Media 100 is making a Come back!

[Jim Wiseman]

Here is the Press Release from Boris:
https://www.borisfx.com/press/media-100-announces-yosemite-support-new-99-pricing.php?utm_source=social&utm_medium=FB&utm_campaign=media100

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1, Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Pro X 10.2.1, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1.6, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K, Blackmagic Teranex, Avid MC, 2013 Mac Pro Hexacore, 1 TB SSD, 64GB RAM, 2-D500: 2012 Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-680 960GB SSD: Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 16GB RAM 250GB SSD

[Aindreas Gallagher]

We got an ice board into our blue and white G3 for AE – watching it get slotted in felt like the Ark opening scene in Raiders. That machine is still a massive soft spot in my heart. Such a hot rod for the time – and the ICE four point gradient was a god of a plug in.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Aindreas Gallagher]

our station bought one as a main online for promos. We went mad working up realtime grading and masking for promo setups and endboard templates. felt like such a beast. And this was just after they’d got burnt on discreet edit. bad run of luck really.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Oliver Peters]

[Jim Wiseman] “You’ve run down the history from there. What is missing is the improvements made after this period, when AJA became the supplier of boards and Boris took over. “

I’ll fill in some of the history here.

At the point that 844x was floundering, M100 was also developing an i/o card that could handle mixed SD and HD in real-time. This was a card that came out of the 844x development effort. M100 was sold to an Israeli company that wanted the hardware more than anything else. This match was not a good fit, so the opportunity came for BorisFX to buy M100.

The Israeli parent company would only sell BorisFX the software and existing support contracts. They assumed that BorisFX would be locked into that hardware, guaranteeing themselves an ongoing revenue stream. BorisFX was smart enough to structure the deal so that the company was only committed to the first run of cards – 125 IIRC. With the software in hand, he quickly worked with AJA to develop drivers for the Kona card. Therefore no more obligation to an outside vendor.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[David Lawrence]

[Andrew Kimery] “Media 100 includes Boris RED for professional transitions, titling, and compositing. As a bonus, when you purchase Media 100 for $99, you receive Boris RED for both Media 100 as well as Adobe Premiere Pro for Mac (CC, CS6, CS5.x). RED is a $695 value on its own!”

I’m sold. Totally worth $99 just for that!

_______________________
David Lawrence
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[Jim Wiseman]

Oliver, thanks for the very interesting information about the hardware research and the Optibase (Israeli company) period in Media 100 history. It was difficult to get information about what was happening with the product then. Also people should know how advanced the hardware and research was at that time. Most people came to Media 100 for the hardware. Even at 80KB/sec it was for most purposes broadcast quality. Up to 300KB MJPEG B was supported. Now the codec choices are broad.

It is interesting the things you had to say about Optibase, the Israeli company that acquired Media 100. They only wanted the hardware, that is obvious. Media 100 was a new division of Data Translation, one of the best analog to digital to analog, etc. companies of the period. Media 100 was John Molinari’s baby. His father’s company was DT, and he or someone there must have been a D/A genius. I really thank you for filling that period in, as I only knew what was happening from the digital and video industry media then. Of course I was interested. Great information.

(Regarding editing history, people should check out Buck’s “Timeline” book(s). They are available as ebooks and are a truly valuable resource on editing history from early film through the present day. The only thoroughly researched history of motion image editing that truly gives you the history of electronic editing up to the present day. Much info about Avid, Media 100, Final Cut, up to the present (a moving target). Thanks for mentioning it Tim, thought this might be a place to plug it!)

But one last point. Although the interface is quite simple to use, it is also very easy to understand and make creative, high quality decisions with. That is the biggest reason I have stuck with it. I can edit quickly and easily without thinking about the interface. Almost all of the dedicated users say this. Anyone who has edited with it in the past knows that for straight cutting and real decision making it is extremely fast and easy to use. My application is mainly for documentaries, and for that it is ideal. A highly developed interface to AE has been part of it since the beginning for effects, Boris Red is directly integrated, and FCP7 XML can take it from there. Audio is excellent and more, dare I say it, tracks (bussable) than you would ever need. Realtime audio effects and dynamics.

Between it and FCPX I’m covered for the foreseeable future. And they are inexpensive (now) and paid for.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1, Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Pro X 10.2.1, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1.6, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K, Blackmagic Teranex, Avid MC, 2013 Mac Pro Hexacore, 1 TB SSD, 64GB RAM, 2-D500: 2012 Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-680 960GB SSD: Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 16GB RAM 250GB SSD

[Marcus Warren]

Media 100 is not making a comeback.
And I am glad that Jim W. backed off of using that phrase.

What is happening now is an experiment or test that could lead to a comeback. It all depends on the success of this $99 deal. The greater the success, the greater the possibility of seeing a new 64 bit version of M100 with new features and interface.

