Blackmagic Design Announces Multibridge Extreme 5.4 Software: Featuring New HD to SD Downconversion and 30” Monitoring Support

San Francisco, California, USA - February 9, 2006 - Today, Blackmagic Design announced software Version 5.4 for its highly popular Multibridge Extreme editing and converting solution. Multibridge Extreme is the world's first all-in-one bi-directional A/D and D/A converter featuring a high speed PCI-Express connection. PCI-Express allows Multibridge Extreme to operate as a capture and playback solution with uncompressed HD and SD editing, right through to full feature film 4:4:4 quality by simply plugging the PCI-Express connection into a PCIe Mac OS X or Windows XP based system.

The latest software release for Multibridge Extreme includes:

  1. Hardware HD to SD down conversion features
    • Anamorphic 16:9, Letterbox 16:9 and Center Cut 4:3 down conversion modes
    • Full broadcast quality polyphase interpolation filtering for enhanced video quality
    • Simultaneous HD and SD outputs, also selectable on analog outputs
    • Down conversion will work in PCI-Express Capture mode, or Converter mode
  2. Monitoring support for 30" dual-link DVI-D displays
    • Multibridge Extreme's DVI-D output will now connect to large 30" computer monitors for full-screen real time HD playback.
    • For film editors and compositors needing "large-screen" high resolution HD monitoring, Multibridge Extreme can scale an HD 1920x1080 image up to 2500x1600 to fill the screen.

About Multibridge Extreme

Multibridge Extreme is the world's first all-in-one bidirectional converter featuring a new high-speed 10GBps PCI-Express connection. Being 25 times faster than FireWire, PCIE-Express allows capture and playback of uncompressed video up to 2K feature film resolutions when plug into a computer.

Multibridge Extreme can be used as the highest quality audio and video converter, or as a high-end editing and compositing system for broadcast, post-production and film projects. It instantly switches between HD and SD and features 4:2:2 and Dual Link 4:4:4 video quality. Featuring SDI digital video and Analog Component video, 8 channels of AES/EBU digital audio and two channels of balanced professional XLR analog audio, and two unbalanced audio outputs for low cost in-suite monitoring.

Multibridge Extreme is available now for US$2,595 from authorized Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Availability

Blackmagic's latest software driver is available to registered Multibridge Extreme users, and can be download immediately from the Blackmagic Design support web site located at www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software

Press Photography

Photos of Multibridge Extreme and all Blackmagic products are available at www.blackmagic-design.com/press/resources/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design manufactures the world's highest quality video cards and converters for the postproduction and television broadcast industries. The Multibridge Extreme and DeckLink family of leading quality video cards have changed the post-production industry and made HDTV more affordable for everyone. Blackmagic was founded by some of the world's leading editors and engineers from the post-production industry. This industry knowledge and experience is constantly fed back into our products allowing us to introduce the most amazing creative tools for the industry.

Blackmagic Design has operations in the USA, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Blackmagic Design Worldwide Press Contacts

USA and Europe press enquiries, contact Victoria Battison.
T: +1 408-779-4476
E: victoriab@blackmagic-design.com

Japan press enquiries, contact Jumpei Suzuki.
T: 03-5444-8078
E: suzuki@blackmagic-design.com

SE Asia press enquiries, contact Glen Tay.
T: +65 9791 4446
E: glentay@blackmagic-design.com

China press enquiries, contact Victoria Wang.
T: +8610 6252 3535
E: victoriaw@blackmagic-design.com