C-Cube plans to start throwing its weight around in the non- linear digital editing arena early next year using its recently announced DVx single chip MPEG-2 codec (CI No 3,249) as a lethal weapon. The company reckons DVx, which combines MPEG2 encode and decode functions in a single case, will lower the cost of the non-linear editing, making it possible to perform high-quality MPEG-2 based editing on a low cost PC. The chip is capable of simultaneously decoding two compressed video streams, said Jo Sutherland product marketing manager at C-Cube. Dvx decreases the overall cost of editing by providing the superior storage efficiency of MPEG2 and integrating video effects processing functions that today can only be achieved with the use of costly external hardware. According to Sutherland, Dvx will open up new options for video editing add in card developers like Truevision and Avid. Lots of companies manufacture add in cards for editing. But they are all J-PEG based. DVx will open up more options in their product line, he said. They will migrate to MPEG-2 soon he said. You can probably expect some MPEG-2 based cards from people like Avid over the next few months, he hinted. C-Cube said it will begin targeting the non-linear editing market in the next six to nine months. The company conducted the first public technology demonstration of dual stream MPEG-2 decoding at the IBC conference in Amsterdam, last weekend.
