Canopus ProCoder: Multitasking In and Out
Canopus has released ProCoder, a Windows software application that can take almost any video file and compress it into almost any other type of video file. But that's not all. It can take lots of different types of video files and turn them into lots of other types of video files, too -- all at the same time. It's remarkable, and sends a signal to its main competitor, Discreet's Cleaner, that there's a new kid on the block who's capable of lots more tricks for the same $699.
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| Click for enlargement -- Here's where you drag and drop your files for compression, and adjust the parameters on the right. |
Another great innovation that may save you a lot of work is the Advanced tab. Select that, and you're presented with a rudimentary editing interface, where you're able to trim ins and outs, and add filters like a fade, basic color correction, blur, and even key a graphic over the video. Who needs an entire editing application if all you want to do is trim the in point, anyway? This is a great idea. Adding to the convenience is the ability to stitch files together, even if they're not in the same format or have different frame rates. Just select the Stitch checkbox, and click the arrow indicating which clip to be stitched to, and it comes out as one file. Neat.
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| Click for enlargement -- Here's where you pick the compression and file format of your output. Go ahead, select as many as you want! |
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Another creative innovation is the Droplet concept, where you make a custom preset or use one of the included ones, and then ProCoder creates a desktop icon onto which you can drop a video file. Then, it opens ProCoder in a mode where it's ready to start the job -- all you have to do is click on Convert, and it automatically compresses the files you've dropped onto it into your chosen file formats. Or, you can double-click on that droplet and ProCoder opens, waiting for you to tell it which files to process. Hey, it doesn't get any easier or more convenient than this.
Once you have all the files lined up and compression chosen, it's time to go to the Convert tab, where you click on Convert and ProCoder goes to work. On the right, your output list grows with all the files you've asked for. It feels like you're doing lots of things at the same time when it's processing. Being used to one-at-a-time workflow of Cleaner, this is a real hoot for me.
When you install ProCoder, it looks for a copy of Adobe Premiere into which it will install an export plug-in. This is a convenient way to compress your clips from the timeline. But if you want to use a Canopus product like DVStorm to output your video to NTSC while in ProCoder, so you can see a realistic example of your final product for color correction purposes, this is not possible, yet. But Canopus engineers are looking into the possibility of including this feature for a future release. I'm also hoping that Canopus will consider developing a Mac OS X version of this software, which is, at this writing, Windows-only.
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