HD For Indies

Rules for Contest - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking

Jarred Land emailed me to say he's having a Red Contest - not to give away a camera (them's cheap, but not THAT cheap!), but he is giving away Red reservation #97 - you get the titanium R and $1000 off the camera and the 97th one off the line.

To win, enter your idea for a Red product on the appropriate forum page.

Good luck, and good ideas!

-mike

Hey all -

So there's a bunch of different machines out there, and folks want to know what does and doesn't work, and I can't STAND some of the test results I'm seeing out there (example links withheld to protect the guilty - but Wind Filter, I know where you hide!).

What I think REALLY matters to editors doing long form is this:

1.) Realtime playback at high quality - if it won't play, never mind.
2.) Realtime cross dissolves. After that, all other transitions are pretty much gravy. How often do you use anything but a cut or cross dissolve in long form? I mean, REALLY?
3.) Real Time Color Corrrection - the 3-way color corrector is the standard, and working some sliders rather than others can decide whether the results are realtime or not
4.) Titling - again, in real time
5.) Letterboxing - realtime

In the indie productions that I've worked on, not having these things realtime (even if for rough use, like color correction if you're going to do better later) is a huge time killer, so I consider this The List. I consider that items 1-3 are the Must Haves, and ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Items 4 and 5 in conjunction with the others is damned useful, but not quite as essential in my opinion, in my experience. But if you can't take two color corrected clips and get a realtime cross dissolve, you're in trouble as far as time efficiency goes.

So I want to know exactly which formats, with what combination of 1-5, will or won't play realtime full quality, or realtime with Dynamic RT, etc. So how to find this out?

What I'd like to do is:

1.) Get together any gear that I don't have, or can't have plugged in simultaneously
2.) Put together a test regime that is more realistic for editing than what I see out there (anyone who proposes Lens Flare or Wind Filter testing will be summarily shot)
3.) Standardize the machines on OS, QT, FCP, AJA/BMD driver versions
4.) Set up a Master File, ready to roll for testing
5.) Copy that to all the Macs in question
6.) Do relevant testing on the gear and get some solid benchmarks, do pass/fail testing and stopwatch testing
7.) Document and post all that stuff

Formats I want to test
-DV (NTSC & 24p)
-HDV (720p30 and 1080i)
-DVCPRO HD (720p24, 720p60, 1080p24 (you can hack it, more on this later), 1080i60)
-uncompressed 720p24 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 720p60 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080p24 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080i60 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080p24 10 bit 4:2:2 (already know no RT)
-uncompressed 1080p24 10 bit 4:4:4 (already know no RT)

...and as long as I'm testing stuff, I want to know about:

-uncompressed 2Kx1080 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)
-uncompressed 2Kx1556 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)
-compresssed 2Kx1080 and 2Kx1556 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)

....and see how they work. But that's probably another day.

What I've already got

so I now have inhouse

-a dual 2.0 GHz PCI-X (early model) G5 with a ??? graphics card
-a dual 2.5 GHz PCI-X G5 with aATI X800 XT card in it
-a quad 2.5 GHz PCIe G5 with an nVidia GeForce 7800GT card in it
-a 1.25GHz G4 12" PowerBook
-a 2.0 GHz MacBook

They all have uncompressed HD capable RAIDs attached

They all have FCP 5.0.4 (soon to be 5.1) installed

Then I have the following HD capture cards:

-one Kona2 card with K-Box (PCI-X)
-one Kona3 card with K3-Box (PCIe)
-two BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro cards (PCI-X)
-one BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro cards (PCIe)
-one BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme box (PCIe)

Then I have a JVC 19" broadcast CRT

Then I have an AJA HDP (and the DVI output from my Multibridge Extreme) for HD-SDI to DVI conversion for display

Then I have four HD capable RAIDs

Then I have the following SATA cards:
-two Highpoint RocketRAID 1820A cards (PCI-X)
-two Sonnet eSATA Tempo X PCIe cards (4 external port multiplying eSATA ports)
-two Sonnet Tempo X 4+4 PCI-X cards
-one Sonnet Tempo X 8 port eSATA card

...and a bunch of LCD and CRT monitors.


What I'm missing and would like to find locally:

-another PCIe Mac that isn't a Quad G5
-an Intel based iMac
-an Intel based Mini
-MacBook Pros of any size

What I'm NOT interested in doing:

-testing on old gear - if FCP 4 or 5 can be made to run on a G3, I don't care - it isn't fast enough to do any of the work that I care about

WHEN

I dunno, maybe in a couple of weekends? On a Saturday, and make it be a beer-n-pizza kind of a gig? Open to suggestions, nothing locked down at this point.

WHO

this is a call out to all my local regulars (Craig, Zane, Luis, etc.), but open to any readers who'd be down with this idea.

WHERE

I'm thinking of just doing it at my house (that's in Austin, TX, for those who don't know), I have LOTS of monitors, power cords, and table surfaces. While files could certainly be distributed around (and I'm thinking about that possibility), it'd be more efficient to do it here in a more controlled circumstance, plus beer and pizza and hang out factor.

If you're local and/or have gear to contribute from the list and want to be involved, contact me - email me - mike at hdforindies dot com.

Think Secret - Briefly: Intel-based Xserve due this summer: "

Apple's Xserve may find Intel processors inside of it ahead of any Power Mac upgrade, sources report. Intel is currently on track to deliver Woodcrest, the code-named successor to its Xeon processor targeted at servers, in June, and sources say Apple is eying the release of the first Intel-based Xserve around July.

....and based on Intel's known release date of Core 2 Duos (Conroe), chips due July, they speculate we'll see desktop G5 replacements at WWDC in August.

My thoughts? Maybe....but that's much faster than I'd guess. These guys guess madly and are usually wrong. They keep saying "It's about to happen!" and eventually they're right...like a clock, twice a day...

-mike

Apple Tech Note:

Final Cut Pro: Read Prefetch settings for Xserve RAID


If you are using an Apple Xserve RAID for video in high data rate formats (such as Uncompressed SD formats or HDTV formats), a Read Prefetch setting of 128 stripes (8 MB) is recommended. When using a Read Prefetch setting of 128 stripes, you may be able to further increase the Xserve RAID's performance by storing audio-only files on a separate drive system (such as a second internal ATA or SATA drive or second Xserve RAID).

Apple Tech Note:

Final Cut Pro: Apply the Broadcast Safe filter last

Using the Broadcast Safe filter is a good way to ensure that the levels in your project will conform to the specifications required for television. In order for the Broadcast Safe filter to be effective and accurate when used, it should be the last filter applied to a clip or nested sequence.

Apple - Support - Downloads - QuickTime 7.1.1

QuickTime 7.1 apparently had some issues, so QT 7.1.1 is out. Recommended for all users. I happened to ask Jon Thorn, Mac video product manager at AJA, if there were any known issues with OS X 10.4.6 and QuickTime 7.1.1, he said none that he was aware of, but now there is 7.1.1. As always, don't update mission critical production machines until you've heard somebody else with your EXACT same setup has done so and done the things you do and it's all worked out well for them.

-mike

celluloid eyes: an open letter to indy/low-budget filmmakers

A nice open letter to the indie community on how to promote your indie film, but more specifically (and importantly), how to help the press to promote your film.

How are you going to get any buzz if there is no website, no online trailer, no nice stills that easy to find? No plot summaries, no bios about the director/writer/actors/DP/whoever is important to promoting your film.

She singles out the site for Jumping Off Bridges as a good example of how to do it right -

It's easy to navigate, and all the information a potential viewer or film critic might want is easy to find. The site includes a press kit PDF, a list of credits, a summary of the story ... even iTunes links to music from the movie.


They got it mostly right (probably due to Stacy I'll bet!), with a few quibbles - high res stills were embedded in the PDF, not freestanding downloadables, but other than that they give press folks, who are always rushed, underpaid and on deadline, good info fast and well organized, and the press will love you for that. Jumping Off Bridges isn't exactly a grab-you-by-the-throat film - it's about a family dealing with the suicide of the mom after a child dies years before. Yuck - heavy stuff, not something folks are necessarily going to volunteer to go see. So all the more reason that they needed, and have, a good website to give reasons why you'd want to know about the film, and info about the film, etc.

I find I am MUCH more likely to go see a film if I have a personal connection or info of any sort about it - if I meet someone involved at a film festival, I'll go see their film. If I've seen the trailer, I'm at least five times more likely to go see it. Etc.

Anyway, read it/learn it/love it/live it.

-mike

(and thanks to Melissa for pointing this out to me! : ) )

MacBook 13" versus other Macs -- iMovie and iDVD

and

MacBook 13" versus MacBook Pro 15/17

are two pages with performance comparisons between a 2.0 GHz MacBook, MacBook Pros in the 15 and 17" size (2.0 & 2.16 GHz), iMovie, iDVD, and some games (but not Final Cut Pro tests on these pages).

The MacBooks and MacBook Pros are beaten by the G5, but the MacBook is mostly the equal of the MacBook Pros in THESE tests.

-mike

Apple - QuickTime - HD Gallery is a gallery with a bunch of HD footage. Please be careful to note that which was shot on HD in the first place vs. that which was originated on FILM in the first place, and then TRANSFERRED to HD. The results are NOT the same. Not all of the footage is identified as to how it was originated (film vs video).

A good guide, however, is context - if it is from a major motion picture, it's almost certainly film. If it is live concert footage, almost certainly HD video. If it is a music video, could be either, and same for the documentary stuff unless it says otherwise.

-mike

So I FINALLY got around to borrowing the Panasonic AJ-HD1200A deck (the DVCPRO HD format for Varicam) to capture the Varicam tape based footage from the Texas HD Shootout (haven't heard of it? Read here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Summary:

-Omega has been a huge help as a vendor
-captured the same clips on FireWire, AJA Kona2, and BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme over HD-SDI just to see if there's a difference
-and especially, Time of Day timecode is a bad, Bad, BAD idea for most projects when it comes time for post!

Notes on Varicam recapture:

-so got the deck from Omega Broadcast Group. Who are they? They are the guys that provided the facility, a bunch of cameras (including the Varicam), G5s, a RAID, monitors, expertise, etc. They are great - they do Mac sales and rentals, shooting gear and rentals, editing, DVD replication, pretty much whatever you need to make a video based product they can help you with. Talk to Allan Barnwell about sales, or Jordan Hristov about rentals. Contact page here. In any case, they've been great to me, and if you could use a vendor in central Texas, they're a good one. Ok, onward...

-plugged in power, plugged in FireWire, and for kicks plugged in analog component outputs to my HD monitor (this isn't required, but helpful, and hey, why not see what the footage looks like?)

-then I popped in the Varicam tape, this one the 24p tape (we also shot 60p, but it is BAD JUJU to record mixed frame rates on the same tape!!!!)

-...and then I discovered that timecode was all over the place. Let me use the technical term to describe this situation in post: FUCK.

-OK, let me use a slightly more technical term - I think the camera had been left in Time Of Day timecode, so that the timecode for each take was separated by however many minutes it had been since the last take.

-this creates a HUGE ENORMOUS PAIN IN THE ASS for the editor, and makes capturing footage take MANY times longer than it should.

-my bad for letting this happen, but this a great example of Things Not To Do.

-the only time I'd recommend shooting Time Of Day is when shooting a multi-camera shoot where things need to be tightly synchronized, and even then you are DAMN sure that all your camera's clocks are EXACTLY in sync, and on top of that, I'd be doing when you're doing long takes, like at a concert or something and Camera 1 is Stage Left and just rolls the whole time.

-by introducing time code breaks, it means you not only have to log accurately, but then you have to know how much pre- and post-roll the deck needs to capture, otherwise FCP will barf.

-God Damn It this makes me frustrated.

-then I got in a hurry and did something stupid - used Markers In and Out not the true in and out, and this created weirdness when capturing - be sure to use the In and Out stuff at the BOTTOM of the screen, not the right middle toggle down for Markers. Duh. In a hurry, hadn't captured footage in a while, just did somethign dumb. Durrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I R Spay-Shull.

-how did I discover this problem? Because I logged a half a dozen shots then went back to batch capture to Make Sure Everything Was Working Right. (Coulda done it after 2 or 3, but I waited a bit long). MUCH better to discover this early rather than log 50 shots and then figure it out.

-so I'm back to capturing clips one at a time. GROAN.

-to make matters even more annoying, the timecode starts around 22 hours, then wraps around to start at zero, so there deck & FCP have no idea where to start capturing...so I've gotta capture one clip at a time....

-....and because of these large timecode breaks, there's no way to be sure you've got all the source material, unless you match back to the shot list...

-so eventually I got it all captured.

Somebody told me, quietly, that at one point in time that on BlackMagic gear, the DVCPRO based codecs (DVCRPO/50/HD) didn't match when captured over HD-SDI vs FireWire. So to check that, I captured the same clips - Multiburst chart, Chroma DuMode chart, and a high dynamic range scene over FireWire, over HD-SDI on BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme, and over AJA Kona2. I'll compare/contrast in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, I'm just organizing shots today. It's pouring down rain, and I've had some Not Fun stuff going on in my personal life, so a good day to just crank in and work.

Or maybe blow it off to go see a movie in a few hours.

Bleh.

-mike

MacNN | CatDV 5.0 released for Intel Macs

Doing a big doc? Something like this might be helpful to keep organized.

From the MacNN article:

CatDV 5.0 imports and catalogs most types of media files, and is designed to greatly enhance the productivity of anyone using an editing application such as Final Cut Pro or Avid Xpress DV. The software features advanced logging tools, including automatic scene detection and the Verbatim Logger, and allows users to create a network searchable repository of clips for sharing between editors and producers.

-mike

DSC "TechTips" is a page with a bunch of tech tips from theDSC Labs web page.

Includes some good shooter stuff, and I, as a non-shooter, learned a bit from here.

-mike

Adding RAM to a 13-Inch MacBook

Step by step of the incredibly simple RAM upgrade process on the new MacBooks.

-mike

NAB 2006-Other Schtuff
==================

Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Other Stuff Wrap Up notes. This is the last of my bulk notes from NAB 2006 (a month later, yeah I know, sorry, but ya gits whatcha pay for!)

So what is "Other Stuff?" Stuff that wasn't immediately identifiable as shooting gear, storage, editing hardware or software, and that just didn't have a clear other place to go.

It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference.

Here's a catch-all for "other stuff" I saw at NAB:
===================================================

Summary of the better stuff:

-Intel's expected Mac tower chips out sooner than expected
-Bella's Catapult will let you record DV and HDV to an iPod (!!!)
-Creative Cow now has a print magazine
-QuVis and Christie have new D-Cinema products
-there's other interesting tidbits
-and links to all the photos and videos I took during NAB

================

On departing Vegas, after a week there, as I wait for my flight which was delayed until about midnight:

"Las Vegas is built on the broken promises of the money you will not win and the sex you will not have."

-mc

======================================================

INTEL (FROM MacOSXRumors.com)

During its financial results conference, for the second time this year, the company has announced it will be shipping its next-generation processors earlier than scheduled.

The Conroe, Merom and Woodcrest were first scheduled to be released in late 2006. Some weeks ago, the company announced it would be shipping them a bit earlier in Q3 and now they’re planned to be shipping by June according to the company’s CEO Paul Otellini.

Intel has also announced it would startlarge restructuring efforts so as to get some market share back from its main competitor AMD. The company also announced it is already working on the two next generations of processors, with plans to change generation every two years.


Mike's Comments: Oh, well THAT'S good news! Perhaps we'll be seeing macintel towers at WWDC? Shipping in the fall?

===================================

The Bella Catapult is a new gadget that lets you record DV or HDV directly onto an iPod via USB 2.0 connector. It'll do time lapse, remote trigger, pre and post recording, record over 3 hours with the batteries, comes with Windows or Mac presets, ships second half of this year, about $300 or less. Sounds good!

===================================

Cobalt Digital has SD/HD analog component to SDI/HD-SDI converter box, model # 8090, 12 bit A/D converter, does 720p, 1080p, 1080i, all the usual framerates, one box for all markets (no PAL vs NTSC models), is $1195

See this page for related photos

==================


Creative Cow
See related pics somewhere on this page

...now has a print edition magazine covering Mac creative industry applications - so print as well as video as well as 3D etc. I'd imagine. Update - I flipped through and read several articles - this is good stuff, I'd recommend picking up a copy and see how much is applicable to what you do. A lot of it was applicable for me.

=====================


HDRVFX.com - downloadable high dynamic range spherical HDRs, panoramas, etc., at NAB had 60 or 70 pieces up, instead of selling by the DVDs, can by the single image a la carte and download it, the do custom work as well, all HDRs are realworld, NOT rendered out of 3D packages, have pre-lit scenes for Carerra, going to add the other 3D packages like Maya, Lightwave, Cinema4D, maybe a Boris product, etc., are based in SF and NYC, can get reflection maps for $4, 360 degree spherical HDR for $12, and the pre-setup scenes are $15,
-sizes - 3.5K, 1K, 512, have stair stepped pricing (higher res more expensive)
-at NAB had about 70 pieces at various resolutions online
-shooting'em on D70s with the 10.5 Nikon spherical, 5700 with a fisheye
-shooting a variety of shots at different angles, stitch one and it can be batched (she shoots 6 around, 5 in each position, 5 panoramas 2 stops apart each)
-they take the panoramas and collapse'em down with CS2 or other apps (CS2 is kinda wonky)
-it is a .hdr file (radians file) - RGB-e file (the e is exposure)
-ILM uses a $50K camera for their inhouse work, they feel they can do good bang for the buck with their tools

=======================

CANON XL H1: compared w/D-20, HVX200, Silicon Imaging, Phantom HD, the Viper was the sharpest, cleanest camera in the bunch, the XL H1 was second in the group

Mini35 adaptor for XL H1 - they got it working

========================

RED COUNT - pushing towards 250 by the end of the week of reserved units for the Red One

========================

QuVis showed their 4K DCI compliant JPEG2000 based theatrical stuff:

The QuVIS Digital Cinema System™ delivers unsurpassed image quality to the silver screen using DCI JPEG2000, or its own patented wavelet compression technology, Quality Priority Encoding (QPE™). The system architecture supports resolutions through 4K and provides transparent real-time playback of a 2K image from a 4K master and optional 3D. In addition to film-resolution playback, the QuVIS Digital Cinema System™ supports current video broadcast standards including High Definition and Standard Definition at guaranteed quality levels. The systems approach includes integrated support for automation control and audio, as well as optional show and theatre management system components.


============================


Christie was showing 12K and 20K lumen projectors - Christie introduces the latest generation of the most powerful and brightest digital projectors in their classes, the Christie Roadster S+ 20K, the Christie LX120, and the Christie DS+26 SXGA+.


Introducing….
 
THE NEW CHRISTIE ROADSTER S+20K PROJECTOR
 
The Christie Roadster S+ 20K DLP projector is the latest generation of its popular Roadster Series of compact, purpose-built projectors for the rental/staging, live entertainment, trade show and exhibition markets.  Driven by a powerful 3-chip DLP SXGA+ engine and delivering 20,000 ANSI lumens, the projector offers superior image quality and increased brightness levels with greater power, performance and lower cost-of-ownership to meet the challenges of the most demanding environments. 
SEE COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE BELOW.
 
 
THE NEW CHRISTIE LX120 LCD PROJECTOR
 
Setting the industry-leading standard for brightness with 12,000 Lumens of power, the Christie LX120 LCD projector is the latest in Christie’s popular RoadRunner series.  Featuring a superior 1300:1 contrast ratio, the Christie LX120 offers the ultimate in reliability, dependability and flexibility.  With configurable illumination to operate either in quad or dual lamp mode, it is equally at home in large auditoriums and churches, as well as executive briefing rooms and conference centers.   
SEE COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE BELOW.
 
 
THE NEW CHRISTIE DS+26 SXGA+ PROJECTOR – SMALLEST AND LIGHTEST IN ITS CLASS
 
Offering power, performance and portability in a compact design, the new Christie DS+26 digital projector is the smallest, high resolution, single-chip DLP projector available on the market today.  It features true SXGA+ 1400x1050 resolution, a powerful 2500 ANSI lumens and a 2500:1 full field contrast ratio to deliver images of exceptional brightness, sharpness and clarity. The Christie DS+26 is the only compact DLP projector on the market with 100% vertical lens shift for distortion-free imaging. Ideal for unobtrusive installations, the DS+26 compact size and quiet operation is ideal for smaller conference rooms, boardrooms and training rooms.


=============================

Full pics from NAB 2006:
Red Booth Day Zero & One - this is setting up in the Red Booth and the first day of my working with those guys:

Here’s some pictures from Sunday and Monday as we set up the booth and hit the first day of the show. The players include - Ted Schilowitz, Graeme Nattress, Chris Petrillo, Hugo from Oakley, Jarred Land, Stuart English, Mark Pederson, and of course, Jim Jannard.

NAB 2006 Crowd Day One - this is really just to show how quickly the crowd grew on Day One of NAB 2006. Not gear exciting...

NAB 2006 Day Two - this was Day Two, this was me working the Red Booth mostly.

Day Three Part 1 (there is no Part 2-I swear! Not holding out...) - pics wandering the show floor, including pics of:

Pictures from Day Three of NAB 2006 - Ted Schilowitz, Red One Digital Cinema Camera, AIM Award, Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR, Autodesk, XDCAM HD import, Sony booth, Grass Valley Infinity, Thomson Viper Venom Flashpak, Varizoom, La Cie, Elvis, FCP User Group

NAB 2006 Day Four Part 1 of 3 - wandering the floor, checking out the following:

Silicon Color Final Touch HD & Final Render, Tangent, ADTX, S.two Take2, EditShare, Panasonic Plasma 103 inch HDTV, FireStor DTE FS-100, AJ-HDX900 specs, Mini35, Editcam HD, HJVC GY-HD200 & GY-HD250, 16mm lens adaptor, redrock micro 35mm adaptor, JVC 1920x1080 LCD, 9” HD CRT


NAB 2006 Day Four Part 2 of 3 - this is more wandering the floor, checking out:

NAB 2006 Day 4 pt2 of 3 pictures - Doremi booth, ARRI D-20 with modded Quantel eq rackmount field case for RAW ingent/edit/playback/color grading, FlashPak RAM for D-20, ReflecMedia for keying, and the Phantom lineup of cameras


NAB 2006 Day Four Part 3 of 3 - this is more wandering the floor, checking out:

NAB 2006 Day 4 Part 3 of 3 pictures. Automatic Revolution, Miranda DVI Ramp2, JL Cooper MCS3800 Final Cut control surface, Cobalt Digital converters, Teranex media processors, Quantum SDLT-600A data tape backup w/FTP MXF footage retrieval on GigE, Huge/Ciprico RAIDs, Flip4Mac new products, Matrox MXO specs, Mini35 adaptors, Red Schtuff


Also, I've posted some short video clips on another page titled NAB 2006 videos that I took with the video mode of my little Canon S450 and used QuickTime Player to Export To iPod Movie (320x240). Quick and easy. Footage includes the announcement and crowd reactions from the first Red NAB preso at 9:30am Monday, a nice long chunk of video of Ari explaining the Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR camera to me, some footage demonstrating how the Automatic Revolution works, a quick sample of how the Varizoom works, and Ted Red getting ready to raffle off the Red "r" #200 (the winner gets a place in line on a Red One camera and $1000 off list price).

==================

Whew! That's it for NAB 2006 notes!

I'll do a "Best of NAB 2006" thing sometime in the next few days.

-mike

UPDATE SUNDAY: the guy who originally wrote about this has posted a comment with his exact workflow to better document the process of what does and doesn't work. Click on the Comments link below this article to read it (then scroll down).

FCP and FCE Projects Interchangable ...

Well, I wouldn't have guessed this, but it makes a bit of sense, considering they are built from the same code base, but Apple hasn't said peep about it.

In this guy's testing, so far you can open Final Cut Pro 5.x files in Final Cut Express 3.5. I'd be curious to see what happens when you use fancier features that might not be supported in FCE, like plugins that don't exist in FCE, etc.

But the ability to open FCE projects in FCP is great - since then you might be able to migrate iMovie HD to FCE to FCP.

But again, I haven't tried it nor seen it done.

Anybody have all three and can test? Would love to find out.

-mike

NAB 2006 "Other" Software Wrap Up
=================================


Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Other Software wrap up notes.

So just what is "Other Software?" - anything that isn't an NLE for the most part - logging software, plugins, standalone one trick pony apps.

It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference:

=====================================

Algolith - makers of a range of products from consumer hardware to content producer plugins. Their core competency (as I see it) is in the areas of noise reduction and signal cleanup. They also have some nice scaling technology.

-MTNR (Multiple Type Noise Reduction) - reduce the additive and multiplicative noise, speckle and film grain.

-Noise reduction can be used in pre-processing. When removing noise it is hard not to remove details.

-they showed some realtime analog hardware for use in production
-they showed some post processing for mosquito noise reduction, see some during i-frames (pops at the i-frames)
-hardware that goes in AFTER the hardware box, before the receiver or set, is $995 for SD/HD, is intended for living room usage (not production, unless you get crap footage in to start with), that unit is for analog
-for HDMI based, is $3K, has 2 HDMI in, 1 out, 2 component analog in, one out, and is shipping
-didn't get the update I was after in terms of their plugin stuff, had to scoot - the page with the plugin info (and they have some NICE STUFF) is here.

===========================

BORIS BLUE

Boris Blue is a standalone, Windows only app 3D motion graphics thing that does particles, new at the show
-all kinds of cool realtime particle stuff using OpenGL card
from their press release:

- Adjust parameters with interactive real-time playback, including streaming video and audio.
- Direct streaming of video and audio from a hard drive.
- Powerful 3D Particles use any shape as a particle while emitters can include multiple particle types. Multiple attractors and repellers provide dynamic particle interaction.
- Extrude text, custom splines or imported EPS files with custom bevels and surfaces.
- 3D Model Import preserves individual geometry groups, texture maps, and bump maps.
- Sophisticated Materials include Texture Maps, Bump Maps, and dynamic Reflection Maps with per pixel lighting controls.
- Vertex Deformers provide true 3D warping of 3D objects.
- Image Processors and Generators include keying, tinting and toning, distortions, and transitions.
- Masking, compositing, and color effects provide precise control and RT performance.
- OpenGL hardware-accelerated rendering lets you export High Quality movies at or near real-time speed.


$1000

Boris Continuum Complete also now runs on Intel based Macs, as does Boris Calligraphy, Boris Red 4.0 will be next to support Intel based Macs

-also have new training DVDs
-Boris Red 4.0 new features from the press release:

Significant new features in version 4.0 include:
- 16-bit per color channel image processing
- New procedural paint brushes create ribbon and roller brush paint effects
- New raster paint engine with sophisticated clone paint brushes
- Convert bitmap files to vectors that can be extruded and animated
- Support for Wacom tablet with multiple paint input channels
- More than 40 new filters include a new Motion Key filter that removes moving foreground objects from a clip and a new Motion Path filter animates objects on a spline path
- Import EBU subtitle files to generate standard subtitles for multiple languages and DVDs
- Improved integration with Avid NLEs, including support for the AVX 2.0 architecture
- Support for PPC and Intel processors on Macintosh systems
- A new Type On Container automatically creates type on title effects

-they also released a Media 100 roadmap, which I won't describe, because it is my personal opinion that product is going nowhere and is totally doomed and I wouldn't recommend it to my readership

============================


Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse 2.1

I finally got a quickie demo of Color Finesse 2.1, but unfortunately Bob Courier was away from the booth when I came by. But here's what I got from the brief demo I received:

-can use XML to get project from FCP into this standalone app
-SD is pretty much realtime, HD is not
-GPU help? Unknown
-can scrub through individual clips
-can jump shot to shot to shot
-can gang up clips so that any adjustments made to that group will apply to all, and then tweak those individual shots from there
-Is there a master shot that's like a style sheet?
-you click on multiple shots to highlight them all, changes made to one affect the others, Command-G groups shots, gives a green underscore under each shot in the group....red line above indicates selections...
-full workflow: FCP export XML, go to standalone CF 2.1 app, import XML, do all your grades, then render the timeline, which will only render those shots changed, then export a new XML from CF v2.1; import that XML into FCP that will make a new FCP project and link to the old/new footage as needed. (this is pretty much identical type workflow to Final Touch HD)
-overall, I think they've done a nice piece of work - the color correction tools, and the quality of the output, are outstanding. However, I think the market has passed them by for high end users - Final Touch HD offers realtime (or very near realtime) performance in SD & HD with the grades applied, in addition to supporting vignettes and power windows. For the desktop based crowd, they'll be impressed with Color Finesse's capabilities - at $575 for the plug-in based version that works with FCP, AE, and Premiere Pro, it's potent. The SD version of the standalone app, which offers more features (not sure which ones, need to clarify), it's $995....which is the same price as Final Touch SD. Jumping up to HD resolutions, Color Finesse is $1995, whereas Final Touch HD is $4995. Now, I have an experiential bias with Final Touch HD - I used it daily for about six months, and watched it grow from an about 50% there product to a 90%+ there product in terms of fulfilling production needs in a realtime color correction suite with a 20 year veteran da Vinci operator.

I need to spend more time with Color Finesse to be fully fair, but my gut says that the budget starved, time rich folks will be able to get good results with Color Finesse, but won't have access to a toolset as rich as Final Touch's. (then again, Final Touch has STEEP hardware requirements.) Those needing something closer to a daVinci on the desktop, with similar expectations about closer to realtime performance, will quickly look to Final Touch's product line.

Thinking more about it a week later, it is not such a cut and dried comparison - FTHD is really designed for facilities and dedicated colorists, not as an add-on to the typical editor. The hardware requirements are STEEP and rigidly fixed, whereas those for CF are more flexible. CF starts at a lower price point as well, which many indies may find to be the Mission Critical Feature.

