Grass Valley Announces New Option Packs for T2 Intelligent Digital Disk Recorder

This week at InterBEE (Nov. 17-19) in Chiba, Japan, Grass Valley announced new option packs, as well as Service Pack 3 for the T2 Intelligent Digital Disk Recorder (iDDR). The newly released Service Pack 3 provides increased usability and workflow efficiencies for the T2 iDDR, while the option packs allow for a wider variety of native playback formats.

The Grass Valley T2 iDDR is a next-generation record and playback system that combines advanced nonlinear features (direct, frame-accurate access to content), with VTR-like controls. It has two playback channels and one record channel, all simultaneously and independently available, supporting full 1920×1080 (24p/50i/59.94i) resolution, as well as 720p and 480i formats.

The new Service Pack 3 will provide T2 users with the ability to export MXF (XDCAM format) files for better interoperability with non-Grass Valley nonlinear editing software. The new option packs consist of the “T2 P2 option,” “T2 XDCAM option,” and “T2 Alpha option,” with the “T2 PRO option” combining all three option packs.

The T2 P2 option, allows for the T2 to natively playback P2 MXF format videos, including DVCPRO HD and AVC-Intra directly from a P2 drive or an external mass storage device, as well as the ability to import the clip to the T2 in its original format, or transcode the clip as a Grass Valley HQ file.

The T2 XDCAM option allows for native playback and transcoding of the following XDCAM MXF formats on the T2: XDCAM HD, XDCAM 422, XDCAM IMX, and DVCAM. As with the T2 P2 option, the T2 XDCAM option can natively playback the XDCAM MXF files via external storage, or import the clip into the T2 for direct playout or transcoding into the Grass Valley HQ format.

The T2 Alpha option, allows T2 users to import files which include alpha channel information, which will enhance the workflow when computer graphics are used: When a clip with an alpha channel (transparency information embedded in Targa and HQ files) is imported, the T2 will automatically split the file into separate Key and Fill clips and lock them for synchronized playback from the two player channels.

For those requiring all three options, the T2 Pro option combines the three option packs into a single affordable package.

The new Grass Valley T2 SP3 service pack will be released at no charge in early December. The T2 P2 option, T2 XDCAM option, T2 Alpha option are each priced at $999, while the T2 Pro option bundles all three options for $1,999.