With the advent of HD delivery (which was evident everywhere at NAB 2006) more DV creators require options for conversion and scaling of source material — specifically, options to remove or convert pull-down and to scale between formats — not only SD to HD but HD to 2K film resolution and interlaced to progressive/full-frame. Applications such as Adobe After Effects do not natively offer alternative pull-down and scaling algorithms, so third-party developers are filling the gap with tools employing alternative scaling and smoothing routines as well as optical flow technology. Algolith offers both software and hardware solutions for conversion: the AlgoSuite plug-ins for After Effects, Digital Fusion and Shake will convert frame size, rate, scanning type and aspect ratio, enhancing detail and reducing noise. Although the price for the full bundle (which includes format conversion, noise reduction and re-timing all via optical flow) is high ($1185), Algolith offers a unique one week license for $59 as well as a $295 render-only version.
www.algolith.com
Directly competing with this software are two other new products, ReSizer from Digital Anarchy ($129, www.digitalanarchy.com) and Instant HD from Red Giant Software ($99, www.redgiantsoftware.com), each of which has the advantage both of a much lower price and a downloadable demo. Key factors to consider which were difficult to evaluate on the show floor are not only quality but performance, as complex scaling algorithms can cost a good deal of processor time. For this reason you are encouraged to download the demos and compare for yourself.