========================

Silicon Color's Final Touch SD/HD/2K

See related photos on this page

-stopped by the Apple booth and saw FTHD (Final Touch HD) being demo'd on a Kona3 board, and even there it wasn't quiiiiiiiiiite realtime yet for HD - 1080p footage was playing out through the Kona3 was about 23fps at best. Last I heard, and I haven't tested myself, was that Kona3 was getting better frame rates than BlackMagic products.
-but you SHOULD be able to get 720p24 in realtime then, since it is a much lower bandwidth
-Final Touch 2.5.4 is latest version
-so no new version at the show
-Render node - there's a Final Server, it asks as a traffic cop, and doesn't actually deal with the content, the server runs across Ethernet as a metadata server - it is just pushing commands around (XML based) and sending those instructions (the color grade info, for instance) to turn the image into what they want it to be -the Final Server needs this grade on X file which is on Y drive. In essence, the Final Server issues job tickets. Nodes pick up job tickets, go to the SAN and pick up jobs and frames (can run over GigE if you want but a lot slower), pull the file and blasts the file into frames (SD, HD, 2K), everything done at a frame level.
-the frames go to all the nodes, get processed, rendered out, and sent back and processed back into a QuickTime file (I asked repeatedly if you'd need 2x the file size for an x sized shot to render, and was told NO not necessary the way it is done with wrappers)
-then I got switched over to Olivier, who wrote it, and he confirmed that if you needed a 100 MB shot to get rendered, you would NOT need 200 MB of free space for the frames and the QT file. They put the frames directly INTO a QT file as they go is what it sounded like Olivier was saying. QT file is built on the fly as you go, "don't need any extra" he said.
-if you had a 1GB storage device and a 1GB shot to convert, you'd NOT need 2GB, just 1GB of storage
-price point for render farm for HD - $2000 for 5 seats, for 2K is $10,000
-price points not changed - $1000 HD, $5000 HD, $25K 2K version
-working on porting to Universal Binary, for Final Render is ALREADY on Universal Binary - since Final Render is GPU based, hardware requirements for render nodes - can you do stack of minis? Since GPU based, still requires G5s since they code for the GPU used in G5s. No mini render farms yet, MAYBE someday if they changed their code base. Any Linux or lower cost box? Since no QuickTime on any Linux flavor, end of argument there.

Mike's Comments: I still think Final Touch HD is the premiere color grading environment on the Mac -the combination of serious software tools, realtime playback (OK, pretty darned close - realtime playback, just maybe not full frame RATE in realtime), integrated serious control surfaces, powerful secondary color correction as well as multiple vignettes and multiple grades, Final Cut Pro integration, etc. makes this the one to beat. YES it is pricey and has steep hardware requirements, but it is powerful and fast. I was just starting to mess around with version 2.5 when I stepped away from the business that was using it, but at that time, some of the last of my concerns about XML integration with FCP were being addressed. Last September when I started working with it, every single client built job was a nightmare of hand holding, modifying client FCP files, and long QA and QC sessions after bringing the color corrected footage back into FCP to make sure everything worked right and the edit maintained integrity. But by January, 95% of that was working right. And with version 5.1, hopefully as Apple fixed some Media Manager issues and XML issues, perhaps some of the last major wrinkles were being addressed concerning XML workflow. The last things that I KNEW of that caused me vexation were no preview in FTHD of footage that was time remapped via the Motion tab in FCP, and stills, titles, and graphics used in FCP didn't show up in FTHD. These were usually survivable, however, and the huge benefit of NOT WAITING TO RENDER to see it play back, even if at something over half the frame rate, made it well worth doing.

The other options - Final Cut's built in color correction tools, Magic Bullet, Color Finesse, etc. - can't match up to the speed and power of Final Touch.

=======================


MICROSOFT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11

-Windows Media Player 11 ships in about a month (so around now as I write this, May 16th)
-same codes, same DRM, same as version 10

============================

TeleStream Flip4Mac

See this page for related photos


-Flip4Mac for import into Final Cut Pro/Studio, Editcam import next month, XDCAM is available now, XDCAM HD available next month (they are separate modules), modules are all $500 apiece (and YES, XDCAM is a different module than XDCAM HD, but will XDCAM HD module ALSO do XDCAM?)
-also modules for Grass Valley Profile/K2, Grass Valley Infinity as well!

ALSO Graphics Factory - a whole pipeline for folks that need to batch process video to a bunch of different formats. Sounds like something to compete with the likes of Cleaner, Compressor, Compression Master, etc., but with lots of features for putting logo bugs, animations, watermarks, etc. onto the video and output to a wide array of formats. Build a template once, use it over and over in a batch type workflow from what it sounds like.

-they have Windows Media (free even!) available for Macs, but they do NOT as yet have a MacIntel solution - so there's a gotcha on the

========================


Stopped by THE FOUNDRY, makers of cool plugins for various apps -
-Tinderbox - no new plugs at show for Mac, and not GPU accelerated at this time

========================

Apple's Shake 4.1 is to support Intel based Macs. Since Shake is such a high end and expensive application, the only users that I think this will be relevant for will be MacBook Pro users at this time, since the high end Intel based workstations haven't shipped yet.

========================

Nattress Plugins released new plugins for the Final Touch line of products:

Nattress releases “Advanced Plugins for FinalTouch V1.5”, a suite of plugins that enhance the capabilities of Silicon Color’s FinalTouch SD, Finaltouch HD and FinalTouch 2k.
New in V1.5 is G Smart Denoise, a powerful noise reduction tool using an adaptive edge dependent averaging function so that the noise or grain gets removed without blurring edges. By adjusting the settings, G Smart Denoise can also function as a sharpening tool that only enhances edges, not noise.


===========================

Noise Factory's FxFactory for Final Cut Pro


FxFactory is the first tool that will let Final Cut Pro and Motion users create, apply and share effects based on Apple's FxPlug plug-in architecture.

FxFactory will ship with a comprehensive collection of real-time plug-ins designed for quality and performance, taking advantage of modern GPU-based acceleration and graphics technologies only available on Mac OS X. The 100+ effects included are dynamically expandable.

FxFactory Expandability
FxFactory includes revolutionary effect management and authoring capabilities. Competitive offerings in the integrated effects industry limit users to a fixed set of plug-ins. FxFactory sets a new standard by letting end users create brand new effects in minutes, requiring no programming experience or coding.

Effect Market
More plug-ins will also be available at the Noise Industries Effect Market, an online marketplace where visual effect artists can share and distribute plug-ins created with FxFactory.

Noise Industries announced FxFactory Features
- Tight integration with Mac OS X graphics technologies such as Core Image, and Quartz Composer.
- Modern rendering engine based on OpenGL.
- Create new effects based on Quartz Compositions.
- Infinitely expandable architecture allows user to share, download and buy new visual effect plug-ins at the Effect Market.

FxFactory will be available by Summer 2006. Pricing TBA.


Red Giant showed off latest stuff - Instant HD for uprezzing footage in FCP, a new version of Magic Bullet, and After Effects 7.0 compatibility.

The Pixel Farm came out with some new toys - PF Clean for DI and film restoration, it does dust busting and rig/wire removal. Works on any res footage. PFTrack v3.5 is for camera move resolving/tracking, and is $5000, wasn't shipping at NAB though.

===============================

Automatic Duck was showing some of their latest wares as well. They make good stuff for moving projects around between software products - Avid, FCP, After Effects, Pro Tools, etc.

=============================

SyncVue got hyped by some people and websites I know, it is a tool for reviewing footage with multiple people in multiple locations. It relies of files copied to local desktops, so it doesn't have to do live streaming. It can sync everyone's playback so everyone is seeing the same thing at the same time. It runs over Skype, the popular VOIP service (Voice Over Internet Protocol). XML interchange with Final Cut and more. See the features page, or watch the Flash based demo. So if you need to watch stuff at the same time as your clients, this is a good option to consider.

============================

Similarly, CineSync is another remote viewing and annotation tool. You can all watch and know you're seeing the same thing at the same time, and draw on the screen for annotations as needed..

I don't know how the last 2 compare.

===============================

HD Log is a Mac OS X logging application for Mac OS X that can hand off XML to Final Cut Pro.

================================

That's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for "Other Stuff" from NAB that wasn't so easily categorizable.

-mike

HD4NDs Research: Update on uncompressed 35mm telecine project (10 bit RGB 4:4:4 log)

Hey all -

here's an update on what's been up with that 35mm to uncompressed 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 log project I've been working on:

Monday:

Got together with Sam (director) and David (editor) to talk workflow.

I'd done some similar testing, but it was nice to do some testing with actual footage.

What we had was the 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 log footage, captured in the BlackMagic 10 bit RGB codec. Hooray team. Problem was, this is 190 MB/sec footage at 23.98, and is too awkward to edit with - plus it is about 1.7TB of data total.

For offline editing, this is unwieldy to say the least.

So I set up a batch operation to create offline footage - that worked. He wanted 23.98 DV anamorphic, and after some minor bulk tweaking on the footage's settings in FCP, it worked fine and was ready for editing.

Then I created a bunch of subclips from that DV offline footage, then dropped those onto a timeline and set random in and out points. Then I set up some cross dissolves and cuts, etc., to simulate an actual edit.

Then I rendered out a reference QuickTime to have a freestanding copy of the edit.

Then I went through my matchback process to make sure I could convert that DV offline edit back into an uncompressed HD edit with all edits, dissolves, trims, etc. intact - and it worked as planned, like a charm. Better yet, it took about one minute to do.

Since I'd also created a set of DVCPRO HD offline files, that means whenever he wants to see his edit in HD, he can conform to DVCPRO HD in about a minute and play it back to see it (he could edit in DVCPRO HD, but he feels more comfortable with DV, as it is a better fit for the hardware he has).

So that was Monday, and Monday was good. Sam and David left, confident that they'd be able to match back to their HD content, even if their HD original content got destroyed and had to be re-telecined (that was a longer conversation, but I talked with them about how we could precisely recreate the HD footage if needed, using the hole punch as reference).

Thursday/Friday:

Sam called me to tell me he'd successfully backed up his uncompressed data to a third location (there's my set we captured onto my RAID, his second set that we copied off onto FireWire 400 drives, and that took a LOOOOOOOOOONG time, and the third set to another set of drives). So I was now clear to delete my set if I wanted to in order to free up space on my systems. I had dumped a backup of an important data set (all the footage of the capture from the Texas HD Shootout last month)

But....I didn't want to just flush that data set, I still wanted to mess around with it some for workflow R&D. I didn't want to just dump it, but I sure didn't want it to be taking up space a backup of the Texas HD Shootout footage could be. So I decided to cook off a full raster backup to some other format.

I originally set up my Dual 2.0 GHz G5 to cook a set of JPEG2000 codec'd QuickTimes. Doing some quick testing, it was interesting to realize that JPEG2000 is a.) slooooooow to compress, and b.) doesn't save all that much file space at higher quality settings. In fact, in the 90%+ range, the files were only about 1/3 the size of the originals. Hmm. An improvement, but not as much as I was looking for. I did several tests with a short segment (15 frames or so), and decided on 25% quality for the offline I wanted (it would be good enough for my testing needs). I started it around 11pm Thursday night on the Dual 2.0 GHz G5 (PCI-X), and it estimated 18 or 19 hours to go.But as of 1pm today, it estimated 22 MORE hours to go.

So, getting bored, I copied off one reel (12 min 9 secs) to the Quad G5 and started doodling with using plain PhotoJPEG. While JPEG2000 is a more efficient codec and creates fewer artifacts, it is sloooooooow to compress (as I was seeing) and it does NOT play back in real time, not by a long shot.

But PhotoJPEG plays back in real time, and compresses MUCH faster.

First test was to the PhotoJPEG setting, it was 25%, and looks like crappy offline - full raster, but LOTS of compression artifacts. Icky. You could cut with it, but you can do better. It converted my 136.2 GB source file down to 1.6GB - a huge file size savings, but waaaaay too much compression going on. It was a little slower than 2:1 to convert - about 27 minutes for the slightly over 12 min source.

I then changed the setting to 75% Quality, and it took a little longer - about 33 minutes to compress, and made a 7.7GB file.

A quick note on how to tell how quickly your footage is converting: assuming your drive system is faster than the stated read numbers (looking at Disk Activity in Activity Monitor), the higher the read, the faster it must be converting - otherwise why would it be needing to read in so much data so fast? For instance, converting to JPEG2000, the read speed is about 8 MB/sec - because it takes so long to compress each frame, it doesn't have to read in the next frame very often. Just knowing that the data rate is 190 MB/sec, dividing 190/8=23.75, so it's taking about 24:1 to convert to JPEG2000 at 25% quality setting. With 2 1/2 hours of footage, that implies it'll take about 2 1/2 DAYS (24 hours per one day) to convert. Yuck. High quality but time consuming.

PhotoJPEG, on the other hand, is tons faster - the read speed was about 95 MB/sec for 25%, and about 70 MB/sec for 75%. That's about 2:1 for 25%, and 2.7:1 for 75%. This tells us that higher quality settings take longer.

So, breaking it down:

Source File:
Read speed: realtime playback data rate is 190 MB/sec
File Size: 136.22 GB
Bit Depth: 10 bit RGB 4:4:4

JPEG2000 @ 25% quality: 8 bit, assumably 4:4:4?
Read speed during conversion: about 8 MB/sec
File Size after conversion: 17.71 GB
Compression ratio (file size): 7.7:1
Compression ratio (time to compress): approx 24:1

PhotoJPEG @ 25%: 8 bit 4:2:2
Read speed during conversion: about 95 MB/sec
File Size after conversion: 1.6 GB
Compression ratio (file size): 85:1
Compression ratio (time to compress): approx 2:1

PhotoJPEG @ 75%: 8 bit 4:2:2
Read speed during conversion: about 70 MB/sec
File Size after conversion: 7.67 GB
Compression ratio (file size): 17.7:1
Compression ratio (time to compress): approx 2.7:1

Also, in terms of compressing efficiency on the CPU:

-JPEG2000 - appears to be single processor threaded, running 97-99% of one CPU utilization on the Dual 2.0 GHz G5 looking at Activity Monitor.

-PhotoJPEG 75% running on Quad G5 - appears to be running 45-50% of one CPU, so appears to be single processor threaded as well and either isn't very efficient or something is slow in the pipeline - can't be the drive system, it can do far higher data rates than this is using.

So unless/until Apple redoes their codecs (perhaps for the Intel Macs, and I STILL don't have my v5.1 for my MacBook yet), it would NOT do you any good to throw a big multiprocessor machine at this task for these codecs at this time.

It's also interesting to note that except for a couple of mathematically lossless codecs that only compress 30-50%, there are no 10 bit codecs to save file space - Cineform for Mac, where are you?

(Update 5:30pm Friday- now the dual 2.0 GHz G5 working on JPEG2000 conversions estimates 25 hours to go...Update Saturday 9:30am - now it estimates 36 hours to go....JP2K to slow for archiving! About a day to compress an hour....harrumph!)

-mike

Hey all -

was emailing Jarred Land from DVX User and we were discussing why was it that Final Cut Studio wasn't officially supported on MacBooks (nor Minis as well), since they seem to be doing quite well in testing (see test results from other day comparing to MacBook Pro and Dual 2.0 GHz G5). Out of that email exchange, I've come up with 4 explanations/theories of my own as to why no support on MacBooks, even though they run better on many things than a Dual G5. With the exception of #1, I have no proof, it's all conjecture:

Explanation 1: "It don't work."

The obvious and stated reason is stated on this Apple tech support page:

Final Cut Studio is not supported on MacBook
From that page:

If you have a MacBook, the Final Cut Studio (Universal) crossgrade Installer does not prohibit you from installing the pro applications, but this configuration does not meet the minimum system requirements for Final Cut Studio.
See the Final Cut Studio system requirements for complete requirements. (Mikenote: the salient detail is AGP graphics card from the specs)

Note: The integrated graphics processor in the MacBook does not permit float processing in Motion and will result in degraded performance and other issues in Motion and other Final Cut Studio applications.

OK, that's pretty clear. BUT...based on the test results referenced above, that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense - even Motion ran, and seemed to run quite well compared to a G5, even for projects with video clips placed in them.

This theory is also supported by the poor game performance, as BareFeats.com documents here - games rely heavily on OpenGL performance, and in some (but not all) circumstances, the MacBook "ain't got it."

Explanation 2: "Not all features will work"

So maybe it's because, even though this preliminary tests show it working fine, further tests will show it flat out doesn't work, or some features don't work? The stated problem from Apple seems to be that it won't support float processing....OK, fine, just use the other modes, which video folks would 98% of the time anyway.

So why not say FCS is supported, but some functionality is limited? It would appear that since the GPU doesn't support floating point math that Float mode won't work. I was about to say Motion is the only app that uses that heavily, but then it suddenly dawned on me that the stated way many plugins work in FCP is to do the math in floating point space then send the results back to 8 or 10 bit (depending on your timeline). But wait, that's the GPU that lacks floating point math, not the CPU. Uh oh, that might be a real problem, since GPU is what is used for RT performance...so the only way to test is to set up identical projects on MacBook and G5 and test for RT performance, but also render out results, time how long it takes, and then compare the results to make sure they match exactly (difference filter in After Effects, for instance).

Explanation 3: "Future Proofing"

This is a benign reason for Apple to fudge a little bit on support - let's say Apple already knows that Final Cut Studio 6 is in the pipeline, and as rumor has long had it, it will take BIG TIME advantage of Core Video to accelerate all kinds of things in FCS to dramatically increase the realtime performance. It would be POSSIBLE (NOT saying it will) to do things like mix codecs on the same timeline, mix frame SIZES on the same timeline, do real time deinterlacing, all kinds of exciting stuff*. Whatever the feature set might be, it would rely heavily on GPU for realtime performance. It would be awkward, and cause all kinds of grief, if MacBooks were introduced and supported in one version, and then X months later were NOT supported with the next version. If YOU were product manager for FCS, wouldn't YOU suggest, if there were any if's or fudges about a non-Pro system's performance on v5.x, and you KNEW that v6 wouldn't run worth a flip or even launch on that hardware, to just mark it as "Don't Go There" for the X months between releases? Keeps life simpler - if you rule it out from the get-go, you won't have users complaining about "abandoning" them later.

Honestly, of all the things discussed so far, this makes the most sense to me if there is any fudging going on.

*....which would require a MAJOR rewrite of the core code - the way I understand it/have been told, the current code locks you into a codec, frame size, and frame rate on a given timeline, and to alter from that would be a "rebuild the building's foundations" kind of a change

Explanation 4: "Market Segmentation" (aka "Sell More High Margin Stuff)

OK, and here's where the conspiracy theorists can put on their shiny aluminum foil hats (helps WiFi reception, right?). IF, and I say IF, MacBooks turned out to run FCS fine (or fine with some limitations, like no float mode in Motion), then why the big stance on Don't Use It? Perhaps Apple is trying to protect the sales of their higher end machines? Since a MacBook (so far, based on preliminary testing) is running about as well as Dual 2.0 GHz G5, and costs about $700 less**, and even worse for Apple, about practically the same as the $1500 more expensive 17" MacBook Pro, and Apple makes considerably higher margins on the G5s and MacBook Pros, and wants their pro users to be running on the "pro" boxes, and the Intel towers are still months away, what to do? I could see someone in Apple saying in a meeting: "We want to sell more G5s, but if these cheapie MacBooks are as fast, how can we discourage them from buying them? Wait - you say you can't run Motion in Float Mode? There you go - it's not compatible with the full feature set, therefore it isn't officially supported - you can't get tech support on a MacBook for Final Cut Studio. The little guys might wing it, but our pro and corporate user base won't go with an unsupported product." I'm not saying that DID happen at Apple, I'm not saying that's the only reason to not support MacBooks on FCS, I'm just saying that is a POSSIBLE explanation.

**(and yes, huge feature and spec differences, but this is roughly speaking)

So that's the evolution of my thinking. I'm not saying it IS any of these, these are just the options that I see out there.

What do you folks think? Post away with the comments link below.

(and to cover his behind, all theories are mine not Jarred's in case anybody gets mad)

-mike

NAB 2006 Storage:
============

Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Storage wrap up notes. It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference.

Brief summary:
-ADTX is a manufacturer I'd never heard of, they were showing 4 gigabit fibre channel RAIDs running around 600 MB/sec from a single unit.
-Ciprico (which bought Huge) had some VERY impressive 4 gigabit fibre channel RAID demos - getting 1300+ MB/sec from either 3 large or even one small RAID chassis.
-4 gigabit was the theme of the show - G-Tech is getting into the game with their own smaller fibre channel RAIDs, as well as SATA and FW800 products. They make good looking stuff.
-inPhase was talking about shipping a holographic based recoring device -300GB/disc, 20 MB/sec writes
-LaCie has several clever new FireWire products
-Quantum was showing SDLT-600A data tape drives - essentially a GigE FTP server for timecode accurate video retrieval from data tape - a VERY interesting concept
-Aberdeen makes RAIDs and one user was raving on about their price and service

Read on below for more details....

====================


ADTX, makers of RAIDs, talking about Array MassStor LP

See related photos on this page

-3U tall
-fibre channel to host, 4Gbit
-15 SATA2 or SAS drives
-up to 500 GB drives
-750 GB soon, (just started shipping, not tested yet)
-dual redundant controllers with failover capability
-full speed through each controller
-created two 7 drive LUNs with a global hot spare (available to either one), each through their own controller, striped together at host on G5 and gets about 718 MB/sec transfer rate under under dual 4Gbit fibre, working with the ATTO 4Gbit fibre channel card
-off one SAS port, can get 585 MB/sec going into an Intel server with LSI pre-release SAS card
-700 MB/sec on Mac w/ATTO 4GBit fibre channel reads, writes are 623 MB/sec sequential, 7.5 TB raw capacity less parity and hotswap spares, RAID 6 in the config demoing that speed using SATA2s
-RAID 6 is like RAID 5 with one more drive for parity - can lose 2 not just one drive
-can add 7 JOBs to it, 120 drives, 60TB storage
-price point - about $20K for the fibre version, about $18K for SAS version with the 500 GB drives, 7.5 TB raw storage, turnkey ready to go except for cables
-control GUI through Ethernet port, Windows or Mac based admin utilities (Linux too)

-compatible with Xsan - they are showing it running it Xsan with two servers and a workstation running through a QLogic switch

============================


CIPRICO/HUGE

See this page for related photos

-RAID 0/3 in the first product I saw. During rebuild, speed is maintained, because rebuild is in background. Capacity and price point?
-2.5, 4, or 5 TB is the raw capacity, less for parity in RAID 3 mode
-these 3 are striped together running on an HP 9300 workstation doing 2K or 4K resolution, pushing 3 striped together about 1.3 or 1.4 GB/sec (gigaBYTES/sec)
-price points - 4GB fibre, dual link, with 2.5TB is $9K list, with 5TB is $15K, theirs is one of the few 4gbit fibre channel RAIDs that you can daisy chain'em together. With the RAID controller, took the standard one and put hub chips on it, daisy chain it like you would SCSI. Can begin with one, so you're getting 250-300 MB/sec per CHANNEL, as RAID 0, RAID 3 would cost you maybe 20% off of that for RAID 3. And then RAID 6 version, (like RAID 5 with another disk's worth of parity). The other one does 5 drives per channel, this one 10 drives on one controller, second one is a redundant failover controller.
This other product, 10 drives in a 1U chassis, but drives aren't user servicable readily since they are harder to get to (to put more on a rack)
-other product - 40 2.5" drives, 4 cannisters, each cannister has 10 drives, performance in that box is somewhere around 1.4 GB/sec from the ONE BOX by itself, since can stripe the four channels together. Each one has it's own 4GB fiber channel controller in a RAID 0 or RAID 6. RAID 6 will cost you 8 drives, so 3.2 TB of usable data in RAID 6, costs "a lot more than those", this is brand new, no finalized pricing, but hopefully guessing high as around $35K because the drives are more - one 2.5" 100 GB drive is same price (7200 rpm Hitachis) is about the same price as the 500 GB 3.5" drives. The biggest interest is for sneakernetting around a facility for those cannisters - 1TB per cannnister (800GB per pod/thingy with a handle).
-Running 4K Dalsa Origin footage. Worked quite a bit with Dalsa, and they've approved this situation which is Infiniband bridged, 20GBit per second per channel.
-4 of those 1U RAIDs, they have a 4 port HBA in the back of it, bridging 4GB fibre channel to 20Gbit Infiniband over fibre optic


=========================


G-TECH

-G-Speed is a 6 drive 4 gigabit fibre channel RAID - the 3TB version is 6x500GB drives is just under $6K, smaller model is 1.5TB and is just under $4K. Ship date is June 1st, and behind the front panel you'll have hot swap modules. Sell trays individually? Undecided, but I encouraged them to do so for project swapouts and archive.

From the press release:

Compact desktop tower with stunning industrial design
- Storage capacities up to 3TB using SATA II drives
- 4GBit Fibre Channel interface - SFP to LC optical
- Sustained data rates up to 250 MB/second
- Supports RAID Levels 0, 1, 3, 5 & 6
- Designed for content creation applications
- SAN-Ready – easily configurable in shared environments
- Browser-based RAID configuration and management tools via built-in
Ethernet port
- Hot-swappable disk drive modules and fans, redundant power supply option
- Mac OS X & Windows XP compatible
- 3-year warranty


Available June.

They mostly make FireWire stuff, but are venturing into eSATA and fibre channel (as evidenced above).

G-Tech also makes, and drum roll please....REALLY..NICE...SOLID...RELIABLE drives. The number cause of drive death is heat in my experience for internal drives, and with external drives you get additional issues of power bricks/power supplies, bridge boards, cheap cables, etc. I've been hearing more and more complaints from editors about Other Popular Manufacturers' drives failing deep into a production, and no one has complained to me of a failed G-Tech drive. Part of that is attributable to the number of drives in the field - more Fords than Ferraris are going to break down. But the more I talk to Roger and his guys, and the more I work with editors (esp. those who can't afford a full backup set of data), the more I realize drive reliability is a Must Have. And so far, these guys seem to have it.

=================================

FYI, I never did do the big in-depth coverage I meant to after MWSF in January for Kano, which had a lot of very interesting and impressive SATA storage stuff. They are worth looking into for uncompressed HD array needs.

================================

INPHASE TECHNOLOGIES

Showed (but I didn't see) InPhase Tapestry, their holographic recording product. Holds 300GB, writes at 20 MB/sec (yes, megaBYTES), and takes about 4 1/2 hours (250 min) to write a full disc. They also announced a 3TB autoloader, with capacity up to 6TB, and a hologrpahic video recorder. I have no idea what the price point is expected to be, they claim they'll start shipping to OEMs at the end of 2006. This sounds very promising as to how professionals will be able to back up their IT based video files from P2 and the like.

Got an email from their PR guy, answering some questions I'd sent:


Q: when shipping?
A: Initial units will ship Q4 06; volume shipments in 07
 
Q:what price point?
A: Initial HDS-300R Tapestry drives will sell for $15,000; media will sell for $125 for a 300 GB WORM disc
 
Q: Macintosh support?
A: We will have Macintosh connectivity but the roll-out will depend on the integration and test schedule of our software partner. 
 
Q: What interface (FireWire, USB 2.0, SCSI, what?)
A: The drive has been architected to support all the interfaces mentioned. We are debugging the SCSI command set now.
 
Q: Software to use on Mac?
A: We are working with SGL, QStar and several others who have video archive software.
 
Q: I saw the Quantum DLT-600A stuff and thought the MXF access was very interesting. Any plans to do something like that?
A: Yes, there will be a version of the drive that supports  MXF. 
 

Mike's Comments: Hmm. Well, first gen tech is alwas pricey and doesn't at first make good economic sense, and isn't an obvious home run. The good thing is the fact that it is a DISC - so random access, TONS faster (many orders of magnitude) faster seeks than tape. BUT....GB for GB, tape is holding it's own. Tape cost/GB is lower (for LTO-3, for instance), and drive cost is lower as well (LTO-3 again). LTO-3 is faster as well (by more than 50% if I recall correctly). So this is an intersting technology to watch, but the first gen won't necessarily make good economic sense for everyone.

=================================

LACIE

See related pics somewhere on this page

The 2 big from LaCie - is RAID 0/1/JBOD, $970 for 1TB, $469 for the 500GB
-Biggest S2S - talking about getting RAID 5 in about 6 months
-85 MB/sec, good for multiple streams of , called Little Big Disk, is 2x160GB drives, is $400 for 160GB, 320GB is $799, 200GB is $649. Is bus powered so can run off a laptop. NICE PRODUCT!
-orange framed rugged drive, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 80/100/120GB, 80 is $200, 120 is $349, 100GB is $399 is because is 7200rpm
-LaCie makes and sells tons of drives, I have 2 of the 1TB drives (the older 4 drive units) and 2 of the 250GB drives floating around the house. Use'em, love'em. I mostly use them for long term archive, not day to day stuff, though.
-but they have tons of other products for FireWire and SATA

=================================


QUANTUM SDLT-600A

See this page for related photos

SDLT-600A

-is essentially a tape drive with an FTP server with GigE
-like a slow seeking offline
-36 MB/sec transfer rate
-300 GB cartridge
-standard SDLT (NOT LTO3), up to a month ago was the flagship product,
-last month another product that is 800 GB per cart
-early next year will add the FTP functionality
-GigE interface, can launch a web browser right from the drive
-using Internet Explorer, can see the contents of the tape
-wanted to see FCP, so walked around to that station...
-can access and retrieve via timecode from the data tape
-can do partial excerpts using TeleStream Flip4Mac using MXF
-list price is tabletop unit is $7500
-media cost is about $100/tape for 300GB
-only one root access - so only one user at a time
-access times can be long, about 80 (or did he say 180?) secs average seek time
-worst case 6 minutes to find something off tape (he said yes to that statement)
-Final Cut, showing Quantum SDLT-600A, GigE, one user at a time, can access, using Telestream's Flip4Mac MXF product, to get to individual frames on the tape.
-then the questions are these - can FCP archive or just retrieve? What codecs can be archived losslessly (or natively, rather)? What frame rates, frame sizes supported?
-more questions to be answered, but sounds very interesting, I LIKE the approach and product concept. For P2, Silicon Imaging, Red, and other cameras existing or future that are IT based and it isn't practical to shelve the original acquisition media, this is a promising idea.

=================================

ABERDEEN RAIDs: high speed 4Gbit fibre channel RAIDs, 5TB RAIDs for $8K (that's a show special) - the guy who told me about them went on and on about great service, great price, great company (he was a paying customer, not a rep). Anybody from Aberdeen reading this? Contact me about a review unit!

===============================

That's it for today as far as NAB 2006 coverage goes. Over the weekend (or Monday, haven't decided) I'll be posting about some Other Stuff, both software (plugins etc.) and, well, "other stuff" that I saw at the show that didn't fit easily into categories.

-mike

MacNN | RE:Vision updates plugins for FCP 5.1

RE:Vision Effects announced today major updates for Mac versions of its plugins, including Universal Binary support and performance improvements for After Effects 7.0.


They make some good stuff that has been slow (HEAVY math involved) in the past, faster is mo bettah.

Twixtor is their retiming plugin, FieldsKit does smart deinterlacing, and others are potentially useful for indie filmmakers.

-mike

Nike and Apple luvs me - they are making running and iPod stuff to work together, to track your run, play songs and give you audio feedback, all kinds of cool stuff. Watch the video on the Nike link above to get an idea of how it all works.

Gonna git me one, soon! This definitely resolves the whole "Should I replace my busted Shuffle with another Shuffle or a Nano?" argument in zero flat.

-mike

Final Cut Pro HD: Keyframes are not pasted when you choose Paste Attributes:

When you paste the attributes of one clip onto another, keyframes are not pasted, even though you selected the checkbox for Filters.
Normally, the Paste Attributes command is valuable for selectively copying attributes from one clip to another without having to open clips in the Viewer, eliminating the need to repeat steps when applying identical effects to multiple clips.

If you select the Filters checkbox, the filters for the copied clip are pasted as specified, but any keyframes added to the clip are not pasted.

One workaround is to drag the filter from a clip in the Effects tab of the Viewer onto the clip where you want the keyframes, as pictured...

Sonnet Technology PCI Express host adapter for Dual-Core Power Mac

Forgot to get this one - barefeats review of the Sonnet | Tempo SATA E4P - Serial ATA Host Adapter for PCI Express card and Sonnet | Fusion 500P - 5-Bay Serial ATA Drive Enclosure with Port Multiplier enclosure.

I heartily recommend that card having used it extensively myself, and while I haven't received a review unit of the Fusion 500 (ahem! Anyone over there reading this? : ) ), it looks like a good product.

They have stats on 4, 8, and 12 drive RAID setups (650+MB/sec!)

NAB 2006 Editing Software Wrap Up:
=======================


Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Editing Software wrap up notes. It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference:

=====================

Update: OK, I'll summarize a bit for you:

Adobe: no new editing software
Apple: new 17" MacBook Pro, but no new Final Cut, just tech previews of XDCAM HD, Canon 24F HDV, and JVC 24p HDV capture, but other interesting things in the booth
Avid: XPress Pro, Mojo SDI, and InterPlay, as well as $5K software only Media Composer

I previously covered some notes on Sony's XPRI & Vegas (8 bit only pipeline for Vegas) in my Sony Booth visit section of the Cameras & Shooting Gear post from two days ago.

======================

Adobe

-my time was VERY limited in the Adobe booth (had a scheduled interview shortly thereafter) so I might have missed thigns of note. If I did, please let me know/send me a link and I'll update this

-no new versions of After Effects or Premiere Pro or Creative Suite - so that was pretty much it in terms of video manipulation stuff that I cared about in the Adobe booth

Adobe Reader has Clipnotes with video - worthy of further exploration as a groupware/workflow addition for commenting on projects amongst a technically savvy group (NOT the typical client)

Gridiron was showing improved performance with GridIron Nucleo for After Effects rendering. $150/rendering seat. X-Factor is priced at $495 for a Plus 6-Pack license. Mac OS X (PPC) and Windows XP. No MacIntel support, since no MacIntel After Effects until next year at the earliest.

Maxon was also showing a cool tool for integration between Cinema4D and After Effects.

Adobe - Premiere Pro 2 - anything new? Not that I can tell as compared to the shipping version...new Xena cards from AJA are great, but no new software from Adobe that I can telll...

CS2, AE7, PPro2...doesn't look like anything new from what we already had

========================================
APPLE BOOTH - FCP RELATED:

Apple didn't have a new version of FCP to show. Big bummer, but as I predicted. BUT...they were showing "technology previews" of stuff - XDCAM HD import (plugin from Sony), Canon XL H1 capture in 24F HDV mode, and JVC HDV 24p capture. All could be edited on the timeline in FCP as well with RT effects. (But for the XDCAM HD, the 25mbit CBR setting was recommended for RT FX, the 18 and 35mbit VBRs seemed like they would NOT have RT FX). Apple usually doesn't do tech previews until stuff is pretty close, so "not too long to wait" from what I overheard. Based on other things I heard around NAB, I'm guessing some minor version bump in the June/July timeframe. Maybe. (Or maybe at WWDC with Intel based towers in August?).

Apple released new 17" MacBook Pros at NAB - same as the 15's except for bigger screens (1680x1050), a FireWire 800 port (big deal!), and an extra (3 not 2) USB 2.0 port. Oh! And a dual layer 8x DVD burner - better than the 15" model's.

The rest of the Final Cut Studio applications were shown as had shipped a few weeks before with version 5.1.

Here's my earlier post on the Apple booth at NAB.

Other stuff in the booth.

-Digital Heaven's AutoMotion in the Apple booth - cool animated script based thing to do cool stuff in Motion. From their website - AutoMotion is a groundbreaking new application which automates the production and management of multiple graphics in conjunction with Apple’s Motion. So it's a standalone adjunct is the way they make it sound. I saw a very brief demo of it, looked cool. So if you need to crank out a bunch of title graphics all formatted the same way, here's your ticket is what they're trying to pitch this as.

-DVD Studio Pro - showing version 4.1 in the booth - same version we already had as of a few weeks ago. Key benefits - now includes HD DVD v1.0 (final) specifications, so discs authored w/v4.0.3 or 4.1 should play back correctly on the shipping HD DVD players. Oh, and since is a Universal binary, runs on Intel and G4/G5 based Macs. (PDF with v4.1 release notes is here
======================
Live editing during ingest with PictureReady was shown on the show floor - enables real time replay and editing of footage as it is recorded. Good for live event/news production. Here's a link to an Apple page discussing its use during Tour de France.
========================
Video Asset Management with Proximity Artbox - Proximity Artbox is a video asset manager:
-$20K setup
-for big shops
-client/server setup
-does low res proxies for your shots and clips
-what indies might this be viable for? Big production, well funded docs might want to use this to go through all of their shots in a hurry, but for most indies this is overkill

==========================================

Sony XDCAM HD import (& export?) into FCP
-Sony XDCAM HD import - go to a File Import==> XDCAMHD, it launches Sony XDCAM Transfer, a little standalone application (SEE & LINK PICS)
-you get little preview clips of the shots
-you can play back these low res proxies
-can preview and set ins and outs and acquire just the parts you want
-you can set MULTIPLE ins and outs and grab just the chunks you want - you have a little queue you can build up from
-one implementation annoyance - while CAN import in background, the window leaps to front every time it finishes a clip (or perhaps subclip as well)
-you connect to the camera via FireWire
-proxies come in as low res proxies at about 40x realtime
-while it is pulling in other proxies, you can already be editing other stuff that's already in
-it is a Sony product, not shipping yet, will by from Sony it would appear
-CAN do 35mbit on the timeline - will require a newer version of FCP. The version of FCP that will support this isn't shipping yet (DEFINITELY need a new version for 24p support), and the Sony XDCAM Transfer app isn't shipping yet either. A month-ish was the demo guy's guesstimate I think (that's from top of head not notes, so could be wildly off base there)
-Sony XDCAM HD stuff, may or may not need a new version of FCP for XDCAM HD stuff, and it won't be too long of a wait somebody somewhere said. No idea how official or informed that statement was.
-timecode on the XDCAM HD stuff does build as you go, and the transfer app works with SD & HD footage, 18, 25, and 35 mbit
-it'll require v5.1 FCP with some new codec update that's coming in a few weeks or whatever, the Sony Transfer app is in beta and is expected to ship in a few weeks (or whatever). No solid dates there, just general guidelines
-25mbit is Apple's recommended, with 18 & 35mbit won't get RT effects at present, perhaps some future version will give RT support. But for now, if concerned about RT FX w/FCP, 25 megabit CBR on XDCAM HD is the recommended way to go for FCP.

======================================
AVID

Xpress Pro - the Avid editor for indies is how he described it
-the show news - full Avid editing toolset on the G5 - they brought HD, HDV, DVCPRO HD, DNxHD, (sounds like a DNxHD QT codec now? YES), can do After Effects and write to DNxHD now, XDCAM HD support as well, FireWire ingest for all those.
-since FireWire ingest for all these, can now do full screen output for previews
-for portable editing, since can FireWire ingest, a
-can use screen for monitoring video
-Xpress Pro 5.5
-telecine metadata integrated directly for keycode etc., all that works in Xpress Pro
-the little things - normal and advanced pulldown, 23.976 to 24.0 conversion,
-autosync for dual system sound to marry up 2-pops to slates to sync it directly
-HDV - there is a single Mac/PC release, any release has one license that'll run on both, has a hardware key (dongle) to limit to one running seat at a time
-Media management can let you use a FireWire drive for whole production for Mac & PC
-projects can move back and forth Mac/PC
-24p & 24F support for HDV? NOT yet, just NTSC and PAL frame rates, but do have 24p for DVCPRO HD, and for DVCPRO range for Varicam, 1200A deck, FireWire ingest, it'll pull out the flags for 720p24 as well as over/undercrank
-HDV - no 24p yet
-P2 support for HVX? YES
-support for the new JVCs? NO SUPPORT YET
-Canon - no 24F support yet either, just 50i and 60i
-what's above Xpress Pro?
-software only version of Media Composer
-Avid Interplay is a big new thing - "a whole collaborative production environment" - for workgroup stuff
-Interplay is about helping people collaborate, it is a common asset manager sitting on Avid Unity for example. Is a database and more, allows handoff and assigning sub parts to others, signing assets in and out - like Content Management Systems for video, this'll be great for large workgroups and facilities. Like CMS, version control, version history, check in and check out. Hangs onto previous versions so you have version control. Multi-resolution too. Integrated tool can see from Media Composer, tools for producers and assist stations, MPEG-4 for logging etc. For people like doc makers, can have a simple logging app for low bandwidth proxies for logging info.
-that leads into Media Composer in terms of workflow - when creating a collaborative environment, need it to be accessible. Media Composer as a software client, connects that broad base production environment. For those that are familiar with Media Composer, can run it Mac or PC and is handy for them
-Media Composer vs. XPress Pro, is a price point issue - more tools, resolutions, format support in Media Composer software only. Xpress Pro takes you 90% of the way
-XPress Pro is $1695, $4995 for the software only Media Composer
-Media Composer hardware - is Adrenaline, but new stuff for Xpress Pro and Media Composer is Mojo SDI, it is same form factor and connectivity (FW400), can take from Digital Betacam, etc., now has SDI (not HD-SDI). HD typically comes in over FireWire for HDV and DVCPRO HD. From the Avid website:

Avid Mojo SDI provides the highest quality professional SD connections to facility-class cameras, decks and digital pipelines. In addition to serial digital video, Avid Mojo SDI also provides I/O for IEEE-1394, and either component or composite and S-video. Mojo SDI supports up to 8 channels of embedded audio over SDI and 2 channels of optical S/PDIF audio, with additional connections for 4 channels of AES/EBU audio.

---------
(note added later: but could you get half the benefit from Matrox MXO? Avid has fullscreen playback now, right? But would the QT drivers work right with Avid, since they might not have selectable QT output modules?)

-for HD, gotta use DNxHD and HD-SDI for Adrenaline (or uncompressed) at 145 or 220 mbit for DNxHD
-DNxHD is wavelet based? No, is motion JPEG type, DCT based
-new DNx intro'd at the show, which is DNxHD 36, 36mbit/sec, for offline DNxHD throughputs. Found lots of folks wanted HD res offline, folks were having issues using DV etc., so now you have a full raster 36 mbit offline, and don't have to deal with weird aspect ratios etc. Can EDIT on Xpress Pro, but gotta have Media Composer level stuff to capture it.
-can you transcode in software to DNxHD 36? He thinks so, should be able to do that
-new Studio Toolkit option, is 3 apps with Media Composer or Xpress Pro: Avid DVD, Avid 3D and Avid Effects (guess at what they do based on names), big news there is Avid DVD now supports Blu Ray. Why Blu Ray? Because Blu Ray burners are out first, so that's why they are supporting it first. HD DVD to follow later, just what's out now. Hope to release this in July, will be first time you can capture HDV (or DVCPRO HD), edit it and burn it to Blu Ray disc.
-players are coming out this fall for Blu Ray
-HD DVD in the future? "Absolutely, we'll support that, there's nothing we can do now with the absence of an HD DVD burner." Avid has licensed their tech from Sonic, and Sonic is showing both HD DVD and Blu Ray burning. There's no political taking sides going on, just that Blu Ray burners are out first.
-Nice updates to Avid 3D, it isn't about 3D modelling (go SoftImage XSI for that), it is for flying text around, or bringing in an existing 3D object and flying around and stuff, it's for graphics and titles not traditional 3D animation. To make bringing in a 3D model as "no big deal" as bringing in a Targa still and doing stuff with it.
-for finishing - if want 1080p 10bit 4:4:4, gotta get into DS Nitris v8, now have dual link support for 10 bit RGB. What about 10 bit log? I was talking to the wrong guy for that, that's somebody else.

==============================

I apparently didn't hit nearly all the options, but Digital Producer did, and their article contains more details on what is up with:

-Autodesk (revised Smoke, Toxik (RGB 4:4:4 capable), Incinerator (clustering for primary & secondary color grading on Lustre)
-1 Beyond/1st Design - "enterprise level storage at desktop prices" - Intelliaid FC, mobile editing of uncompressed HD (??)
-Boris - Media 100 (pfah!), as well as Boris Blue mentioned above
-I heard about but didn't see Boxx's new 16 core APEXX 8 workstation, which can hold up to 128 GB of RAM and is very quiet as well
-Grass Valley now owns Edius 3 from Canopus, uncompressed SD, HD, HDV, DV, MPEG-1, MEPG-2 on same timeline if I'm reading this right
-more details on DVS Clipster
-Axio LE - lower end version of Axio, but sounds pretty powerful on it's own
-Quantel showed TimeMagic (dunno what it does specifically), as well as Pablo - their heav edit/grade system
-Sony has new tricks with XPRI, but I still don't care about it for the demographic I serve
-plus lots more details worth reading, as well as a bunch of stuff I skipped for brevity's sake

There's also this article which is a good wrap up of All Things Mac at NAB 2006
--------------------

OK, that's all for today kids. Tomorrow is my NAB 2006 Storage Round Up - there's some gooooood stuff in there - one vendor has a RAID that'll sustain about 600 MB/sec. Think that's good? Another vendor has a single smaller-than-G5 sized enclosure that'll sustain 1.3 gigaBYTES per second (1300 MB/sec). Who is it? Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode...

-mike

Highpoint RocketRAID 2322 PCI Express SATA II host adapter

Rob-Art does his usually thorough review. The Big Deal - it's RAID 5, and it doesn't cost a bazillion dollars. BUT...with a single enclosure, it is NOT fast enough to do uncompressed HD all the way to the end. Also, it relies on the G5 to do the parity generation I believe, so it remains to be seen how much CPU that would suck away from editing tasks, or if it can even capture uncompresed HD successfully with both FCP and the RAID taxing the CPU.

I'd want to see it tested with FCP, and I'd want to see it successfully rebuild a RAID after a drive was randomly pulled in the middle of operation.

-mike

or,

The Joys (or lack thereof) of mixing NTSC, PAL, and HD on an anamorphic DV timeline for eventual 1080p23.98 mastering (And boy, don't THAT just roll off the tongue! Can I get a headline writer? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) Plus a little shilling for my services at the end.

Update: a reader pointed out that FCP WILL add pulldown to a DV based project and send it out the FireWire in real time - read below for details.

Hey all -

So I had another intense consulting session with a local client the other day - these folks are working on a documentary. They don't have theatrical aspirations, so they originally decided to produce the piece in 1080i60. As they went forward, they realized they had substantial market opportunity for Europe, and realized that 1080i60 doesn't convert to the European standard of 1080i50 very well. But if they were to master in 1080p23.98, it is cake to convert that to 1080p25, which plays on 1080i50 just fine. And then they can take that 1080p24, add 3:2 pulldown, and they've got a domestic 1080i60 master no problem. Plus, hey - if they DO go theatrical, a tiny retiming is all that is required to go from 23.976 to 24.0 frames per second - no biggie at all.

This also highlights the whole What FrameRate Do We Shoot Question - we had originally discussed the pros and cons of 1080p24 vs 1080i60, and I had suggested that if domestic was all they were concerned about, and theatrical wasn't a major concern, that rendering the animation to 1080i60 would look smoother and cleaner. They did their own tests and agreed, and even though it increased their 2D and 3D render times substantially, they felt it was worth it.

They've got about 20 minutes of their one hour piece done, and were debating whether to finish this out at 60i and convert it all to 24p later, or to redo the 20 minutes now and then keep going.

I pointed out that any difficulties they were going to have converting their edit to 24p would be better to do as little as possible of - so why not convert the 20 minutes NOW, and NOT have to convert the other 40 minutes of stuff and redo it. We all agreed this was the better approach. (After having done some time consuming 1080i60 renders from Motion, After Effects, and especially Maya, this might also have been a factor in their decision.)

So they decided to go back and redo the 20 or so completed minutes of the piece, rebuilding 24 not 60i. This is further complicated by all the different types of media they will be using in the piece:

1.) Hand drawn animation
2.) 2D and 3D renders from Maya, Motion, and After Effects
3.) PAL stock footage from Europe
4.) NTSC stock footage
5.) Telecined to disk stock film footage at 1080p23.98 (anamorphic squeeze from 4:3 source, no less!)
6.) HD video they plan on shooting F900 at some point this summer

So we sat down and started carefully picking through all this stuff, and it got very, very granular. For instance:

There were different workflows that were going to apply to all this stuff:

-some footage from stock agencies is supplied on VHS for roughs and to pick selects (PAL or NTSC)
-some footage from stock agencies is supplied on DVDs for roughs and to pick selects (PAL or NTSC)
-some footage is supplied as 10 bit uncompressed 1080p23.98 QuickTimes on hard drives
-once selects are made from stock stuff, it will be provided on PAL or NTSC Digibeta - yet another format, and PAL Digibetas aren't common

And oh yeah - all of this needs to go on an anamorphic 23.98 fps DV timeline for offline edit.

So we had to come up with ingest solutions with good matchback (be able to know which exactly source tape/DVD, and exactly what timecode in and out) for each and every one of these scenarios, dealing with differing frame sizes and especially differing frame rates - PAL is 25.0, NTSC is 29.97, some HD can be 59.94, 29.97, or 23.98, and ALL of this footage needed to be converted to 23.98 in order to be effectively edited without EVERY little change of timeline requiring a lengthy render. (He's working in Final Cut Studio 5.1.) This is made even more challenging by the fact that the NTSC and PAL interlaced stuff needs to be converted to 23.98 fps progressive, and STILL maintain frame accurate matchback!

There was also the issue of monitoring - you can't run 24p DV back through a DV camera to a regular TV on most cameras and decks AFAIK - it doesn't weave the DV into 24p or 24pA on the way back OUT the FireWire to a 60i video signal. But we had a solution for this, too. UPDATE: Apparently, AFAIK wasn't far enough - a reader points out that FCP WILL add pulldown for you to the FireWire outbound. I haven't tried this myself, but he says he used it back out through a camera and it worked. From his posted comment:

---
On your comment about monitoring 24p (23.98) footage on a NTSC monitor - you're right in that DV decks don't add the pulldown BUT Final Cut does! If you're timeline is set to DV NTSC 23.98, you can select 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 or 2:2:2:4 pulldown on the way out to a DV Deck and then to a NTSC monitor. Final Cut will do it in software for you. It used to be located in the RT button on the timeline. But I think they moved it to System Settings now.

CHL
--
....thanks man! As always, if you see an error in a post, please point it out to me!


In the end, I think we are going to use 4 or 5 different software packages to address all the particular needs of each format, each frame rate, each need (offline vs. online).

We only had a couple of hours to figure out this switch yesterday, the next meeting will be on how to guarantee a smooth online process. That is likely to entail capturing NTSC and PAL footage from Digibeta tapes, and then converting that footage to 1080p23.98 in a high quality, cost and time effective manner, while again maintaining frame accurate matchback to the offline edit. This is made even more complicated by the fact that they'll be creating tons of animation, so there won't be source tapes, they'll be matching back via file names (naming and filing conventions was a prior meeting) and they'll be re-rendering to HD.

Another point - in one of our earlier meetings, I was pointing out that the difference between 24p SD resolution and 1080i60 HD resolution was about 15 times as much frame information (about 6 times as many pixels, and 2 1/2 times the frame rate), and that the increase in rendering time would be somewhat analogous to that diffference as well (so we quickly agreed doing HD offline was a Bad Idea for this particular project, but I don't say so for all projects). (see comments link below for further discussion on how much more this REALLY is)

Their online assembly won't be for months, but we DO want to do a practice run of it now, early, to catch any false presumptions we have about how smoothly it will go.

Planning your post production workflow well in advance, in meticulous, highly granular detail, thoroughly documenting the successful approaches, and doing a dry run practice of it all the way through to final product, is the best way to ensure you don't screw up your project's post workflow.

Now, for most producers, they sit back and moan about how much of a pain this is going to be. Not me - for me, this is fun. This is what I do. So if you have a problem like this, and need some help, and can afford a few hours of consulting at $150/hr, drop me a line, because this is what I do for indies all the time.

-mike

SoftRAID 3.5 has been announced and is now shipping. SoftRAID is the software I use and recommend to set up RAID volumes. Yes, you can use Disk Utility, but SoftRAID does more. New version works with Intel Macs is the big news about it.

NAB 2006 Editing Hardware Wrap Up
======================================

Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Editing Hardware wrap up notes. It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference:

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Update: Well, I'll summarize a bit because this is LONG. So Big Deal Stuff at NAB:

-AJA Kona3 now has 2K support for ALL Kona3 cards - is just a driver update (this is the hidden feature I mentioned before)
-AJA also has two new converters, the HD10AVA and RD10MD
-AJA also has Xena (cards for Windows) to mirror what the Kona2 and I think Kona3 do as well, I need to do some more reading
-BlackMagic's new PCIe based DeckLink HD Extreme that does 4:2:2 everything (SD/HD/analog/digital), the, is under $1000
-Blackmagic also has a new MultiBridge, this one MultiBridge Pro, it is a cut down, 4:2:2 only, no 2K version of the Extreme
-CineTal has high quality LCD panels for critical color (with options for everything from frame buffer to scopes)
-eCinemaSys is working on a new 40" LCD panel for critical color viewing as well
-EditShare is hardware/software for group editing on a variety of NLEs, including Final Cut. Uncompressed SD works over GigE, uncompressed HD works over 10GigE - this is MAJOR for groupware editing.
-JL Cooper has editing control surfaces for Final Cut, but eek, like $3500
-Matrox has the MXO, a DVI to HD-SDI adaptor that sounds REALLY promising, does SDI, HD-SDI, component, etc., and uses QT drivers to handle interlace and formatting - this is one of the most significant products at the show for indie editors I think if it works as promised.

OK, here we go, this is in (roughly) alphabetical order, not in order of priority (scroll down to that Matrox MXO for instance, it's worth it!):

=============================================

AJA

Kona3 gained some serious new features (here's my previous coverage when it was announced), like the ability to input and output 2K resolution footage (at both 1556 an 1080 pixel heights) simply via new drivers. It can also crop 2K footage to play out on HD monitors, a major boon - and you can even adjust WHERE the crop takes place by sliding around a little viewing window in their Kona3 Control Panel.

Kona3 was already a powerful SD/HD RGB 4:4:4 pro capture/output card, but the new drivers enable 2K workflows for filmmakers. Key new features:

-supports dual link for HDCAM SR and Viper modes
-allows 2K files to be viewed on HD 1080p24 monitors
-2K telecine to Mac by reconfiguring the dual link HD-SDI for HSDL (High Speed Data Link) connection to various telecine devices
-the 1080p HD output can be downconverted to standard def SDI and/or component output on the fly as well for making offline dailies etc.
Other features:
-can upconvert SD to HD (motion-adaptive)
-1080 to 720 as well as 720 to 1080 cross conversion
-live 10 bit keyer as well for adding logo bugs etc.
-K3-box gives you a rackmount hardware breakout box
-Kona3 is $2900, K3-box is $300
-you can make 2K DPX files straight of the telecine and make 2K Quicktime reference movies
-can play 2K out over HSDL (but it has a max speed of 15 fps or so)
-or crop it to 1920x1080 and play out realtime (storage system throughput allowing)
-making DPX files from the get-go is friendlier for the production pipeline, since most serious post software is built around DPX files anyway
-check out the bottom of page 2 in this PDF Kona3 brochure, it outlines the workflow...WOW, this is good. I'll be trying this myself ASAP.

New Converters: HD10AVA and RD10MD

The HD10AVA is a HD/SD audio and video A/D miniature converter, while the RD10MD is a 10-bit, broadcast-quality card for dual down-conversion from HD to SD.

EMAIL FROM JON THORNE OF AJA, new product manager for Mac Video products:

I (Mike) asked: Are there any other new products, new drivers, new stuff I should be
aware of from AJA from NAB?

A: Yes. The Xena line for the PC is now Premiere Pro 2.0 compatible...although that release hinges upon folks having Premiere Pro 2.0. Basically the Xena cards are Kona cards for a PC but have unique software. Also of note is we now have a converter, the HD10AVA which will be available soon which allows analog HD and SD, video and audio, to be input to the converter and an SDI output results. Great for Kona3 users who want to input from HDV cameras to a 4:2:2, 10 bit uncompressed codec or for legacy analog users who can't part with their BetaSP deck but who know they should be buying the super powerful Kona 3 card.


I hope to have lots more conversations (blogged or otherwise) with Jon in the future, he is Ted Schilowitz's replacement at AJA.

I also have a chunk of data to post about Xena cards on PC, but I'm having trouble finding the info (my own dumb fault) so I'll update as soon as I get it.

================================

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

-Blackmagic DeckLink HD Extreme - pretty much like the AJA Kona LH/e models, this is the does pretty much EVERYTHING card (SD/HD in & out, analog and digital in AND out) - the only thing it doesn't do is 4:4:4, and is $1000 for the PCIe card.

-Multibridge Pro - like the Extreme, but not 4:4:4, no 2K, now HDMI out not DVI (different? Better? Same?), $1595 price point

-Interview with Matt Dowling, Product Manager for BlackMagic

-new DeckLink HD Extreme - like the old Extreme in terms of analog in and out, but now does HD as well, can do HD analog in and out,
-analog component in and out
-2 SDI out
-1 SDI in
-s-video
-AES out
-RS 422
-2 channels XLR audio in and out
-those SDI ports autodetect HD/SD
-$995
Matt Dowling, product Manager interview:

PCIe - all new products are and will be PCIe
-4 lane PCIe
-not discontinuing old product, transitioning to PCIe
-compressed all old products into this one new aggressively priced product
-$100 more than the SD one was
-but get total HD and it's PCI Express
-new Multibridge Pro, is a cut down version of the Extreme, not 2K capable, doesn't do dual link (4:4:4), has HDMI direct out instead of via converter that ship with DVI to HDMI converter, this is a true HDMI port - advantage is that HDMI runs at native frame rate, DVI is up to 60 which can cause some interlace problems, is really for client previews is the best bet
-different from the DVI on the Extreme? DVI vs. HDMI - Pro has no DVI, HDMI only. Is that better or worse than the Extreme, feature wise is similar, the I/O is different, is cut down from the Extreme's feature set
-DVI vs. HDMI: Matt likes HDMI because you can send 5.1 down it too; DVI is limited to 8 bit, HDMI is uncompressed as well, he likes it
-some of the graphics cards have HDMI instead of DVI so can plug into HDTV directly
-if has HDMI, is assumed can plug into consumer stuff
-any other new products? new software called BlackMagic On Air, is a mixer in software, with the Extreme because have A&B inputs, can have 2 streams coming in and one coming out, they are showing two XL H1's feeding an Extreme over HD-SDI and when in this mode, it is spitting out tri-level sync to lock the two cameras to the MB-X, and that On Air program will allow monitoring of what you're sending out, can mix between the two channels, dissolve between, is a live mixer. Is designed for little productions of people on a budget or church/wedding guys. A freestanding box usable in the field as a mixer? NO, can't drive it over a laptop, gotta be plugged into a G5.
-is it possible to use the Express/34 slot to do something interesting HD-wise with that?
-Matt: we've been looking at that, it's not 2.5 gig, it is 1.8/1.9, it is borderline to get HD down it, you might get 1080p24 8 bit, but maybe 720p50 8 bit maybe, when they saw'em a few months back they looked into it and they thought it'd be cool, but it doesn't have the bandwidth to do it. At this stage it doesn't look like it, we've been looking into it. It gets a little bit tricky because you have to have a power source from somewhere. If trying to power it off the notebook (MB-X, for instance), you'd last maybe 10 minutes or less. It's not exactly built for that. Theoretically possible to do an SD based product, but you'd still need power would be the potential concern. I'm not sure if it would actually fit the chipsets we'd need to fit in there card only (I was thinkng of a card going out to breakout device, it'd be a MAJOR challenge to fit it into the form factor to go into computer). And connector wise how would you fit it into there?
-I said I thought the breakout box with stub card was a great idea for small facilities so that it can be handed around. The stub card has no brains, it is just wires to connect to the breakout box that has boards and brains in it. Could have multiple stubs in the studio and move the box around as you need it, just have to power down as you need to in order to hook it up.
-don't hotswap, you'll definitely crash it! Is just like pulling out a PCIe card.
-I like the MB-X so much I bought one.
-On my long list of stuff to do is to run it through the tests.
-used the MB-X during the Texas Shootout to capture uncompressed from analog sources
-some folks thought that maybe the quality was lesser because price was lower, some folks think they run low profit margins to compete, but matt says they make a decent profit because of their efficient production methodology. By dropping price point, can sell more product, amortize R&D better, they don't compromise on quality, we just engineer it for lower production costs.
-Talking about the On Air stuff - any new drivers released for the show? No, they'll be releasing around May 20, they are on a 30 day software release cycle, release new versions about once a month to customers. Sometimes slips, but the goal is once every 30 days.
-May 20th - new features? On Air will be there, 720p50 will be included for the Euro customers in the May 20 release
-On Air is not out until the 20th
-ON the PC side a few more frequencies working with Premiere Pro, HDV plays on PPro2 with uncompressed on the same timeline to mix HDV and uncompressed and it handles the 1440 to 1920 sizing on the fly. (that's a BIG deal!)
-I said I hate that you can't mix and match sizes on the same timeline. In PPro2, can do 8 bit, 10 bit, HDV all on same timeline.
-I said I've heard would require a major rewrite of FCP to do similarly, Matt says he hopes they'll do it.
-drivers these days - any new product they make, instantly works with any supported app - Premiere, After Effects (Mac & PC), Vegas, Final Cut works; they try to make it as transparent as possible
-anything that has a QuickTime video out will work with this hardware, it's a QuickTime compoment
-any issue running 5.1 FCP on a G5 with the current drivers? Nope, works fine.
-Apple put in some codecs in version 5.1 - neither of us know what is different with those codes, "but nothing that affects us" said Matt
-Matt said he doesn't like to list out issues that they've fixed, but do constantly tweak drivers

Letter from Grant Petty (his usual thing he sends out before a show). I include this in full because a.) it has good info in it, and b.) I'm too busy/lazy to go extract all the good factoids out of it and edit out all the marketing foof. It's all a quote, so I put it in italics to differentiate from something I write:

Introducing DeckLink HD Extreme

I am incredibly excited about this new product, and it's really going to drive more change in the television industry.

