Saturday, July 27, 2024
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What was new in EDIUS 8

Grass Valley work on a 2 year cycle and, rather than bring out a program with a lot of new features and then nothing major for 2 years, they are bringing out the new version and then add more features every couple of months for the two year life time. I made several videos about the new features of each release of EDIUS 8 as they were released.

This way of slowly evolving a program is very like programs which are available on subscription, like Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro, however, the major difference is that when a new version arrives, like EDIUS 9 which is about to arrive as I write this, then you can decide whether you want to buy it when it arrives, or wait for some features to arrive that you think you will use. If you never decide to upgrade to EDIUS 9 then your c0py of EDIUS 8 will carry on working.

The following were added during the 2 year life span of EDIUS 8. The following features were added to both the Pro and Workgroup versions of EDIUS.

  • Updated, scalable interface.
  • New grading using the Primary Colour Corrector
  • Ability to load LUTS
  • Mync – a new cataloguing program
  • Project templates
  • Motion tracking in the mask filter
  • Improved slow motion (optical flow)
  • Quick Sync playback enhancement for H.264 files.
  • Playback of H.265 footage (also accelerated by Quick Sync on Kaby Lake processors)
  • Improved playback or QuickTime ProRes and DNxHD files.
  • Removing the need to install QuickTime for Windows with EDIUS
  • Support for a variety of new formats including 10 bit H.264 files made by cameras like the Panasonic GH4.
  • Windows 10 support

The following features were added to the Workgroup version:

  • Playback resolution drop down.
  • Loudness auto adjust – on export you simply tick a box and the audio levels are automatically adjusted to be within defined loudness standards.

Below you will find more information on some of these features. You can also see a variety of videos I have made on the new features as they are released here:

A new interface

The interface has been redesigned to make it look more like a modern program.  The biggest change has to been to make sure it scales properly on the new ultra-high definition screens which are becoming available.  By this we mean computer screens which are bigger than 1920×1080 resolution.  You can now get UHD computer screens (3840×2160) for reasonable prices and people are starting to use them as the main screen on which to view Windows.  However, many programs do not scale properly on these very high resolutions screens with the result that a lot of text and buttons become so small they are unreadable.  This is true of EDIUS 7.

The new EDIUS interface is designed to scale properly on high res screens so you can see everything.  Currently all programs are being reconfigured to overcome this kind of problem – Adobe did it towards the end of 2015 with Premiere Pro CC. Blackmagic Resolve 12, also changed to a scalable interface in 2016. Avid have only just released a version of Avid Media Composer, in September 2017, which can scale to some resolutions on 4K screens.

At the same time the interface has been streamlined to bring it in line with modern programs.  Our favourite change has to be the bin display where we can now resize the icons representing the clips using a slider rather than just having two preset sizes. The other good thing about the new interface is that although it has been changed and updated, everything is basically in the same place so you don’t have to re-learn the program if you are used to EDIUS 7.

Mync

Mync (originally called the GV Browser) was first introduced with EDIUS 8.1 and is a program which you can use to find and catalogue footage on your computer.  Mync is short for Media Sync.

You may have had a similar program with your camera – I had one with our Sony 3D camera, for example – which lets you catalogue the footage, tag it and display it in various ways, including a calendar and timeline view.  You can also make “smart catalogues” which bring together clips from all over your hard drives into a folder and shows clips that only have certain attributes – such as just UHD clips, or clips filmed on a certain camera, or with a tag you have added, or any combination of these.  These smart bins update as more clips are added.

What makes the Mync different from the Sony or Panasonic browser (which tend to just show files made on that particular camera) is that it can display a huge range of clip formats including AVCHD, XDCAM-EX,Panasonic P2, Red footage and even Avid DNxHD in an MXF file – if you have the Workgroup version of EDIUS which supports that format.  So it will catalogue just about any type of media you have on your hard drive.

Mync’s bins and Smart catalogues will then appear in your EDIUS Source browser and you drag clips from the Source browser into the EDIUS bin.

You can buy Mync as a stand-alone program and there is also a free version of the program. The version that ships with EDIUS is the paid version and includes the ability to make storyboards from the media which you can export to EDIUS and other programs.

Quick Sync playback support

EDIUS 7 currently uses Intel Quick Sync for fast encoding into H.264.  EDIUS 8 uses Quick Sync to help play back footage as well so this means we should get better playback and more layers of effects on a computer which has Quick Sync.  Quick Sync is found on several variations of i7 processor – Sandybridge, Ivybridge and Haswell – and is the most common kind of processor we have in our EDIUS system.

Optimised playback for DNxHD and ProRes files (added in EDIUS 8.1)

These commonly used formats will play better in EDIUS 8, than in EDIUS 7. This applies to MOV files and MXF variations. MXF Avid DNxHD files are only usually in EDIUS Workgroup 8.

Project templates

Set up a project the way you want it – with some media already added, titles added, sequences laid out in exactly the way you want, and then save this as a template for future projects.

OFX Plug-in bridge

This add-on lets you use certain OFX plug-ins inside EDIUS. Various plug-ins are supported including Sapphire. Not ALL OFX plug-ins will work automatically through the bridge so check if the plug-in you would like to use will work via the bridge. Hitfilm Ignite plug-ins were originally loaded via the OFX Bridge, but later HitFilm made their plug-ins load directly into EDIUS just like EDIUS’ native effects. The OFX bridge is made by NewBlue for EDIUS and is free. It is not installed as default with EDIUS, you choose to install it if you want to use OFX effects.. Currently they also install a version of Titler Pro 2 for EDIUS, which will work for 1 year before you need to pay for the full version.

Windows 10 support

EDIUS 8.1 was the first version to properly support Windows 10. Other versions of EDIUS may work on Windows 10 but are not officially supported which means if you find something that does not work then it will not be fixed. The most obvious example is Intel Quick Sync. In Windows 10 the Intel Graphic card which powers Quick Sync uses recent Intel drivers. They do not work with older versions of EDIUS and you cannot backdate to a version that will work; however, they work perfectly with EDIUS 8.

EDIUS still work properly on Windows 7 and Windows 8 and is still supported on these o/ses. Grass Valley will also support EDIUS 9 on Windows 7 and 10.