announced a software-only version of Xpress DV. The program runs on a laptop, using the Canopus codec, but if it were to be made compatible with the Rex R3 hardware, editors might have the best of both worlds: Avid software and powerful, portable, real-time hardware. Though Xpress DV doesn’t have all the features of a Film or Media Composer, it permits filmmakers to exchange bin and sequence data all the way up the Avid family tree. Thus it may finally be possible to begin cutting your show on a portable system located on set, and move your work seamlessly to the Avid in your cutting room. But there’s a catch. Xpress DV only works at 30 frames-per-second and Avid has not announced plans for a 24-fps version.
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DVREX R3 SPECS | ||
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Video |
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Analog NTSC and PAL based on DV specification. Standard 5:1 DV compression. Real-time video window on computer monitor in up to 1600x1200x32bpp. |
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Video Inputs |
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Firewire, Composite, S-Video. (The Rex Pro system offers component input.) |
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Video Outputs |
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Firewire, Composite, S-Video, Component. |
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Audio I/O |
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RCA connectors. (The Rex Pro offers XLR I/O.) |
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Analog Video Controls |
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Brightness, contrast, color saturation, hue, video filters. |
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Deck Control |
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Frame-accurate control of DV devices in input or output. Shuttle jog control with MS IntelliMouse. |
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File Size |
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DVRex-M1 software overcomes the Windows 2GB file size limitation, allowing for one-pass digitizing. |
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Audio Channels |
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Rex Edit can play four tracks, but one must be dedicated to sync audio (the result of a limitation in the AVI file format). Under Premiere the system can cut 99 tracks and play four. The hardware can intermix audio recorded at different sample rates. |
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Canopus is very interested in improving Rex Edit with features that will appeal to professional users. The company is actively soliciting feedback for improvements and newer versions will almost certainly provide more of the functionality that Guild members need. For more, see www.canopuscorp.com, www.2-pop.com/articles/2000-10-19.html and www.avid.com/products/avidxpressdv.
Alan Bell is a picture editor and former Guild Board member.
He recently cut 'Bait' for Castle Rock and is the founder of directorunknown.com,
a digital cinema website. He can be reached via email
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine
Vol. 22, No. 1 - March/April 2001
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Copyright © 2001, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700