Pro-One now includes ver 1.5 driver w/ Win XP & Win 2K support!!

The first and most important is Hollywood FX RT.

Left - The very powerful and easy to use Hollywood FX RT interface

Right - just one of the powerful customization controls

Now with HFX RT you can customize almost every aspect of the transition, including top & side, camera angles, graphics layers and more – while still getting real-time output. In addition, as Hollywood Effects has matured, the interface has become very easy to use. The result is a an easy-to-use program that has a tremendous amount of depth if you choose to get into it. As a result you are going to find that you can use these effects more creatively and even more important, alter the FX to fit your project and footage, rather than the other way around!!

Left - Just a couple of the amazing real-time transitions you can do with Hollywood FX RT & the Pinnacle Pro-ONE

The second breakthrough capability of the Pro-ONE is its ability to layer multiple real-time FX, filters, and transitions at the same time.

You get several real-time filters including image correction, image stabilization (more on that later), Zoom & Rotate, and motion. The real-time filter library also includes filters that can be used as transitions such as PIP, page peel and page curl. You can combine multiple filters and real-time transitions together, giving you up to 10 layers of real-time FX!

You also get real-time speed control. All you do is right click on your clip, select speed and type in a number. (ie 66 for two-thirds slow motion, 150 for one and a half times fast motion). The Pro-ONE real-time speed control algorithm is field-based - so your clips play back perfectly smooth, in real-time. You can apply different speed controls to two different clips at the same time!

We've done Picture in picture segments with one layer turned black & white and in slow motion while the other clip is running at double speed, zooming and rotating on screen while we color correct for poor white balance. Then we created customized motion paths for the PIP and changed its size and rotation. Every effect fully keyframed and customized. All at the same time, all in real-time - regardless of the duration of the effects and filters. All with an affordable 1Ghz single CPU computer!!!

Above - the Pro-ONE image correction and gradient wipe filter GUI
Below - The Pro-One Picture in Picture controls and the save feature

Even cooler, you can save any and all keyframed and customized FX for later use.

You can also apply any of the filters to a graphic or an image. This allows you to create 3D moving titles from TitleDeko. You can apply your logo, name or "bug" to the video for any duration, over multiple transitions and FX and still stay real-time. We did this with the Videoguys.com title you will see on several of the sample images in this review. Not only did we add the videoguys.com bug, but we had it moving all over the screen, keyframed to sync perfectly with our video content.

Below - Pro-ONE PIP & filter samples

The third major new breakthrough technology to be found in the Pro-ONE is the automatic real-time image stabilizer.

All you do is select the clip and apply the image stabilizer filter. It automatically analyzes the footage, then stabilizes and crops it. This automated process can take up to a minute for a 30 second segment, depending on the stabilization needed and the footage. Once the footage is analyzed and stabilized, it plays back from the timeline in real-time. When we combined stabilized footage with the basic Pinnacle real-time transitions we maintained real-time pperformance. Combining stabilized footage with some of the real-time HFX transitions sometimes resulted in needing to render. We found that if we experimented with the order that we applied our FX and transitions, we could get some of these sequences to remain real-time.

If you look closely at the image to the left, you will see little green plus signs. These are the contrast points the automatic stabilizer's intelligent algorithms have selected. As you watch the stabilizer analyze the frames you'll see these points move with the video. The better the contrast it can find, the more clustered the points will be and the better the stabilization will be.

We had very good results with most of the footage we tested. On some shots we found that be changing the in point of the video clip a few frames could result in a much better automatic stabilization. The stabilizer is an amazing new feature, but your results may vary, depending on the footage and the video itself. If the stabilizer can pick out a solid line of high contrast (like the edge of a table) it can really do an amazing job. If you try to use it with strong, high contrast patterns in the picture ( like a checkerboard tile floor or a picket fence) it will get confused and create a video clip that just doesn't seem right when you watch it. It's hard to explain what happens, but it's almost like a reverse jitter. The stabilizer does such a good job with the pattern that the people seem to almost vibrate.

I've spoken with Pinnacle and they are looking into adding further optimatization in the future that could include giving the editor some control over the stabilization variables. With the added abitity of being able to select the portion of the video we most wanted stabilized, or the area that we realize would result in the best stabilization, I think we'll get even better results. I think we are going to be getting some stabilizer controls in future software releases.

Speaking of software, it should be noted that the Pro-ONE represents the first tangible new features we've seen that are a direct result of Pinnacles software acquisitions over the past few years .

Pinnacle has been integrating TitleDeko into their capture cards for years. Now with TitleDeko RT you can preview the title, superimposed on the video on your TV monitor. This feature is very cool, especially if you are like me and you like to tweak your titles so that they fit perfectly on the page.

