Middio is a new site, currently in beta, that’s indexing music videos from YouTube and tagging them with the artist and song name. The site plans to offer improved searching and browsing for music videos and better filtering of irrelevant content. The site plans to also offer an option for saving videos in iPod-compatible format.

Here’s the description from their site:

Middio is a simple website that organizes music videos uploaded by the public to YouTube. In other words, Middio goes through the trouble of finding and properly tagging music videos already floating around the web so that you don’t have to. No bothersome ads are shown on any page or before any videos begin — Middio gives you only what you ask for.

It’s the latest site to piggyback on YouTube’s popularity. One has to wonder, though, about the viability of a site that is dependent on YouTube usability flaws. YouTube could improve their search relevency and make Middio redundant.

You also have to wonder about building a business that depends on another businesses’ ability to use a third-party’s content. Earlier in the year, Viacom sued Google/YouTube for $1.6

via TechCrunch

NAB: Apple has introduced Final Cut Server, a powerful new server application that works seamlessly with Final Cut Studio 2 to provide media asset management and workflow automation for post production and broadcast professionals.

A scaleable server application that supports workgroups of any size, Final Cut Server includes a cross-platform client that enables content browsing, review and approval from within a studio or over the Internet. Final Cut Server automatically catalogs large collections of assets and enables searching across multiple volumes via an intuitive user interface. Final Cut Server is designed to manage the flow of work, as assets and projects move from producer to editor to artist through the entire production process.

“Final Cut Server’s powerful media asset management capabilities simplify managing the thousands of assets that make up a typical edit,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “And Final Cut Server’s sophisticated workflow automation tools ensure projects flow smoothly through an organization, enabling everyone to be more productive.” (more…)

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• Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces Apple’s ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes and support for mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline;
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• Soundtrack Pro 2 with dozens of innovative tools for multitrack editing, surround mixing and conforming sound to picture;
• Compressor 3 delivering powerful batch encoding for multiple formats with a single click; and
• DVD Studio Pro 4.2 for SD and HD DVD authoring.
• Final Cut Studio 2 also introduces “Color,” a professional color grading and finishing application for ensuring consistent color and creating signature looks.

“Final Cut Studio 2 was specifically designed to enable the rapidly growing community of over 800,000 Final Cut editors worldwide to animate, mix, grade and deliver their work as a natural extension of the editorial process,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “Final Cut Studio 2 is the most powerful production suite on the planet.” (more…)

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For content publishers, Adobe Media Player enables better ways to deliver, monetize, brand, track and protect video content. It provides an array of video delivery options for high-quality online and offline playback, including on-demand streaming, live streaming, progressive download, and protected download-and-play. The Adobe Media Player enables a wider selection of monetization and branding options including viewer-centric dynamic advertising and the ability to customize the look and feel of the player on the fly to match the brand or theme of the currently playing content. (more…)

NAB: Blackmagic Design today announced Intensity Pro, a new high quality video capture and playback card for professional videographers.

Intensity Pro is the first card to combine HDMI capture and playback with the wide compatibility of analog component, NTSC, PAL and S-Video and analog audio capture and playback. It enables users to capture directly from the HD camera’s image sensor, bypassing the video compression chip for true uncompressed video quality. Now users can go beyond the quality limits of HDV for editing, design and authoring with Intensity Pro.

“We think with the combination of HDMI and analog on a single PCI Express plug in card at a very affordable $349 will change the lives of thousands of professional videographers,” says Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Intensity Pro’s new analog compatibility, combined with HD up and down conversion real time processing, allows videographers to now edit in either SD or HD, while keeping compatibility with older equipment and their archived video footage.” (more…)