Hardware-accelerated professional-quality video capture and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS audio combine with video editing software suite for a complete A/V solution.

London; 14th April 2005: Creative (Nasdaq: CREAF) the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer and the Internet, announces the Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS Video Editor, the first ever Sound Blaster with video editing capabilities. This ultra-sleek high-end audio system combines premium audio playback with award-winning video technology in an easy-to-use solution for audio and video that connects to the PC via USB 2.0.

“The USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor is a great hardware solution for bringing all of a user’s video to any PC, to store it on a desktop or notebook, or burn it directly to DVD,” says Steve Erickson, vice-president of audio for Creative. “In putting together a complete high-performance solution we combined outstanding Sound Blaster audio with the award-wining LSI Logic® DoMiNoFX™ technology for video. We did all the engineering work to optimise performance so users can capture all their analogue or digital video.” The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor is available now with a SRP of £199.99 .

Hardware-accelerated video encoding and filtering.

Because it uses hardware encoding, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor allows users to enjoy crisp, glitch-free encoding to MPEG and DV formats. Hardware encoding makes it suitable with a wider variety of systems, not just the high-performance desktop PCs required by software-only encoding solutions. The advanced compression technology available from hardware encoding greatly minimises digital artefacts such as ‘blockiness’ and loss of detail (even at low bit-rates) and provides video clean-up filters that consistently reduce random noise, increase video quality and extend recording time.

“The LSI Logic DoMiNo processor provides ‘Visibly Superior’ DoMiNo FX processing technologies for crystal-clear video quality from any source. It is ideally suited for the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor because it’s the best way for consumers to encode and preserve home movies, whether they are stored on the latest DV cameras or older VCRs and analogue cameras,” comments Umesh Padval, executive vice-president for the LSI Logic Consumer Products Division.

Comprehensive software for professional-quality video editing and one-step DVD creation.

Even beginners can create top-quality DVD movies using Ulead® MovieFactory(TM) 3 SE software. One-step DVD burning enables users to save time and hard drive space by authoring a DVD straight from a video source directly to a disk, bypassing the computer’s hard drive altogether. For the advanced user, more complex editing is performed with award-winning Ulead VideoStudio(TM) 8 SE. This feature-rich software allows users to transfer video from an external source, extract unwanted scenes and add transitions, music, narration, titles and special effects.

“DVD MovieFactory 3 SE makes it easy for everybody to edit videos and photos quickly and turn them into DVDs they can be proud to share,” suggests Lewis Liaw, president of Ulead Systems, North America. “At the same time, our Disc-Direct capture technology is a significant step toward establishing DVD as the replacement for VHS tape. With this feature, consumers can record TV programmes directly to disk, complete with a DVD menu and the ability to append video and customised menus on the DVD.”

Superior audio in music, movies and games.

The THX Certified Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor delivers 24-bit ADVANCED HD™ music playback in 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound, with Dolby® Digital EX and DTS-ES™ decoding for the ultimate DVD movie experience. In addition, EAX® support provides realistic, real-time audio effects processing, a technology that has been incorporated into hundreds of the top PC games.

Connect camcorders, TVs, VCRs and more.

The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor features DV, S-Video and composite video ins and outs, analogue and digital audio in and out, plus a built-in 4-port USB hub, allowing users to record from any audio or video source including a camcorder, TV or VCR. Any edited content can be converted back to its original source and/or played back on a TV or VCR for viewing and recording.