We've already gone into detail about Hollywood FX RT. Now lets talk about the least obvious, but to me most important new blending of Pinnacle's software and hardware technology yet. The big guys in Hollywood use Commotion all the time. It is a very powerful paint and compositing program. It is often used to remove wires and create all kinds of incredible compositing FX. If you've seen Gladiator or Driven, you've seen the results of Commotion. Commotion Pro has long had one of the best motion trackers in the industry. The Pro-ONE's Image Stabilizer is based on the same core technology used in Commotion. I can't wait to see what other Commotion features will be given real-time performance in future products!! Getting back to Hollywood FX, one of it's coolest features has been the ability to upgrade to more powerful versions and to download new FX from the Club Hollywood FX library. Well, not only can you still do this, but most of them will be in real-time!! My sources at Pinnacle tell me that the new HFX Silver 4.5 will be coming out in about a month. HFX Silver 4.5 will have a new plug-in architecture and 3D titling tool plus many of the new FX in Silver will be real-time for Pro-ONE users. We'll be offering a really nice upgrade package for Pro-ONE owners when Silver 4.5 ships.

Once again, the Pro-ONE delivers all this real-time performance and more with a single 700Mhz or faster CPU!

Note: This system is not officially approved by Pinnacle. We went with the VideoRAID because we knew this system would be on the edge. When in doubt about your systems power and compatibility, it never hurts to go a little overboard on the storage. In a screaming new machine a single dedicate ATA100 EIDE drive at 7200 rpm should get the job done for all but the most complex, long format productions.

Our first tests were with pre-release software. We were immediately able to capture and edit video, using all the real-time features. Initially we did have some stability issues, every 15 minutes or so Premiere would get sluggish. All we had to do was minimize, then maximize it and we were back in business. The next day we moved the Pro-ONE to a different slot and the stability improved dramatically. We still felt our preview windows were not quite right. So we put in a 64 meg Radeon graphics card and we went into HFX settings and turned on the Open GL rendering engine. Our Pro-ONE system is now running on all cylinders with remarkable stability for a brand new product with so much new technology in it.

Pro-ONE wish list
I do have two things about the Pro-ONE which would make it a lot better. The first is coming soon and should be available as a download in October – Win2K drivers. The Pro-ONE initially ships with Win98SE /ME drivers. While we've gotten good stability from our test system, I've become a big Win2K guy. I just think it's the best choice for NLE. The folks at Pinnacle understand this and not only are Win2K drivers coming soon, but so are Windows XP drivers. Even more important the Pro-ONE CODEC is multi-threaded, so it will be able to take advantage of multi-processors once the Win2K drivers are released.

The second item on my wish list is real-time DV output. Once again Pinnacle understands how important this feature is. It just came down to what they could include in this particular product. Although real-time DV would be nice to have, it would have meant having to wait several months for the Pro-ONE to ship and it would end up being much more expensive. Given that choice, I'll gladly take the Pro-ONE today, at $1199! We ran some rendering tests to see just how long it would take to render our very complex real-time projects for DV output. We found that rendering took on average 6-7 times real-time. This was on our single 1Ghz CPU. The very interesting thing here is that even when we loaded our video up with complex HFX transitions, the DV rendering time was about the same. I've been used to having my 3D FX render at 10, 20 or even 30 times real-time. So the Pro-ONE hardware is definitely accelerating the rendering for these HFX transitions. I would estimate that with dual processors and Win2K the rendering time to DV output will be under 4 to 1.

I really like the Pro-ONE. If you've got a non real-time DV card I think you will agree that the Pro-ONE has enough power, performance and cool new features to make upgrading worthwhile. If you're new to video editing and you want the coolest variety of real-time FX and features then the Pro-ONE is for you as well. Heck, I think this card is so cool that early RT2000 and DV500 owners are going to want to check it out and consider upgrading as well.

The Pro-ONE is FUN!

Just being able to alter the speed of my clips whenever I wanted to made my editing a lot more fun. I really like using the speed control, especially when I'm shooting the kids playing sports. Now I can really tweak it up, while staying in real-time, all the time.

I've also really had a blast playing with the fully customizable PIP controls. I've created an effect where the PIP can be made to float out of someone's head, with a very soft edge, then expand and float over them. Then I have it pop back into their heads. This effect is a great way to show what the person is thinking or dreaming of.

Wedding videographer's are going to love all the cool transitions geared especially for them. The animated 3D photo album, the heart transitions and 3D picture frames. There are also several pre-set Hollywood FX that are great for corporate, event, sports and news type footage.

They've also got some really great dual 3D PIPs that are outstanding for interviews and switching back & forth between multiple locations.

The more I play with it, the more cool ways I find I can work the FX into my projects. Not as some intrusive cheesy transition, but as an integral part of the storytelling. And that my friends is what good video is all about. Telling the viewers a story. With the Pro-ONE you'll have all the real-time tools you need to get the job done (if you can stop fooling around with it long enough to actually get some work done) !!!)

The Pro-ONE is a full size capture card that requires a PCI slot. It includes a break out box and FireWire cable. You get Adobe Premiere 6 for your Non-Linear Editing and DV Tools for auto logging, batch capture and clip management. You also get Impression DVD SE, a complete DVD authoring solution. In addition you get Hollywood FX RT, TitleDeko RT, and Alpha Magic RT integrated into the software. When you install the Pro-ONE, these plug-ins install into Premiere automatically. Add it all up, and the Pro-ONE is one heck of a value!!