DV Driver from Fast

[Mike Nielsen]

Guess I was sleeping when this one was announced... Interesting idea.
Sorry if this was already posted here.

FAST Information: Press Release

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FAST DV Drive at NAB 1997!
Date: 04/07/97
_________________________________________________________________________

Remarks:
For USA
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New DV Drive For Easy Digital Video
Editing!
FAST signs distribution/OEM agreement with Sony Corp.

NAB 1997, Las Vegas, April 7, 1997---FAST Electronic U.S., Inc. of
Foster City, CA., today announced an OEM agreement with Sony Corp.,
Japan, to distribute and market a DV Drive product. The FASTDV Drive is
a high-speed internal tape drive for Mini-DV cassettes. It can be used
for
feeding DV video to computer-based editing systems such as FAST's DV
Master, or to record DV video once it has been edited. As a worldwide
OEM partner (except for Japan), FAST will offer the product both as a
stand-alone device or bundled with their DV Master professional DV
editing
system. The company will start shipping the product in June.

"We're very proud to be chosen by Sony to introduce the DV Drive to the
U.S. market", said Kelly Michell, President and General Manager of FAST
Electronic U.S., Inc. "Once again FAST's leadership in integrating new
technologies into professional digital editing solutions comes to the
forefront." According to Hiroshi Yoshioka, General Manager of Sony
Japan's Personal Audio and Video Division: "We believe that Sony's DV
technology is a perfect match for nonlinear editing." Added Michell,
"With
the FAST DV Drive and DV Master high quality and low cost all digital
nonlinear editing systems are now available."

The FAST DV Drive is a 5.25" size format (half-height) device for easy
integration into existing PC configurations. It's installed like any
CD-ROM
drive with the important difference that no extra software drivers or
computer interrupts are required. A standard DV cable (included)
connects
the drive's DV output to the editing board (i.e., FAST's DV Master).
With
this cable, DV video, audio, and device control data are transmitted via
built-in standard IEEE 1394 (FireWireTM) protocol. It will be available
in
separate NTSC or PAL versions.

With the FAST DV Drive, users can now tape high-quality video on DV
camcorders, then insert the Mini-DV cassettes directly into a
player/recorder in their computer. This allows users who do not have
access to a FireWire port on their camera to remain Pure DV, throughout
the editing process. FAST DV Drive also saves the camcorder from
wear-and-tear-intensive editing operations. Moreover with the new drive
and DV Master, editors can playback/record to or from their camera or
deck with maximum compatibility assured.

The DV Master is capable of controlling all drive functions of FAST DV
Drive. The user can transfer original footage to/from the hard disk in
real
time, for further digital nonlinear video/audio editing and
post-production
processing. Once editing has been completed, the final DV footage can
easily be recorded back to the drive or to other tape formats via the DV
Master. A cutting-edge PCI busmaster board for the PC, DV Master is the
world's first shipping editing solution for DV and is also the first DV
editing solution to integrate Sony's DVBK-1, a daughter board for
real-time
hardware encoding and decoding of DV data. Apart from the real-time
capabilities of DV Master, features include a simultaneous preview on
video
monitors and as a VGA Inlay on the computer monitor. In addition, DV
Master can convert analog composite and SVHS signals into DV format, as
well as DV video into S-video or YUV/BetaCam/Component signals.
Shipment of DV Master began in March, while the FAST DV Drive will be
introduced in June.

FAST Electronic U.S., Inc., a subsidiary of FAST Multimedia Inc., Foster
City, CA., is an award winning manufacturer of innovative solutions for
PC-based linear/nonlinear video editing and post production. Its cost
effective products include AV Master, DV Master, FAST DV Drive, the
very popular Video Machine and its newest product blue. to be unveiled
at
NAB 1997. FAST has over 100,000 installed editing systems worldwide
and products are available in NTSC or PAL from authorized dealers.