HD For Indies

Buried in work, some very sucky, sucky things going on as well, blogging shall recommence, I'm just in no mood for it right now.

HD4NDs news tomorrow. Probably.

-mike

AppleInsider | Apple plans 17-inch MacBook Pro by June

As usual, take with the heaping helping of rumor salt, but 17" Intel Powerbooks, excuse me, MacBook Pros, would be quite useful and powerful for field editing. Esp. since you can hook up a monitor as large as 30 inches (already possible with the 15" model), and away you go with a lot of horsepower in your hotel room or on set.

By that time, an Intel native version of Final Cut Studio will have shipped, so you'll be ready to go. And with a non-crippled machine relative to a desktop unit. In fact, it'll be interesting to see how these dual core Intels stack up against a dual core G5. Prices won't be that different, although expandability (and the cost of expandability) will be different. Hmm....interestinger and interestinger.

-mike

CinemaTech: An in-depth look at MovieBeam

Headline says it all.

So what is it?

-a set top box
-you buy it for $200
-you pay $30 or $40 to activate it
-it holds 100 currrently popular movies
-downloads (over the air, only in certain markets) 10 new movies a week
-10% of the content will be available in HD
-$4 for current movies, $2 for older
-$1 extra for HD version

Lots of good analysis in the links and from Scott - esp. like the bit about anti-Long Tail.

-mike

We've been waiting forever, but FINALLY Blackmagic has their PCIe HD card ready - and it's 4:4:4 and it's $1195.

It's called the DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link with PCIe

Key features:
-basically, just the same as the DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link that previously existed, but with PCIe for the new Mac G5s
-12 bit (although no software or deck supports this)
-4:4:4 and 4:2:2, HD & SD
-4 lane PCIe - will work in ANY of the new G5s
-Mac or PC compatibility (works with Premiere & Vegas I'd presume)
-up/downconversion capabilities

Basically, it's the DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link with PCIe at a lower price than before. Rock.

So if you're on a PCIe Mac, you now have four HD card choices, 2 from AJA and two from BMD:

Just in order of price, here they are:

1.) This one - the DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link with PCIe - is $1195, HD/SD digital in/out, analog out SD/HD, update - NO downconversion apparently. Woops, this could be a serious hassle. And the cards never had upconversion which I stated earlier, that was incorrect. Thanks Barak for pointing that out!

PROS: Lots of features, low cost
CONS: no analog input in SD or HD

2.) AJA Kona LH3 - $1800 list - SD/HD, analog/digital in & out. Lacks upconversion is only bummer

3.) Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme - $2600 - analog, digital, in, out, SD/HD, pretty much everything to everything. Oh, and it can act as a freestanding converter. It basically is a breakout box with an interface to the computer. I like these enough I bought one for myself.

4.) AJA Kona3 - $2900 list - Similar to the BMD DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link - 4:4:4/4:2:2, SD/HD, digital I/O, analog out, but with some extra "hidden features" that haven't been announced yet (probably at NAB? Just a guess.)UPDATED - that's not true - it also does 1080p50 and 1080p60. Note I'm not saying 1080i, I'm saying 1080p, as in progressive, as in SRW-1 and that new high end Sony HDCAM SR camera. PLUS whatever else they might unwrap. I have guesses, but it wouldn't be fair to say.

Feature sets are pretty close between all of these with the exception of 4:4:4 support and upconversion and breakout boxes.

So I've been thinking about the changing theatrical experience, what with digital projection, simultaneous release on DVD and theaters (and cable), improving home theater experiences, etc.

NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) feels that day and date releases (on DVD, cable, and theaters all same day) will kill the theatrical experience and ruin our cherished tradition of blah blah blah. They do have a point, but they need to come to grips with certain realities:

As the home theater experience gets better and better, and closer and closer to the screening advantage of theaters, the theater going experience is going to have to up the ante to make it worth leaving the house.


There will always be a market for "going out to the movies" - esp. for teenagers who want out of the house, folks who want an out of house date, and for those who enjoy the group experience of seeing a movie in a crowded theater.

BUT that market shrinks when you can have a six foot screen in your living room and surround sound speakers. As with all things economic, price matters.

Over the weekend I TRIED to help my girlfriend (Melissa) buy a new TV. She's dated me long enough to see the benefit of NOT getting a plain old TV and should get an HDTV of some sort. BUT...she has a limited space in the built in cabinet in her living room. I'd hoped to find a 4:3 CRT HDTV that would fit in the space, 32 inches wide. NO SUCH THING. We found two CRT based HDTVs Fry's and Circuit City, both 16:9.

Then we went and looked at the plasmas and LCDs that might hang on the wall on the other side of the room. Egads, they are still quite expensive. Even I, HD fan and geekboy, was uncomfortable with the pricing - I, and probably a lot of the electronics buying public, have gotten used to cheap DVD players and cheap big CRTs. $3000-$5000 for a big impressive TV? Ouch.

Now, fast forward about 2 years, when prices have dropped, SED has hit the market and pushed prices down. How long until I and others can get a 42" HDTV that is good (720p would be fine, not 1080p) for, say, $1000? And a $300 HD disc player? Decent enough consumer surround setup is $300-$500 I'd guess (I have no idea, just saw some low end all-in-ones at Fry's). So for $2K no problem to have a pretty damn killer setup. And after investing in that, aren't you motivated to stay home and use it?

With Google Video starting things off for wide-open content, Apple getting into downloadable content (not HD yet), I just heard about Disney announcing a new program (MovieBeam, see other coverage today) for 27 cities that will partner with Intel and Cisco to have a $200 set top box that will be pre-loaded with a bunch of movies, and about 10 new ones a week. ALL IN HD. Will that take off? I don't know. The number crunching indicated that Disney wouldn't make money unless folks rented 4 movies a week. WOW that's a lot. That's a tiny percentage of the movie renting populace. If I heard the NPR piece right, only about 5% of the US population rents even one movie every week. The movies will rent for about what regular DVDs rent for. But keep going - Netflix will obviously jump with both feet into HD discs, as will Blockbuster I'd imagine. Amazon will sell anybody's whatever as well.

Not to mention new threats that simply didn't exist 20-30 years ago - if you're bored and want to kill time, there's TV, cable TV, sattelite TV, video games, and the Internet. Just read this article talking about how roughly 1/3 of the Internet users in a given day get online just to doof off and find entertainment (Melissa? Is it all just YOU?), implying the Internet is a destination unto itself - not just looking up movie times and restaurant reviews to find entertainment, but a satisfying way to spend time in and of itself. Well, DUH. If you read this, you probably already knew that at a gut level anyway.

So there will be a LOT of options for consumers in lieu of going to the theaters. So with this new competition, what will theater owners do to compete?

My favorite answer is, of course, the awesome Alamo Drafthouse chain right here in Austin, TX. With food, beer, wine, and creative fun pre-show stuff (NOT ADS!), it's a move lover's blast. I'd love to see somethign a little more upscale available, and Alamo does special events with better food every so often. But it'd be nice to get better than "casual dining" quality food on a regular basis.

Scott Kirsner over at CinemaTech links to and discusses an article about the ArcLight and The Bridge DeLux in Hollywood that are trying to elevate the going out to movies experience to differentiate from regular movie theaters or staying home. I LOVE the fact that the ArcLight pays attention to making sure sound/picture is good, and NO COMMERCIALS before the movie.

As somebody pointed out, restaurants, take-out food, and home cooking all happily coexist, just in varying ratios. How big a slice of the pie will theaters get? It is up to them to differentiate from the increasing competition.

Head In Sand is a proven non-viable option.

-mike

FresHDV | Fresh news & views for videographers, editors, filmmakers, directors & producers.

This may be something I've linked to before, but here's one page with a ton of good HDV production advice.

CinemaTech: `Other Digital Stuff' - March 10th in Hollywood

Industry types only, but will discuss what other kinds of content can be shown in digital projection theaters. "Other Digital Stuff: Expanding the In-Theatre Experience". Read on for the press release.

Scott (as usual) has good questions:

who will produce, supply, and profit from alternative content shown on digital movie screens (like concerts, sporting events, political rallies, motivational speeches, etc)?

