Marlboro, MA -- Media 100 Inc. (NASDAQ: MDEA), announced version 2.0 of Finish, the Company's new line of digital video systems on Windows NT. Included in the new release are significant product enhancements, including serial digital interface (SMPTE-259M) support, TitleMotion for Finish (for character generation and animation), a RealTimeFX option, tools for productivity, and a limited-time bundle with ShakeVideo, the award-winning compositing software recently announced at NAB. These features broaden the market for Finish by addressing the most critical needs of today's broadcast, corporate, motion graphics, and broadcast design producers: reliability, broadcast standards support, and content creation tools. Shipments are slated to begin later this month.

"Finish 2.0 marks a significant achievement for Media 100," said Bob Barnshaw, Finish product line manager. "We have expanded our broadcast standards message, increased functionality, and bundled additional value without affecting price. In short, this release follows our strategy to make Finish systems robust and productive for professional content creators while taking advantage of the processing power, open design, and increasing popularity of Windows NT."

According to beta tester Mike Bailey of Triangle Video Productions in Houston, TX, "I have been using the new release for about a week and am really pleased with all the new features. I like the program a lot, especially for broadcast and corporate multimedia productions - it is very easy to use and work with. Finish is the best video program out there."

New Product Features

With more than 100 product enhancements and quality improvements throughout the entire product line, Finish 2.0 is easy to set up, easy to use, robust, and reliable.

Serial Digital Interface

Finish 2.0 introduces SDI capabilities to the entire Finish product line, thus providing customers with simultaneous support of all broadcast standards from a single system. Available for purchase with any Finish model, the SDI Option provides SMPTE 259-M digital video I/O and SMPTE-272 AES/EBU digital audio I/O. The SDI Option retails for $3,995, but is included at no extra charge with Finish V80.

Character Generation

Finish 2.0 is the first nonlinear video system to include Inscriber's TitleMotion. With this customized release, customers can create graphics-based animation and composites, such as lower thirds, fly-ons, rolls, and crawls, directly from within Finish. TitleMotion for Finish includes InscriberAE, the award-winning character generator (CG) that has become the industry standard for Windows NT-based CG applications. Inscriber includes style palettes, double-byte support, kerning, leading, adjustable shadows, and edging features. TitleMotion is tightly integrated into every model of Finish and is provided without charge to the customer.

Real-Time Effects

Real-time effects are now available with all Finish models. Included at no extra charge in Finish V80, and available as the 'RealTimeFX Option' for Finish V20, V40, and V60, this single-slot PCI card provides 23 real-time transitions and real-time chroma and luma keying. The RealTimeFX Option is priced at $2,495.

Limited-time Bundle: ShakeVideo

ShakeVideo is a next-generation compositing application that provides high-performance graphics finishing for broadcast designers, animators, paint artists, and post-production professionals who require speed, quality, and a high level of power and control. Linked together via InstantMedia integration, Finish and ShakeVideo combine to provide full-featured production power for long- and short-form projects including commercials, title sequences, special effects, and station IDs. Through August 27, 1999, ShakeVideo v1.0 will be bundled at no extra charge with every purchase of Finish V60 and V80. ShakeVideo is a $2,000 value.

Other Enhancements

Finish version 2.0 also includes support for right mouse-button menus, 16-bit .WAV support, and import support for sequences of .tga, .pct and .tif files. Support for the Cannon XL1 DV camera has also been added to the DV Option (available separately). Finish V20, V40, V60, and V80 will continue to sell for $4,995, $9,995, $14,995, and $19,995, respectively. For more information about Finish content creation systems, see www.media100.com.