DeckLink HD Extreme is quite similar to our original DeckLink Extreme standard definition card, however it's a completely new design using technology from our Multibridge Extreme, so it has incredible quality 14 bit digital to analog conversion out.

DeckLink HD Extreme is important because it replaces all models of the DeckLink HD family of cards, as it combines all the features of the current range of cards and a lot more. For people who need 4:4:4 or older PCI-X support, we are keeping the DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 models. For people who are only using standard definition and need older PCI or PCIe 1 lane, we also have the SD card range.

Because it's a HD model it switches between high definition and standard definition video. It features an SD/HD-SDI input, and dual SD/HD-SDI outputs, which can be used as two outputs, or you can output fill and key when selected in our LiveKey application. DeckLink HD Extreme also includes 12 bit analog video in, and 14 bit analog video out. The analog video connections can be independently switched to component (YUV) or composite NTSC/PAL and now S-Video. When using component (YUV) video, the analog connections will switch between high definition and standard definition.

For audio, we have included 2 channels of analog balanced professional audio in and out via XLR connectors, as well as 2 channel AES/EBU digital audio in and out via unbalanced BNC connectors. The AES is also S/PDIF compatible if you want to connect to consumer equipment.

As with all DeckLink cards, DeckLink HD Extreme includes RS-422 control, Genlock/Tri-Sync input, and is fully compatible with Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64. DeckLink HD Extreme is a PCI Express 4 lane card, and there is no PCI-X version, as that older bus standard is starting to decline.

This card is a fantastic solution that has all the features most people would ever need all in the one card. DeckLink HD Extreme will connect to any video equipment in both HD or SD, as well as SDI and analog. Examples are Betacam SP, Digital Betacam, D1, Consumer HDV Cameras, HD set top boxes, HDCAM, HD-D5, HDCAM-SR 4:2:2, Telecines, CRT monitors, LCD televisions and many more.

DeckLink HD Extreme retails at only US$995, and it's available immediately. We have stock at some of our resellers on the NAB show floor, so if you have been in the market for a new DeckLink card, then you can get a DeckLink HD Extreme now at the show.

DeckLink HD Extreme is a replacement for our DeckLink HD, DeckLink HD Plus, and DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 models, which will now all discontinued. We think having a single model with all these features is a much better solution.

If you need a 4:4:4 card based solution, we still have DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 models in PCI-X and PCIe models, but we don't expect them to be as popular as they are still more expensive, and are really only useful when you absolutely need a low cost 4:4:4 solution, or you need a PCI-X solution for older computers, and don't need the analog video input, and analog audio features.

Introducing Multibridge Pro

Multibridge Pro is an exciting new model of the Multibridge family that features PCI Express, so you can use it as a capture playback solution or unplug it from the computer to use it as a standalone bi-directional converter.

Multibridge Pro is very similar to Multibridge Extreme, however the main difference is we removed the expensive 2K film features, that are not needed by most video users, and this allows it to be lower cost. Multibridge Pro also has more connections than the DeckLink HD Extreme PCIe plug in card, so its a nice solution for people who want more power in video, but don't do feature films. It's also a break-out box style of capture/playback solution when connected to a computer via PCI Express, so will be popular with people who like a break-out box style solution.

Multibridge Pro switches between high definition and standard definition video, and features a single SD/HD-SDI input, and dual SD/HD-SDI outputs, which can be used as two outputs. Multibridge Pro also includes 12 bit analog video in, and incredible 14 bit analog to digital video conversion out. The analog video connections can be independently switched to component (YUV) or composite NTSC/PAL and now S-Video. When using component (YUV) video, the analog connections will switch between high definition and standard definition.

For audio, we have included 2 channels of analog balanced professional audio in and out via XLR connectors, as well as 4 channels of AES/EBU digital audio in and out with each input featuring sample rate converters. Multibridge Pro also features 2 channel unbalanced audio out for HiFi monitoring, and is a compact 1 rack unit in size.

Multibridge Pro also features a built-in HDMI digital monitoring output. HDMI is becoming popular on most modern flat screen televisions and video projectors. It's quality specifications allow up to 12 bit, and our software drivers currently use full 10 bits on output, and can use 12 in the future. It's a very high quality monitoring standard and on Multibridge Pro it's built in. Digital monitoring allows HD monitoring at much lower cost, and because it's digital, the image quality is amazing and noise free.

Multibridge Pro retails for only US$1,595, and will be available approximately 2 weeks after NAB. It's complete, and we are just waiting for more parts for production to start.

Multibridge Pro is a replacement for our Multibridge HD and Multibridge SD models, which are now discontinued. The advantage is you get a HD product at a similar price to the older standard definition model. You also get similar features to the older HD model, but with PCI Express built in, so you can use it for editing without purchasing an SDI card, plus you have the added benefit built-in HDMI monitoring and AES sample rate converters. Of course there will still be more software updates for the Multibridge HD and Multibridge SD models, even though they are now discontinued.

We hope that with all these powerful features, Multibridge Pro should be incredibly popular as a converter, even if you don't need to use the PCI Express feature for capture and playback. Most other converters cost over $2,000 just for digital to analog conversion, while Multibridge Pro converts from digital to analog, and analog to digital at the same time, with AES digital and analog audio support, and HDMI video and RCA audio monitoring out. It's incredible value for only US$1,595.


It's been our dream to allow a multi function converter to be mass produced so it can have lower cost than more simple converters, while including extra features such as analog and digital audio, HDMI and PCI Express, so it becomes so much more.

We would really like to get your feedback on both DeckLink HD Extreme and Multibridge Pro at NAB. If you are on the show floor, and get the chance to visit out booth, look out for our engineering guys who have traveled to the show.

Introducing Blackmagic On-Air

Sometimes it's nice to have a radical new idea, and to build a new kind of product, and see what people think.

Our radical idea for this NAB, is a new mixing software tool for use with Multibridge Extreme for live mixing between two cameras. We feel that over the last 10 years we have been building video cards to help make editing and broadcast design very low cost, at incredible quality. We have done that well, and the industry is now very different to how it was 10 years ago.

However we noticed part of the industry that has not been able to change, and has not been able to use computers well to improve workflow. That's live mixing and production, which still use independent mixers, and monitors all connected by dozens of cables. There have been some attempts at solutions, but the quality was not great, and there were no good camera solutions.

We wanted a tool that worked in HD, was low cost, and allowed better camera monitoring plus recorded direct to disk. Blackmagic On-Air does all these things, and it's a fantastic tool. Live two camera production is a very fast and low cost way to cover events, and our aim was to help improve workflow by using computers, and also allow a HD solution.

The big change came over the last 6 months as Canon's new XL H1 1080i HD camera, which is low cost, but features genlock input, and HD-SDI output. Now a camera with HD support is available to help make a complete solution affordable.

We use a standard Multibridge Extreme model that has enormous processing power and two SDI inputs. Blackmagic On-Air is a simple software update and will mix between the two SDI inputs, a graphic, and black video. It uses a large window that incorporates both camera views, and the program mix view in real time. There are actually three streams of video coming back over the PCI Express to the computer, so you need a more powerful computer to run this. The specs for that are on our web site.

The great thing about including the camera and program views on the main mixer window is you don't need to connect external camera monitors when setting up. You could do a full system with only a single 20 inch monitor on the computer itself, so it's more portable and faster to setup. You can connect an additional monitor to the DVI or SDI outputs of Multibridge Extreme for program monitoring, so you can see the camera mix. Graphic and black are mixed in the computer, and not seen on the SDI outputs, so you can get a "title-less" master if you record the SDI output.

We can also draw a soft red "tally" border around the camera monitors to indicate which camera is on air, so you can see exactly what's happening when looking at the camera monitors. The program view can also show a red border when recording.

Capture to disk is supported direct in the main window, and you can record with a single button click, and program duration is displayed in real time. If you have Final Cut Pro HD installed, you can capture to the DVCPRO HD codec, so you don't need to use a bulky disk array for HD recording. Most people we have spoken with really want HD production more than uncompressed HD production, as HD is the most important aspect of their needs. Capture to the compressed codec should really help reduce cost.

There is a lot more information on the Multibridge Extreme page on our web site, and please select the On-Air tab to learn more. Blackmagic On-Air will be included free in the next major software release for the Multibridge family, which will be v5.6 due early May. Initially Blackmagic On-Air will be Mac OS X only, and will move to Windows as soon as possible.

That's all for this update, and I hope you are as excited by these updates as we are.

What I find really exciting about our new product range this NAB is every product is true to our original dream to get the highest quality video tools into everyone's hands because it's priced as affordable as possible. That's not easy.

We hope you get the chance to come by our booth at NAB and see DeckLink HD Extreme, Multibridge Pro and Blackmagic On-Air!

-Grant


============================

CINETAL

-talking to Bob Caldwell from Cinetal
-24" 1920x1200 monitor showing 1920x1080 footage
-can feed it 720 footage, does it 1:1
-keeps it pixel for pixel in 720
-there are various options, pricing starts at Cinemage at $8500, takes in single link only (two feeds), can upgrade to dual link
-SEE HANDOUT/BROCHURE
-can add waveform, vectorscopes, that kind of thing
-FILO is the entry level, broadcast side of things
-Cinemage is their post/d-cinema type stuff
-SEE OPTIONS ON SHEET
-runs from about $7500 for Filo, $8500 for Cinemage for entry level, with all the options getting into the $28-$30K range for the Cinemage
-recommend doing critical color work on this? DEFERRED ANSWER TO OTHER GUY
-talking to Robert Carrol - CEO of CineTal, is this an appropriate monitor for color critical work - "is not up for us to determine, is up to person doing critical color work - creative color analysis is very subjective, and even though we might be able to measure and determine we match 709 or DCI standards, because of LCD vs. CRT differences, the perception by the human is slightly different even if it can be measured empirically to be the same. Because of that subjectivity, let folks loook at'em and decide what to use. Currently a CRT is reference grade monitor, because of technical issues that's going to go away/change, as this transition occurs, our product people say looks pretty good, it may or may not work in your particular application for critical color monitoring, it depends on the subjective nature of the person making that judgement, that person has to look at it and decide whether it is going to work for them or not."
-dumb question - why can't I plug in a Dell 24 and get the same thing?
-first off, no SDI or HD-SDI inputs for professional inputs
-the electronics in the Dell system are designed for consumer world
-we're actually modifying the panels to give it better characteristics for this particular marketplace, as in calibrating, rec 709 and DCI and other things
-Q: chroma and phase controls? A: No, that's a very analog context on monitoring. Moving to a data centric workflow model, a lot of our monitoring tools in the past have been analog, waveforms and vectorscopes with IREs and millivolts on'em, there's no such thing as millivolts in data, our monitor is strictly viewed as a data monitor, and what we are doing is allowing that data to be represented by light throught the system, you can measure that light and specify that light to a recommended practice or whatever (controlled and calibratable fashion?) Absolutely
-last thing you want to do is grab a phase knob if yo have a calibrated system
-Q: How maintain calibration on these? A: Gretag MacBeth jointly developed a photometer and photospectrometer, both are a little different, we have custom software behind it that allows you to calibrate the system to pretty much anything you want. Q: 23.98 and 24.0 off of this? A: Yes, all HD standards. Q: True 24p or 3:2 pulldown? A: Frame doubling anything below 40, 30 is 60, 23.98 is 47.something, we double it up, no 3:2 pulldown. Double buffered. If you're looking at 24 frame material, you're seeing it refresh at 24.
-Q: I see various monitoring extra goodies here. A: We set out to create a production tool for digital cinema production. A lot of features built for that - Color Look Up Tables with a split screen generator, see what your camera is doing, previz wha tyou want your final color grade to loook like - can load 2D and 3D LUTs, and can do calibration LUTs. It is all inboard, no outboard boxes. Plug in an AC cord and a video source and you're ready to go.
-Q: So no box to box to box daisy chain of devices? A: No, it's an integrated system, also to have Omnitech waveforms and vectorscopes in it, so highest quality waveforms and vectorscopes built into it
-I like using the extra pixels top and bottom for UI elements
-Q: I'm familiar with Rec 709, but DCI stuff - how's that different? A: slightly different gamma with same white point. It is user selectable between 709 and DCI, you can put any gamma and any white point into the system and calibrate to those, so if trying to match something that isn't in your system that may not be calibrated to one of those systems, can force this system to match it. But 709 and DCI are presets
-Q: Anything else I should know? A: Because it is a prodution tool, has 30 frame store, realtime access frame stores, network based product so sits on the network and can save, grab, move frames from network areas, has wireless option to pull or push frames from a PDA is an option, the whole concept from a collaboration point of view has always been "I'm onset, I've got a colorist in New York and a VFX house in SF, I need to pull a frame from this set, send to each of those guys over the Internet, have colorist do a quick grade to match what I did 2 days ago, send me a LUT so I can previz with that LUT, have VFX guy make sure that my parameters are good to pull off the VFX when I bring the files to him." I said very nice, very slick
-been delivering this since December 2005
-how many in field? "Significant..." More than 10 I ask? "Oh yes." he says

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Doremi V1-UHD recorder

See this page for related photos

V1-UHD - is applicable for field acquisition, it'll do dual link for 4:4:4
-capacity on the UHD for uncompressed can record via dual SCSI (so can connect to external RAID capacity) can go up to 6TB
-price point: w/2.6TB storage, is $49,000, with dual link option another $10,000, so about $60K for 4:4:4 recording capability.
-1080p60 for 4:2:2 - working on it, another month or two
-V1-HD is he JPEG2000 based product, V1-UHD is the uncompressed based product.

==============================

DVS
-makes Pronto 2K.2 and Pronto HD.2, file based DDRs
-HD.2, up to 3.6 TB storage, RAID 0
-expand to 7TB with a 4U rack unit
-no compression at all
-roughly $30K for 3.6TB storage, additional 4U storage is another $15K for up to 7TB
-they also make Clipster, which I consistently hear good things about, and hear referred to often. It can ingest/conform SD, HD (single/dual link), 2K or 4K via HSDL, and there's a SAN product to work with it, too. Realtime color correction, zoom and pan, etc. Price unknown (can't be cheap). But after hearing it mentioned many times, and now seeing the brochure, it sounds pretty robust and respected.

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eCinema Systems
-Martin has a new display
-ship around IBC for around $40K
-40 inches (I think)
-1920x1080 res
-4096 (10 bits at the pixel) - give you an honest to god at least 1000 if not more gradations, well beyond the 200 you usually get on LCD based systems
-I assume 24.0 and 23.98 fps
-should be a DCI spec in Rec 709 critical color calibrated display system, recommended for reference grade work
-for a 40" display!
-for a 40" calibratable....hmmmm...compare that to a Sony CRT and the engineering resources required....
-talked to a colorist who, when I mentioned it, shook his head - he was there at NAB, he saw it, didn't consider it up to snuff for color critical work (he works on a $40K 32" Sony HD CRT daily)
-press release forthcoming, I'll update with that when it comes out

================================

EditShare

See related photos on this page

-Editshare starts at $15K for 2TB, unlimited clients (other than what the hardware will support).
-it isn't client based, it is GigE connected to a switch, no big deal to GigE
-they have a 10 GigE option, that lets you do uncompressed HD (and that's what's required)
-GigE can do compressed HD formats and uncompressed SD
-for instance, a Mac Mini running on the show floor on GigE was doing 4 streams of uncompressed SD (wow!)
-if you want to expand capacity beyond 2TB, what kind of pricing structure? Different chassis sizes, standard is 3U, can go up to 5U and 8U, depends on how many spindles needed for speed and how big those drives should be for the capacity you need. In an 8U chassis, 40x500GB drives is 20TB, how much? Probably about $70Kish. The system is "infinitely expandable" to add multiple chassis together.
Uncompressed SD/HD NAS product, starting at around $15K for 2TB, is RAID 5, the usable is 1.7TB
-hook up as many Macs as you want that doesn't exceed bandwidth provided
-so painless to add more clients presuming they don't
-there's ports on the back, and you get GigE switches, I asked if off the shelf would work, he said more or less (so get good ones, full duplex, etc.)
-Grant Carrol is the guy I talked to, the national channel manager

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JL Cooper

See this page for related photos

MCS-3800 is the control surface (Media Command Station) Ethernet option card, comes with software to map MIDI and key commands to do transport control, jog/shuttle, touch sensitive motorized faders, can multiple banks of the faders to get access to up to 32 channels
-price point is $3495, $3000 without the faux stone wrist rest, is $3K, the MCS-3 is jog/shuttle USB controller for $595

===============================


Matrox MXO

See this page for related photos

-Matrox MXO is $995, DVI to HD-SDI and SDI
-MXO has a QuickTime driver (not like an external box that is a scan converter), there is an external box connected over DVI, the QT driver in the Mac gets all the video set up frame accurately, then transmits all the info over DVI, and then they broadcast SDI/HD-SDI/component SD/HD in all the frame rates, 720p60, 1080i60, PAL, NTSC. For 1080p23.98 NO, would have to have 3:2 pulldown added, but maybe that'll be added later - firmware is updateable
-ships June
-this could be one of the most relevant products of the show if it works as advertised - laptop output of HD-SDI!
-June, $1000, not just an outboard converter to properly handle interlace, takes QT, sends to external box over DVI, that box sends frame accurate video over component, composite, SDI/HD-SDI etc.
-this will be useful for ALL KINDS of things - Motion output, Final Cut output, even software demos and Keynote presentations can now be run out in real time - this is a MAJORLY good thing beyond just "Oh good, I can output from my laptop now."

Matrox also showed the RT.X2, HDV and DV editing tool bundled with Premiere Pro 2.0 and Matrox hardware with analog inputs. $2000

Axio will gain support for XDCAM HD. DVCAM, MPEG IMX, and MPEG HD will also be supported. All the Panasonic native DVCPRO based formats (50 and HD) will be supported as well.

==============================

MIRANDA

See this page for related photos

-DVI RAMP 2 - DVI to HD-SDI, intended for serious production, could run it out realtime, is genlockable as well - so whatever graphics can do stuff over a DVI bus to a computer screen, you can send that to an HD-SDI as well now. Think Motion, which relies heavily on the OpenGL card to do it's thing.....
-it is a calibrateable, color accurate display feed (or production feed is probably a better way to phrase that)
-$5000
-(gleaned from brochure): 3 modes:
-full or partial graphic frame scaled to video
-pixel for pixel extraction from screen up to 2K
-pixel to pixel extraction to HD/SD fill and key
-has anti-flicker and detail enhancement (which means it is changing your content)
-prorammable LUT
-ships July

================================


PANDORA'S POGLE

240K for 2K system, $400K for 4K color grading and stuff....oooooooooouch!


==============================


Grand Vitesse has their

GVS9000 4NXU DV, SD, HD and 2K VTR
Designed to fit seamlessly into a high-resolution production workflow, the GVS90004NX VTR offers a Virtual Tape capability that allows users to incrementally move to a digital disk based workflow. With this digital disk based technology, the GVS9000 4NXU VTR provides a single flexible platform for all your content production from live and post production applications.

With a huge choice of QuickTime Video hardware and industry standard compatibility with leading video editing, GVS9000 4NXU VTR is a professional, non-linear VTR with uncompressed SD, dual-link HD 4.4.4, 2K support and provides transparent storage and sharing over dual 4Gb/s fibre and dual gigabit network for a wide variety of digital assets making it the ideal environment for Event, Broadcast, Post house, Design and Production facility to working storage, transport and archive.


==========

Whew! That's it for now. Tune in tomorrow, NAB 2006 Editing Software Wrap Up Notes is next!

-mike

Hey all -

A friend of mine has a hosed drive in their Powerbook - it is making Click of Death types of sounds (said it sounded like somebody dropped a nail on the floor). The data on there to be recovered is personal - most notably photos from last year or two.

At this point, the drive won't mount, nor will it even show up in Disk Utility, and it makes these clicky drive seek type noises repeatedly but never gets anywhere. So unless someone knows of a miracle app that can see drives Disk Utility can't, no software application is going to fix this mechanical failure.

So it isn't like it is a business that can afford it, so does anyone have a recommendation for a data recovery service for physically failed drives that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I know enough that if it makes the Bad Sound that one should NOT try software data recovery tools.

This is a great example why you back up data, NOW - because you never know when a drive is going to fail, it doesn't wait for you to back it up first (ever!).

Please post in the Comments field if you have a recommendation, esp. if from personal experience. I've used DriveSavers in the past (Dad crashed a desktop drive, death by heat from living in a cabinet), but they were expensive, looking for a less costly alternative.

-mike.

PS - and no it isn't a machine of mine!

13-Inch MacBook Benchmarks 1

Benchmarks from Final Cut Studio. They compared a Dual 2.0 GHz G5, a 15 inch MacBook Pro (2.16 GHz), and a MacBook (2.0 GHz). First up was Final Cut Pro itself - the MacBook is effectively as fast as the G5 for render tests - tie, faster, or slower by 1 second (1:09 vs 1:10 minutes).

Mike's Comments: that said, these were some pretty stupid tests. They use DVCPRO HD, and that's great. They used 3 way color corrector, and that's great. Then they used plugins - that's a good idea.

But then they used the following filters, and let me just classify them as I see them applying to most indie productions:

Realistic constant daily use (smart):
-cross dissolve
-Color Corrector 3 way
-Color Balance
-Unsharp mask

Use occasionally, once or twice a day (maybe OK, don't overuse)
-Gaussian Blur
-Fisheye (I could see using this to correct lens distortion)
-center split side
-channel map
-color key
-Luma Key

I Would Slap You If Used In Serious Production (just plain dumb):
-curl transition
-Swing transition
-pond ripple effect
-no, no they didn't - yes they did! The dreaded lens flare
-page peel
-ripple dissolve
-Wind Blur


...you get the idea. To me, the tests I'm interested in doing as soon as I can would involve mapping the limits of realtime effects:
-can I get a 3way color correct on both clips around a cross dissolve in realtime?
-can I throw a scale on top of that? One or both clips?
-can I put text and/or a lower third on that in realtime as well?
-can I do these in DV? In DVCPRO50? In DVCPRO HD? In HDV? In uncompressed SD? In uncompressed 720p24? 720p60? 1080p24? 1080i60? Etc.
-do yes/no RT testing for full res/full speed, then map out the Dynamic RT performance.
-then test render times for the above, plus some other common color/repo stuff.

I find that covers 80% of day to day editing for storytelling content.

Also, their numbers reflect editing to an external QuickTime file, NOT rendering on the timeline. Again, this is a task that is done, but is done FAR less often than timeline editing. It's good to get preliminary results, but more realistic tests are necessary. They talk about getting faster drives to see if that helps - I seriously doubt that it will - in my own tests on dual and quad G5s, whether rendering to FireWire drive or 8 drive SATA RAID didn't make a difference. If rendering to any compresed format, the data rates involved are well below drive capabilities.

I think it is worth testing the oddball filters, but there are MUCH more important things to test first...you KNOW the programmers are going to spend their time on the common stuff - the color correctors, the basic dissolves - before they optimize the *&*^&%$^^ wind filter. I mean, come ON.

Wind filter? Verrrrrrrry rare special effect shot, and then only maybe. Ripple dissolve? Only as a gag, again 2 or 3 per production tops. Lens flare? My god, that's why I got out of doing mographics and VFX...

(and as long as I'm in a mood to bitch, just watched the trailer for Ghost Rider, and BOY, does that look dumb! How much did they spend on it?)

-mike

(thanks to Jarred Land of the excellent DVXUser.comforum based site for sending in a link to me about this one.

Oh, and they also did some further tests with Motion 2.1 - and the G5 (with an ATI 9600, a lower end card) didn't beat out the laptops by much, even in particle heavy tests (sounds like they did a more realistic Motion test for this series than they did for FCP). The MacBook was actually faster in 3 out of 4 tests, the one where it was slower involved uncompressed video footage, so drive speed may well have played a factor (bus speeds too perhaps?)

Interestingly, the MacBook actually BEAT the Dual G5 in 4 out of 5 Compressor 2.1 encoding tasks, such as SD & HD MPEG-2 encoding, as well as H.264 encoding. The one test where it lost was so short (3 vs 4 seconds) that it is effectively a tie and they should have used a longer test sequence.

This certainly implies that the desktop Macs are going to SMOKE if they are appreciably faster than the laptops.

So MacBooks? Yeah - a real production machine, if you can live with the lack of high speed disk attachment.

Cinema Minima: Personal Digital Cinema. News for movie makers � Fujifilm will raise film prices 2006 June 1

Now, I'm certainly not going to tell anyone that HD is better quality than film, but technology is only as relevant as it's price point. And now the price of film is continuing to go up - as of June 1st, Fuji is bumping prices for film products 3-20%. Kodak raised prices May 1st already, and AgfaPhoto is going out of business, selling their remaining stock on eBay.

Smell a trend here?

(And yes, as an advocate of digital production, I Am Probably Gloating)

-mike

NAB 2006 Cameras/Shooting Gear Wrap Up Notes

Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 camera & shooting gear wrap up notes. It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio recordings, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this.

There's also notes on editing hardware, editing software, storage, etc., that I'll be posting over the next week or so (to give you a chance to read it all!) It's over 25,000 words in all, so yeah, spacing it out is probably a good idea.

So here's all the camera and shooting gear stuff as a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference. I organized my audio notes alphabetically by vendor, then sprinkled in other stuff. So who's before who is not meant to be significant here:

===============================

Updated: well, maybe I'll summarize a little bit....

So the big stuff at NAB, as I saw it, from an indie filmmaker perspective, in terms of shooting gear, was this:
-the Red camera
-the Silicon Imaging camera
-the Vision Research cameras shoot HD at 1000 fps and 4K at 125 fps, but are waaaaaay expensive
-Panasonic's going to use H264 on P2
-Panasonic's got an HD version of the SDX900
-Focus Enhancement's FS-100 changes the pricing structure and viability of the HVX200 DRAMATICALLY
-Panasonic's got other new HD camcorders
-Sony has new RGB 4:4:4 in the works, and 150p/i, 180p/i camera sooner
-Arri's D-20 is still cool but $3K/day (but hey, that includes SRW-1!)
-neither the Grass Valley Infinity nor Ikegami Editcam HD do 24p, so I don't care about'em even if they do record to hard drives
-two new JVC HDV camcorders that'll do 720p60 to tape, one has HD-SDI out
-plus lots of other stuff, read below for details. Good stuff in bold to catch your eye.

======================

ARRI D-20

See this page for related photos

-Grass Valley Venom rebadged as a ARRI FlashMag, has dual link HD-SDI inputs for 4:4:4
-does have optical/mechanical viewfinder
-glass reticles, not digital
-BOY optical viewfinder makes a difference! As a digiboy, I rarely see a mechanical shuttered, optical viewfindered camera and it makes a BIG difference!
-in the HD mode, now can do onboard flash mag
-solid state mounted on camera with no tether, call it Flashmag, functionally identical to Venom
-in HD mode, also can run log output 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 user selectable if appropriate to your post route
-more cameras out in field that are renting and shooting, shooting a movie at the moment, a movie about to start, commericals shooting, a big TV show about to shoot
-cameras in NYC
-basic HD kit includes camera, Sony SRW-1, and the onboard Astro viewfinder (special ARRI modded version) is $3K/day on a 3 day week (so $9K/week)
-Astro modded viewfinder - composite NTSC/PAL input as well as HD so can display menus from the camera which only appear on the SD output, also capable of running 12 or 24 volt (in other words, their menus are SD only NOT HD)
-latest version has programmable memory buttons to do different modes (SEE AND LINK PICS), HD picture w/ and w/out waveform, etc.
-RGB waveform as well, very handy
-magnified version of the picture, shows complete 4:3 output of the camera
-only showed on Monday on NAB is the new data mode on the camera. NOT rentable feature yet, is under investigation, now is the time to show it to gauge reactions. Same camera, but switched to data mode (all can do it) have a dual BNC feed that looks like HD-SDI but isn't, which feeds the RAW data from sensor across to a process and recording unit that is specially made by Quantel. Second output board gives a regular HD feed for monitoring, and SD output for menus and so on.
-the RAW mode - compatible with S.two? With HD modes completely compatible (and has been used in Europe), data mode is not YET possible to record to anything from this specialized Quantel unit, although others are looking at that.
-in data mode what you're getting that is special is the FULL 4:3 aspect ratio output of the sensor, getting it in RAW data at RAW res of sensor 2880x2160 pixels. So gaining resolution and gaining resolution to RAW.
-on the Quantel (DXQ as they call it) - record it direct to disk RAW to disk, 2TB RAID gives about 2 hours recording time, processing part gives a live HD 4;2:2 monitoring feed for use in studio, so can see it live, play it back, and have all the functionality of a Quantel eQ to do compositing, color correction, editing, preview LUTs, 3D LUTs, ability to get a decent look on a preview monitor. All the history of all CC et. work that you do in terms of color correction etc. is stored as metadata with the RAW data, and when exported as DPX that extra data is available for loading into a later productioon system. At the moment it is proprietary to Quantel, eQ, Pablo or whatever, they'll be looking into other formats, including looking into ASC CDL or other more generic formats, is under development for now
-it is a heavily modified hardware/software eQ to support data mode and RAW processing etc.
-D-20 single CMOS sensor, 24x18mm, conventional Bayer (square) pattern, so the eQ does the de-Bayer and downsizing to 1920x1080 for HD output, or to regular 2K or 3K for the file output which is usually DPX but can be whatever you chose.
-on the camera - rental sales? Rental for now, "certainly for the time being"
-exposure lattitude - see the little wheel (make a little QT of it) of the D-20 exposure wheel that illustrates the exposure in HD mode
-I SHOULD MAKE A LITTLE QT OF THIS
-D-20 exposure wheel illustrates the lattitude they get with the camera with HD mode, may find that they have better exposure with RAW mode, they are investigating that
-10 stops of latitude range in HD mode, regularly achieving that, the question of headroom and shadow room depends on how you chose to rate the camera
-standard LUTs used for linear output, routed 50, 100, 200, or 320 ISO equivalent, depending on which you choose shows how much above/below 18% grey
-(see the wheel to demonstrate)
-Bill Lovell from ARRI

They were also showing a new 16mm camera, the 416. With the advent of Vision 2 stock and good DI, 16mm is a viable way to do it. Read this article discussing a friend of mine's first experience with DI as an indie editor. I saw the film, Things That Hang From Trees, at SXSW on a 35mm film print, and never would have guessed it was shot on 16mm in the first place.

===============================


AUTOMATIC REVOLUTION

See this page for related photos

See related video on this page.

AR=Automatic Revolution - a steadicam rig that's motorized and balanced in multiple axes so that it'll stay upright
-video on web from the mk-v.com
-autolevelling steadicam type rig, lets you go from high to mode while keeping the camera perfectly level
-what kinds of cameras - up to a movie camera 35mm, F-series cameras in there, take handle off Digibeta, 435 in there, ARRI LT, if you can't get the camera in it, you shouldn't use it
-sled as demo'd is about $78K
-the motors and electronics keep it level at all times
-sensors feeds out to compute to keep it levelled
-can tilt and rotate on axis within a shot MK-V Automatic Revolution, about $78K
-trying to get it into rental houses
-is for sale
-on the market for about a year
-carbon fiber etc.
-company based in Manchester in the UK, for sale worldwide

=========================

Color Space has announced two cameras that are under development (purportedly in beta). I wasn't able to find their booth at NAB, but this is from their website:

TRUE35 - The TRUE35 is a 35mm digital cinema camera. Constructed around an Academy[tm]-sized (24mmx18mm) bayer pattern imager, the camera outputs raw 2K (2048x1556) footage. The architecture of the camera is flexible and modular, allowing for a variety of configurations to suit the needs of each user.

TRUE16 - The TRUE16 is a 16mm digital cinema camera. Constructed around an Super16-sized bayer pattern imager, the camera outputs raw 1K (1280x960) footage. The architecture of the camera is flexible and modular, allowing for a variety of configurations to suit the needs of each user.

TRUERECORDER - Colorspace will offer a variety of recorders, both solidstate and hard-disk based. These recorders can be configured myriad ways, to offer both docked and tethered recording to a variety of formats.


GRASS VALLEY INFINITY CAMERA

See related pics somewhere on this page

-REVpro drive cart drops in the top of the camera
-what compression technology? JPEG2000 based
-DV, MPEG, JPEG2000
-2/3" CCDs x 3
-can record video to compact flash as well as HDs
-8 GB compact flash
-for 20 min SD, less than 10 of HD
-35GB on Infinity REVpro disks
-no 1080p
-no 720p24
-NOT A FILM STYLE CAMERA
-1080i or 720p, that's it
-not an indie filmmaker camera at all, no 24p
-is a heavy camera, too
-it's for ENG, straight and simple

===========================


IKEGAMI BOOTH - EDITCAM HD

See related photos on this page

-HDN-X10 is the camera
-also have a decklike device with HD-SDIs out the back, DNe31 transport
-most folks will do native ingest over USB
-native CMOS that can remap to 720, 1080i or 1080p
-native res on chip is 1080x1920 (interlaced or progressive)
-can subsample for PAL or NTSC
-a true multi-format sensor according to the sales rep
-1080p isn't qualified into the Avid codec yet, but the sensor is capable of it
-there's a single link board, there's a second link available to do dual link, dual link is for 1080p60 4:2:2
-asked about 4:4:4 @ 24p, is possible in theory he said
-about 40% of the circuitry of the camera is on the CMOS camera on chip
-the Rockwell factory that made these, had a roomful of 'em, if the industry went that way they could make a year's worth of production in a day
-ships in September, current model S/N isn't as good as ones for September
-$55K U.S. (current and September model)
-720p24? 720p60 for now, introduce 1080p24, 720p60, 1080i, and as they go forward they'll in software be able to put in other formats
-As Avid gets their codecs to do 1080p60, then the camera could do it
-1080p24 is supported as is for 1080p23.98 (24.0? he didn't know)
-CAN do 1080p24, recording to the DNxHD 145 mbit codec, 220 megabit will be in some future rev
-I asked whether future rev of hardware or software, he didn't know
-2/3" inch 3 chip CMOS, is the first of the CMOS, completely remappable sensor

===========================


JVC BOOTH: GY-HD200 and GY-HD250

See related photos on this page (scroll down, look for JVC)

-JVC-HD250 is a new HDV camcorder, shown in studio config,
-does 60p to tape (new feature), 30p and 24p to HDV, HD-SDI out with embedded audio and image inversion for when using Super16mm lenses
-new version of the 100, this is the bigger brother
-250 available in studio config, 200 not
-so 720p60 on 19mbit
-same image sensor etc. as the HD100
-60 progressive to the HDV tape is the new thing
-rep said compression ratio stays the same, GOP will go up to 10 or 12 (GOP is 6 for the HD100)
-2 audio channels on the XLR
-compressed audio for HDV still
-price point - depending on config, about $13,500 in studio config
-HD200 in the neighborhood of $8K (may or may not include lens)
-estimated ship date is September
-250 & 200 will record 24/25/30/50/60p
-19 mbit
-will work with FireStor type devices
-with these new frame rates, how to edit?
-FCP showing tech preview of 24p HDV editing?
-it's unusual for Apple to do tech preview, so that implies it'll come out soon, they're really close
-PL 16mm film lenses can mount on the 250, and since the adaptor will invert the image, the built in feature to invert the image at the chip to record right side up
-price point on the 200? Around $8000 roughly
-launch is Septemberish
-include lens? WILL include a stock lens
-comes with a standard lens for 1/3" HD lens
-if you need 16mm lenses, you need to buy an adaptor
-no pricing guidelines for the adaptor yet
-differences between 100 and 200: 50p, image inversion, optional adaptor,
-studio setup is OPTIONAL for the 250
-250 has all features of 200, timecode in and out (on a BNC), plus HD-SDI out, 250 has optional studio rig on it
-prototype HD-SDI driven large LCD panel - DT-V24L1D 24 inch 1920x1080 LCD panel, release version will have speakers, and all professional controls for control of color (chroma/phase/reticles/blue only/etc.), a 24 inch and a 20 inch, the 20 inch will be lower pixel resolution, the 20 will be rack mountable, both models will available in 2 flavors, one with HD-SDI and one without
-pricing? 24" with HD-SDI would be around $5500, they are calling this broadcast quality, professional quality, shipping around November
-asked about LCD black levels - will be calibration and lookup tables - rep said good enough for color correction
-asked about the 19" CRTs disco'd, asked about the 17" CRT - to be produced for a "certain amount of time" - the 19 was pulled because they couldn't source the CRTs, hard to find. The 17 is available for now.
-JVC booth - Edgar Shane
-ALSO LATER, FROM ELSEWHERE ON THE NAB FLOOR: tech sources say that the codec is most likely to be the same as that used in the GY-HD100U, so that the stiction issue we saw in the HDV codec in the 100 is likely to still be present in the 200 and 250...but will have to wait and see and test to be sure - but is a potential concern
-

They also introduced 20 and 24 inch LCD broadcast monitors (their description not mine) - I continue to remain dubious of doing color critical work on LCD panels due to elevanted black levels.


Also shown was a 48 inch reference monitor based on D-ILA tech that they claim is good enough for color correction. Hmm. An interesting option over projectors (this is not a CRT). DLA-HRM1 is $45K.

==========================

PANASONIC:

See realted pictures somewhere on this page of photos, more here too.

-other stuff I missed at NAB: Panasonic is going to start using H.264 on P2 on future products (and NO, I don't read that as H.264 available for HVX200's already sold):

Panasonic's New P2 HD Line-up Offers Solid State Reliability and Full
DVCPRO HD Production Quality Video for High Definition Applications
(11/5/2006)

Optional AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant) Codec Reduces Data Requirements
for Full Quality HD; 15,000 P2 Units Delivered to 300 Broadcasters
Worldwide Ê

Here at NAB, Panasonic (NYSE: MC) announced significant sales growth
for its DVCPRO P2 solid-state memory recording system over the past
year with worldwide adoption by more than 300 broadcasters and sales
of more than 15,000 units. Panasonic also unveiled the broader
expansion of P2 into high definition products with a new P2 HD line to
bring the wide-reaching benefits of reliable solid-state acquisition
and full production quality HD to broadcasters and video
professionals.

Panasonic also announced it will offer dual codec capability including
an optional AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant) codec in addition to its
widely supported DVCPRO HD codec. The AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant)
codec offers significantly better compression efficiency than older
MPEG-2 codecs and can provide high quality for news at half the
bandwidth compared to DVCPRO HD. This bandwidth savings, without the
compromises of long GOP compression, will offer advantages in storage
and distribution as well as twice the recording time on a P2 card. The
optional AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant) support for the new P2 HD
products will be available in April 2007.

The new P2 HD family of products offer P2's solid-state memory
recording without the moving parts of other tape, hard disk, and
optical disc based systems. This insures the highest reliability,
especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range,
shock and vibration. These new P2 HD products offer a significant
reduction in maintenance costs, longer useful product life, and
immediate access to recorded video (no need to digitize) and metadata.
And by utilizing a standard PCMCIA interface and computer file
structure, P2 HD acquisition fits easily into any standard IT
infrastructure.

P2 HD products offer production quality, 100Mbps DVCPRO HD with
independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less
compression, making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able
to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems. In
addition, they are backwards compatible with existing DVCPRO50, DVCPRO
and DV-based facilities. The new, multi-format P2 HD products are
distinguished by their ability to record in 720p, 1080i or 480i, which
addresses the requirements of diverse HD broadcast applications.

"Our new P2 HD products deliver the highest operational reliability
and full production quality and expand the flexibility and versatility
of HD in the field for broadcasters and video professionals," said
Robert Harris, Vice President of Marketing, Panasonic Broadcast.
"These P2 HD products will build on the solid growth of P2 DVCPRO,
which has been adopted by more than 100 U.S. TV stations and other
well-known broadcasters worldwide.

the full press release is available here

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

-Focus Enhancements FS-100, $2195, sold through Panasonic dealers exclusively, capacity is 100 GB, 100 minutes of recording for DVCPRO HD.
-90 minute battery life
-removable battery, there's a 180 minute battery
-battery goes on the back
-the 180 minute battery is fatter
-15 volts for Anton Bauer, IDX, etc.
-FireWire 400 two ports on top
-100 GB is 100 minutes of DVCPRO HD footage REGARDLESS of frame size, frame rate, whatever since it always records 60 fps (i or p), flags frames you want
-how to ingest into FCP? It sees the P2 volume (install drivers onto your Mac), it writes to MXF file format (Avid is MXF, FCP is QuickTime), rewraps MXF into a QuickTime file, doesn't do any transcoding, just moves the bits, becomes a self contained .mov file in your capture scratch as you import it. Basically, it is seen as a big P2 card.
-if shot 1080 res 24p, gets written down with 3:2 pulldown, how to remove it? "It removes it, you might have to go into advanced settings" - you might have to use Cinema Tools (not very sure of this guy being right about this) - the extra frames removal - removes them on import according to this guy. He said it'll strip the 3:2 pulldown on import. He said talk to somebody from Apple about it in the Apple booth (didn't get a chance to do so)
-
New Cameras:

HDX900

-available July for $26,500 for the new camera, the viewfinder is a 1080i viewfinder, full resolution HD. The reason why a 1080i viewfinder shooting 720p, they uprez to get to 1080i for the best possible viewfinder res - the viewfinder is about $3400, is the BTLH900 viewfinder
-can vary the shutter on HDX900
-HDX900 is very like the SDX900, just higher res (HD)
-can do 720p24, can do 1080i, just no 1080p24
-720p24.0 as well as 23.98
-also capable of 25p and 50i, so is international
-1080p23.98 IS POSSIBLE with a 3:2 pulldown
-does NOT doing ramping, 24/25/30/50/60 (with fractional variables)
-vs. the Varicam - both use the same imager in the Varicam (new one), (does to pixel shift, Varicam does too), the optical block in front of imager. In the HDX900 is lower end than the Varicam. The digital imaging (paintbox stuff) is more limited in the HDX900. You have paintbox, but the matrix has fewer choices, have no filmrec mode on this camera
-DO have same CineGamma as in other cameras, but again without as much control as the Varicam gives
-alwyas writing 60 to tape (fields or frames)
-don't use flag frames on this camera, uses A frames for 3:2 pulldown removal in NLE
-Jeff I spoke to, very helpful
-supports 1080 59.94i/50i/29.97p/25p/23.98p/23.98pA and 720 59.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/23.98p.
-DOES have onboard FireWire

-103" 1080p HD plasma - wow!

AJ-HVX800 camera - specs? SD only? - $18000 or so with no viewfinder or lens, is like a P2 version of the SDX900, is almost identical

AJ-HPC2000 - aimed at broadcast guys
-in the recording modes inside, can do 1080, 720, SD, not clear whether it will be 24p
-might be an option, might be standard
-out towards the end of this year, maybe early next
-$27K or so, Q1 2007
-2/3" but HD capable

from the press release:

P2 HD 2/3" Camcorder Offers the Highest Quality, Versatility, and Reliability
The highly-sensitive AJ-HPC2000 is equipped with an HD progressive 2/3" 3-CCD system and 14-bit A/D processing and records in 720p, 1080i or 480i, offering exceptional dynamic range and low light recording. The 2/3" CCD imager allows the use of widely-available professional quality lenses and accessories. The camcorder offers the high sensitivity of F10 at 2000 lux, and can capture images at a minimum illumination of 0.032 lux (at +62dB).
The AJ-HPC2000 features five P2 card slots and each P2 card is hot swappable for continuous recording. With five 8 GB cards, the camcorder can record up to 40 minutes of full HD quality video and significantly more in SD modes. Other recording features include loop record and pre-record (up to seven seconds in DVCPRO HD). An additional card slot is provided for optional accessories such as a Proxy Video Encoder. An SD card slot is also included for recording and replicating setup information useful in multi-camera productions.
The camcorder offers immediate playback from the thumbnail clips displayed on the built-in color LCD monitor, with the option of adding a shot marker to each clip. Extensive signal connectivity and control capability comes standard with the camera, including IEEE 1394 (AVC), and USB 2.0 interfaces, HD/SD-SDI, genlock, time code and composite video. Four channels of uncompressed audio are supported with XLRs, stereo front mic, and Unislot wireless mic connections.
The AJ-HPC2000 will be available first quarter 2007 at a suggested list price of $27,000.

-saw a mini-35 adaptor on an HVX200, but it had TAPE on it, not terribly reassuring!

further on the H.264 stuff, this from a thread on Creative Cow:

For those folks not able to attend the NAB and see the H.264 Intra demos at the Panasonic Tech suites, here's a few facts:

The Panasonic implementation of H.264 is INTRA frame, ie. a GOP of 1. We use the Hi-10 profile,
so that's HD at 10 bits, not 8. The quality of the 50Mbs H.264 Intra is subjectively the same as
that of DVCPRO HD at 100Mb/s. The 10 bit implementation of the CODEC provides very clean grey scale tonal values. The efficiency of 50Mb/s H.264 Intra provides markedly superior picture quality to that of long GOP MPEG-2 at bit rates of up to 50 Mb/s. Also there are no GOP quality "variablities", no frame / GOP content interaction, and no issues or worries of concatenation with other long GOP CODECs, e.g. ATSC.

This implementation of H.264 provides stunning picture quality and is optimized for field capture / editing purposes, the INTRA frame structure makes software encoding / decoding many times simpler as compared to long GOP systems as each frame is intra-frame encoded.

Long GOP H.264 is ideal for use in applications like content steaming or packaged media as it's more efficient, e/g Blu-Ray / HD-DVD, satellite etc. An example can be seen where we are showing Blu-Ray playing stunning quality HD using H.264 at a mere 16Mb/s. Viewed on a 65" 1920 x 1080 plasma you are seeing critical focus errors from 35mm transfers of major movies....

I hope this helps clear up the confusion / speculation around our implemtation of the new H.264 codec.


Cheers!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)


==============================

RED ROCK MICRO M2 35mm adaptor and new follow focus

See this page for related photos

Brian Valente from the Red Rock Micro suite of products, built around the M2 Adaptor for cinema and still lenses, adapts 35mm cinema and still lenses to DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD cameras. With shallow depth of field, they want a follow focus - they have a new product Micro Follow Focus, is optimized for still lenses, but have gearing to go onto the still lenses. It is flexible to fit on a variety of lenses. This is great for indies. Adaptor is $550, the Indie Bundle has adaptor, still lens mount of their choice, rods of their choice for $995, the follow focus is $650, about $1650 for the whole kit.
-I saw some vignetting at the edges, he said wasn't properly set up at the moment
-costs you a 1/2 to a full stop of light
-how is it mounted? It is rod supported, (stainless steel), an anchor mount for rods, the anchor mount they provide holds the adaptor in a press-fit type setup to be close to the lens.
-they are serving folks who want to shoot film style
-they want to get the film look - cinema gamma, 24p, and another big piece of it is for the depth of field you want.
-they provide the control with the follow focus to assist
-they won a Mario Award for what they were doing

============================

REFLECMEDIA

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-makes a grey colored cloth that relfects light back from a ring of blue or green LEDs that go around the lens
-uses teeny tiny microbeads that reflect back, like the stuff that goes on the heels of jogger shoes, or road relfectors, etc.
-John Herbert (chief engineer) of Reflecmedia - talking about ring sizes - small, medium, large, small 30-72 mil, med 72-110 mil, 100-140 mil, available in green or blue for all sizes
-material is priced for custom for $30/sq ft.
-they do standard pop-ups, 4x4 spring loaded frame, also do a 7x7 pop-up, the 7x7 including the light ring, controller and power supply, runs off 12V, runs off camera battery if have to since pulls 550 milliamp, that costs $2700
-controller adjusts the intensity of the LEDs
-because they are LEDs, they don't change the color temperature
-works with all standard keyers, is completely independent of the platform or keyer you're using
-can key live or to in software, whatever
-isn't conditional on any particular keyer at all, not in any way whatsoever
-hero clients: BBC, Fox News, ESPN, field usage for pop-ups, feature film Doom used it, Roy Wagner who shoots House on 35mm uses it extensively (works for film and video), is purely a replacement for the blue or green screen to allow you to work more quickly
-no worries about wrinkles in the drap, because the screen is illuminated from the front, using 70,000 microbeads/sq inch, each is backsilvered with aluminum to act as a parabolic reflector, same principle as shoe stuff. No concern about off-axis on the perpendicular, maintain output to about 70 or 80 degrees off axis from camera

================================


SILICON IMAGING
Pictures on this page

See related video on this page

talked to Ari from Silicon Imaging, key features of camera:
(note: these are transcibed audio notes note done by me, so any oddness isn't being rude, just somebody else transcribing sometimes indecipherable audio notes)
-2/3" 1920 X 1080 Bayer image sensor
-CMOS
-Square or diagonal pattern?
square RG 1st row red-green-red-green next row green-blue-green blue
standard Bayer pattern
12-bit, alpha sensor
streaming data out of the camera at 12-bit raw
12-bit raw data
over gigabit ethernet
into our processor doing real-time wavelet encoding using the Cineform raw codec with a 5:1 data reduction
so at 24p running about 16MB per second raw data
quality? "Very clean"
because wavelet is not only intra-frame also inter-frame
doing in- frame to frame compression
by doing the math get a lot more redundancy data eliminated so
compression efficiency goes up
wavelet codecs--when you get into 2 1/2 to 1 you're probably mathematically lossless, so as far as... you're nearly uncompressed
looks like small 4-form factor computer?
It is a computer, is running MS XP, shipping with embedded, XP embedded - I asked if it's all stripped down and optimized and he said yes (get rid of everything that isn't core to your mission critical function - you're not needing email and other stuff like that on here)

Ari sez: Yes - so real-time conversion, 5 to 1 data reduction, real-time recording of content up to 24, 25, 30p
to a hot-swap USB 2.0 harddrive
"world's 1st digital cinema camera to record real-time to disk...single harddrive disk"

of course XP
MS guys love it

You guys are in beta? Yes, this camera is going on set to start to film next week
It's in production, it's working, it's running
Q: Are you in beta or shipping...
A: We're shipping to select beta customers for initial field testing
...get any last-minute bugs out...we are doing some minor modifications, mechanicals, because we got some very positive feedback as to how people would like to operate with the camera system, so...we'll make those changes, get our orders, whoever wants to place orders we'll do our first production run for delivery in September.
The other nice thing; the sizzle is the user interface
On the camera this is what everybody else can be watching at the same time - (feeding a large LCD monitor)
Where's that coming from?
It's coming from the DVI output of the camera
DVI onboard so you can see it on a large screen LCD monitor at the same time
That's live while shooting
live while shooting DVI output since it's just a computer
It's a very IT-centric, got a lot of flexibility: here's the key: you can shoot, record to disk, pull the disk, go hand it over to your editor, or plug it into ethernet, shoot in New York and begin editing in Hollywood instantly
Of course you need a decent-sized pipe to do it, but it can be done
Gotta show you the magic: lemme hold that camera for you for a second...gimme your palm...there's your camera head
So now this camera head, the remote head capability, comes with your unit
This camera head is actually mounted in the front block over here
So you can pull that and use that...
See there's an ethernet port on that little bitty camera head
Gigabit ethernet, 12-volt DC power, you can 100 meter on cat-5 & cat-6 ethernet cable,
This becomes your point of view camera (that tiny palm sized piece)
This is your CMOS system on a chip?
Yeah!
You've got your compression engine on the chip? No. There's 12-bit raw uncompressed data coming out...
(unintelligible)
When you shoot digital still cameras, you shoot in raw, correct?
(unintelligible)
You can...I don't want jpeg, I don't want it compressed, I want...the full res uncompressed
You do all your editing, you do all your cuts, you choose your effects, and when you do your final output it's at that last stage where the interpolation and developing...
(unintelligible Q about interpolation)
Our software, it's part of the codec...it's like how do you handle mpeg2? You don't worry about it, you just play the file, it's an mpeg2 file
Q: what does this look like on the screen?
A: This is it! (looking at Premiere)
This is what you're shooting!
While I'm working on it?
Yeah!
This is your AVI proxy!
Q: So the Cineform codec decodes from the raw to your screen real-time in Premiere?
A: Yes!
What you can do is you shoot the content...let's say today, we're in the Adobe booth, so let's talk about Adobe: you shoot the file, it'll immediately show up in Adobe Bridge, you'll see the icon representing the clip.
You drop that clip right onto the timeline and you start scrubbing that clip instantly
It just plays, works and goes?
The spacebar plays - no rendering or anything
You don't have to worry about rerendering.
(Question about QuickTime)
Right now we're shooting into AVI files, but we've been promised that when we ship cameras we will have Quicktime support (Cineform has talked about having a QT codec later this year, and the Intel based Macs will help that...possibly Intel based Macs only, G5's out in the cold? Unknown)
So instead of shooting and recording into AVI we'll be recording into Quicktime.
It's just a different file container
Q:So which sensor are you using?
A:This particular camera head is using the Alta sense...Rockwell sensor
Q: In theory you could put another sensor in, right?
A: Oh! I mean, this is the camera head, you can pop it out, next generation sensor come in, pop it right in...
We're also selling...
(Some question about 4K)
There's technology issues and limitations
What about time code?
Can you show us some more of the UI?
So you want to...these are my projects, it's the NAB 2006 project, choose your file, select it, there's our playback, it's just running a loop... the video's running...
You also have fullscreen mode
You have on-screen guides, 16x9 safe-zone markers (this on the viewfinder and on the LCD off the DVI)
??? 3 to 1
You also have white balance?
So you can shoot just like a Viper mode, where you have no white balance... all the white balance is applied in post just like a digital negative
You also have an exposure meter so you can see where the red is you're clipping
So i also wanna say the gray is your mid gray, so you want to expose the faces in mid gray, and that's your...and again you have your, uh...
Q: Is that focus assist mode? (it zooms in on the center part of the image, shows 1:1 - a pixel on viewfinder is a pixel of image, so good focus assist, except you're only seeing a cropped portion of the full raster image)
A: That's your focus yep
So you're showing a 1 to 1 chunk of your image?
Yep!
You can do over crank and under crank?
Yeah! We've got total flexibility for over and under cranking
We can do time lapse, you can record a picture every 5 minutes
(unintelligible Q)
10-ms increments for timing
Can you do programmed ramping?
Uh...we haven't done that yet
But it's doable?
Potentially...there are issues when you start cranking you start getting exposure changes
Cause there's a lot of adaptation that needs to be done
We *could* do it
Uh...nothing to say that we can't, it's just not on the...
It's the next stage
But we could do undercranking, overcranking at 720, we could do up to 72 frames per second so you could do some slow-motion effects.
You also do long exposures, so you could get that light streak of the ghost, if somebody walks, you get the ghost effect look to it
What was the max frame rate at your standard res?
30p
So 24, 25, 30p.
If you want 60i just render out to 60i in the post process(wellllll.......that's a fudgy answer - 30p does not make a true 60i, you have all the res, just half the temporal resoution. So it won't look as smooth as true 60i or 60p converted properly to 60i).
And 23.98 and all that stuff of course, right?
What's that?
23.98?
No, any...we've got a fully programmable synthesized clock.
We can get a nearly infinite number of clock speeds (so YES 23.98)
And it's temperature controlled, we're within a couple of parts per billion
on our temperature-controlled oscillator
So whatever you want
We've got a lot of flexibility in the architecture
And time base built into the camera head
So, every thing is...once you synchronize you're going to stay in synch for a long time before it goes out of phase even 1 or 2 frames out, the data's captured, it's buffered and it's piped out...packets of gigabit ethernet
You can just buy the camera head by itself with Portage software for $12,500, go buy a modern-day dual core Intel processor notebook computer, plug the camera in, take your notebook, hit the record button, throw it on your back, and you can start doing Steadicam operation.
You can put it up on the wall, plug it into a computer with a terabyte disk that you buy at CompUSA and record continuously for 12 hours of reality TV
What is the lens mount?
It comes with a C-mount for the the point of view apps
And we also have adapters, for PL and F-mount
So if somebody wants to use a real long f-mount lens that they have in their garage, that they haven't used in a while...
They want to shoot the birds across the lake...Plug that in
And of course the camera head comes with the remote camera operation so
You remove the four bolts, pull the camera head out, and you can use this as your recorder or you can use another computer...
Q: What kinda ethernet?
A: Gigabit ethernet -IP ethernet. Uncompressed.
What production's using it?
it's a project called Spoon
Rutger Hauer is doing a cameo in the project, and it's a very special-effects-intensive film and they love the concept, the small size of the remote head capability, they're also talking about doing some 3d shots
as part of an initial intro because you can take these two camera heads and synchronize them, take two of these, pull the camera heads, put them next to each other, get the intraocular distance set correctly, and you can shoot serial?...
How close can you get them together?
It's uh...just over 2 1/2 inches
So you can get a human intraocular pretty much...
Pretty close, lens dependent
So that's why we talk a lot about the industrial C-mount lenses
Fujinon recently introduced a 5-megapixel rated C-mount lens
So that quality lens is equal to some of the $10K ARRI and they're only in the 5-600 dollar range from a cost standpoint
Of course you can't use the follow focus, all the cinema gear on it, but if you're putting it on a point-of view camera, you're not changing...you're setting your focus, done, you're getting a huge amount of flexibility with that.
Let's see, what else...we talked about the exposure meter, the ramping, the time code...
Q: What about audio?
A: Audio: we have scratch audio right into the PC, in future we're going to be supporting ASIO through firewire & USB devices so if you want to have a mike, pre-amp, & mixer offboard & stream data into same hard drive,
You're going to be using standard pc hardware devices.
So for now, the camera's not rigged...Does the camera synch sound? or scratch audio?
Scratch audio interleaved with the AVI file. (audio-video interleaved, that's what AVI stands for)
So if you wanna do...
I wouldn't use it for cinema applications...it's a dual system sound application (so NO onboard sync sound).
Again, this is designed to be a replacement for traditional 16-mm file cameras
You set the exposure, you're not changing your settings because we're recording totally raw, it's not YUV HD-SDI process data. it's all raw data like a digital negative
You do everything in post
So, again you set your exposure and say, Oh I got that I'm .. (unintelligible)
I want the base and mid zones...
And you touch record...goes on your hard drive, pull your hard drive out
Can you pop back to that exposure mode again? (SEE PICTURES!)
Can you change exposure when that's on? (SEE PICTURES!)
Q: What's your price point again?
A: Here's another magic...here's the last part of the magic, sizzle, for $20K you get remote head, you get recording, you get interface & control & display, you get hard drive storage included and a complete editing suite.
So you could shoot & edit right out of the box.
Edit suite is Adobe Premiere Pro and Prospect HD.
Q: Can you run it on this?
A: No.
Haha.
Theoretically the CPU is there, but...
It's going to be actually XP Embedded, so we're not going to let you put the stuff on there...since XP is for embedded
-plus they also won a Mario Award for the camera

(end NAB interview)

Other stuff since NAB about the camera:
-keep up on field trials of the camera on an actual movie set (film called Spoon) here
-post NAB they'be been talking to pundits about how to make the camera better suit the market's needs
-I asked about RAW data rate, Ari responded:

The RAW data is 12-bits per pixel.
At 24P the data rate is 1920 x 1080 x 24 fps x 12 bits = 75 MB/sec
At 30P the data rate is 1920 x 1080 x 30 fps x 12 bits = 93 MB/sec

...And see the gallery on their site for sample footage, including 8 bit uncompressed, DNG RAW, and Cineon versions of the same file (or the "regular" Windows Media 9 files that are the usual downloads on this page).