- if the studios aren't producing and profiting from alternative content, won't they view it as an unwelcome competitor to the movies they're marketing?


I agree - in all of the deals that I've seen so far to get digital projection in place, Landmark's deal is the only one where the theater owners actually own, and can decide what the want to show without financial pain, whatever they want. The Disney 3D deal and other digital projection deals have put ownership of the digital projector, and thus ownership of digital projection in the theater, in the hands of the distributors or other content producer/owners.

Much like "Sure! You own the boat. I just own the steering wheel and can turn any way I want whenever I want. Or charge you if you want to go to a particular place."

-mike

Tutorial:High quality at low bit rates - Quicktime Wiki

Tutorial on making web videos. Not exactly HD content, but applicable for indies - here's one on how to make good looking web trailers, a marketing necessity these days.

Appears to be PC oriented. Not perfect, not great, doesn't go into deinterlacing or advanced stuff, but a decent place to start.

-mike

via FresHDV

Avid 60 second video contest

Avid has a contest - 60 seconde video about whatever you're avid about, make it with anything.

Win a trip to NAB and Avid Xpress Pro editing software and goodies.

Git after it.

-mike

via FresHDV

MacInTouch: timely news and tips about the Apple Macintosh

It's probably an SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) issue, this also affects some SATA cards as well. That I know of, Firmtek is affected by this, Sonnet is not, dunno about others.

-mike

CinemaTech: Waterborne: A movie debut success on Google Video?

This is fun - Waterborne, a movie I liked at SXSW 2005 (and got drunk and hung out with the makers of the film) has a writeup in The Hollywood Reporter and Scott Kirsner is all over it.

They're sellling it on Google video. I'm not done reading the articles and interviews, but I'll see if I have more to say on this later.

-mike

Most of the televisions sold in 2006: HDTVs - HD Beat

20 million HDDTVs expected to be sold this year.

Mine will be one of them.

"This is my HDTV. There are many like it, but this one is mine."

I will hug it, I will squeeze it, and I will, in fact, call it George.

-mike

I haven't checked in on AJA in too long, and I popped over to their site to see if they'd updated the Kona2 drivers.

But I noticed something I hadn't reported yet (I don't think) about the Kona3 - it supports 1080p50 and 1080p60, a first as far as I know. There are high end Sony cameras and decks out there that will shoot and record this format, so it's nice to know AJA's on the job.

Also, according to their website, Kona3 is shipping - so you now have two options from AJA for PCIe Macs to capture/play back SD/HD content, the Kona LHe and the Kona3, each of which are aimed at slightly different users and markets. Both are for HD, but Kona3 is higher end, LHe is more for everyday SD/HD analog/digital users.

They've also recently updated their Kona2 drivers as of January 30th, with the following new features -

This software adds 720p50 capture/playback, Line 21 captioning decoding, playback support for IMX 525/60 50 Mbps and 625/50 50 Mbps compressed clips, RGBA playback in FCP, timecode burn-in, RP-188 timecode capture, and 640x480 playback, plus bug fixes and improvements.

AppleInsider | Apple shipping MacBook Pros with faster processors

More details on the specs of what you'd get with the just updated/upgraded Macbook Pros that are shipping with better stuff than Apple said at first. That's a nic switch, after teh original G4 Downgrade Disaster from a few years ago. Apple's doing GOOD these days.

-mike

Think Secret - Apple bumps MacBook Pro speed, Mac OS X 10.4.5 released
MACBOOK PROS
-1.67 now 1.83
-1.83 now 2.0 GHz
-$300 more witll get you 2.1 GHz on high end model
-ship dates slipping a bit
-but units are shipping

OS X 10.4.5
-Safari fixes (I hope slow browsing fixed!)
-no video specific fixes I could see that would affect FCP editors
-I say don't update for a week or so, let somebody else find out if there is trouble

Macworld: News: Opinion: Updating the MacBook Pro-Dell comparison

Nice article that configures a Dell laptop as closely as possible to a MacBook Pro and adds up the real best-deal street prices. about $18 apart, surprisingly. Who says macs costs more?

: )

-mike

Slashdot | The Great HDCP Fiasco

According to an article on Firingsquad, our shiny new Radeon and Geforce cards won't be able to play HDCP-encrypted content, even though they have been advertising HDCP support as a feature for a few generations. Want to watch that new Blu-ray movie on your custom built PC at full resolution? Sorry, retail graphics cards won't be able to do that; only OEM-built computers from Dell, Sony, HP and the like will have that functionality built in.


EEEEEwwwwwwwww, that's SUPER nasty.

Avid vs FCP 2006

This is an article written by an editor who has worked on both Avid & FCP over the years, going over their relative advantages and shortcomings.

Media Management continues to be a bugaboo in my life on a weekly basis; I seriously hope Apple re-writes it for the next version, which I HOPE to see at NAB 2006, but don't expect to ship promptly.

-mike

Film Fix v1.0

Film Fix is designed for documentary filmmakers and post production studios that need film and video restoration tools. Using Film Fix, After Effects users can restore tears, remove dust and dirt particles, and stabilize footage originated on film and video resolution material transferred from film. The processing is nearly automatic and provides high-quality output.
FAME (Fast Accurate Motion Estimation)%u2014processes pixel-accurate image data at different scales similar to the way the human eye views the world.
Powerful, intelligent algorithms allow it to identify problems such as dust, dirt, and tearing despite complex motion in the footage.
Uses
Repair seams with the only automated tear-repair tool on the market.
Stabilize footage with a software-based 2D translation that is near real-time.
Automatically eliminate severe non-linear inter-frame brightness fluctuations.
Remove dust and sparkle defects using motion detection information.
Remove hair on single frames using motion detection information.


OK, so for the doc folks, this is especially cool. Tools to do this have been very expensive in the past. Red Giant are the guys that make Magic Bullet, and they know a thing or nine about pixels.

Requires AE 6.0 or later, supports AE 7.

finalcutpronews: Random Tech: Easter Egg Found in Apple's Final Cut Pro HD

I've been in the same head space - it's late, I'm loopy, I put something weird in there.

Excerpts:

What IS the sound of one luma clamping?
I'm sooo a rock star already.
Drop ribs, not frames.
I'd be less concerned if it weren't for the squeeling animal sound that preceded it.
The best thing about living in San Francisco is that you have time to make a full build on your way home. (I can believe that one, I lived there!)
It's far more satisfying if you throw it at someone.

We're not the engineers you're looking for.
Move along, move along.

Speed kills, but sync maims.
I have deniable plausibility.
When can I do color correction by the pool?
They're not my flying monkeys.
It's like a gob of peanut butter for the roof of your brain.
There is no fire.
That's my fault originally, but many others are to blame since.
That movie had plot holes big enough to drive whole other movies through!
Please refrain from sucking.
I'm highly in favor of putting in code to do stuff.
We're going to leave the underwear in the tutorial.
Ok, Nobody prints, Nobody gets hurt!
Please hold for the next available consumer.
Cows didn't have dynamite and steam shovels.
This is so lame it hurts.
Where's the 'Poof' manager?
It's the international symbol for "Your zipper's open" (must be the FireWire icon? -mike)




-mike

Ripple Training offers training for using the Color Correction tools in FCP - $99 for the DVD. Good for the DIYers out there (until I get my own training materials completed!).

-mike

Jarred First Impressions- Finally - DVXuser.com - The online community for Digital Filmmaking

Barry's finally written up some impressions on using the HVX200 in production.

I'm reading it now, I'll have more to say later - but go read it. Jarred knows what he's up to.

-mike

UPDATE - the link got moved, my link is now updated.

Think Secret - True video iPod to sport 3.5-inch display, touch-screen click wheel

Rumor time! Let's see if this works out - virtual click wheel? Sounds like it'd get dirty/scratched easily. But it'd be cool.

-mike

This is all excerpts from a press release:

Blackmagic Design Announces Multibridge Extreme 5.4 Software:
Featuring New HD to SD Downconversion and 30” Monitoring Support

Today, Blackmagic Design announced software Version 5.4 for its highly popular Multibridge Extreme editing and converting solution. Multibridge Extreme is the world’s first all-in-one bi-directional A/D and D/A converter featuring a high speed PCI-Express connection. PCI-Express allows Multibridge Extreme to operate as a capture and playback solution with uncompressed HD and SD editing, right through to full feature film 4:4:4 quality by simply plugging the PCI-Express connection into a PCIe Mac OS X or Windows XP based system.

