Grass Valley ProCoder Version 3 Released

Grass Valley's latest version of ProCoder professional grade format converter adds new acquisition formats, outputs for mobile video and MP3 players, and just as importantly supports multi-CPU and multi-core PCs for high-speed conversion throughput.
Version 3 of the PC software only ProCoder includes the H.264 codec that is popular in IPod, PSP and other compression heavy mobile video hardware. AVCHD decoding supports the latest generation of MPEG-4 format camcorders. Inverse telecine process conversion is also supported: Material that had been converted to interlace format with 3:2 pulldown can be restored to progressive film frame rates. Dolby Digital support caters for DVD production processes and channel audio mapping gives the option to swap channels.
Grass Valley has strived to ensure that this powerful video software converter remains highly flexible. ProCoder provides options for batch processing of files, priority queuing and simultaneous creation of multiple destination files. Folders on the PC may also be allocated as "Watch Folders" for quick and simple conversion of files placed in these folders.
Extensive video filtering options are included to help achieve high quality in transfers. Colour correction, noise reduction and fade in and fade out may be specified as part of the conversion process.
Grass Valley makes the bold claim for their latest release of ProCoder "anything in, anything out". While this would require some serious substantiation, given the plethora of possible video acquisition formats bombarding production companies and post-production edit suites, ProCoder nonetheless remains a useful item in the editors' armoury to ensure workflow processing in the increasing jungle of video formats.
(SP)