I personally haven't sat down and analyzed that sample footage, but I'm going to ASAP, and will be keeping up on the progress of the camera.

============================

SONY BOOTH VISIT
See related pics somewhere on this page

-I mised something significant - an engineering prototype of the next generation CineAlta RGB 4:4:4 camcorder (yes, -CORDER not -ERA) with variable framerates (1-30 in 4:4:4 and 1-60 in 4:2:2), 2/3" CCDs, SRW-1 mounted on back, no price set, should be out by next NAB (2007). More details here.
-new 180i and 180p HD super slomo HDC-3300, multi-format, 1080 rezzed sensor 1080i180 or 150i, or 720p180 or 150p (150 rate for PAL markets, is 3x rate slomo)
-10GBit RGB digital transmission to CCU (whatever that is) and a large lens adaptor
-EVS system captures a continuous 30 hour loop, it records to the typical "fridge full of hard drives" and then you pick what footage you want from there for playback at the desired rate
-HDC-1500 HD RGB 4:4:4, max frame rate is 60p but that's 4:2:2, 30p for 4:4:4 (SEE PICTURE, link above) - records to a SRW-1, is $90K plus lens and recorder
-HDC-1500 can do 60p in 4:2:2 but for 4:4:4 30p is max - it is constrained to what you can send down a dual link HD-SDI to an SRW-1
-F900R is lighter/shorter/cooler, HD-SDI on board (wasn't on F900), $80K list is what I heard previously, down from $105K
-expected to ship in June
-the real motivation was to make it a "green" product and get rid of the stuff that wouldn't sell in Europe - lead based solder, etc.
-technologically, it should produce IDENTICAL images to an F900/3
-no new Sony HDV cameras, no HC-3 on display anywhere
-Sony has a monstrous 32" CRT that'll do proper 24p, is $40K
-new feature for SRW-1 HDCAM SR recorder - the SRW-1 has a web-based interface to control everything on the left side of the controller on the SRW-1
-Recorder & Processor for SRPC & SRW-1 is $88K, and they should be readily purchasable
-$42K for the 32" CRT, $26K for the 24", $13K for 20, and $6200 for the smallest of the group of HD CRTs
-Sony Vegas is still 8 bit in and out, 10 bit footage isn't processed at 10 bits
-it's an 8 bit pipeline, DV in/out, HDV in/out, XDCAM in/out, HDCAM in/out are all 8 bit
-that's where they are, that isn't necessarily where they'll stay
-new HDV camcorders with 24f & 24p, XL H1 24F NO, JVC 24P they work with already, with the Cineform product they recommend using HD link from Cineform to deal with "specialty frame types" - Vegas comes with Cineform codec, Vegas 6 launched with Cineform, have been working with them for a couple of years or OEM stuff
-for the past year, been shipping Cineform codec with pro and consumer products
-can do laptop HDV stuff with Cineform
-DVCPRO HD - using MXF from HVX200 have been supported from the day the cameras got here using the Gray Light plugin, available from DVFilm.com, timecode, interoperability etc. has been worked with them, it is a native operation, no transcode! Marcus van Bavel worked with them to smooth it out for different decode techniques and timecode handling. Other parterns will have additional HVX options "soon"
-Varicam over FireWire? NO. 1200A ingest over FireWire? NO
-NTSC or PAL, 1080i50 or i60 over HD-SDI
-23.98 support? YES, extensive DV 24p, other 24p handled well
-full 24p pipeline for DVD production and 24p pipelines, DVX100 with 24p and 24pA modes
-manual pulldown remove for weird files
-handle still image sequences
-handle offline/online workflow from DV to HDCAM using the JH-3 Sony deck into 24p timelines, handle Avid and XPri compatible EDLs and data in BOTH directions (in and out, to and from), encode all kinds of formats in 24p, with or without pulldown modes, MPEG-2, AVC, Sony YUV for SDI transfer
-Dave Hill is VP of Technology, Sony Media explained all this good stuff
-got a sheet on Vegas+DVD, which compares Vegas+DVD Production Suite to Premiere Pro 1.5/Encore 1.5, Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6, and Avi XPress DV 4.6....which really isn't the comparison I would make. But Vegas is VERY inexpensive. But if they are going to include Premiere Pro (not 1.5 not 2.0), why not include Final Cut Studio in the bunch?

=============================

S.Two

See related photos on this page

-S.Two Take 2 is same product under the skin as their previous field recorder, but in a new form factor, they have a new, smaller recording mag that is 8 drives that is about 6x5x3 inches, they have 2 Gbit fibre channel connector, the controller is in the host box, not the mag. It is straight RAID 0, NOT fault tolerant. They can do 1080i60 uncompressed (8 or 10 bit?), 60p will be possible soon for 1080p60 4:2:2, 30p is max 4:4:4 RGB rate
-Viper next gen enclosure - rearranged case some, strengthened the case for more options, Thomson hadn't originally designed the case for that kind of load, so therefore new case to reinforce accessory mounts, changed the filtering slightly
-S.Two Take 2 price point, approx $50K, is about 10% less than last year
-that comes with one mag, 24 min of uncompressed 1080p24 RGB 10 bit
-about 300 GBytes per D.Mag
-using native fibre channel drives for performance and reliability
-using iPaq hooked up to it, that's one of the iPaq as a controller, notebook computers also used, as well as a hard control panel (onboard and tethered hard control panel)
-in field applications, run it off 24v batteries, have 2 inputs to change on the fly, have an AC adaptor as well, have to plug into outboard, no onboard power
-a 30 amp battery will record for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, on standy is about half load
-unit ways 34 pounds (15 kilos) with magazine
-just shot a feature with Fincher with 500 magazines without a single failure, 117 day shoot, lost 15 minutes of time (not footage, downtime on set) due to tech issues, was the cleanest production Fincher ever had, said he isn't going back to film
-Filmstream mode for Zodiac
-after shooting go to LTO3
-plug in a magazine, with one button it gets copied to two digital masters simultaneously to a tape box that holds 24 tapes
-A.dock is the archival docking station
-you can offload from a Take.2, A.dock is most efficient way to offload
-dailies can be made from "this box" (which one?), they have downconverters built in, for archival and digital masters this is the way to go, A.dock is $17K
-LTO3 is ADIC as a partner, Scalar 24 unit, is a multi-cartridge reloader, can write two simultaneously (SEE PICTURES!)
-on Zodiac made 1000 cartridges, verified'em all and had no failures
-about 32 minutes of 10bRGB 444 per tape
-can fit more than one D.Mag per tape, designed for a 1:1 correlation
-about $20K for the ADIC LTO3 device

====================================

THOMSON VIPER

See related pics somewhere on this page


-nothing strikingly new with this 10 bit log RGB 4:4:4 capable camera (note camera not camcorder)
-Venom is $50K list, Viper is approximately $115K
-Venom holds about 18 minutes of 1080p24 4:2:2, or about 10 minutes or so of 1080p24 4:4:4
-the brevity of my coverage here doesn't do it justice, it is a SERIOUS camera, and directors such as Michael Mann (the new Miami Vice movie as well as Collateral) and David Fincher (Zodiac) are using it for full-on, MAJOR feature films. Use the Google bar at the top of this page to see where I've written about it elsewhere, I hope to go down to Plus 8 in Houston and do some capture testing on a Viper ASAP.

=================================

VARIZOOM

See related pics somewhere on this page

See related video on this page.

-Varizoom DV Rig Pro, is $499, is a shoulder stabilizer hybrid
-is good for Z1U, FX1, that kind of thing, recommended weight limit is 9 pounds
-the rod is just springs, not pneumatic or anything fancy
-helps support the weight, you can let go and it keeps it there
-yet another interesting way to shoot all day!
-part of it is a belt with a spring loaded rod that supports the weight of the camera from underneath, part of it rests on your shoulder
-low cost, looks useful but might not be appropriate for high end production

===================================


VISION RESEARCH PHANTOM

See this page for related photos

Here's the gist of it: 2 new cameras, one 35mm sized, 1920x1080 resolution, up to 1000 fps. The other has a 65mm sized sensor, 4096x2440 active pixels, up to 125 fps.

Common features (from their brochure):

Standard Features
- Selectable 11 stop tonal range (11:1) Contrast ratio 2048:1
- Accepts 128 Gigabyte solid-state memory magazine, hot-swap, non-volatile
- Compatible with multiple formats:
24p, HD SDI, 720p, 1080p, 1080i, NTSC, PAL
- SMPTE Time Code (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
- Compatible with live broadcast, television, or cinema production
- Multiple camera synchronization
- Viewfinder port with HD SDI or composite video output
- Circular or linear image buffer
- On-chip shuttering, variable to 2 microseconds
- Variable frame rates in one frame per second increments
Memory
- Phantom HD: 4 Gigabyte DRAM internal memory
- Phantom 65: 2 Gigabyte DRAM internal memory
Memory Options:
- 8 Gigabyte DRAM internal memory
- 16 Gigabyte DRAM internal memory
- 128 Gigabyte Non-Volatile Flash memory magazine
with docking station
- Dual fiber streaming output to Image3intensive image storage system
Connectors:
- I/O –trigger, pre-trigger, SMPTE time code, sync
- Gigabit Ethernet Control
- Remote Control
- HD SDI Coax
- Power

Camera specific features from their brochure

phantom HD
- 2.0 Megapixel SR-CMOS sensor
- Full 16:9 aspect ratio
- 1920 x 1080 active pixels (24mm x 13.5mm)
- 35mm cinema compatible
- 1000 fps, full aspect ratio
- PL Mount lenses & others
- The Sense of Time
TM
phantom 65
- 10.0 Megapixel SR-CMOS sensor
- Full 2.2:1 aspect ratio
- 4096 x 2440 active pixels (51.2mm x 23.25mm)
- 70mm cinema compatible
- 125 fps, full aspect ratio
- M645 lenses & others
- The Sense of Time
TM
PRELIMINARY All specifications subject to change

-Phantom 65:
-4096x2540 active pixels
-2.2:1 aspect ratio
-125 fps capable
-70mm image sensor (pics on
-with larger format you have slower frame rate than the HD res, 1000 fps capable Phantom HD (35mm sized)
-images recorded to RAM memory, from RAM uploaded to Flash Memory to 128GB device, upload to docking station and offload
-in a studio, and don't want to do that, can do a fiber optic connector and stream to hard drives
-RAW off the sensor
-single CMOS sensor, Bayer pattern
-data rate off the camera is ???
-intro'd at the show, so is new
-visionresearch.com
-35mm and 65mm sized sensor cameras equivalent in adigital camera
-125 fps on Phantom 65
-1000 fps on Phantom HD
-HD shipping in June, 65 in Aug/Sept, more testing and characterization to be done, to be able to publish specific and accurate specs
-buffer to RAM is one option, can tether to fibre channel to Image Cube (their device), interchangeable Flash magazines with up to 128GB
-analog NTSC and PAL outputs, HD-SDI 4:2:2 outputs, GigE outputs
-dual link 4:4:4? NO, and they keep hearing they should
-I suggested 4:4:4 RGB log
-how many bits in the head? She says how many in the IMAGE is what matters, she talks about pixel depth at the image, not the sensor. Not done characterizing, getting 12 now, hope for 14 bits/channel, is selectable. So if using an 8 bit system they can, can select where those 8 bits to be optimized for where you need that picture?
-it comes off RAW Bayer pattern
-which saves hard drive space
-can take a 380 MB RAW cine file, as AVI/QT/etc is 1.2 GB, forces up storage, throughput, transfer times, etc.
-.cin file format they developed in 1991 - the cine files from 1991 will read on the new stuff
-software is an open format software - Avid or anybody that wants to adopt they'd be happy to support it
-can save as AVI, TIFF, bitmaps, whatever can be exported now
-the HD is about $100-$125K depending on features and RAM options, Phantom 65 to $200-$225K depending on options and config
-that will be with (on the HD), with the standard memory with something like the HD, 2GB on the 65
-see folks using Flash Mags as workable for most folks
-can put up to 16GB in the camera, Flash magazine for the large format is probably more workable is their surmise at this time
-24 fps equates to....she doesn't know off top of her head

=======================

Red Digital Cinema Camera
NAB 2006 pictures of Red related stuff here, here, here, and here.

See related video on this page

Well, I've certainly written extensively on this one before, so if you missed it, here's everything I've had to say about it:

Dec 6, 2005 - New Digital Cinema Camera Coming: RED. 4K. 60p. RAW format. Wow. 

Dec. 7, 2005 - More Thoughts on RED camera

Dec 16, 2005 - HD For Indies Exclusive: The Scoop on the RED camera-YES it's for real - this was the biggie that started it, and this is what Yahoo and the AP linked to

Dec 18, 2005 - What features do you want to see on Red?

Dec. 18, 2005 - RED Camera - out in "late 2006" according to Jannard

Dec 18, 2005 - More info on RED, including from Jim Jannard himself 

Dec 19, 2005 - DVInfo.net has a thread to discuss Red Cameras

Jan 8, 2006 - Quick update on RED - Graeme Nattress joins the team

Feb 1, 2006 - HD4NDs Exclusive Interview with Jim Jannard, founder of RED camera (this is a good one)

April 9, 2006 - Red changes their site for NAB

April 14, 2006 - HD4NDs Exclusive: Ted Schilowitz, now "Leader of the Rebellion" for Red Cameras, talks about Red & NAB 

April 22, 2006 - Article on Red up at DV.com

April 24, 2006 - All the Scoop on the Red Camera... (from the show floor at NAB 2006)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: Details on shooting modes with the Red camera - this is a GOOD one if you want to understand your shooting and recording options

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: Red One Camera pricing and availability

April 24, 2006 - Red site has been updated with pricing and details (this was Day One of NAB 2006, the product launch)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: All the specs on Red (finally!)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: End of Day One Report-Red, Apple, G-Tech

April 25, 2006 - NAB 2006 - Day Two in the RED Booth

April 26, 2006 - Studio Daily | First Look at RED! DESCRIPTION - Steve Gibby did a great interview with Jim Jannard, founder of RED - LOTS of good details in this one

April 26, 2006 - Mike's Thoughts on the Theory Behind the Red One Camera

April 26, 2006 - Exclusive, Behind the Scenes Pictures from the NAB Red Booth and more

April 27, 2006 - Red Digital Cinema Camera wins award at NAB 2006

April 29, 2006 - Interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red on the DCS site

April 28, 2006 - Filmshots interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema Camera Company

May 1, 2006 - Red - not available in silver - rendering in black of Red digital prototype

May 15, 2006 - Latest Red Cage One rendering - what do YOU folks think?

May 22, 2006 - My latest thoughts on Red Digital Cinema Camera - which is just this red stuff as a freestanding article

May 23, 2006 - See related video on this page

UPDATE: Mike gives his opinion on the Red Digital Cinema Camera Red Digital Cinema Camera

This started out as a summary of Red for my (almost done, I swear) NAB wrap-up, but I decided to break it out as it's own article for now.

I'm writing this on May 22nd, nearly a month since NAB 2006 started. Since that time, I STILL feel that the Red is an incredibly exciting product under development that could and should profoundly change the market for HD cameras anywhere NEAR it's price point. As with all products under development from a new company, they run risks: risks of delays, risks of unexpected complications due to any v1.0 product, etc. But knowing even just the subset of the team involved, I think they stand an excellent chance for success.


In my mind, the two biggest unknowns for Red (or risks, pick your phrasing) are below. The other issues - the workflow, the codecs, the storage, the price point, etc. - all that stuff is either known (price & workflow) or I'm comfortable/confident with progress and direction (based on my weekly or more often interaction with the team). So the unknowns are these:


1.) Time to market - this is an ambitious, complex product and project from a brand new company that has not done this before, nor has this particular team worked together before. As with ANYONE doing something along these lines under those circumstances, that introduces risks of the unknown. With all of the areas in which they are trying to break new ground, there are also risks of It'll Just Take Longer. I call it the Space Shuttle Syndrome - if you've been building things with dozens of parts and a 1 in a million chance of failure and that's been great for you so far, and now you suddenly need to build something MUCH more complicated than before (like the space shuttle) with 2 million moving parts, suddenly things just got a whole lot logistically more complex. (Note that means a 2:1 chance something will fail at that point.) I also hope they avoid the Mythical Man Month problem, wherein a project starts running late so you throw more manpower at it, and it can actualy slow things DOWN if it is an engineering related product. In any case, I'd hate to see this product get substatially delayed - it would hurt the industry's perception of them as serious, and the longer a product takes to get to market the less valuable/valid it is perceived as. The Kinetta is an excellent example of this - Jeff Kreines is a smart, nice guy, I wish him all the luck in the world, but we've been waiting YEARS to see this camera ship - I saw him discuss it at NAB 2004, and we're STILL waiting on it. The company claims it is because they are waiting on AltaSens to deliver a sensor that is good enough for their needs. OK, fine. But regardless of why, we're still waiting. I'd hate to see something slow down Red's delivery to market in a similar way. Panasonic's HVX200 was also "going to ship pretty soon now" for a loooooong time, and a lot of people got pretty impatient for them (but it turned out well for Panasonic, it's a good little camera). Those are the Cons and risks. On the Pro side, Jim Jannard and Ted Schilowitz have seen a lot of complex products delivered to market, and between the two of them have a lot of expertise in birthing logistically complex products. Their outside consultants that I've met are top notch (Stuart English is a great example of that, he's considered the father of the Varicam).

2.) Image quality - I have no reason to doubt what the Red team is claiming, and they're claiming a LOT - huge resolution, great dynamic range, a commitment to working with and/or providing quality lenses, etc. But no test footage has been seen outside the core team (I haven't seen any test footage yet, I can't TELL you how many times I've been asked that one, so NO, I haven't seen any yet!), so nobody outside Red knows. The camera concept is great, the workflow sounds great, the price is right, but we'l need to see the image quality to know whether this is an interesting diversion or a real sea change in the industry. I'm less concerned about this risk than the timeliness factor based on my conversations with various people on the project, but it is still an unknown for this product. In short, big complicated things take longer than one expects, especially when there is new stuff involved.

But I'm optimistic - without knowing anything about the internal pace of progress on the product (and if I do learn stuff about that, I'll quit writing about it because it won't be fair to them), my gut says they are going to take longer than their best-case scenario they talked about at NAB. They were VERY clear that the stated goal of shipping first units by end of 2006 was an ENGINEERING TARGET, NOT a promised ship date when they discussed at NAB. But just looking at the ambitiousness of the project, looking at the complexity of the product, looking at all the brand-new things they're doing, looking at the fact that while the team is very experienced and the individuals involved are top notch, it's just a LOT to get done in that timeframe, and my gut says I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see it ship first units in early spring and in bulk by April to June, or perhaps even later. Now, to be perfectly clear, I have ZERO inside information about this, this isn't leaked info to soften the market to get used to the idea, this is just my personal read on the situation based on the facts stated above, based on my experience working with large complex projects in the past (I used to work at frogdesign, where industrial design, interface design, software development and product design all mingled in a vaguely similar way to the Red project). I am NOT saying it WILL take that long, I'm just personally prepared for it to take that long and not be too surprised about it. Could take longer, I dunno. If they meet their engineering target of end of 2006 for first units, I'll be delighted and if I'm around them I'd be first to lift a glass and congratulate them (I want to play with this camera too, and BADLY).

But I remain optimistic that they WILL ship this camera, it'll work as advertised, and it'll be a Killer Thing for indies trying to make digital movies, at a price point that makes the alternatives look (foolish? silly?) ah - shall we say "unwise." The core concepts driving the development are true to good filmmaking, not coming from "we have this bizarro tech, how can we productize it." The team is well experienced in the practicalities of product development, optics, industrial design, shake and bake testing, shooting in the real world, codecs, etc.; the advisory panel is wide ranging and well experienced, and most importantly, there will be no BS crippling of the product to defend a legacy market or "hold back for the next release" - they are gung ho on making this the best possible camera they can.

So my take on it? This may not be a good year to buy an HD camera with options such as this due next year. Is it worth putting money down on it? I'd say this - if you think you MIGHT want one, and can afford to let them hold your $1000 until it ships (whenever that might be, and you can get your money back any time, no questions asked, and he's a billionaire, so I don't think you need to worry about him running off with a few hundred thousand dollars in pre-orders), it seems like a good idea to me, and for my shooter friends, I tell them to rent this year, put money down, and be ready to be VERY happy some time next year. I honestly believe that, and that's what I say to my close friends when they ask face to face.

Another thing that bodes well for Red - they are just the right size. They are big enough and well funded enough that they won't be resource starved to do what they need to do, and small enough to still be nimble. If some of the existing players are oil tankers - large, slow, but efficient at delivering a LOT of product given enough time; Red is a cigarette boat - turns on a dime, delivers a goodly chunk of product and in a big hurry. They have no legacy markets to protect, such as "We can't go tapeless, what about our VTR division!" so that they can do whatever they think is best for the PRODUCT. And this is a product driven company, where the company serves the product, not the other way around. Why do I say this? Is it naive to say so? Look at it this way, and allow me to be somewhat crass for a moment - this is Jim Jannard's personal project. Perhaps even his pet project if you wanted to look at it this way. The guy founded Oakley and owns the majority of it. His net worth is so far in excess of all the money that Red could likely make, that it just doesn't matter. Red is about Jim putting himself and his reputation on the line to make something great. Do you REALLY think the billionaire is going to make a flunky little product and not care about how it turns out, especially after the guy has spent decades being obsessed with optics and cameras? Jim's already publicly said that if the product doesn't sell and he just gets one to use for himself he'd be happy. And I think that's a key ingredient to this whole thing. But of course, I DO think the camera is going to sell, and sell well, especially once test footage is seen and the product is in production.

Personally, I think the camera sounds great, and as a post guy, if they can pull off what they are talking about, it'll be fantastic.

Great TRUE resolution, fantastic high quality workflow, killer price point, and a commitment to making great gear promise to make Red an industry changer.

==========================

Dalsa was showing off 4K footage, regrettably I didn't make it over there to check it out.

The following vendors were showing the 4K western footage:

Bluefish444  Booth SL778
Cine-tal  Booth C7729
Ciprico/Huge Systems  Booth SL4987
Digital Vision AB  Booth SL517
DVS Digital Video Systems  Booth SL2964
Filmlight  Booth SL1391
Quantel  Booth SL1544
Root6   Booth SL1513R (Avid), Booth SL1600 (Facilis)

Really should have checked them out, it was a shame! Just ran out of time.

==============================

SpecSoft showed off the latest version of the SD/HD/2K virtual VTR called RaveHD 2.0. I've been tracking these folks for a couple of years - smart, nice, very open to client requests, such as QuickTime capture (which they are working on). Press releases:

AMD/SpecSoft/NVidia team up
working on QuickTime ingest (that's really all it says for now as of May 20, 2006)
RaveHD 2.0 officially ships

=================================

Wafian showed off their HR-1 HD DDR at NAB that uses the Cineform wavelet based codec. They are saying it'll capture to both AVI and .mov (QuickTime) files, but it isn't clear if QT files are wavelet Cineform or not - I thought a QT Cineform codec was still some time off.
-$17,500 in a shock mounted case
-18 hours of recording time
-transfer clips over GigE at 2-3x realtime, or use FireWire or USB 2.0 to transfer to a sneakernet drive

=============================

Bebop has a follow focus

===========================

Iconix has a very small (2.5 ounces) remote head that shoots 720 or 1080 res, at all the frame rates (24/25/30/60) using a 16:9 1/3" image sensor. Uses C-mount lenses.

=============================

Innovision showed a cool looking snorkel macro attachment for HD called Mini Probe for HD. Designed to work with interchangeable bayonet mounts, works with Sony Z1U, FX1, Panasonic HVX200, Canon XL H1. Can focus as close as 1" and go underwater to 17". 5.5mm, 8mm, and 14mm objective lenses available.

See related pics somewhere on this page

============================

Whew! That's it! For today, anyway - tune in tomorrow, another big bolus on another set of tools from NAB 2006, comin' up..

Labels: Red

I've posted some short video clips on another page titled NAB 2006 videos that I took with the video mode of my little Canon S450 and used QuickTime Player to Export To iPod Movie (320x240). Quick and easy.

Footage includes the announcement and crowd reactions from the first Red NAB presentations at 9:30am Monday, a nice long chunk of video of Ari explaining the Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR camera to me, some footage demonstrating how the Automatic Revolution works, a quick sample of how the Varizoom DV Rig Pro works, and Ted Red getting ready to raffle off the Red "r" #200 (the winner gets a place in line on a Red One camera and $1000 off list price).

I wish I had more to post - I took more videos than this, but a bad memory stick in my relatively new camera (no spare!) cut down on the successful recording ratio significantly- I had bad spots on the card, so any video that touched a bad spot wouldn't transfer off to my Mac. Drat. So - more next time, and always have a spare equal-or-bigger recording storage at big shows! Tape tends to fail in spots that you can usually work around, file based systems can loose whole files, and IT based systems can loose whole disks.

(Note: links in the above paragraph are to vendor product pages, to see the videos, click on the link in the first paragraph)

OK, let's see if I can manage to NOT overload my .mac account...FEEL FREE to download these locally if you want to watch'em repeatedly!

And YES, it's a horridly built page, I know, was just in a hurry to get this DONE - I've been NAB blogging for a solid 8 hours in a row now...

-mike

Labels: Red

Red Digital Cinema Camera

This started out as a summary of Red for my (almost done, I swear) NAB wrap-up, but I decided to break it out as it's own article for now.

I'm writing this on May 22nd, nearly a month since NAB 2006 started. Since that time, I STILL feel that the Red is an incredibly exciting product under development that could and should profoundly change the market for HD cameras anywhere NEAR it's price point. As with all products under development from a new company, they run risks: risks of delays, risks of unexpected complications due to any v1.0 product, etc. But knowing even just the subset of the team involved, I think they stand an excellent chance for success.

In my mind, the two biggest unknowns for Red (or risks, pick your phrasing) are below. The other issues - the workflow, the codecs, the storage, the price point, etc. - all that stuff is either known (price & workflow) or I'm comfortable/confident with progress and direction (based on my weekly or more often interaction with the team). So the unknowns are these:

1.) Time to market - this is an ambitious, complex product and project from a brand new company that has not done this before, nor has this particular team worked together before. As with ANYONE doing something along these lines under those circumstances, that introduces risks of the unknown. With all of the areas in which they are trying to break new ground, there are also risks of It'll Just Take Longer. I call it the Space Shuttle Syndrome - if you've been building things with dozens of parts and a 1 in a million chance of failure and that's been great for you so far, and now you suddenly need to build something MUCH more complicated than before (like the space shuttle) with 2 million moving parts, suddenly things just got a whole lot logistically more complex. (Note that means a 2:1 chance something will fail at that point.) I also hope they avoid the Mythical Man Month problem, wherein a project starts running late so you throw more manpower at it, and it can actualy slow things DOWN if it is an engineering related product. In any case, I'd hate to see this product get substatially delayed - it would hurt the industry's perception of them as serious, and the longer a product takes to get to market the less valuable/valid it is perceived as. The Kinetta is an excellent example of this - Jeff Kreines is a smart, nice guy, I wish him all the luck in the world, but we've been waiting YEARS to see this camera ship - I saw him discuss it at NAB 2004, and we're STILL waiting on it. The company claims it is because they are waiting on AltaSens to deliver a sensor that is good enough for their needs. OK, fine. But regardless of why, we're still waiting. I'd hate to see something slow down Red's delivery to market in a similar way. Panasonic's HVX200 was also "going to ship pretty soon now" for a loooooong time, and a lot of people got pretty impatient for them (but it turned out well for Panasonic, it's a good little camera). Those are the Cons and risks. On the Pro side, Jim Jannard and Ted Schilowitz have seen a lot of complex products delivered to market, and between the two of them have a lot of expertise in birthing logistically complex products. Their outside consultants that I've met are top notch (Stuart English is a great example of that, he's considered the father of the Varicam).

2.) Image quality - I have no reason to doubt what the Red team is claiming, and they're claiming a LOT - huge resolution, great dynamic range, a commitment to working with and/or providing quality lenses, etc. But no test footage has been seen outside the core team (I haven't seen any test footage yet, I can't TELL you how many times I've been asked that one, so NO, I haven't seen any yet!), so nobody outside Red knows. The camera concept is great, the workflow sounds great, the price is right, but we'l need to see the image quality to know whether this is an interesting diversion or a real sea change in the industry. I'm less concerned about this risk than the timeliness factor based on my conversations with various people on the project, but it is still an unknown for this product. In short, big complicated things take longer than one expects, especially when there is new stuff involved.

But I'm optimistic - without knowing anything about the internal pace of progress on the product (and if I do learn stuff about that, I'll quit writing about it because it won't be fair to them), my gut says they are going to take longer than their best-case scenario they talked about at NAB. They were VERY clear that the stated goal of shipping first units by end of 2006 was an ENGINEERING TARGET, NOT a promised ship date when they discussed at NAB. But just looking at the ambitiousness of the project, looking at the complexity of the product, looking at all the brand-new things they're doing, looking at the fact that while the team is very experienced and the individuals involved are top notch, it's just a LOT to get done in that timeframe, and my gut says I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see it ship first units in early spring and in bulk by April to June, or perhaps even later. Now, to be perfectly clear, I have ZERO inside information about this, this isn't leaked info to soften the market to get used to the idea, this is just my personal read on the situation based on the facts stated above, based on my experience working with large complex projects in the past (I used to work at frogdesign, where industrial design, interface design, software development and product design all mingled in a vaguely similar way to the Red project). I am NOT saying it WILL take that long, I'm just personally prepared for it to take that long and not be too surprised about it. Could take longer, I dunno. If they meet their engineering target of end of 2006 for first units, I'll be delighted and if I'm around them I'd be first to lift a glass and congratulate them (I want to play with this camera too, and BADLY).

But I remain optimistic that they WILL ship this camera, it'll work as advertised, and it'll be a Killer Thing for indies trying to make digital movies, at a price point that makes the alternatives look (foolish? silly?) ah - shall we say "unwise." The core concepts driving the development are true to good filmmaking, not coming from "we have this bizarro tech, how can we productize it." The team is well experienced in the practicalities of product development, optics, industrial design, shake and bake testing, shooting in the real world, codecs, etc.; the advisory panel is wide ranging and well experienced, and most importantly, there will be no BS crippling of the product to defend a legacy market or "hold back for the next release" - they are gung ho on making this the best possible camera they can.

So my take on it? This may not be a good year to buy an HD camera with options such as this due next year. Is it worth putting money down on it? I'd say this - if you think you MIGHT want one, and can afford to let them hold your $1000 until it ships (whenever that might be, and you can get your money back any time, no questions asked, and he's a billionaire, so I don't think you need to worry about him running off with a few hundred thousand dollars in pre-orders), it seems like a good idea to me, and for my shooter friends, I tell them to rent this year, put money down, and be ready to be VERY happy some time next year. I honestly believe that, and that's what I say to my close friends when they ask face to face.

Another thing that bodes well for Red - they are just the right size. They are big enough and well funded enough that they won't be resource starved to do what they need to do, and small enough to still be nimble. If some of the existing players are oil tankers - large, slow, but efficient at delivering a LOT of product given enough time; Red is a cigarette boat - turns on a dime, delivers a goodly chunk of product and in a big hurry. They have no legacy markets to protect, such as "We can't go tapeless, what about our VTR division!" so that they can do whatever they think is best for the PRODUCT. And this is a product driven company, where the company serves the product, not the other way around. Why do I say this? Is it naive to say so? Look at it this way, and allow me to be somewhat crass for a moment - this is Jim Jannard's personal project. Perhaps even his pet project if you wanted to look at it this way. The guy founded Oakley and owns the majority of it. His net worth is so far in excess of all the money that Red could likely make, that it just doesn't matter. Red is about Jim putting himself and his reputation on the line to make something great. Do you REALLY think the billionaire is going to make a flunky little product and not care about how it turns out, especially after the guy has spent decades being obsessed with optics and cameras? Jim's already publicly said that if the product doesn't sell and he just gets one to use for himself he'd be happy. And I think that's a key ingredient to this whole thing. But of course, I DO think the camera is going to sell, and sell well, especially once test footage is seen and the product is in production.

Personally, I think the camera sounds great, and as a post guy, if they can pull off what they are talking about, it'll be fantastic.

Great TRUE resolution, fantastic high quality workflow, killer price point, and a commitment to making great gear promise to make Red an industry changer.

Well, I've certainly written extensively on this one before, so if you missed it, here's everything I've had to say about it to date:

Dec 6, 2005 - New Digital Cinema Camera Coming: RED. 4K. 60p. RAW format. Wow. 

Dec. 7, 2005 - More Thoughts on RED camera

Dec 16, 2005 - HD For Indies Exclusive: The Scoop on the RED camera-YES it's for real - this was the biggie that started it, and this is what Yahoo and the AP linked to

Dec 18, 2005 - What features do you want to see on Red?

Dec. 18, 2005 - RED Camera - out in "late 2006" according to Jannard

Dec 18, 2005 - More info on RED, including from Jim Jannard himself 

Dec 19, 2005 - DVInfo.net has a thread to discuss Red Cameras

Jan 8, 2006 - Quick update on RED - Graeme Nattress joins the team

Feb 1, 2006 - HD4NDs Exclusive Interview with Jim Jannard, founder of RED camera (this is a good one)

April 9, 2006 - Red changes their site for NAB

April 14, 2006 - HD4NDs Exclusive: Ted Schilowitz, now "Leader of the Rebellion" for Red Cameras, talks about Red & NAB 

April 22, 2006 - Article on Red up at DV.com

April 24, 2006 - All the Scoop on the Red Camera... (from the show floor at NAB 2006)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: Details on shooting modes with the Red camera - this is a GOOD one if you want to understand your shooting and recording options

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: Red One Camera pricing and availability

April 24, 2006 - Red site has been updated with pricing and details (this was Day One of NAB 2006, the product launch)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: All the specs on Red (finally!)

April 24, 2006 - NAB 2006: End of Day One Report-Red, Apple, G-Tech

April 25, 2006 - NAB 2006 - Day Two in the RED Booth

April 26, 2006 - Studio Daily | First Look at RED! DESCRIPTION - Steve Gibby did a great interview with Jim Jannard, founder of RED - LOTS of good details in this one

April 26, 2006 - Mike's Thoughts on the Theory Behind the Red One Camera

April 26, 2006 - Exclusive, Behind the Scenes Pictures from the NAB Red Booth and more

April 27, 2006 - Red Digital Cinema Camera wins award at NAB 2006

April 29, 2006 - Interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red on the DCS site

April 28, 2006 - Filmshots interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema Camera Company

May 1, 2006 - Red - not available in silver - rendering in black of Red digital prototype

May 15, 2006 - Latest Red Cage One rendering - what do YOU folks think?

May 23, 2006 -
Videos from Day One of NAB 2006 - pricing first announced.

Labels: Red

HDR Imagery and 32 BPC

Tutorial on working with 32 bit HDR (high dynamic range) imagery within After Effects 7. I intend to go through this myself. If you want to call yourself a serious compositor using After Effects, you MUST understand this stuff NOW.

-mike

Cineon DPX QuickTime Component 1.1 %u2013 Mac OS X %u2013 VersionTracker

The above link is to the freebie but crippled version, the real deal is $99, with volume licensing available.

From versiontracker's description:

Product Description:
This is a demo of a set of QuickTime components that can load and save Cineon or DPX images. These components are crippled, in that the images have a stripe through the center of the image.
In the commercial version, you can load and save Cineon or DPX images from QuickTime, or any QuickTime enabled applications. Controls are provided to adjust black/white points, and gamma.
Note: You will need QuickTime Pro in order to load or save a range of Cineon/DPX Images.
What's new in this version:
16bit support with compatible applications.
Several bug fixes, to improve stability.
Intel Macintosh support


Ever so conveninently, Intel Mac support as well, so I can start messing with it on my MacBook if I wanna.

-mike

Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR

Converted to Windows Media 9 files, some with color correction, but gives you an idea (sorta) of what the camera is capable of. I haven't looked yet myself, since I am on the BlackBook (no Windows Media playback under OS X on Intel based Macs AFAIK), but please post your thoughts on the footage and how it looks, esp. if you're a cinematographer or other shooter.

Note that the first shot, which was shot at the CML Party at NAB 06, WAS presumably shot by an experienced DoP (if he hadn't been drinkin' too much!), under somewhat controlled circumstances, and is available as an uncompressed QT file, RAW DNG file, and Cineon file as well as Windows Media 9. Which should be good enough for messin' with to figure out how well this stuff works.

I'll be doodlin' with it.

-mike

Ted Schilowitz, "Leader of the Rebellion" for Red Digital Cinema Cameras, is going to be speaking at the LA Final Cut Pro User Group meeting this Wednesday, May 24th.

If you can make it, attend it. Other speakers include (from the website):

Booked so far is Ted Schilowitz who will tell you all you need to know about the most talked about camera since the Kodak Brownie, RED. Plus our good friend Tim Wilson will fly in from Boston to show and tell what's new with AVID. Plus Pino Barile will show off the brand new Matrox MXO. Plus Keith Hatounian will show off the much talked about PictureReady! from Gallery. Plus Jeff Laity of Tascam will show us how to set up and use the FW-1082 Audio/Midi interface to control Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack and Logic. And they will be giving one away as part of our World Famous Raffle. Oh yeah, plus Stump the Gurus and More.


-mike

Labels: Red

isnoop.net blog � Blog Archive � MacSaber: Turn Your Mac Into A Jedi Weapon

Uses the motion sensor to detect your waving around of your laptop, and makes light saber sounds.

Big Luv & Props to Paul at RoboGeek for sending this over.

I knew choosing the Dark Side (BlackBook) would pay off.

Hear that sound? If it isn't the light saber sound, it is my 50 foot propeller beanie twirling away.

-mike

Logitec LBD-A2FU2/WM: the first Blu-ray Disc drive for Macs - Engadget

Missed this one in the pre-NAB furor-

Logitec (not Logitech) LBD-A2FU2/WM Blu-ray Disc drive (and don't that just roll off the tongue) - expected to be circa $850, rebadged Panasonic burner with Mac drivers. Potentially useful for data backup with Toast Titanium 7 support, but what about burner Blu Ray video discs from DVD Studio Pro 4.1 or later?

-mike

Accelerate Your Macintosh! News Page - 5/20/06

details on Apple Kbase docs, Core Solo Mac Mini owner report on FCS & Motion running, MacBook report on 7200rpm 100GB drive swapout, etc.

Final Cut Studio is not supported on MacBook

Reader Mattew Kappenman tipped me to this one, from Apple's Final Cut online stuff. The whole article:

f you have a MacBook, the Final Cut Studio (Universal) crossgrade Installer does not prohibit you from installing the pro applications, but this configuration does not meet the minimum system requirements for Final Cut Studio.

See the Final Cut Studio system requirements for complete requirements.

Note: The integrated graphics processor in the MacBook does not permit float processing in Motion and will result in degraded performance and other issues in Motion and other Final Cut Studio applications.


...so sounds like what I thought - WILL install, WON'T do Motion and some other stuff well.

UPDATE - Got a definite, confirmed report from Jarred Land of DVXUser.com that Final Cut Studio 5.1 WILL install, even with only 512 MB of RAM, and will even launch and run (albeit in a limited pokey fashion) even on that low of a RAM config. Details & further info starting here.

-mike

Apple MacBook : Page 1

Ars Technica does their usually thorough job of a review of the MacBook, running it through it's paces with XBench, Cinebench (tests OpenGL performance), and a nicely detailed breakdown of features, especially a pros vs cons and a comparison to the MacBook Pros.

Pages of note:

Benchmarks
More Benchmarks (Cinebench)
Pro vs not (MacBook vs. MacBook Pro, with pros and cons of MacBook)

Interesting to see how well, at least in the benchmarks, the MacBook did as compared to the MacBook Pro. The built in graphics did better than I'd expect. But I've seen some game stats, and there the MB doesn't measure up to the MBP, by a margin as wide as 3 or 4 when it comes to fps. I'd expect certain graphic applications, like Motion, Aperture or 3D apps, might face similar differences between onboard vs. dedicated graphics. But again, we'll have to see it run to know for sure.

-mike

CinemaTech is an EXCELLENT blog on digital technology that affects movies. He usually focuses on the higher end side of things. The above is a link to his feed, here's a link to the main page of his website.

Recent articles of interest I'm too lazy to link directly to, but you can find them in the feed:
-interview with Jim Ramo of MovieLink (downloadable movie service, and do read this one, talks about indies on MovieLink, the costs of rights clearances, long tail monetization plans, and Steve Jobs' plans for movie downloads, which is why MovieLink is Windows only)
-info on a contest to give prizes to best remixed "Scanner Darkly" trailer
-Fortune interview with John Lasseter of Pixar
-Notes from film financing event (Hello indies! Read that!)
-Digital Domain's acquisition (they got bought, big mistake in my book)
-Fortune magazine on future of Hollywood and distro (linked to the other day)
-Wolfgang Peterson interview about Poseidon
-NAB Digital Cinema Society coverage
-ballooning digital FX budgets in big features
-Brightcove + TiVo - net video in your living room

...etc. etc. etc.

If you are thinking about making an indie movie, and concerned with how digital will affect the distribution of your movie, you should be reading this site regularly. As for how to make that movie, that's this blog right here.

Studio Monthly | HD Dreams - HDV Often Looks Great, But Not Always

Talks about pros and cons and pitfalls of HDV. Thinking of shooting low cost HD? Probably should read this.

-mike

FILMMAKING.COM: The Filmmaking Portal - The Film and Video Industry's Most Trusted Resource - All about Filmmaking, Digital Video Production, Moviemaking, Digital Filmmaking, Film and Video Production Services and more!

Boy, that's a long link that tells you nothing about the article! It's about Digital Anarchy's Resizer 2.0 plugin for FCP, which is purportedly oh-so-much better than v1.0....neither of which I've played with. New UI specifically for FCP, "smart" scaling algorithms, etc. If anybody's used this, or compared it to other scalers, please let me know.

-mike

DVD Shooters & The Peril of Small-Format HD
This is definitely something to be concerned about:

So what is there to complain about? It turns out quite a bit as many of us are grumbling now about the new HD/HDV cameras' dismal low-light performance particularly in underlit shadow areas. This rampant noise is wreaking havoc in our encoded DVD files; the aggravated noise issue (and not workflow) being in my opinion the number one challenge facing small format HD shooters today.


Read the article for more details on what you can do about it.

This is directly attributable to using the same sized sensor as DV cameras (1/3" inch) and cramming several times as many pixels on it - with more pixels in the same amount of space, you get less light per pixel, and therefore less light sensitivity, and therefore more noise in low light and/or shadows. Bleargh.

I have read unsubstantiated rumors that this guy has a pro-Panasonic tilt (but others have accused me of the same), but the general points about being cautious of noise, adjusting your on-camera coring settings, etc. are worthy of consideration.

-mike

HSB-12RMS Removable 12-Bay SATA I/II Rackmount RAID from FireWire Direct.

Looks kina cheap, but hey, if it fits your needs, why not?

Specs:

-12 hotswap SATA drive trays
-3U rackmount
-connects via 4 cables, so some kind of port multiplying is going on here
-starts under $1000
-illustration shows 2 groups of 5 drives, then two more, so I'm unclear as to how this all works
-comes with a PCI-X card - can you use your own? Dunno.

Anyway, sounds interesting, but can't recommend till I know more. I was looking into rackmount solutions and came across this.

-mike

FirmTek SeriTek/1SM2

Get SATA on your laptop. Two drives at a time. Doesn't say port multiplier capable. This is for PowerBooks, not MacBook Pros. But a good way to get SATA (which can be faster than FW800) on your laptop, esp. handy if your shop is SATA centric.

-mike

Self-Reliant Filmmaking � Blog Archive � 14 hours of student films

Guy watched 14 hours of student films, lots of the same mistakes over and over. I usually focus on how to put it together in post, or maybe what camera to use, but frankly, script, acting, and sound are at least if not MUCH more important. Read & learn, folks! Or at least nod your head knowingly.

-mike

(found via FresHDV.com)

Accelerate Your Macintosh! News Page - 5/18/06

More "Yes you can, no you can't" as to whether Final Cut Studio is officially supported on the MacBooks, as well as other commentary on the new laptops. Good read if you're thinking of or just bought one (like me).

Sorry it took so long folks - a busy workload, followed by trouble with .Mac, followed by sudden arrival of my BlackBook (more on that in a minute), but here's the full list of NAB 2006 Pictures Pages in chronogical order, most recently posted at bottom:

Red Booth Day Zero & One (was posted previously) - this is setting up in the Red Booth and the first day of my working with those guys:

Here’s some pictures from Sunday and Monday as we set up the booth and hit the first day of the show. The players include - Ted Schilowitz, Graeme Nattress, Chris Petrillo, Hugo from Oakley, Jarred Land, Stuart English, Mark Pederson, and of course, Jim Jannard.

NAB 2006 Crowd Day One (was posted previously) - this is really just to show how quickly the crowd grew on Day One of NAB 2006. Not gear exciting...

NAB 2006 Day Two (was posted previously) - this was Day Two, this was me working the Red Booth mostly.

Day Three Part 1 (was previously posted, but there is no Part 2-I swear! Not holding out...) - pics wandering the show floor, including pics of:

Pictures from Day Three of NAB 2006 - Ted Schilowitz, Red One Digital Cinema Camera, AIM Award, Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR, Autodesk, XDCAM HD import, Sony booth, Grass Valley Infinity, Thomson Viper Venom Flashpak, Varizoom, La Cie, Elvis, FCP User Group

NAB 2006 Day Four Part 1 of 3 - (previously posted) - wandering the floor, checking out the following:

Silicon Color Final Touch HD & Final Render, Tangent, ADTX, S.two Take2, EditShare, Panasonic Plasma 103 inch HDTV, FireStor DTE FS-100, AJ-HDX900 specs, Mini35, Editcam HD, HJVC GY-HD200 & GY-HD250, 16mm lens adaptor, redrock micro 35mm adaptor, JVC 1920x1080 LCD, 9” HD CRT


NAB 2006 Day Four Part 2 of 3 (new pics, never seen till today) - this is more wandering the floor, checking out:

NAB 2006 Day 4 pt2 of 3 pictures - Doremi booth, ARRI D-20 with modded Quantel eq rackmount field case for RAW ingent/edit/playback/color grading, FlashPak RAM for D-20, ReflecMedia for keying, and the Phantom lineup of cameras


NAB 2006 Day Four Part 3 of 3 (new pics, never seen till today) - this is more wandering the floor, checking out:

NAB 2006 Day 4 Part 3 of 3 pictures. Automatic Revolution, Miranda DVI Ramp2, JL Cooper MCS3800 Final Cut control surface, Cobalt Digital converters, Teranex media processors, Quantum SDLT-600A data tape backup w/FTP MXF footage retrieval on GigE, Huge/Ciprico RAIDs, Flip4Mac new products, Matrox MXO specs, Mini35 adaptors, Red Schtuff


Full text of my notes etc. still forthcoming. So consider this a taste and a tease. I'll post all I know about all this stuf ASAP.

But all these pics have annotations, so it'll tell you something useful.

-mike

Labels: Red

UPDATED FRIDAY TWICE - see bottom - took outdoors, installed RAM, then minor Monday update

Well, I broke down and got myself a black MacBook (aka "BlackBook" I hereby dub them for all time, vs a WhiteBook) last night unexpectedly - a buddy hookup led to a quick run over to a store and I laid my mitts on a bone stock black MacBook.

As any proper geek would, pics here of the OOBE with commentary, as well as side by side pics with my 12" PowerBook that it is replacing. (Note - link was changed, apologies for confusion)

And, as any rational, post production consultant would, my first thoughts on getting it home are captured at left, best summed up by "MineMineMine! PRECIOUS!"

: )

I'm still definitely in fanboy mode, so gimme a few days to get reasonable, and then a few more to get cranky and nitpicky. So far, I like it, and it's a good update to the 12" PowerBook that I've known, loved, and worn out the handrests on.

First thoughts - oooooh, it looks good in black. Fully clientable. The only thing that says "consumer" to me after a day with it is the fact that I've got keys that jingle jangle jingle - what, my keyboard has boots and spurs? No, there's a loose, jangly sound when I type on the keyboard in a hurry, like two lightweight pieces of metal clattering/bouncing off of each other. I wonder if it will grow to drive me mad.

Turns out RAM and hard drive are snap to upgrade, so I'm going to do that. I have a FireWire 400 external case that I can disk image the contents of this drive onto, and then swap them out. More details here.

The setup was a snap - I used the FireWire cable methodology that the Mac setup software instructed me on how to use, and it was super easy - after transferring over all my user accounts, settings, files etc., the new laptop was "mine" in every sense - I fired it up and Hey! All my stuff was there. Most excellent and painless.

More thoughts:
-the remote for the IR port is white is my only aesthetic quibble so far.
-the feet on it are STURDY - I lost a foot off my primary battery for my 12" Powerbook that this is replacing, and it forever teeter tottered on a solid surface. These are large and round and don't look to be going anywhere anytime soon.
-it does get warm on my lap - I might have to do the Thermal Paste Surgery Thing, but I hope not. It is just dumb, Dumb, DUMB to have a laptop you're not supposed to, you know, set on your lap. Come on guys, get with it.
-the MagLoc power cord thing is very cool - and it goes in either side up, so there's not Just One Way like a USB or FireWire port - NICE.
-I haven't taken it out in public yet, but I'm going to make a point of doing so in the near future, because I'm That Dorky. Curious to see if anyone comments on it.
-right now I have a bone stock black one, "MikesBlackBook," and it is slooooooooooooow until I change out the 512MB to 2GB of RAM
-after transferring over my stuff, it's getting full, pronto - I haven't installed the Adobe Creative Suite nor Final Cut Studio yet, and I only have 13GB free of the 80GB it came with (my pics and MP3s are "only" 18 GB)
-I'm curious to see how the glossy screen does outdoors, haven't tried it yet
-Front Row is dreadfully slow, I'm going to consider that due to RAM starvation and withhold final analysis until I can get this thing all RAMmed up
-I was a bit worried about the keyboard action when I first saw one of these in the store - but the key action is stiff, or rather firm, and takes a little getting used to. In comparison to my 2 year old PBook 12" keyboard, this newer one has a shorter, stiffer throw. So far I'm fine with it, but YMMV - keyboards are a very personal thing
-as a replacemet for my 12" PowerBook, it's presently a mixed bag - I MUST get more RAM & HD ASAP to get this thing to run at a proper speed and get rid of the durn beachball, but even after that I'll still have some issues - Adobe apps won't run at full native speed, but how fast will they be relative to the G4? If in the ballpark, overall I'm still a winner.
-I expect apps like Mail, Safari, iPhoto and iWeb to thoroughly trounce the G4 once I'm all RAM'd up.

That's all I can think of so far - go check out the pics (link above).

-mike

FRIDAY UPDATE - just had lunch at Freddie's Place with laptop sitting outside while I was (still!) transcribing notes from NAB 2006 (the text file is about 14,000 words right now). Some thoughts:

-sitting outdoors in the shade of a giant live oak tree on an otherwise cloudless Texas day, the screen was perfectly viewable. This was not always the case with the 12" PowerBook.
-sitting out there with my computer on the table, there was a splotch of direct sunlight on the right side of the computer. When I went back to work on it after eating for a while, OUCH it was hot! From leaving a matte black thing in direct sunlight. So beware.
-after ordering food, working until food arrived, then set BlackBook aside until I finished, then put computer in lap to keep working.
-once again, Apple's blown it in terms of having a laptop you can actually use in your lap - for sitting down like you're often doing with a laptop without a table surface to work on, it gets waaaaaaaaaay too uncomfortably hot to let it sit on your legs, ESPECIALLY if you're wearing shorts and it is sitting on your bare leg. Dumb!
-but screen was fine, I didn't pay too much attention to battery life, from a full charge I still had well over 3 hours after spending an hour or so at lunch

update later that day

RAM came in, and was no biggie to install - took about 10 minutes, and all I knew about it I got from one viewing yesterday of this video (same link as above in article).

I'll be replacing the hard drive when it comes in, should be similarly easy - I popped out the HD and checked it out, then put it back in.

And WOW, as always, RAM makes a HUGE difference in how fast the machine runs. Instead of lengthy beachballs when switching between a few carefully selected apps, I'm now running Safari with a buncha windows open, Mail, NetNewsWire, Finder, iMovie HD, iPhoto, Activity Monitor (to check on CPU loads and available RAM), TextWrangler, iCal, and DSS Player (plays back the audio files from my voice recorder). And I STILL have 700 MB free of RAM.

So for anyone considering it: GET 2GB RAM FOR YOUR MACBOOK. And get it third party, will be $200-$250 depending on which reasonable place you get it from. NO reason to pay Apple's stupendous premium. All it takes is a smaller screwdriver, ten minutes, and thumb pressure. (had to push harder than I woulda thunk to get the RAM to seat right).

It's so little more money if you do it right, and it is SO worth it in terms of productivity.

-mike

quick Monday udpate - the keyboard is slightly annoying at times, as it doesn't register/I didn't press hard enough for some keystrokes (and I type FAST). Also, while Flip4Mac has a version for regular Macs, they do NOT have a version for MacIntels, so there isn't an easy way to watch Windows Media on my MacBook. Anybody got an answer for that one?

Josh Oakhurst Official Site
Nice point/counterpoint on DV (DVX100B) vs HDV (Z1U) with pros and cons on both sides. You can argue it either way, depends on your priorities, budget, post production know-how, desire for HD, etc.

-mike

Macworld: First Look: MacBook benchmarks in black and white

they ran some tests, several of which were irritatingly bogus (who CARES about Aged Filter in iMovie?), but the meaningful ones:

Compressor 2.1 MPEG-2 encode:
MacBook 2GHz Core Duo: 4:11
iBook 1.42 GHz G4: 8:29
iMac 2Ghz Core Duo: 3:22

I'd love to see how a dual or Quad G5 ranks against those...I'll find out soon.

Unreal Tournament showed off how much of a difference a dedicated graphics controller matters - iMac 2GHz: 56 fps, MacBook 2Ghz was only 17.6....eww.

But at least that is an improvement over the 1.42 GHz iBook's 14.1 fps.

-mike

Apple - Final Cut Express HD

New version, new features, rundown:
-Universal Binary - runs on Intel based Macs nativley as well now
-fully keyframe-able effects controls
-dynamic RT for realtime previews - looks same as FCP in terms of video quality (dynamic/high/low) and playback frame rate (dynamic/full/half/quarter)
-DV & HDV editing (already had)
-composite in-canvas (dunno if had before) - but some cool templates for multi-PIP
-integrate multi-layered PShop files (cool!) - Final Cut Express HD fully supports Photoshop files and layers within your video projects. When you import your Photoshop files, Final Cut Express displays them as a multitrack video sequence, placing each Photoshop layer on its own fully editable video track.
-imports iMovie projects - "seamlessly" - assumably with all goodies intact
-up to 99 audio tracks
-VoiceOver tool
-comes with Soundtrack 1.5 and LiveType 2.0
-requirements:
- G4 or G5 or Intel Core Duo w/500 MHz or faster
-1024x768 or higher res screen
-AGP or PCIe graphics w/Quartz Extreme (so no minis or Macbooks officially)
-OS X 10.4.6, QT 7.0.4
-HDV requires 1GHz or faster and 1GB RAM MINIMUM, 2GB recommended
-color correction is still just the 2way, not 3way
-DV and HDV support, can burn SD DVDs, NO stated HD DVD or Blu Ray stuff, but CAN master back to the camera for HDV
-I wonder if still using AIC? And if so, any changes? Or native HDV now?
-$299 to buy, $99 to upgrade
-no comment on Final Cut Pro compatibility - so I guess the chain is iMovie to Final Cut Express, or You Should Have Started In Final Cut.

Hey all -

so the bad news was no blogging yesterday, the good news was because it was all for a good cause - I had an all day consulting gig with local creative shop Teshler Creative. They've been doing tabletop product photography for years and have it down to a fine science with a variety of digital still cameras. They've been getting into video recently for Point of Sale displays, and brought me in to see how they could make their footage look better. I toured their offices and had lunch with them last week, and today was going to be the all day thing to see what we could do to make their workflow higher quality and more efficient. Some parts of this process were easy - they've been shooting DV, editing natively, and making DVDs based on the recommended conservative "plays anywhere" bandwidth they found online, and they'd also been importing their files into DVD Studio Pro and letting it convert them using the default settings.

Now, there's nothing overtly wrong with what they were doing, there's just better ways of doing it:

1.) Native DV acquisition - it's 5:1 compressed, and they want cleanest possible quality. I still have my BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme (I call it MB-X for short) all built up from the last time I used it, so I brought my Quad G5 out there with the MB-X installed and ready to go. We were going to try to capture live off the camera as I recently did for The Texas HD Shootout, but couldn't get the same kinds of quality results - the XL2 has no component output, the MB-X can't take Y/C (s-video) input, and the only option was uncompressed composite, which yields chroma crawl. Even looking past the chroma crawl, there were still some advantages to this type of capture. But with this type of "wild" capture without timecode, 3:2 pulldown removal from 24p material was trickier - so we had to use After Effects to remove 3:2 pulldown.

2.) Native DV editing - on a DV timeline, every time you do a cross dissolve, title, composite, color correction, or anything that requires any kind of rendering (realtime or not), it has to RE-COMPRESS to the DV codec, going through another lossy compression cycle. Editing on an uncompressed timeline doesn't make the DV look any better, but DOES prevent any further loss. Also, the use of plugins, such as Graeme Nattress' Film Efects plugins can dramatically improve the look of your DV footage, especially when you have strong chroma areas meeting on a diagonal. (I demo'd this looking at red Sharpie lettering on a yellow Post-It --huuuuge chroma jaggies there that were massively improved by using the Chroma Sharpen filter). In any case, uncompressed editing=no (further) image quality loss.

3.) DVD compression - they'd been kicking uncompressed files out of Final Cut (this is an improvement over straight DV, but only IF you use the right settings in the export dialogs). Then they'd been bringing them into DVD Studio Pro and letting it do the MPEG-2 conversion for them. This works, but....the default settings are fairly low bandwidth and single pass only. Two pass, VBR (variable bitrate) is THE way to go for best possible quality. Slower, but better. And also, use Compressor to be able to get in there and REALLY tweak the settings and have control (and be able to set higher than DVD SP will let you). CAVEAT: they are planning on playing back on DVD players that they can pick, so it is possible for them to pre-screen the players it'll be playing back on, unlike what most folks face when they send out a DVD.

We had some issues with exposure variability with the XL2 shutter (we surmised) - we were getting fluttery color - the white background was greyish some frames, pinking others. I realized that it would be possible to use a combination of After Effects plugins and scripts to make the background color consistent.