This software update is immediately available from Blackmagic Design’s website

The latest software release for Multibridge Extreme includes:

1. Hardware HD to SD down conversion features
-Anamorphic 16:9, Letterbox 16:9, and Center Cut 4:3 down conversion modes
-Full broadcast quality polyphase interpolation filtering for enhanced video quality
-Simultaneous HD and SD outputs, also selectable on analog outputs
-Down conversion will work in PCI-Express Capture mode, or Converter mode

2. Monitoring support for 30” dual-link DVI-D displays
-Multibridge Extreme’s DVI-D output will now connect to large 30” computer monitors for full-screen real time HD playback.
-For film editors and compositors needing “large-screen” high resolution HD monitoring, Multibridge Extreme can scale an HD 1920x1080 image up to 2500x1600 to fill the screen.

Multibridge Extreme is available now for US$2,595 from authorized Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.


OK, this is cool - the HD-SD downcoversions were greyed out on my unit - I'm going to go download this new version right now. Support for the 30" has always been promised, so now we've got it. Woo hoo!

-mike

Hey all -

started this Jan 25th and never finished it, so here it is:

here's some more coverage on Premiere Pro 2.0 and Adobe Production Studio:

Adobe Production Studio - Adobe's own page

Film Imaging's coverage: New Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 Increases Post-Production Workflow Productivity

Digital Producer's coverage: Adobe Premiere 2.0 Now Ready for Prime Time

DigitalMedia.netExclusive: Premiere Pro Product Manager Giles Baker


Some (Ok, lots of) notes:
-DV to uncompressed HD support
-AJA Xena and BlackMagic DeckLink HD cards
-native HDV support (what about the 24p variants from JVC/Canon?)
-clip notes to comment on timelines - if it works well, this could be a BIG boon for indie filmmakers, as annotated notes could be sent around between editors, directors, producers, etc.
-integration with other Adobe apps (After Effects 7.0, Photoshop CS2, Encore DVD 2)
-Adobe Dynamic Link - avoids rendering interstitial files - can just hand off between
-$849 price, $199 upgrade for just Premiere Pro
-multicam support
-Production Studio is $699, $1249 upgrade from Premiere Pro older versions
-Production Studio includes Premiere Pro 2.0, After Effects 7.0, Audition 2.0 (audio tool), Encore 2.0 (DVD authoring), Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2.
-new icons
-10 bit video support
-new color correction engine with 32 bit processing at it's core (does it process in YUV or RGB then?)
-new UI look
-can drag interface stuff around and other parts flow with it - like Final Cut Pro does, drag between two windows and the parts on both sides stretch around
-Workspaces - saved preconfigured layouts optimized for different tasks (and make your own, too)
-GPU accelerated effects rendering (THAT IS HUGE) - accelerates common stuff, like motion and opacity
-24p workflow support
-"Those who are doing digital intermediate and film work will also appreciate Premiere Pro ’s new capability of sending 32-bit film-out."
-new keyframe controls, more like After Effects (which has always been my favorite keyframing environment of all time)
-drag and drop a Premiere Pro timeline into After Effects
-better interactivity - unrendered parts from one program show up in another program. Make changes to a Pshop doc, and it shows up in timeline in Premiere
-these articles are noting repeatedly that PPro "is now capable of working in the 10bit color space" - did it not before?
-the AE/PPro integration is quite deep - an AE timeline dropped into PPro will live update as you change keyframes in AE even WITHOUT rendering - a MAJOR change in workflow, and a HUGE time saver!
-good DVD authoring from within PPro
-"When using these applications interactively together, it feels as if all these disparate applications are just a part of one gigantic über content creation app rather than a group of smaller specialized software programs. In fact, I would venture to say that this Adobe Video Collection has the best integration among a set of postproduction tools in the industry. It’s simply the most powerful interoperative application workflow I’ve seen." - Charlie White
-multi-cam support - very similar to FCP, but only up to 4 tracks? and does it require pre-rendering?)
-COLOR CORRECTION:
-32 bit floating point processing
-secondary color correction been added to the three way
-quickie color corrector also - click on white/black points and go

-HDV SUPPORT IS NATIVE - it's just a file transfer, same as DV workflow, except anything other than straight cuts gets re-encoded back to HDV (a generational loss, same way FCP does it)
-PPro is pixel aspect, frame size, and resolution independent
-NO DVCPRO HD support yet, third party support expected in 90 days
-Matrox offers DVCPRO HD support in their (pricey) Axio setup

-AJA Xena HS support for SDI or HD-SDI video capture directly from Adobe
-BlackMagic has support too with their DeckLink line of cards, PCI, PCI-X or PCIe - I received a press release stating that BMD was going to support 10 bit 4:4:4 on their DeckLink HD Dual Link products (PCI-X and PCIe when they ships)

Mike's Comments: In the end, Premiere Pro, Audition and Encore are all PC only. Now that Macs are migrating to Intel, that at least opens the possibility that Adobe might return more video products to the Mac side in the future in Intel only versions (less need to maintain two optimized code bases for different hardware platforms). But the politics and market forces are greater influencers on this decision than just the technical possibilities.

For FX heavy work, this is an incredibly powerful toolset it would appear. Now, how it is to edit with for detailed editorial processes, how stable and robust it is, I don't know. But if I were doing an FX heavy sequence and wanted to work on PCs, I'd seriously consider this setup.

Unanswered questions:

1.) It has HDV support, and that's presumably for 720p30 and 1080i60. What about 1080i50? What about the 24P mode on the JVC GY-HD100U, and the 24F mode on the Canon XL H1?

2.) If it just now got better 10 bit support (more 10 bit plugins I presume?), what did it have before? And does it use the correct HD 709 colorspace? I was shocked to learn that FCP used the standard def 601 colorspace for HD until version 5.x.

3.) How realtime are the new tools, especially the color correction tools?

4.) Since it wasn't specifically mentioned, I'm guessing not, but can you mix SD and HD on the same timeline and play back in real time? Can you mix and match codecs on the same timeline without required rendering for realtime playback?

MacNN | iTunes increasing TV viewership?

Interesting little read, and follow the link to the other article too:


Nobody will disclose numbers for these television downloads. It's easy, however, to keep an eye on the iTunes download chart, which usually shows NBC's The Office as the top full-length program, followed by ABC's Lost and Comedy Central's South Park. Producer Ben Silverman said that The Office was helped by users who discovered the show when they were browsing to find something to put on their new device and that he was confident that eroding audience or invading any of the existing windows, due primarily to their portable and on-demand nature.


So I'm not crazy - it's actually helping TV viewership (because it is a better way to view). So what happens when Apple grows up from crappy small little downloads to as-good-or-better downloads in the future? What if you have standard def cable and can start downloading HD iTunes content in the future for pay? What would you prefer to watch, if you could pipe it to your TV in a simple and reasonably affordable way?

It'll get there.

Wait and see, wait and see.

(That should probably be my tagline, right?)

-mike

UPDATE - I got a reader comment that says my interpretation is incorrect so I pulled this article to try and review my facts. Then somebody emailed me saying they saw the RSS summary and they'd run into this problem and wanted to know more. So I'm putting this back up on the site, but am wide open to being wrong about this, read the comment where someone disagrees with me, I don't know who is right or wrong, or if we're both right or wrong. Actually, hmm...I think he's at least partly right - that you'd HAVE to unclick the "Create new clip on Start/Stop" to have any chance of this working right. And if you did that, I'm still not 100% positive that all would work well - but it is for him/her so far. Did he/she do long captures, or shot by shot? I don't know all the details. So here's what I said the other day:

-------------

Another nasty gotcha showed up the other day for a client - they'd captured HDV as DV through their camera, and had captured the entire tape as one single DV clip. They'd then broken the master clips into all the individual shots and filed and organized them, thousands of clips from dozens of tapes.

And then they wanted to recapture their HDV as DV this time.

And then trouble emerged.

