FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARLSBAD, CA, June 6, 2005 – CineForm, Inc. today is announcing that new versions of its market-leading HDV™ software editing products are the first to offer special support for the progressive CineFrame™ modes in Sony’s HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1 HDV camcorders. Both Aspect HD (v3.1) for Adobe^® Premiere^® Pro and Connect HD (v1.7) can create a 24-frame progressive output file while ingesting footage shot in Sony’s CineFrame modes.  Both products are in production.

Sony’s HDV camcorders offer special progressive modes called “CineFrame” which record progressive 24, 25, or 30 frame-per-second video sequences on tape using an interlaced MPEG2 50i or 60i signal.  However, if film output is desired at project completion, it is preferable to edit using a 24p workflow, and not use the interlaced tape format.  The new features in CineForm’s Aspect HD and Connect HD uniquely extract a 24 fps progressive sequence from Sony’s CineFrame-24 or CineFrame-25 modes,  which is then stored in CineForm Intermediate™ format. The resulting files can then be edited using Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, or other AVI-compatible applications.

“We included the CineFrame modes in our HDV camcorders to offer professional users the creative flexibility to shoot in 24, 25, 30, 50 or 60 pictures per second,” explained Juan Martinez, senior product manager in Sony Electronics’ Professional Video Products group.  “The support that CineForm provides for our CineFrame modes in their latest product releases gives our users a higher level of production flexibility and the ability to take advantage of an enhanced ‘film-style’ editing workflow.  As a result, we expect more moviemakers and documentarians to realize the benefits of using Sony HDV camcorders for their next release.”

“We pride ourselves on offering feature-leading solutions to the HD post-production community”, said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm.  "Our CineForm Intermediate technologies have been used for Professional online editing of feature films, and we wanted to enable the same workflow for users of HDV camcorders.  Sony’s innovative HDV CineFrame modes are the perfect underlying technology for us to enable this workflow.” 

About Aspect HD and Connect HD

Aspect HD enables Adobe Premiere Pro to achieve unprecedented real-time editing performance for HD post-production.  On a modern desktop PC, Aspect HD will edit up to four 1080i HDV streams simultaneously, including over 40 HD-optimized transitions, effects, and color corrections, plus graphic and title overlays – all without the need for specialized hardware.  Aspect HD is built on patent-pending CineForm Intermediate software components including CineForm’s Visually Perfect™ post-production codec and CineForm’s video effects and processing pipeline. 

Connect HD includes the CineForm Intermediate codec to allow editing of HDV-resolution material in any Windows AVI-compatible application, with special optimizations for Sony Vegas 6.  HDV I/O components are included to allow capture, export, and conversion of HDV footage external to video editing applications. 

Pricing and Availability

Aspect HD v3.1 and Connect HD v1.7 are available for purchase from CineForm’s expanding network of resellers or from CineForm’s website www.cineform.com.  The retail price of Connect HD is $199; Aspect HD is $499.  An Aspect HD v3.1 bundle that also includes Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, Adobe Audition™, and Adobe Encore® DVD is priced at $799.  Through June 10, CineForm is offering a promotional purchase price for Aspect HD to customers who first download the 15-day trial version, available from CineForm’s website.  Existing CineForm customers may upgrade to either Aspect HD v3.1 or Connect HD v1.7 without charge.

About CineForm

CineForm, Inc., located in Carlsbad, California, develops software technologies and products for use by media professionals in high-resolution post-production applications. CineForm's acclaimed products provide unmatched video quality and real-time performance within an editing environment while enabling an online compressed Digital Intermediate workflow that runs on affordable Windows desktop PCs. For more information, contact CineForm at 760-804-5905 x306, or visit CineForm’s website at www.cineform.com.

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Adobe and Premiere are (registered) trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.  HDV is a registered trademark of Sony, JVC, Canon, and Sharp.  CineFrame is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation.