Intel-based Macs Running Final Cut Pro Gain the Benefits of High Visual Fidelity and High Bit Depth Precision Offered by CineForm Intermediate Software

CineForm, Inc. announced that it has released an unrestricted public beta of its CineForm Intermediate software codec for Intel-based Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” systems running Apple’s Final Cut Pro. CineForm Intermediate is now offered as an extremely high-quality QuickTime™ movie running under Mac OS X. These QuickTime movie files offer 10 bits of arithmetic precision with spatial resolution up to 2K (2048 x 2048). Intended for Professional and Prosumer applications that demand high visual fidelity without the need for specialized hardware, CineForm Intermediate QuickTime files are visually identical to the .AVI files CineForm has supported on the Windows platform for many years. Further, CineForm QuickTime movie files are completely cross-platform (Windows or Mac) compatible, and may be created and played on either platform.
“CineForm’s compressed Digital Intermediate workflow has become synonymous with high visual fidelity and efficient software performance on the Windows platform”, said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm. “With Apple’s recent move to Intel CPUs, the Macintosh, where perhaps 70% of independent film productions originate, has now become an extremely high-performance platform for our software. Combined with the broad market reach of Final Cut Pro, we’re enthused to offer our online workflow to the largest content-creation community while also enabling cross-platform file and workflow compatibility”.

In additional news, Wafian Corporation (www.wafian.com) is now shipping its HR1 direct-to-disk HD-SDI recorders with the option to record directly into Cineform Intermediate QuickTime movie files. This allows Wafian customers to choose either Mac OS X (Final Cut Pro) or Windows (Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas) as the primary editing platform.

Product Overview
The CineForm Intermediate codec for Mac OS X offers the same visual fidelity as its Windows counterpart, with 10-bit precision, 4:2:2 chroma, and up to 2K spatial resolution. Numerous workflow features plus codec performance will be updated regularly throughout the beta period, including adding support for CineForm RAW, spatial and temporal image resampling, plus HD-SDI and HDMI acquisition interfaces. The software requires an Intel-based Mac and is compatible with Final Cut Pro. CineForm QuickTime files created on either Windows or Mac OS X machines may be moved between platforms with full compatibility. CineForm intends full support for the next version of Adobe Production Studio for Mac OS X when it is released later in 2007.

Pricing and Availability
CineForm Intermediate software for Mac OS X is available now from CineForm’s website (www.cineform.com) as an unrestricted no-charge public beta for all users with Intel-based Macs. The beta period will last into May of 2007, after which CineForm will announce pricing and feature details for its production release.

www.cineform.com