Because of the way HDV works with it's long GOP (group of pictures), Final Cut Pro insists on capturing it in discrete chunks - if there is a time code break or it detects a scene change, it is GOING to break it into individual takes/scenes (as I understand it). So if you captured your source as DV and your one big captured clip runs over multiple scenes or a time code break, the DV will be OK with it, but the HDV won't.

And then you won't be able to get your DV offline into an HDV online - the clips won't match up since the HDV is broken up into lots of individual pieces.

This is yet another reason why careful research, testing and planning are so important in post production.

This is also another reason why capturing individual shots is a good idea in any case to keep your post process tidier at the end if you're NOT onlining right there on that same exact machine you captured on.

While it takes longer and your assistant editor (or you) will whine about how much longer it takes, there are just a whole slew of reasons to NOT capture your DV (or HDV as DV) as one clip per tape:

1.) Without using Media Manager, which is STILL buggy and dangerously unpredictable (another client got bit last week on that one) in v5.0.4, you can't reduce that one hour clip to the 20 seconds you need.

2.) If you can't reliably Media Manager it down (esp. if you used Time Remap), then you're married to that one hour clip - you have to tote it around with your project if you want to take your project anywhere, if you want to recapture with a high degree of reliability you have to recapture that whole source clip (the whole tape in this case), and when going from compressed to uncompressed that can be a shockingly high amount.

3.) While Media Manager can be used effectively, if has to be double checked, and this is time consuming to double check and fix problems. REALLY time consuming, even using Gang or pre-rendering and using MultiClip for side by side analysis.

4.) This HDV as DV recapturing issue is another good example

5.) I could probably think up more, but I'm tired, but you get the idea. File this one under "Hey kid - you see this scar I gots right here? That's a bad idea. Trust me."

-mike

NitroAV announces new PCI-Express FireWire 800 & USB 2 Adapters | MacMinute News

Headline says it all - PCIe FireWire 800, or FW800 and USB 2.0 ports on PCIe cards, $125 & $150. Handy if you want to use your built in FW400 port for capturing DV, HDV, DVCPRO50, or DVCPRO HD and capture to a FireWire drive (since sharing buses while capturing is often problematic).

-mike

Engadget has this article discussing how Sony is the first to set prices for Blu-ray Disc movies -

BD films fresh from the theaters should hit the shelves for $23.45 while catalog titles will drop for $17.95, wholesale. Yeah, that's a 15-20% premium over what new-release DVDs cost back at their '97 release but, according to Sony, it's meant to "accommodate the sell-through and rental markets" which DVDs initially avoided since the world was beset by video rentals at the time. But you won't see a Sony MSRP slapped to the back of their BDs. Instead they will allow retailers to set their own margin of profit (like Amazon who lists catalog BDs for $22.49) allowing for the invisible hand to sort it all out.


So that's not as bad a premium as I'd expected - so that's cool.

Just BRING THEM ON!

-mike

SXSW Film Festival Features Lineup

Headline says it all - go see what's showing. A quick skim:

-A Prarie Home Companion - Robert Altman directs, sounds good
-American Dreamz - saw the trailer, looks like a mess
-The Cassidy Kids - produced by Burnt Orange, the local university affiliated production company. At one point I thought I'd be working on this, interested to see how it turned out. Shot in part on Varicam
-Even Money - good cast, about gambling
-Fired! - could be fun, I love Illeana Douglas
-Heavens Fall - I'm interested in seeing more of David Straithairn after Good Night & Good Luck (wait, that sounded dirty)
-Nobelity - Turk Pipkin, local guy I know, hangs with Nobel winners. Hmm!
-The Notorious Betty Page - I've already seen the trailer, looks like fun. Naughty fun, a bit, one would hope
-The Oh in Ohio - Parkey Posey AND Liza Minelli in the same movie? Egads...so long as Posey doesn't play EuroTrash with fangs again, it's an improvement

...and so on. I skipped a bunch, and there's docs and tons others to be seen, etc., but do check it out and DO COME TO SXSW - it is the best hands on, talk to folks, no velvet ropes, meet 'n mingle film festival I know of.

Plus, of course, I'll have a panel there, and we're working on arranging a showing on The Big Screen of the results of the upcoming camera test (F900, Varicam, HVX200, XL H1, GY-HD100U, and Z1U).

-mike

Josh Oakhurst over on his blog has transcribed the Bubble DVD's director commentary track to yield Steven Soderbergh and Mark Romanek talking about Digital Filmmaking , and it is pretty interesting. They talk a bit about how Bubble was shot (on F950, available light, with NO MONITOR ON SET), how they edited (Avid in hotel room), some thoughts on new distro models, etc. Interesting little read.

Thanks Josh for transcribing this for our benefit!

-mike

Minority Report: Disney, Pixar and Apple - what happens next - Desktops - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

A nice article looking realistically at Disney, Pixar, and the possible effect/benefit for Apple. He mentions the kind of convergent media device I've been talking about since, um, last August or so.

We'll see.

Apple's taken quite a dive of late, I was feeling all smug about buying a bunch at 65 when it got up to about 85, now it's back to 67. Do I cry, buy some more, or just wait for April 1st and see if it's a big deal or if I'M the April Fool?

Wait and see, wait and see.

-mike

Belle Nuit Subtitler

From their website:

Program to spot, edit and render subtitles for video editing, DVD authoring and digital cinema. Translators can spot directly with a QuickTime movie and translate precisely. The subtitles can then be imported to Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress, Avid DS and Final Cut Pro for editing. The same subtitles can be sent also to Adobe Encore DVD, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Sonic Producer and Sonic Scenarist for authoring. Belle Nuit Subtitler frees the video editors from repetitive work and from typo errors.

Try Belle Nuit Subtitler now: The offline version is free and can be downloaded immediately.

(found via Final Cut Pro News

AppleInsider | SHOWTIME cable hits now on iTunes

Just a quick tidbit of yet more content on iTunes downloadable video:

CBS Corporation%u2019s Showtime Networks and Apple today announced that premium cable programming from SHOWTIME, including recent Golden Globe nominees 'Sleeper Cell' and 'Weeds,' is now available on the iTunes Music Store.


I'm still thinking April 1st for Apple consumer video gear rollout.

-mike

My friend Graeme Nattress has shipped some FinalTouch Plugins that are very cool - I've been beta testing them for a while and using them, and found them to be useful for a variety of creative (Technicolor 3 strip look, Bleach Bypass, S-curves) and especially technical uses (the Chroma Smoothing plugins to improve the look of DV/HDV footage).

If you're another FinalTouch user out there like I am, these are just flat out worth it. The chroma smoothing plugins especially can pay for the whole set in one job - instead of having to recapture DV over SDI to get better than FireWire looking results (and the attendant headaches if dealing with 24pA footage and 3:2 pulldown removal over SDI), just use these plugins in FTHD and you won't have to recapture the client's footage for smooth chroma results. It's also better than relying on any Final Cut Pro plugin, because those would only be applied AFTER the footage had been color corrected - DEFINITELY less than optimal.

I haven't even played enough with Smart De-interlace and some of the other technical plugins that fill in some holes in the missing feature map for FTHD. The other viciously cool thing about these plugins is that they are all GPU executable - they're all written to work off the GPU, not the CPU, and as such are wickedly fast as compared to what could be done with a CPU type plugin as would be commonly done for FCP.

So go buy'em if you are a FinalTouch user, it's as simple as that. I've got mine.

Below is the press release for further details, and the link above is to his page describing what all the plugins are and what the variables do. Read on:

Nattress releases “Advanced Plugins for FinalTouch”, a suite of plugins that enhance the capabilities of FinalTouch SD, Finaltouch HD and FinalTouch 2k, and include, a superb de-interlacer, 2-Strip and 3-Strip Technicolor simulation looks and a suite a tools for dealing with chroma sampling issues from DV and HDV.

All the plugins are written to take advantage of FinalTouch’s real time, GPU based ColorFX architecture.

Advanced Plugins for FinalTouch includes:

G 2 Strip
G 3 Strip
G Bleach Bypass
G Bleach Bypass Sharp
G Blend
G Chroma Offset
G Chroma Sharpen
G Chroma Smooth 4:1:1
G Chroma Smooth 4:2:0
G Chroma Smooth 4:2:2
G Detail Contrast
G Percentage Median
G RGB to YCbCr
G YCbCr to RGB
G Smart Deinterlace
G S-Curve
G S-Curve Luma
G S-Curve RGB


The package costs $495US and is available now. A watermarked demo is also available, and includes a free unwatermarked plugin, “G Blend” which features practically every blending mode you’d ever want to use! A full instructional manual and the tech support that Nattress is famous for is included with the package, which is sold via electronic download from the Nattress e-store at; http://store.esellerate.net/natt/finaltouch.

Full product details can be found at: http://www.nattress.com/finaltouch.htm

Silicon Color press release can be found at: http://www.siliconcolor.com/plugin_news.html


-mike

Military Channel : An Ocean Away

The color correction business I'm involved with has color corrected An Ocean Away, a documentary to air this Thursday, February 9th, at 8PM ET/PT on the Military Channel (run by the Discovery folks).

From the website:

More than three decades after his death in combat in Southeast Asia U.S. Marine Lt. Donald Matocha's remains were returned to his family in Smithville, Texas. Nguyen Van Loc, a North Vietnamese soldier, buried Matocha on Dong Ma Mountain after the battle, and decades later led the United States Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to the site.

It's a surprisingly moving piece, by an acquaintance of mine Pat Fries of Arrowhead Films. He's the guy that also did In the Shadow of the Blade, another very emotionally moving doc about flying a restored Huey helicopter around the country to talk to veterans who cursed getting on them to go into combat, and prayed for their return to deliver them to safety later. Surprisingly moving, even to my jaded eyes, as someone who grew up after the Vietnam War.

We used Silicon Color's QuickTime based color correction tool, Final Touch HD to color correct their project.

As an interesting indie geek workflow, we captured the SDI output from their Avid into a Final Cut Pro workstation, and then color corrected the captured file - no expensive Digibeta deck required, and the cleanest, artifact free footage from their system. Worked like a charm. (We've done this one some other projects as well, capturing from an Avid Adrenaline in a similar fashion). We delivered back to them as an uncompressed QuickTime, and they played it back out of a Final Cut Pro rig and AJA card BACK into their Avid to do some additional titling work, etc. Normally we do the finishing work and mastering for most projects at our shop, but they are a post house and had the equipment, expertise, and time to finish it out themselves. I will say, with some pride, that they felt comfortable and happy to sub out the color work to us instead of doing it inhouse.

For the techie indies & geeks out there, let me also point out that we passed Discovery Channel's VERY stringent tech requirements on the first pass - the first tape we sent is what they aired, no changes necessary - a nice little technical coup for us.

ongoing - Protecting Your Data

Tim Bray has a nice little piece about backing up your data. In broad general strokes I agree with it, and as we get into the era of digital video files originated on non-tape, recyclable media, this type of stuff will become important to all us video folk.

There are some unavoidable incompatibilities with what he's suggesting - most video products are unavoidably particular to a given OS, or program, or whatnot that is a proprietary format that Tim is recommending against. Well, we need .fcp files and .ai files and .mov files to do our thing (or Premiere, Avid, Vegas, .avi, etc.), so that's unavoidable. And video files are huge and not worth running through a .tar archive anyway.

But for long term backups, read the article and think about the theories he's espousing and see if they will mesh into your workflow.

I personally used Retrospect for incremental backups for years and had my share of troubles with it, now I just keep a RAID 1 volume on a server with everything that I used to use Retrospect for, or I copy it onto a hard drive and stick it on a shelf.

For the kinds of data sets that I have keeping everything twice isn't practicable. For instance, last year's camera tests are about one terabyte of data. Actually, worse, 1.1 TB of data so it won't fit on a one TB huge drive.

But a copy on a videotape, and a Digital Master (one big QuickTime or AVI movie sitting on a drive, or sequential TIFFs with an AIFF if you're really worried about longevity) on a drive aren't a bad way to go about it. I also try to keep the source project and media if possible, but that gets huge. The good thing about keeping a DM (Dig. Mstr) around is that you DON'T have to have a compatible version of the creating app, you DON'T have to relink all the media, etc. Just something that'll read the DM.

-mike

8GB P2 cards drop $800 to $1400

It ain't cheap yet, but it's gettting better. So I presume Panasonic's bundles will drop from $10K to under $8800 for the 2 8GB P2 bundle with HVX200. Maybe $8500 to be a round number? $8600?

Good.

By themselves, they were around $2200 before.

Thanks Luis Caffesse for sending this one in.

-mike

MacNN | Adobe: Universal apps could be 1yr away
Adobe today said it would not deliver native Intel versions of currently shipping professional products and that customers would have to wait until future major releases--which could be more than one year away--for native Intel Mac support.

Well, drat. I pretty much predicted this earlier in the week, it makes total sense, but that's a serious bummer.

For Photoshop this is marginally survivable, but for After Effects this is LETHAL.

So if you do a lot of After Effects (and Charlie, I'm talking about YOU!), even the latest version 7 doesn't run natively on Intel based Macs. So stick with a Dual or Quad G5 if you need a heavy duty Adobe box.

-mike

Hey all -

I recently had the chance to do an email interview with Jim Jannard, the man behind the RED camera. While I have met Jim and talked with his team extensively about the camera and am a strong supporter of his efforts, the questions I've asked are of a more skeptical nature, reflecting some of the concerns I've heard from readers and folks I've talked to about the camera. So this interview is a bit biased in that direction, coming from the perspective of someone questioning Why Do This, even though that is not my own personal viewpoint on this. I've rewritten and reordered some questions slightly to make the interview flow more logically, but all of Jim's responses are verbatim, unedited, as he wrote them, with the exception of bold type, which I added where I thought pertinent to draw attention. So without further ado, here's the Q&A between me and Jim:

Q: First off, what is the driving thought behind this camera that made you feel you needed to bring something entirely different to market?

A: I have been shooting for 30 years. 35mm, 2 1/4, 4x5 and stereo stills, 35mm cine film, 16mm cine film, and video cameras beginning with a Plumicon Betacam, then Digi- Betacam, and now an HDCAM and Varicam. Also just about every other video camera that has been released. I have been called many things regarding my camera addiction. I have always wanted to build a camera and this is the right time because there is a great big window of opportunity right now.

Q: OK, I'll bite - why is NOW such a good window of opportunity to do this?

A: It is a big opportunity right now because we have a sensor that will outperform the best in the industry and there is a big hole between the 1/3" HDV cameras and the professional market. We see this as the prime opportunity to really give a true alternative to film. And do it for a large group of shooters.

Q: You founded Oakley, which most folks only know of as "that expensive sunglasses company with the funky designs." The only electronic device Oakley makes I was aware of when we first spoke is the Thump MP3 player/sunglasses. It is a big, BIG leap to get into high end digital video (or arguably digital cinema) cameras. So why do it?

A: What most people don't know (some of our fanatical customers do) is that we are primarily an invention, technology and engineering company that happens to be best known for our sunglasses. For example, our XYZ optics invention (and patents that have held up in court against the biggest competitors) separate us technically from all other eyewear. XYZ corrects prism distortion that was, and still is for the other guys, a common defect in the market. We hold inside an 1/8th diopter when the industry is outside (sometimes way outside) a 1/4 diopter. Year after year we win the "Optics Shootouts" by a wide margin in published independent tests. The two done by Private Pilot quickly come to mind. We have the clearest optical material (Plutonite) in the industry which results in less haze and measurably better clarity. All Oakley lenses have the highest impact rating in the industry. You can shoot them all with a 12 gauge shotgun at 5 yards. They won't crack, break or come out of the frame. A little known fact is that the military re-wrote their specs when they saw the optical and impact comparison tests our our glasses vs. the "others". The technology that we have at our factory in Foothill Ranch includes 3D CAD modeling, liquid laser prototyping, electron beam gun vapor deposition machines for Iridium coatings, 5 axis mills, multi-stage injection molding machines, full testing equipment for every aspect of what we manufacture... the list goes on and on. We invent, design, engineer, prototype and build all our products from data. Nothing hand made. No one else in our industry does this. And we started the drive for technical prowess over 20 years ago. Several Asian biggies have come to our factory for insight on how to improve production techniques. Long winded answer is that we are technically capable. We don't see a camera or lenses as a "big leap". One last note, the RED camera is NOT being done at Oakley, but the program has the backing of Oakley resources. The lenses will be done by Oakley.

