Fast Motion allows you to automize single image recordings, with long (adjustable) breaks between the recordings. This allows you to film a growing plant and play it back in super-high-speed, but it also allowsyou to record the setup procedure for a party, the arrival of guests, the decoration procedure of a Christmas tree, and much more.  

Original timecode for video playback

When playing back video over the analogue outputs, you do see the timecode in the image, always counting from zero. Many customers want to see the original DV timecode instead, for many purposes. Now, this is possible by switching the timecode display from “Casablanca” to “Original DV”.  

Group-Function for scenes in the scene bin

Smart Edit traditionally sorts scenes in the order of their recordings to the harddrive. But especially in longer projects, it is desirable to group scenes for the benefit of a more tidy scene bin. This allows you to find

scenes faster.

SE7 allows you to define scene groups and put scenes into such groups. A wedding project could have groups like reception, ceremony, party and so on. There is no limit on the number of possible groups.

It is possible to select a number of groups and blend out all the others. This enhances the access speed even further, as you can focus only

on the relevant scenes for that part of the  project.

Enhanced FX Preview modes

This very important part of the FX system has been enhanced much. Until now, there was a single image preview that could preview the original, the effect and a 50/50 image, with the original scene at the left side and the effect scene at the right side.

Now, it is possible to display both the original and the effect scene side by side. If used in a high resolution VGA mode, the two scenes will be full resolution, otherwise there is a choice between a downscaled version or a full resolution, but cropped display of the two scenes.  

For the Special effects in the Edit menu, there is a looping preview that restarts as soon as changes to the effect

settings have been applied.  

Enhancements in the titler

The titler now offers a shadow with smooth edges, and further allows a smoothing of the titles themselves.  

Special-FX (edit menu) now work in HDV projects as well

When working in HDV mode, several effects have not been functional. Most of these effects have been developed by third party (non-MacroSystem) engineers. As it is necessary for HDV compatibility to change the software itself, some products are not yet compatible for high definition video.  

Over time, more and more effects are made HDV compatible, like Photo-Studio 2 or CBPaint 2. But for now, there are still software products that are SD only. Especially the MotionPerfect Slow Motion product is severely missed by many users.

Smart Edit 7 now allows the usage of most effects under Special (Edit menu). Therefore, it is now possible to apply MotionPerfect directly to an HDV scene.  As the HDV scene has do be downscaled to SD in the process, the image quality won’t be as good as a “native” HDV effect would achieve, but it certainly is a big enhancement. The downscaling is very high quality.  

Nevertheless, we are working with our third party developers in order to update their products to be “native” HDV compatible.  

Auto-Split available for HDV recordings down converted to DV by the HDV camera

So far, the auto split function worked fine for both DV and HDV projects, but it did not work for DV projects for footage that was down converted by the camera. The reason: The camera did not output the HDV timecode in DV down conversion mode.

Now, it is possible to switch the camera to “Time” rather than to “Startcode”. In this mode, the auto split function works properly for HDV to DV down converted footage.

Much enhanced VGA display modes (higher resolutions, multi-row scene bin)

VGA editing (either in single or dual monitor mode) has become very popular amongst Casablanca users. So far, the resolution was somewhat limited, and especially the higher resolution modes had a lot of “empty” space.

This has been modernized. Now, the screen resolutions can be as high as 1920x1200 pixels (depending on the VGA output specs of the related Casablanca model).  

Further, in those high resolution modes, the scenes in the scene bin will now be arranged in multiple rows instead of a single row of scenes.  

This allows the display of far more scenes at the same time.  These enhancements will make your Casablanca editor ultimately more powerful. It will enhance the capabilities, the ease of use and the speed of the system.

Smartedit 7 is available now