For those of you with varying thoughts on the matter, your posts are welcome because they may help drive what M100 becomes. Of course, your $99 investment helps, too.

Who should take advantage of the $99 deal?
-Media 100 owners using a version prior to Media 100 Suite 2.1
-Premiere owners who would like to add the versatile and powerful Boris RED to their arsenal and gain additional titling, compositing and effects capabilities from a program that normally costs $695 (and not to long ago sold for $995).
-Anyone interested in Boris RED for the above reasons because the program can be launched in standalone mode.
-Folks who are just curious about Media 100.

Let’s be honest. M100 Suite is a capable, professional NLE that has been stymied by lack of real development for the last four years. But make no mistake, it’s a nice tool to have no matter what your primary editor; just try the 60 day trial (60 days!). And as mentioned, it does work with the latest version of the Mac OS.

Tracks – I want to clarify something about the number of tracks available. The Media 100 interface supports 100 video tracks and 24 audio tracks. But with RED, the number of tracks is actually unlimited. In fact, you could “nest” an unlimited amount of clips (and effects) on every one of Media 100’s one hundred tracks.

Many of you will remember the limited video tracks of earlier M100 versions. The A/B transition and fx option is still there (using tracks V and V1). But I’ve used M100 for close to 6 years and more than 99% of my editing does not involve using the A/B scheme. You don’t have to. Really, you don’t.

If you don’t like the A/B option, don’t use it. Just stack (or butt) clips and go.Remember, you have 100 video tracks, plus unlimited clips and effects through RED. Use dissolves or cuts for transitions, or use some third party effects to cover the cuts or build never-before seen transitions using RED. And of course you can still take advantage of the tons of transitions and effects available using the fx track, if you so desire.

You can get a lot done using Media 100 Suite, but even if you don’t care for Media 100, $99 for RED is an outstanding value.

[Jim Wiseman]

Thanks for clarifying the number of tracks video vs. audio. More than I ever needed, at any rate. I should have said Media 100 is finally promoting a great product. This, in itself is a comeback. It is quite a jump from never getting anything but the occasional OS and AJA update with no fanfare,to having a dedicated gung-ho website devoted to Media 100, the editor. It has lain fallow for a couple of years now, although new features have certainly been added since 2.0 came out. I see this as an opportunity for BorisFX and someone with enough vision to evangelize this product and get it to the people who can certainly use it. I have been in touch with the company and I know what the situation is. What we don’t know is what dynamic pushed things this far and who might be involved. I think there will be a real response to this, and if the Media 100 community and the potential users out there see what a value this product is, it will happen. Then we will have the “Comeback” or at least the next step. If you can’t tell, I believe in this product. For $99 it is an absolute steal, even without Boris Red.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1, Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Pro X 10.2.1, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1.6, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K, Blackmagic Teranex, Avid MC, 2013 Mac Pro Hexacore, 1 TB SSD, 64GB RAM, 2-D500: 2012 Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-680 960GB SSD: Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 16GB RAM 250GB SSD

[Morten]

I used Media100 from one of the first versions, until a few years after the company went bankrupt. At that time the only alternative was Final Cut, and from there I have carried on to Premiere CC.

Premiere has become a very powerfull editor, that can also be used for basic compositing. With the promised color correction tools for the next release, I believe they will place themselves as the leading choice for many editors like myself. That is – if you can live with the rental model.

if Media100 was to compete with this, and other offerings like Avid Free, Resolve, FCPX, they will of course need to beef up the interface and functions. But there are a few things that M100 should keep:

– the simplistic approach
– easy to overview layout with colouring of clips
– audio mixer with easy to use real time equaliser and fx
– the mini timeline, that eases up navigation
– A/B roll (make it a preferences option)

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Oliver Peters]

[Jim Wiseman] “Also people should know how advanced the hardware and research was at that time.”

What was amazing was the 844x hardware – their Genesis engine, I believe. The hardware could handle 4 real-time streams of video with up to 6 processes applied. That’s true real-time, none of this GPU-accelerated draft video we consider “real-time” today. A video stream was SD 601, uncompressed, 10-bit, 4444 (RGB+alpha), progressive and 60fps. All interlaced video was internally broken into 60 progressive frames and handled in the ultra-clean pipeline. The 6 processes that could be applied included transforms, color correction, keying, convolutions and a few other things. This was all done in hardware and the chipset placed these processes into the regular video path of each stream.

Unfortunately 844x was introduced at the tail end of SD and beginning of HD. To bridge the gap until HD was dominant (the engineers hoped), they were working on an internal blow-up to HD as a way to meet the need. Since their process was very clean, this blow-up was very acceptable for that time. At this time I believe the other competing hardware i/o cards were still only SD.

The development of this technology was the basis for the HD/SD board that was part of the Optibase deal. That was M100’s first true HD board.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com