(In another email, Jim was kidding around and pointed out that the Thump sunglasses have around 125 individual parts - not exactly a simple pair of sunglasses! And all the electronics are built into the over-the-ear part of the glasses - impressively compact.)

Q: And coming from a company that is not high end electronics oriented, what can you say to allay concerns about your being a newcomer to this field? It is an incredibly complex undertaking. Why a high end camera? That is such a small market to serve.

A: My vision is to begin at the top. Re-write the books on a high-end camera. Then, I see us leveraging success (that's the plan, anyway) to release a broad range of cameras for many different applications. I have always said that we build our sunglasses so that if we don't sell one pair, I will be happy wearing it. The same philosophy is in play here.

(I then asked a long winded question that I'll skip about his intent, and why, and motivation, etc., and here's his response:)

I have said before that we have a big challenge ahead and we are excited about it. We recognize that we haven't accomplished anything until the camera ships to users.

We have all the pieces necessary to insure that we give ourselves the best chance of success, including a breakaway sensor and a great design team.

We understand the market's wishes for the final product capability AND pricing. For versatility and flexibility. We cannot come up with another camera that offers a slight advantage to current market offerings and expect to be successful. We need to "skip several generations of evolution". That's our plan.

We are building this camera because, as consumers ourselves, we can't find an option we like. So we are building this camera from the point of view that we are the buyers. And we think/hope we are not alone.

---
(side note - Jim has also written a lengthier explanation of his driving motivation for doing this camera, and why he thinks the RED team can pull it off, over at DVXUser.com, I highly recommend reading that if you want to understand both the intent and motivation for this camera. He's also commented extensively in the forums on that site, as well as at DVInfo.net's forums, there's good info to be gleaned from both of those sources.)
----

Excellent. A little background if you don't mind before we get into the camera -

Q: What is RED's relationship to Oakley?

A: I can't comment on the details other than to say that RED is a private company. Oakley is public. Oakley will benefit from the success of RED by selling some lenses. All lenses we make for the RED cameras going forward will be branded Oakley.

Q: What is your role now in Oakley, and your role in RED?

A: I'm the founder and Chairman of Oakley. The graphics department put "Mad Scientist" on my business cards starting 20 years ago. It stuck. I don't have a title at RED. No reason.

Q: What exactly ARE you bringing to market? So little info is on the website other than some general specs.

A: The website is in a remedial state right now. No reason to spend much time on it until we have more to say about our camera and the company. It is really just a "press release" site at this point. General specs are all we can share right now. We will have a lot more to talk about at NAB 2006.

Q: OK. Let's go over the specs one by one:

"4K Mysterium Sensor" - 4520x2540 - OK, what is this? Both literally - what's up with the Mysterium name? Who is it, who makes it?

A: I've taken a lot of ribbing for some of the names I have come up with for our materials and products over the years. Unobtainium was the 1st back in 1976. "Thermonuclear Protection" was another. The "Mysterium" sensor is just that. A mystery because we won't talk about the process or the nature of how we are getting 4k @ 60fps from this miracle sensor. Trust me, many companies have tried every trick in the book to find out.

Q: And why this massive resolution - only the very very highest end feature films are working with 4K scans (think Spiderman 2), and even then, all their FX are uprezzed from 2K. Why on earth acquire in a resolution that is even HIGHER than the highest end films are using? The datarates are ridiculously enormous - at 10 bits RGB, that's several hundreds of megabytes per second at the max frame rate of 60 fps.

A: 1st, the future will include 4k as a normal format. But for now, the advantages are the ability to use S35mm lenses for DOF and over-sampling of data. Many cameras sold now are up-rezzing to get to 1080P. Not us. You will have the luxury of down-rezzing to get anywhere you want to be. Light sensitivity is improved and dynamic range increased. If you don't need or want to shoot 4k, no problem. Shoot 2k, 1080P or 720P as you wish. And maintain DOF from you 35mm lenses without an adaptor such as the Mini-35. No adaptor means a lot of things, no light loss for one. This camera will record to the highest data rate devices or to our new RedFlash card-bricks. And everything in-between. When record/storage devices and CPU speeds increase, our camera will be ready and waiting.

(Mike comment - it says on the red.com website that the image sensor works out to 5.4 microns per pixel. The F900 is about 5 microns per pixel. So unlike some of the HDV and other lower end sensored cameras, you've got a goodly amount of light per pixel. This is VERY important to get good dynamic range with low noise. When I first heard of the 4520x2540 resolution, I ws concerned they'd have tons of resolution, but poor dynamic range and contrast capability due to tiny pixels. Not going to be the case.)


Q: There aren't even industry standard transports or buses for that kind of resolution as far as I know. How are you going to move that around?

See us at NAB.

Q: OK, back on track - I DO see the benefit of the 35mm image sensor - compatibility with existing gear, "proper" depth of field, a bigger sensor yields better dynamic range, etc. Am I missing anything in terms of benefits?

The flexibility of our camera will be shocking. We are attempting to remove as many items from the "I wish" list as possible.

Q: So again - why NOT just do a good 1080p/i or even 2K res on this large format sensor and be done and happy with it?

A: If you start with the premise of a 4k sensor for DOF and 35mm lenses, why not use as much capability as possible? We recognize that not many will use 4k (now). We also believe that the advancements in storage, clock speed and editing systems will quickly catch up to 4k. We are just on a collision course with where we believe the industry will land.

Q: The variable frame rates - 1 to 60 fps - that sounds GREAT - how are you going to implement that - like the Varicam does? What will be the best high speed mode you can do with this camera?

A: Again, see us at NAB. The options will surprise everyone.

Q: RED codec - on the site it discusses 4:4:4, 4:2:2, 19 to 100 Mbit data rates. That sounds suspiciously like MPEG-2, expect for the 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 stuff (readers - MPEG-2 is usually 4:2:0). I've talked to various folks on the board, at MWSF, etc., and have heard folks suggest everything from long GOP MPEG-2 to DPX files to JPEG2000 - what is the RED codec based on? Is it industry standard or proprietary? What will be able to use it? Will there be a QuickTime and/or AVI/WMV codec for it?

A: Sorry to avoid some of these questions. Somewhere on the site it says that specifications are subject to change. Truth is that the compression options are being finalized as we speak. We have some new tricks we are trying to add before the specs get officially announced at NAB.

Q: Lenses - OK, it says use industry standard PL mounts, or your own lenses. First off, I think it's GREAT that you're doing PL mounts for compatibility. I can understand making a camera body, but why get into lenses, especially if you can use PL mount stuff? Why make your own lenses when there are a few industry leaders out there that have been making great high end lenses for decades?

A: We see a hole in the market for lenses. It is true that Cooke, Zeiss and others make great lenses for 35mm film cameras. Our camera will accommodate them. But there needs to be a less expensive alternative. If we hope to attract customers other than the highest budget professional, our camera needs to be priced right and there needs to be lenses available that won't break the bank. We are trying to anticipate as many angles as possible. I'm going to be really depressed if we only sell 1000 cameras. So we need to provide complete solutions to include as many users as possible.

Q: Lenses: have you made any decisions about how many/what kinds of lenses you'll have that you can share now? Are you expecting to provide a full line of lenses, or just a couple of basic ones?

A: We have a lens roadmap. Three announced at NAB, then others added over time.

Q: While we're talking about lenses, that segues to the topic of imaging sensitivity - what's your target dynamic range? (On DVXUser.com, he'd said 66db or 12 bit before.)

A: We now think we can beat 66db and hold 12 bit.

Wow, that's great.

Q: Sound: What kind of onboard sound recording options are you guys thinking about?

A: Lots of options here...

Q: Is this camera going to shoot linear or logarithmic or both?

A: NAB

Q: Recording Options - I see you listing a bunch of stuff that I'll get into shortly, but basically, what is the NATIVE acquisition format? What is built in to the camera that you can record to? Tape is one of many choices - is there going to be a RED tape format, with tape decks etc.?

