Professional video editing card maker Digital Voodoo has announced the suspension of further Mac development for its line of products. Digital Voodoo’s arsenal includes the $3,500 D1 64RT and the $12,000 HD|Fury.
The company says Final Cut Pro 4 is the last version of Apple’s video editing software it will support, and added that it can’t guarantee that future versions of its cards will be compatible with Power Mac G5s.
Digital Voodoo makes a line of Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) video cards used to import and export video to and from computers. The company’s products are aimed and video editors, broadcast designers, visual effects artists and others who need high-quality video import and export capabilities.
In explaining its decision, Digital Voodoo indicated that it believes the future of post production is 10 bit RGB. “Sony with the HDCAM SR and Thompson’s Viper are two companies who believe in the same future. No doubt Panasonic will follow this lead also,” the company said in a statement.
Digital Voodoo called a reliance on QuickTime — Apple’s versatile media technology — as having “some fundamental flaws. For example, it cannot capture sequential files — an absolute must for 10 bit RGB DPX and Cineon. It can not capture more than 2 channels of audio even though most [Non Linear Editors] have been doing this since the mid-late 90’s. QuickTime is updated constantly, which is a big risk for development. Our code could literally be broken over night from a QuickTime update. Moving away from this reliance of QuickTime actually gives our customers real choice with file formats.”
Digital Voodoo said that its development focus is to utilize emerging technologies like “dual link 4:4:4 HD and 10 bit RGB processing for compositing, motion graphics and film work through DPX and Cineon file formats.” To that end, it finds Apple’s development track with Final Cut Pro and QuickTime to be appropriate only if Digital Voodoo “wanted to remain a niche NLE market player and did not want to expand our customer and solutions base.”
The company offered further details about migration options and reassurances about its current Mac support as well. Visit the Web site for more details.