CMX-600 demo - First nonlinear editing system (1971) - Pt 2

The CMX 600 was the very first non-linear video editing system. It was introduced in 1971 by CMX Systems, a joint venture between CBS and Memorex. CMX referred to it as a "RAVE", or Random Access Video Editor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMX_600
http://www.sssm.com/editing/museum/offline/cmx600.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• CMX-600
• Avid
• Final
• Cut
• Lightworks
• Editing
• Videotape
• video
• television

[VesuviusPictures]

I used the CMX Edge when it came out. It was revolutionary... at the time. They did a great job.

[jeffkrebs]

You know what I love about this CMX promo? The Editor has the music chart in front him. The pacing of this video shows the reality of actually making edits that make sense. It is tedious and boring to watch, which is not a bad thing. It's the reality of sitting in an edit session. It does not show the bull sh-t prebaked demos that most of todays NLE manufacturers put together, Love this!

[coffeehigh420]

I still have one of these (given to me by my grandfather) but unfortunately I have no idea how to use it. It has been sitting probably since the early 1980's in the basement of his studio.

[TJCoyote30]

The CMX system was what's known as an "off-line" system. During editing, a copy is made onto disk packs to allow for random access while editing. The quality is substantially lower to save space on the early disk systems, but it doesn't matter, really, since it's good enough to make editing decisions with. Once all the editing is done, only then are the valuable master tapes used to make a final edited version.

[kogvos]

Very impressive for the era. I suppose there was no way to get the data from the computer back to video tape hence the reason why the final cut was made from the original video tape under CMX control.