NewTek - VT[4]™

VT[4] version 4.6

Thank you for using NewTek VT[4] for your live, post-production and graphics projects. NewTek is pleased to provide you with the latest version of VT[4]. Version 4.6 enhances the integrated Production Suite with a combination of new features, optimizations and several stability improvements.

New Features
LightWave 3D® 8.5
NewTek is pleased to incorporate the latest 3D feature-set for those customers using VT[4] with LightWave [8]. There have been more than 250 optimizations since version 7.5, with numerous new features added:

Fixed the ‘cannot create path’ warning when clips folder is deleted (4.6c)
Hardware support of OpenGL 2.0
New multi-shift tool with editable history
Photoshop-style texture blending modes
Improved dynamics
Easier integration of third-party file formats.
78 new hotkey combinations, including Caps Lock+Letter, Alt+Letter,
Shift+Alt+Letter, and Shift+Ctrl+Letter combinations.
FXMonkey

FX Monkey has been added for easier creation of logos and motion graphics.
FX Monkey is accessed in Layout > Plugins > Additional > FXMonkey.

NewTek25 Codec
NewTek includes an optimized codec for compressed capture, NewTek25. This 25Mbps audio and video compressor/decompressor will capture video at 4:2:2 color space while also using fewer system resources than the standard Microsoft DV codec. New to version 4.6 is support for the YUY2 FourCC identifier. The benefit is easier recognition of this video from other Windows applications. Further, this inclusion allows you to load the NewTek .avi directly into Windows Media Encoder.

Expanded multi-monitor support

VT[4] version 4.6 now offers the ability to span the workspace across several monitors, and VT-Vision monitors can be placed on the last monitor, even without the VT[4] desktop. This setting is changed in Preferences (shown above).

iVGA™ Client

The NewTek iVGA client, released in version 4.5 has been further improved, with an option for ‘underscan’ for video sources. When selected, this prevents iVGA from resizing the external display to fit within the action safe boundaries

VT-Edit Gamma Control

By popular demand, NewTek has added Gamma controls in VT-Edit. This provides the ability to modify the contrast of any selected clip, image or title in the project.

Audio Mixer Skins

Version 4.6 adds several new audio skins which fit more comfortably within the ‘rack mount’ paradigm used on the VT[4] desktop.

MXF Support
Version 4.6 now adds support for VT-Edit to read files based on the Material eXchange Format (MXF). MXF is a "wrapper" format that supports a number of different streams. Users must install the free Snell & Willcox MXF Desktop for download at http://mxf.snellwilcox.com/ (free registration on their site is required before downloading). Since this relies heavily on Snell & Wilcox’s MXF reader, NewTek does not provide support for this feature.

Version 4.6 Optimizations

Reduced network broadcast traffic when using iVGA on a network that has a large number of individual domains or workgroups.
General CPU usage improvements across all modules. The largest impact will be in WinRTME and with VT-Visions. The total VT "idle" CPU usage has dropped about 2% on most machines.
NewTek Codec supports "YUY2" FourCC, allowing files written with it to be read directly into Windows Media Encoder.
All computer sources, including DV, can be selected on the DSK.
Audio Pass-thru now clamps to 0db
Update to RS8 firmware.
Improved proc-amp default settings for older VT cards.
Better multiple monitor support. The interface can now expand across all screens but the last one, but still have VT-Vision on the last monitor. This allows for configurations with more than 2 monitors to be used.
iVGA has added an "overscan" setting for video output.
Gamma control added in Control Tree for better management of clip color.
New Preference setting for managing disk bandwidth. This allows more video streams to be played and recorded on some disk and machine configurations.
Improvements to "filtering" of file types in file selectors.
Additional skins for some useful audio mixer sizes.
Improvement to PAL / NTSC performance. When you are now in PAL mode there is no way for NTSC to be displayed on output.
Major improvements to the handling of SDI, particularly when digital audio is also connected,
New VT core, 1A6
Title templates support lower resolution background images.

DDRs

Added new keyboard shortcut (Shift + ‘ ) to toggle between List and Selection modes.
Improvements to the performance of "Cue" modes.
De-fielding of DDRs in pause mode when selected in the preferences. (Not selected by default.)

VT-Edit

Added .wmv edit support. If you rename a .WMV file as .AVI, it will now be read by VT-Edit. This is unsupported and some files might not work.
Added MXF playback support, so MXF files can be dropped into VT-Edit. For this to work, you need to install the "Snell and Wilcox MXF Desktop". You also need the correct "codecs" installed on the machine in order to play the file. This is unsupported and some files may not work.
Improved Scrubbing performance.
When inheriting a clip, if the destination clip does not have an alias, but the source does, then the alias is inherited.
In VT-Edit, clip borders now disappear when their width is animated to "0.00”
Audio levels are no longer "clamped" in the range -40 ... +10 in control tree. Rather you can manually enter audio volumes of any range.
Improved caching of temporary files, so audio clips won’t cut out halfway through
Better "rounding to frame boundaries" when working with transitions in the Storyboard.
Frame precision of DV compressed audio significantly improved.
Storyboard croutons now repaint properly when audio streams are disabled.
Storyboard croutons won’t lose their "previews" with certain undo operations.

General Improvements

Audio positioning skin disabled states work properly
Rare combinations of program and preview rows now properly set.
Improved utility croutons when you have complex combinations of different utilities on the timeline.
Significant improvements to Genlock performance.
Tally light follows the correct row at all times now.
On startup, VT will no longer show Y/C inputs in black & white
DVE names now display properly in the switcher upon startup.
Alpha output improved when "Alpha DSK" or "Alpha Main + Alpha DSK" are set, with DSK disabled.
DV output black levels corrected in rare cases.
Scroll-lock now works correctly in text boxes.
Alt+numeric keypad now works correctly in text boxes.
Single pixel borders display properly when VT-Vision is on the second monitor.
If codec incorrectly sets all alpha channels to 0 for all pixels and all frames, we now interpret this as 255. otherwise some clips become invisible.
Improvements in support for Unicode text.
VT-Visions won’t show "No Video Signal Present" message if no frames are seen.
Switcher patches perform properly across complex skin changes.
Corrected errors with some DVEs.
Many other minor optimizations

NewTek is very interested in hearing your impressions of VT[4] in general, and receiving feedback on version 4.6. Please send suggestions, feature requests and even a brief explanation of how you use VT[4] in real-world environments to vidfeatures@newtek.com We love to hear from you, as many of the features VT[4] implemented are because of user feedback.

Again, thank you for your purchase of NewTek products, and hope it brings you enjoyment, increased creativity and prosperity in the days ahead!

The NewTek Video Team

Questions, feature requests and more are encouraged by dropping an e-mail to NewTek. It’s vidfeatures@newtek.com

Note: If you have registered VT[4] with NewTek Europe, you must download this update from the NewTek Europe web site.