A: No tape from us. We will support as many record to options as possible. But we will also rely on third parties to fill in the blanks, including tape solutions. There will NOT be an onboard tape system on our camera. I think it is safe to say that we will put more emphasis on recording to RAM, Flash and hard drives.

Q: Post workflow - NLEs - Redcode - are you guys talking to NLE companies like Apple/Avid/Adobe/Sony? How will we ingest and edit this stuff? That's gonna be a HUGE issue, workflow - if it isn't easy to work with (and readers, think of HDV before it was natively supported), that is a huge dent in the usability of the camera. Are you expecting folks to capture over HD-SDI as is done with HDCAM/D-5/HDCAM SR, or native ingest over some kind of bus, like FireWire/USB 2.0/fibre channel/SATA?

A: All the combinations will be shown at NAB. (Mike comment - to clarify, I believe he means all the combinations they plan to support will be shown, not necessarily all that I just listed.)


Q: OK, on to the listed options:
RED Flash System - sounds like some kind of flash RAM - what's this? What is it going to be, what does it record, how much does it record, what's it cost, etc.?

A: I guess you could look at it like P2 on steroids. Details at NAB.

Q: external hard drives - like, ANY external hard drive? Proprietary solutions? What?

A: Details at NAB... sorry.

Q: Blu Ray - obviously, gonna have to be compressed due to max recording data rate. So what goes on here - XDCAM HD-like MPEG-2?

A: All 3rd party solutions are possible. We are building as open a system as possible. But we still have work to do with some third parties.

Q: "Tape" - OK, what formats? A dockable tape recorder like the SRW-1 from Sony? Or HD-SDI to go to standard decks?

Again, what is the default recorder - what's built in/on?

A: Most used (my guess) would be onboard RedFlash or the HD-SDI out to your choice. But there are so many other options that it is difficult to call these default. That really depends on the user's preference.

Q: Without tape, how do you expect folks to integrate into existing workflows? The specs talk about 60p - what about the basics, like 1080i59.94? How will "normal" (as in traditional) ENG and post workflows be supported?

A: Of course we will include standard formats (except DV). The surprise will be how many new options there are. This is an HD camera (UHD really in 4k). It is not set up for SD at all. You'll have to do that in post.

Q: With all these formats supported, is there going to be a RED codec recordable to all these different devices? It looks like a potentially very wide swath of user types. Who is this camera going to work best for, and who is it a stretch or a compromise for?

A: If we pull this off, the RED camera will work for many shooters, from the wedding videographer, Indie filmmaker, industrial shooter, and professional cinematographer. It is just as easily a 720P camera as it is a 2k or 4k pro camera. The Redcode will limit some of the applications... no surprise. Shooting RAW will be a choice for some. 4:4:4, 4:2:2, and Redcode will offer completely different capabilities for different situations. You choose what you need. The camera will accept the challenge.

Q: ENG doesn't need 4.5K. Indies can't afford 4.5k worth of data. Bigger film productions that could afford that kind of data are likely to stick with film, based on cost and proven workflows. What advantages do you bring? There's nothing to even SCREEN 4.5K with yet.

A: Again, choose what you need.

Q: So if recording media agnostic (somewhat), then what is the data format? Does it vary depending on resolution?

A: Data format depends... lots of options.

Q: If multiple resolutions supported, what are they? 4.5K, 1080p, 1080i, 720p have been mentioned so far.

A: 2540P, 4k, 2k, 1080P, 1080i (most likely), 720P and 1k. Specs can change at any time!

Q: If multi-codeced, which ones, at what data rates, are supported?

A: NAB

Q: If multiple different physical recording media are supported, which ones are they, and what are their limits? Obviously can't record 4520x2540 on Blu-Ray with decent quality with any known compression technology at present.

A: It is much easier to show than to talk about. A complete matrix will be shown at NAB.

Q: Creative Accessories - what's that all about? You mention versatile, light, and small - how so? How are you achieving this?

A: My whole thing is that I don't want to lug around a 30 pound camera. It isn't necessary. We think that we can put a base camera out with onboard RedFlash and battery that is pretty light. Then add accessories as you need them in a very innovate way. I will say that this won't be a plastic camera. It will look and feel more like a film camera than a traditional video camera.

Q: Is there a mailing list for when you do have updates?

A: We are trying to get everything about the camera done for NAB. If we get the camera right, marketing will be a lot easier. We'll worry about the marketing later.

Q: Your links page lists an interesting amalgam of large and small companies and sites (including HD For Indies) - what's that about?

A: I built the site and did what I wanted. I have no website building experience so it is, admittedly, remedial. Oh, well. I put links to companies I go to myself and have respect for. That's it. Pretty simple. I'll get a trained professional to build a good site when it is necessary. I'm not in a hurry. BTW, I have taken a lot of crap for the site. :-)

Q: With all these myriad options - recording frame size, frame rate, recording format/media, etc. - how are you going to keep the controls manageable? I'd think the menus would be a nightmare.

A: No question that a great UI is mandatory. We have our hands full.

Q: OK, and what is that 3D thingy on the front page of the website?

A: The metal "R" is a design styling target. "R" for RED. If you mean the RED button, it represents RUN/STOP.

Q: What's your rollout schedule? I've seen that you're planning to show a non-functional prototype at NAB in an un-named booth (do you have a booth yet?) - what else are you going to have at NAB - price point, specs, what?

A: Yes, we will not have to stand in the cold in Las Vegas. Our booth number is South Hall, booth SU1401. We will show a non-working prototype, but most importantly, we will release the prices and the specs. We will show workflow options and have some great people in the booth to answer questions.

Q: So if a non-functional proto at NAB, when functional protos, demos, and shipping units?

A: Our target is to have working cameras (and a few for sale) by the end of the year. We aren't promising an exact date.

We hope to demo cameras in the fall.

Q: When are you anticipating RED will ship the units to the public? I presume these will be sold and not leased like Panavision cameras.

A: We expect to sell the RED cameras to shooters. I'm quite sure that they will also get sold to rental houses for those that prefer that route.

Q: It sounds like there are plans for some pretty wide diversity possible with the acessories, lenses, and recording options. Can you specify a target range of user? Starting where on the totem pole at bottom end, and ending where at the top end? If that's a difficult question, then what cameras do you see this being competitive with at the lower and upper bounds of it's cost/quality effectiveness?

A: We plan to have a stripped down version of the RED Camera... then add everything you would need to it. It is a modular program. At the high end, we will show a 4k capable, fully accessorized model. And everything in between.

Q: What about workflow - if recording digitally, how are users to archive the footage? Especially in an ENG or other high shooting ratio environment?

A: I think there are a ton of options depending on format and end use. If you choose to shoot 720P, I'd expect one would not have to alter his archive program at all. If you shoot 4k, you'll need a pretty good budget.

Q: How big/heavy is the camera to be?

A: Small and light. Heavier than a Z1, lighter than a Varicam by a ton.

Q: And lastly, what about price?

A: NAB.

So we'll be looking forward to NAB for all kinds of answers. Thanks Jim! I appreciate you taking the time to answer question before your big NAB launch.

So, in summary, based on the preliminary answers given here:

The Camera:
-Weight: "Heavier than a Z1, lighter than a Varicam by a ton" - Z1U weighs less than 5 pounds, Varicam weighs about 10 pounds raw, about 15 pounds in shooting trim.
-small, lightweight and flexible are primary goals
-more stripped down versions in the future

Lenses:
-made and branded by Oakley, but PL mounts work too
-three to be announced at NAB, he mentions a roadmap, implying others to follow in the future

Recording: no onboard tape, memory and hard drive based solutions from RED, but HD-SDI was mentioned for connecting to existing HD tape formats. Sounds like it will be very IT centric, and I welcome that - there are huge advantages in post for by going an IT route (and some challenges too - helllllllllooooo, backups!).

Internal data format/codec: Still being finalized, wait for NAB

Pricing:
-wait for NAB
-but Jim has said on a forum somewhere that if the camera cost $200,000, Jim would be very upset, or words to that effect
-he also said somewhere that if they only sold 1000 cameras, he'd be upset (or words to that effect)
-read into that what you will

Workflow: LOTS of options, enough it'll require a matrix to explain them all, full details at NAB. But plans for folks like wedding videographers, ENG folks, indie and "full on" filmmakers have all been discussed/mentioned on the forums and here by Jim, so flexibility of workflow seems to be a priority for them, which is great. Exactly how to get footage in/out of NLEs, and whether it is native or HD-SDI, is one of the follow up questions I've submitted.

A few surprises:
-due sooner than I'd expected
-NO standard def (even SD) support it would appear - he points out DV not an option, and not set up for SD
-1080i is not guaranteed to be in
-NAB Booth is locked in (SU1401 in South Upper Hall)
-one thing I forgot to follow up on, that was a major omission, was RAW format processing. The plan, as I understand it, is to be able to capture the RAW sensor output through dual fibre channel links, which offers HUGE increases in image quality potentially (if you can process it in software). There are all kinds of detail losing choices made in a camera after the RAW image is acquired, and if you have the choice to capture the full sensor output and manipulate it in post, that is much closer to a digital film type workflow than digital video. Think of the difference, if you work with digital still cameras, between having the RAW source vs. the compressed JPEG to work with. For the casual user, no big deal, but for working pros, it offers significant advantages in image quality and manipulation flexibility.

OK, that's it for now. I have some follow up questions sitting in Jim's inbox, and I'll get those up as soon as he has time to get back to me - and I'd imagine he's got quite a lot on his plate, considering that they have already committed to a camera, 3 lenses, accessories and options, and who knows what else they'll announce.

Got a question of your own for Jim and/or about RED? Submit it in comments, I'll cull from there and forward on to Jim (or he might answer himself - he's the only billionaire I know who surfs the forums and posts comments himself).


-mike

-------

For further info on the RED camera:

Official RED site:

RED.com

HD For Indies Articles:

-Tuesday, December 06, 2005- New Digital Cinema Camera Coming: RED. 4K. 60p. RAW format. Wow.
-Wednesday, December 07 - More Thoughts on RED camera
-Friday, December 16, 2005 - HD For Indies Exclusive: The Scoop on the RED camera-YES it's for real
-Sunday, December 18th - - RED out in "late 2006" according to Jannard
-Sunday, Jan 8th - Graeme Nattress joins RED

Other Links:

-DVInfo.net's RED forums -with LOTS of comments/postings from Jim himself
-DVX User's forums on the RED camera - also includes a lot of stuff from Jim himself

Labels: Red

Macworld: Review: iDVD 6

OK, YES, iDVD is for the Little'Uns, not for heavy production work. But the templates are hopefully a preview of what we'll see with the next version of DVD Studio Pro, likely to be demoed if not shipped at NAB.

As for NAB, I expect we'll see product announcements, but not shipment - since the Universal Binary of FCS (Final Cut Studio) will ship end of March, which is only two weeks before NAB, why would Apple have two product releases so back to back? That to me hints that FCS will ship LATER IN THE YEAR. Keep in mind, Apple demoed Motion 1.0 at NAB and didn't ship till what, September? October? We might be looking at that kind of a situation again.

-mike

UPDATE WEDNESDAY - In the Calm Light Of The Next Day, I see this is not nearly such a big deal - while the card has two outputs, it has NO inputs - so AJA and BMD are safe and fine. My overhype, apologies. So this would be of use to the Varicam/HDV/DVCPRO HD crowd for output, and for motion graphics and video artists. But you'd still need an SDI to component adaptor to use this with a broadcast monitor that didn't costg a bazillion dollars, and a Kona LH or DeckLink HD Pro Single Link is less expensive than those. But for running FCP and Motion, this card could still do some seriously cool things (oh, and Final Touch as well!).

So this is NOT such a big deal after all - there was a slower nVidia card with HD-SDI outs already on the market in the past, anyway. So it is of limited use - great for output, no input capabilities. And perhaps the PCIe bus on current Macs will make the "all in one" factor not such a big deal. I could certainly see Apple doodling with this tech in house, but that doesn't mean they'd offer it as a product - maybe somebody saw a test box and extrapolated, and that's what the Think Secret article was based on.

(Thanks to a commenter for pointing out the no inputs - my bad!)

end update

Nvidia ships HD TV transmission-friendly Quadro card | Reg Hardware

OH MY! This could be pretty ultra killer - this could be what puts the power of Final Cut Pro way Way WAY over the top.

But it is just the POSSIBILITY - officially, this card is only supported under WinXP and Linux.

This could, possibly, be a threat for AJA and BlackMagic Design if Apple supports this and integrates Final Cut Pro with it. Remember that link about Final Cut Pro 6 that Think Secret put up a few weeks ago, and I pooh pooh'd on here? Well maybe there was something to it - IF Apple were to support this card, that would mean they could do SDI (serial digital interface) for standard def, and HD-SDI dual link for ALL flavors of HD in and out, including dual link HD-SDI RGB, including 2K (probably the 2048x1080 RGB 4:4:4 12 bit kind that is a SMPTE spec).

That's the good news (or POSSIBLE good news). The downside would be the lack of the REST of the I/O (input/output) you'd need to do real work. What the AJA and BlackMagic Designs products DO offer on top of outputs is INPUTS, and also analog video outputs in SD and HD, 9 pin deck control, breakout boxes, XLR audio I/O, etc. But none of that is stuff (expect for HD-SDi inputs) that couldn't be offered on a FireWire breakout box (or even USB 2.0, frankly, since FireWire has it's issues with sharing buses while capturing). So maybe AJA'd have a box that broke out HD-SDI from the card into analog video outs, analog audio outs, de-embedded timecode, 9 pin deck control (so the box would have to connect back to Mac via USB 2.0 or somesuch). I say AJA because they historically have a tighter connection with Apple than BMD does, but BMD has been getting more parity treatment of late. Or at least, based on product releases, seems to be (I have no inside scoop on this).

So, IF Apple were to incorporate this card into a high end Mac, it would have MAJOR benefits for Final Cut Pro - one of the things holding back the performance of Final Cut Pro, and other apps like Final Touch HD (that we use in my color correction business), is that fast GPU (the OpenGL card, not the CPU) calculations must be pushed over the slow PCI-X bus in older Macs, and now the PCIe bus in newer Macs. But the fact that in order to color correct (or otherwise GPU process) footage, the data has to go from main memory, to GPU, back across the PCIe/-X bus, into the HD-SDI card, and out to broadcast monitor or deck, is a major slowdown. If all the calculations could take place in the QuadroFX card, and the HD-SDI outputs were just another output on the card itself, that'd be a big time saver, and thus a MAJOR, MAJOR performance boost. Realtime SD/HD conversion? 3:2 pulldown on the fly? Mixed SD/HD on the same timeline with realtime performance? These would all be technically possible in hardware (although MAJOR rewrites to core FCP code would be required to support some of these features).

My guess, if Apple were to go this route, is that it would offer fantastic realtime performance, but it wouldn't surprise me if their were some robustness issues with it that would make some folks want to stick with BMD or AJA until the performance got ROCK SOLID over six or more months.

But again, all just conjecture based on guesses and experience.

Thanks to Kelly Dodds for sending in the link to the announcement of the card!

-mike

Reader Chris submitted the below from the vendor's website, so YES, it is DCI spec 2K resolution:

SDI SOFTWARE INTEGRATION

Transparent Clone and Dualview Modes work on top of existing applications
1 channel fill
8-bit
RGB 4:4:4
YCrCb 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
Extended Mode
Integrated into applications using the NVIDIA SDI API
2 channel fill or
1 channel fill + 1 channel key
8-, 10-, 12*-bit
RGB 4:4:4
YCrCb 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
2x YCrCb 4:2:2 + 4:2:2
YCrCbA 4:2:2:4
RGBA 4:4:4:4 (8-bit only)

Full support for outputs in the following 2K*, HD, and SD formats:
720p 23.98 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 24.00 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 25.00 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 29.97 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 30.00 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 50.00 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 59.94 Hz (SMPTE296)
720p 60.00 Hz (SMPTE296)
1035i 59.94 Hz (SMPTE260)
1035i 60.00 Hz (SMPTE260)
1080i 47.96 Hz (SMPTE274)
1080i 48.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE295)
1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
1080i 59.94 Hz (SMPTE27