...but we'd also talked last week about using their digital still cameras (a high end Canon DSLR) to shoot some footage either motion control (Ernesto on staff comes from that background) or slomo tabletop turntable. And that's what we did - we recorded to JPEG (able to do faster frame rate) at about 4 frames per second, and it turned out to work FABULOUSLY. The image quality you get off of a good digital still camera with a good lens just blows the doors off any HD camera in terms of still image quality. And since we were effectively undercranking (shooting 4fps for 24 or 30fps playback), we were able to get the kind of motion desired. They'd been doodling with this by importing stills into Final Cut, but Final Cut can't deal with sequential stills effectively - you have to edit every still for position, scale, rotation, color....a huge collossal pain.

BUT...After Effects has no problem dealing with a frame stack (sequential stills). So we imported into there and scaled their roughly 2800x1800 pixel stills (the LOWEST res that camera could do) into a standard def composition and rendered it out and made a high quality MPEG-2...and it looked AMAZING. Incredibly clean images, great contrast, simply stupendously good signal to noise ratio (i.e. zer perceptible video noise), etc. And this was from the raw, non color corrected footage - so clearly we were onto something here.

Then I cooked out a 720p version of it (on the theory that 1368x768 (or whatever the correct # is) is pretty much industry standard for plasmas and LCDs for HD POS displays - virtually NO ONE is going to plunk down for a full 1920x1080 panel. So 720p is about all that will REALLY display, anyway. So we made a 720p and it loooked even better - all the aliasing that we sawin the SD version went away, it was super clean and smooth. I hereby declare that HD really, REALLY matters for retail point of sale advertising, and the advent of HD DVD and Blu Ray players means we'll have relatively cheap HD playback devices in a year or two. The quality improvement is instantly recognizable and SUBSTANTIAL.

BUT....Yuri (the owner) then asked me what we could author HD to. And the answer is...nothing quite yet. On the Mac side, you can made an HD DVD 1.0 compliant file, but it burns it onto a standard DVD. I don't think those will play on HD DVD players (I think I heard that Blu Ray players will be able to play HD content on red laser DVDs - right? Anyone? Anyone Bueller?). But there aren't HD DVD burners with Mac drivers yet from what I've heard. I'm betting Apple will hold out and only ship burner drivers when they ship their OWN burners built into the Intel tower Macs (Mac Pro is the rumored name) sometime this fall is my best guess. And third parties? I'd expect foot dragging from Apple for a third party burner trying to get help to make drivers. Over on the PC side, there are burners, there are drivers, but I haven't heard of shipping software - Sonic was demoing something at NAB last month that wasn't shipping yet. So nobody can author a disk yet on the desktop is what it sounds like to me (anybody use the comment link to correct me on this one).

Yuri has a 17" PowerBook G4 (no Intel one yet, he needs After Effects and Photoshop to run full speed on it), so I burned a 720p HD DVD spec data set to a standard DVD-R. It plays back in my G5 tower, but wouldn't in either Yuri's 1.67 17" G4 nor my 12" PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz, and we both have latest OS & DVD software and DVD Studio Pro installed. Harrumph. So how could he show it at his upcoming tradeshow? So then I compressed a DVCPRO HD 720p60 file, we plugged a DVI to HDMI cable from his laptop into the big 40+" plasma HDTV, and ran the QuickTime file full screen looped - and it worked perfectly. So he can demo HD footage without a Blu Ray, HD DVD, or G5 now just fine. (I'm curious, VERY curious to see, if I author another HD DVD disk on DVD-R, whether it will play on this, my new MacBook...more on that later today).

So all in all, a good consulting day - client is happy and has new workflows with VASTLY better quality, and happy clients are the best kind to have.

-mike

UPDATE - went to the Apple Store in Austin with a heroin like itch..see below for what happened

Apple - MacBook

Apple today released the long awaited MacBook. Basic specs - white or black, Core Duo up to 2.0 GHz, starts at $1099 (wow!), 1280x800 res screen (perfect for 720p playback), GigE/Airport Extreme/Bluetooth 2.0, built in iSight.

Longer version of specs:

Three basic, customizable versions (differences in bold):

White 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $1099

13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (2x256MB SODIMMs)
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)

White 2.0 GHz Core Duo, $1299

13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (2x256MB SODIMMs)
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)

Black 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo, $1499

13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory (2x256MB SODIMMs)
80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)

(all are 1.08x12.78x8.92 inches)

....so basically, you start at $1099, and $200 buys you 2.0 not 1.83 GHz processor and a SuperDrive (burns DVDs as well as CDs). An extra $200 more buys you black and a 20GB drive size bump to 80 GB.

(...so of course I gotta have black)

You can, however, get up to a 120 GB drive as a BTO option on any of these, but the optical drive and processor speed are immutable.

There's a very nice comparison chart that shows the differences between MacBooks and MacBook Pros here.

More good stuff, in detail:

-comes with iLife 06, Front Row, and a remote (the laptop has a small IR port on the front)
-built in iSight in the top edge of the screen like the MacBook Pro
-Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and Airport Extreme (yeah, the fast one)
-glossy screen (like most laptops have these days) - no further details given
-has MagSafe power adaptor (the magnetic latch release, somebody trips on the cord won't yank it off the desk)
-2MB L2 cache
-667 frontside bus (compares to what on the Pros?)
-Combo drive reads DVDs 8x, writes CDs 24x, SuperDrive burns DVDs at 4x, otherwise similar
-two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, NO FireWire 800, NO Express/34 port
-Intel GMA 950 graphics processor w/64 MB DDR SDRAM shared with main memory - this is the one drag of this machine as far as I'm concerned, and means it won't officially be supported with Final Cut Studio, as Motion will not run with the onboard graphics at this time. Memory NOT upgradeable for graphics. UPDATE - not necessarily true - not OFFICIALLY supported, but DOES run (even Motion) from what I'm hearing so far, haven't confirmed myself
-supports up to a 1920x1200 (all but the 30") on a second display
-can get optional adaptors for DVI, VGA, or composite/s-video, but NOT HDMI and not component
-combined analog/optical audio ins and outs (uses plugs for optical vs headphone minijack)
-the display handles 720x480 in both 16:10 and 3:2 modes specifically - useful for video! Should be interesting to see the Matrox MXO run off of this thing
-and oh yeah - 1.08 inches thick
-all ports down one side like my 12" Powerbook
-keyboard fits FLUSH against the bed, hopefully will end screen scratches
Mike's Comments - so this is my next laptop (sorry, MiniMike that I'm writing this on, your days are numbered). I'm going to wait for the 1.0 kinks to get worked out, and get myself a black one, with lots of RAM and a huge honkin' hard drive, and I'll look into whether I get Apple to do those upgrades at their usual rapacious prices, or I just get my own and get'em installed (I learned my painful lesson trying to get under the keyboard to install the bigger hard drive in this unit last year, this laptop is now running on it's third hard drive after a size increase and a drive failure).
-80% brighter screen than previous iBook/12" Powerbooks, 250 cd/m2 or whateve the unit of measure is, besides the obviously greater 30% more pixels (1024x768 vs 1280x800)

OK, so what about for other folks? Should this be YOUR next laptop?

As always, it depends -

Good Stuff - fast 2.0 Intel Core Duo performance - roughly akin to a dual 1.8 or dual 2.0 G5 in terms of CPU performance - MORE than enough for DV editing. Has FireWire 400, can get up to 2 GB of RAM and a 120 GB drive (even has that sudden motion sensor stuff too to park heads when dropped).

Drawbacks:
- built in graphics means no Motion, hence no official Final Cut Studio support at this time. Major bummer
-NO FireWire 800 or Express/34 expansion means you'll never be able to plug a SATA or FireWire 800 drive directly into this, ever, under any circumstances (in terms of getting that kind of speed)
-Limited RAM and hard drive expansion, and pricey at that (same problem with all laptops)
-Looking at the MacBook Pros (which also got a speed bump today to 2.0 and 2.16 GHz), you have the same RAM and hard drive capacity options, similar chip options, but the 17" has an 8x not 4x DVD burner, and it is dual layer at that (only one in lineup).
-the bigger ones obviously have bigger screens. Duh. But NONE of them can do 1080 resolution at 1:1, and they all are at least 1280x800 so CAN do 720p 1:1. But the MacBook Pros can have a 720p image at full size (1:1) and ALSO have other stuff around it, like tool pallettes, timelines, and menus potentially. The Macbook can run 720p at 1:1 only in full screen mode, without even a border around it (it is exactly the same width as a 720p signal).
-external displays require an extra adaptor on the MacBooks whereas the Pros don't. The Pros can drive up to the 30" display, the MacBook only 1920x1200 (23 or 24" displays)
-All Intel based mac laptops can do 2 displays or mirroring, so no difference there
-all have the same Bluetooth and wireless capabilities
-the MacBooks are polycarbonate not aluminum exteriors - like iPods, so they'll scratch easily...eew.
-they're claiming up to 6 hours of battery life for Macbooks, 15's get 4.5 and 17's get 5.5 - so MacBook should have longest living battery

So am I going to get one today?

I'm sure thinking about it. Actually, I'm thinking I may go get in the car right now and get a black one if they have it in stock at the Apple Store. But I must resist the urge, and so should you - here's why -

1.) Version 1.0 bugs - they are just now releasing them. As with ANY new product from ANY company, the first ones off the line are most likely to have problems. Give them a month or two to make a bunch, find out where the bugs are after field reports come in, and then fix them and ship the modded ones here.

2.) This built in graphics thing is the only thing that gives me serious pause - I'm curious to see what Apple has to say about Final Cut Studio on these things. If it is only Motion that doesn't work full tilt boogie, I'm fine with that.

3.) Along those lines, will there be a 13.3" MacBook Pro announced later? The things that would/could be different:
-aluminum not polycarbonate outer casing
-improved graphics I would hope, but I don't know that this motherboard allows that, or if there is room in the case if so
-likely more RAM & hard drive than the MacBook siblings
-better keyboard
-thinner surround on monitor
....and that's about all they could do. I'm shallow enough to say I'd spend a few hundred extra bucks for that - gotta look Pro. But the Black model does go a long way to fix that....

Update: right before I hit "post" on this, my lifelong geek friend Charlie Wood emailed back after I sent an email titled "MacBooks out! Should I buy today?" and lined out the same reservations as above. His response, in full:

BUY!! BUY!! BUY!! PRECIOUS...

Geek friends are fun.


-mike

UPDATE LATER THAT DAY (TUESDAY)

...so I called the Austin Apple Store (in Barton Creek Mall) and was told they had received a shipment of MacBooks, but had no idea what the product mix was, but to come by after noon and they'd know better (this at 11:30am).

So I pulled on some pants (highly recommended) was there by 12:05.

Got there and...they now knew that they had a bunch of white ones of indeterminate mix, but definitely no black ones.

So poo on that.

They said they'd have the white ones set out for doodling with in a couple of hours, so poo on that too - got me a Chick-Fil-A (favorite guilty mall pleasure, perfect for sneaking into movies in cargo pockets).

While walking to the food court (oh, the SHAME of having to admit that in public...) I realized I had a better solution anyway - so I called up Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems (who is a great resource if you need any serious kit, tell him I sent you his way) and had him place an order for a maxed out black MacBook. I was going to get my own RAM (Apple charges a fortune), but he pointed out it was definitely worth having Apple do the hard drive swap out - it takes hours since you have to clone the boot drive, and that takes additional hardware and software anyway. Wanted an extra battery, he pointed out those are 6-8 weeks or delivery, so he made that a separate purchase order to be absolutely sure there was no crossover on those two orders so nothing would get delayed.

So I've got one on the way, will report as soon as it comes in.

Looped back by to blog this update on the Apple Store laptops and I was outta the mall.

-mike

2:30PM UPDATE - definitely no black ones locally, but they are elsewhere. Pics and details here.

I might go in and play with the keyboard, it looks funny, I hope the typiing action is good since I type 95% of the blog on my laptop.

ALSO - does anybody remember what the release order was with the 12" laptops? Was it iBooks first, THEN 12" PowerBooks? And if so, what was the release spread? I'm wondering if there will be that Pro version.

TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: AppleInsider has some scoopage on the keyboard, RAM and hard drive installation (both user installable), and points out that black costs you $200 - only difference between that and the white one is 20 GB of hard drive capacity. You can buy goodly sized laptop drives for $200. They also have more pictures and details here.

-mike

A reader clued me in to the existence of Final Cut Studio 5.1.1 today - it has Intel Mac specific fixes, but Apple is still a bit vague as to what it does, even in their Late Breaking News PDF for Final Cut. From that PDF file:

Late-Breaking News About Final Cut Pro 5.1.1
Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 optimizes application compatibility on specific hardware and fixes critical bugs.

Real-Time Processing on Intel-Based Macintosh Computers
Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 resolves a real-time processing issue on Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Intel-Based Macintosh Canvas Display Issue Resolved
Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 resolves an issue with display errors in the Canvas window on Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Issue with Import Panasonic P2 and 720p/24PN Footage Resolved
Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 resolves an issue in using the Import Panasonic P2 feature with 720p/24PN footage resulting in duplicate frames in rendered sequences.

...and that's it for 5.1.1. I find it interesting that they released it on the same day as MacBooks were released, still no official word on support. In the comments somebody said they called in and asked about Final Cut Studio support on the MacBook, and the answer was "not supported." Now whether it will run all but Motion is the interesting question.

I STILL don't have 5.1 installed, and don't have an Intel based Mac yet, but I'll answer all I can as soon as I can. If anybody has a clue, let me know.

I also heard, on the MacBook front, that Aperture WILL run on MacBooks, just slowly. How slowly, how much RAM that machine had, etc., I don't know. That's all I got. But it will execute. Somebody probably installed it on a store demo unit or something.

CinemaTech: Fortune mag on `The Future of Hollywood'

As usual, Scott Kirsner gleans some of the best details from the mainstream media coverage of Hollywood. Some good data points I lift from Scott who lifted from the Forbes piece that are relevant to indies making content:

Distribution is becoming cheap and ubiquitous. That's good news for anyone making media.
Movie rental revenue is dropping, but some of that revenue for the studios is being replaced by DVD sales.
More than 30 million high-def TV sets have already been sold in the U.S.
Sales of TV shows on DVD were $4 billion in 2005 (a business that many media companies doubted, since the shows had previously been available for free)


Lots more, go read!

-mike

PSYOP Creates Visual Haiku for MTV HD | Dexigner Design Forums

Psyop, killer fantastic mographix shop, did some ID work for MTV's new HD only, 5.1 surround only network. There's a tiny QuickTime of it that is gorgeous and compelling, I can't imagine how cool it must be in HD.

Scroll down in the article for stills, click the eyeball over the stills for high res stills.

Wow.

Check it out, read about it, worth it. This is the kind of work I used to aspire to doing.

Found via my friend Wiley's site VideoThing.

Dell goes bandy over 24-inchers

Sounds like the same kind of problems I had with the analog video (not computer) component inputs on the 2405 I originally had, except now this one does it on the DVI inputs - BAD!. Dell keeps making stuff right at the edge of consumer acceptable. Note the 2407 is different than the 2405, it is the replacement model.

Sony to Unveil First Blu-Ray Laptop - Yahoo! News

Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). will release the first laptop capable of playing, editing and recording next-generation, high-definition videos in the Blu-ray DVD format.

Sony, which led the development of the Blu-ray format, said Tuesday the new VAIO AR Premium model will be available this summer for $3,500. Besides the Blu-ray DVD drive, the entertainment-oriented notebook computer features a 17-inch display, an integrated TV tuner, and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Center Edition operating system.


....so there's a Toshiba HD DVD based laptop coming for $3000, and this Blu Ray based one for $3500. Very roughly speaking, not knowing the rest of the specs, the Blu Ray is $500 more than the HD DVD based one....in line with cost expectations for early units. Yowza - these things are EXPENSIVE, I wonder what premium Apple will put on the burners it includes with the Intel tower Macs, rumored to be called Mac Pros? I hope they bundle'em, and I'm guessing Blu Ray is still the favored tech (Steve Jobs mentioned burning Blu Ray discs at his MWSF keynote in January of 2005. Yeah, that's right - LAST year.)

-mike

Hey all - sorry it's been taking so long, here's my notes from my visit to the Avid booth.

The big news, in short:
-Avid Xpress Pro has new features, supporting more new formats
-Mojo SDI is like old Mojo, but now has SDI ports (just SD, not HD)
-there's feature parity between Mac & PC versions of Xpress Pro, so a Mac QT DNxHD codec (hooray!) that you can render to from other apps, like After Effects
-Avid Interplay is a new workgroup/workflow solution, is a content management system with version control, works on a check-in/check-out basis (this is BIG news for facilities and large productions)
-Avid Media Composer is available as a software only version for $5000
-Avid has a new DNxHD variant, DNxHD 36, is a 36 megabit/sec, full raster codec for HD offline work
-Avid DS Nitris now has dual link HD-SDI 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 support
-no mention of Universal Binary (to run on Intel based minis, iMacs, or new laptops)

...and lots more nitty gritty below.

My workload has been too high to transcribe and then clean everything up, so here's the transcription of my notes from talking to the Xpress Pro guy (I think the product manager, was too loud to catch what he said):


Xpress Pro - the Avid editor for indies is how he described it
-the show news - full Avid editing toolset on the G5 - they brought HD, HDV, DVCPRO HD, DNxHD, (sounds like a DNxHD QT codec now? YES), can do After Effects and write to DNxHD now, XDCAM HD support as well, FireWire ingest for all those.
-since FireWire ingest for all these, can now do full screen output for previews
-for portable editing, since can FireWire ingest, a
-can use screen for monitoring video
-Xpress Pro 5.5
-telecine metadata integrated directly for keycode etc., all that works in Xpress Pro
-the little things - normal and advanced pulldown, 23.976 to 24.0 conversion,
-autosync for dual system sound to marry up 2-pops to slates to sync it directly
-HDV - there is a single Mac/PC release, any release has one license that'll run on both, has a hardware key (dongle) to limit to one running seat at a time
-Media management can let you use a FireWire drive for whole production for Mac & PC
-projects can move back and forth Mac/PC
-24p & 24F support for HDV? NOT yet, just NTSC and PAL frame rates, but do have 24p for DVCPRO HD, and for DVCPRO range for Varicam, 1200A deck, FireWire ingest, it'll pull out the flags for 720p24 as well as over/undercrank
-HDV - no 24p yet
-P2 support for HVX? YES
-support for the new JVCs (GY-HD200 & 250?)? NO SUPPORT YET
-Canon - no 24F support yet either, just 50i and 60i
-what's above Xpress Pro?
-software only version of Media Composer
-Avid Interplay is a big new thing - "a whole collaborative production environment" - for workgroup stuff
-Interplay is about helping people collaborate, it is a common asset manager sitting on Avid Unity for example. Is a database and more, allows handoff and assigning sub parts to others, signing assets in and out - like Content Management Systems for video, this'll be great for large workgroups and facilities. Like CMS, version control, version history, check in and check out. Hangs onto previous versions so you have version control. Multi-resolution too. Integrated tool can see from Media Composer, tools for producers and assist stations, MPEG-4 for logging etc. For people like doc makers, can have a simple logging app for low bandwidth proxies for logging info.
-that leads into Media Composer in terms of workflow - when creating a collaborative environment, need it to be accessible. Media Composer as a software client, connects that broad base production environment. For those that are familiar with Media Composer, can run it Mac or PC and is handy for them
-Media Composer vs. XPress Pro, is a price point issue - more tools, resolutions, format support in Media Composer software only. Xpress Pro takes you 90% of the way - got the impression the toolset is richer/deeper with Media Composer software only version (if anybody has detailed analysis of the differences, I'd love to know - tell me via the Comments link at end of article)
-XPress Pro is $1695, $4995 for the software only Media Composer
-Media Composer hardware - is Adrenaline, but new stuff for Xpress Pro and Media Composer is Mojo SDI, it is same form factor and connectivity (FW400), can take from Digital Betacam, etc., now has SDI (not HD-SDI). HD typically comes in over FireWire for HDV and DVCPRO HD
-for HD, gotta use DNxHD and HD-SDI for Adrenaline (or uncompressed) at 145 or 220 mbit for DNxHD
-DNxHD is wavelet based? No, is motion JPEG type, DCT based
-new DNx intro'd at the show, which is DNxHD 36, 36mbit/sec, for offline DNxHD throughputs. Found lots of folks wanted HD res offline, folks were having issues using DV etc., so now you have a full raster 36 mbit offline, and don't have to deal with weird aspect ratios etc. Can EDIT on Xpress Pro, but gotta have Media Composer level stuff to capture it.
-can you transcode in software to DNxHD 36? He thinks so, should be able to do that
-new Studio Toolkit option, is 3 apps with Media Composer or Xpress Pro: Avid DVD, Avid 3D and Avid Effects (guess at what they do based on names), big news there is Avid DVD now supports Blu Ray. Why Blu Ray? Because Blu Ray burners are out first, so that's why they are supporting it first. HD DVD to follow later, just what's out now. Hope to release this in July, will be first time you can capture HDV (or DVCPRO HD), edit it and burn it to Blu Ray disc.
-players are coming out this fall for Blu Ray
-HD DVD in the future? "Absolutely, we'll support that, there's nothing we can do now with the absence of an HD DVD burner." Avid has licensed their tech from Sonic, and Sonic is showing both HD DVD and Blu Ray burning. There's no political taking sides going on, just that Blu Ray burners are out first.
-Nice updates to Avid 3D, it isn't about 3D modelling (go SoftImage XSI for that), it is for flying text around, or bringing in an existing 3D object and flying around and stuff, it's for graphics and titles not traditional 3D animation. To make bringing in a 3D model as "no big deal" as bringing in a Targa still and doing stuff with it.
-for finishing - if want 1080p 10bit 4:4:4, gotta get into DS Nitris v8, now have dual link support for 10 bit RGB. What about 10 bit log? I was talking to the wrong guy for that, that's somebody else.

Got a new render from Jim Jannard over at Red Digital Cinema Camera Company of the latest iteration of their Cage One, the mounting cage for bolting "stuff" onto the camera (mikes, lights, extra batteries, who knows what).

The sides are now flat, better for mounting stuff. The top handle is next to get flattened he said.

I suggested the following, but I'm no shooter so I don't know if these are valid/useful feedback. What do YOU folks think? Use the Comments link just below the end of this article to give your $0.02, it'll get back to Jim (actually, he'll read'em I'll bet):

1.) Should there be more than one set of holes on the diagonal parts (top and bottom) of the side parts of the cage? And for the holes on that diagonal part, would they/should they be perfectly horizontal, or perpendicular to that angled surface?

2.) Should there be holes in the top and bottom-most parts of the cage - as in the surfaces that would rest on the ground if you set it down as shown - maybe screw in/bolt on rubber feet?

3.) Would there be any use/utility to having vertical as well as horizontal holes in the cylindrical rods that run longitudinally on the cage?

What do you folks think? I'm no shooter, so I don't know if my suggestions are of any use, just thinking along the lines of Legos and erector sets -- more holes = mo' bettah.

Use the comments link right below this.

Labels: Red

UPDATE Monday AGAIN (late that night) - see bottom


OK, today is a "money where your mouth is" day - waaaaaaaaay over a year ago I was talking about doing telecine, and why not do uncompressed straight to disk? Some companies were doing scans, but realtime telecine most shops were doing tape.

So as I type this, I'm sitting in a post house watching the footage play out of the telecine down two HD-SDI cables into a Mac G5 with an HD-SDI card and a high speed array. So far we've captured about half an hour of footage and no dropped frames, we've got about two more hours of footage to go. This is the second pass at this stuff, a few weeks ago they did it but a power outage killed the RAID so it had to be done again. Since the session was save in the telecine, we're just loading up the reels and running with it.

We're also using a pseudo-log adjustment developed before I got involved in the project - so if all goes right, we're getting 10 bit RGB log out of the telecine, and recording it in an ABSOLUTELY LOSSLESS fashion.

Once I get home with all the data, I'll be converting it to a viable offline editing format for the producer, and away he'll go to edit.

This'll be fun - this is a workflow I've been meaning to do for a long time, and now I'm actually doing it.

Always cool.

UPDATE 2PM - we've captured 11 rolls without a dropped frame, but dropped frames twice on roll 12 - probably because my array was getting full, or there was a bad spot on a drive, or something like that. So I purged some drive space (had some files that were redundant backups) and kept on going just fine. But we've got this roll and one more after this and we're done. OK, almost done - we're going to optically push in on part of a roll and capture that as HD as well - better to push in optically with the telecine rather than digitally with Shake or whatever he's going to use for post.

2:15 pm - all rolls captured, after freeing up some space on the drives we're going to capture that optically pushed in chunk.

2:20pm - that's done, we pushed in quite a bit optically and panned over to get what we wanted. Amazing how much you can push in optically and 1920x1080 STILL looks GOOD!. Now it's time to pack up to head out in time for our travel arrangements...we're ahead of schedule, so I'm psyched - no last minute panic sprinting to make it home...

-mike

MONDAY UPDATE - over the weekend, met with Sam Jorgenson, the director of the short film, and talked workflow.

We also got backups rolling to a row of a half a dozen FireWire drives, backing up from the RAID 0 we captured on to individual FireWire 400 drives (FW800 would have been better but were unavailable in the timeframe we were dealing with). Sloooooow - took about 12-15 hours (let it burn through afternoon into the wee hours). 27-33 MB/sec transfer speeds.

I'm cooking down an offline version for him right now, on a dual 2.0 GHz G5 looks like it takes about 4:1 to go from 1920x1080 uncompressed 10 bit 4:4:4 RGB down to anamorphic DV for his offline edit. So the roughly 2 1/2 hours, 1.7 TB of data will be come about 25 or so GB of DV and take about 10 hours to get there.

Interesting to note that FCP is only using about 80% or so of a single processor's worth of power to do this. And the RAID is reading data at a small fraction of the speed it is capable of (checking Activity Monitor), so clearly it is not the bottleneck. I'm wondering where the bottleneck is that limits the conversion speed here? Something in FCP or QT that is only single threaded, and not very efficient? The CPU and disk could both run about 4 times faster than current load in theory (if I ran it on the Quad G5), so what's slowing it down? Anybody know, or care to take an educated guess?

I'm going to sit down in next day or two with his VFX supervisor/editor and talk about workflow to make absolutely sure we have a perfect matchback workflow for offline/online the way we've planned it.

Folks asked a lot of questions about why I'm doing this - boils down to cost, full control and max quality. I'll detail it out further later.

But it is NOT a one light pass!

-mike

Monday night update: So I tested a few things today. Converting to DV took about what I expected - 10 hours. Yikes! There should definitely be a better way to do this, I have some thoughts on that, but haven't done it yet.

Cooked down to JPEG 2000 just to see how that would do - using about 95% quality roughly (93-98% I'd guess), it compressed to about 1/3 of the original size. Very slight differences in color values - using an 8 bit difference filter, I could tell that MOST pixels were different color than the original 10 bit 4:4:4 RGB. But when I turned up the difference filter threshold (as in show me all pixels that aren't an exact match) to 1% different from source, very very few pixels were different. Zooming in several hundred percent to see individual pixels and toggling views between 10 bit source and 8 bit JPEG2000 compressed, I couldn't eyeball a difference, even using After Effects' camera shutter tool to flip back and forth - not even a change in the pixel noise/grain structure. So it's pretty darned close to the original, at least in the first 8 bits (you can't see beyond 8 bits/channel on a computer screen). JPEG2000 took a while to cook, too. But faster than the DV downcovert, since no pixel math involved. But I had been thinking about using that for a second backup as a Just In Case of drive failure. I'd need to do some more granular testing to find out exactly where quality started to be perceptibly different - try at 85-98% quality in 2% increments or so. But I'd need to make some smaller (2 seconds not 5 1/2 minute!) clips to do that.

Did some very picky work on workflow, starting to get into The Matchback Problem and want to verify that my theory is perfect before getting too far into it. I'm 99.9% sure I can get there, just want to avoid any pitfalls and thoroughly document all the steps along the way to get good results.

-mike

Adult Film Studio Offers Downloads to DVDs - Yahoo! News

Starting Monday, Vivid Entertainment says it will sell its adult films through the online movie service CinemaNow, allowing buyers to burn DVDs that will play on any screen, not just a computer.
It's another first for adult film companies that pioneered the home video market and rushed to the Internet when Hollywood studios still saw it as a threat.


This isn't indie filmmaker stuff (not the usual sense), and it isn't HD, so why am I covering this? Because porn is always first to exploit new distribution methodologies effectively. So making an indie film? Read up on this stuff to know what your distribution options are. Not everybody is going to get theatrical, and EVERYBODY makes more money from DVD sales than theatrical releases anyway.

So read up on this porn stuff today. If your SO catches you, tell'em it is research.

If HR or IT complains that you're surfing Vivid's site during work hours, tell'em it's research. With a straight face.

He/she might even believe you.

: )

-mike

Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player

While the footage looks great, it took 35 seconds for the player to boot up, and an ADDITIONAL 47 seconds from disk insert until ANYTHING showed up on the screen when a movie was inserted.

"Not recommended under any circumstances, even for early adopters."

....so yeah, I'm waitin' for something else, even though I'm looking forward to watching high def movies.

-mike

UPDATE: Some folks are having trouble, esp., w/Intel Macs, Adobe Version Cue to blame, see details here.

Apple - Support - Downloads - QuickTime 7.1

QuickTime 7.1 is an important release that delivers numerous bug fixes, support for iLife %u201906, and H.264 performance improvements. This update is highly recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.


Mike's Comments - Haven't installed it yet myself, don't recommend folks in midproduction do so either (I always say that, not just for this version), but the big deal seems to be "improved H.264 performance" - they don't clarify whether that is for encoding or decoding performance increases. Somebody test old and new and let me know.

-mike

Sony Global - Press Release - Panasonic and Sony Jointly Developed New HD Digital Video Camera Recorder


The 'AVCHD' is an HD digital video camera format for recording 1080i*1 and 720p*2 signals onto 8cm DVD media by using highly efficient codec technologies. The format employs MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3) or Linear PCM for audio codec. This makes it possible to develop HD video camera recorders which achieve compact size as well as high-quality video and audio.

The MPEG-4/H.264 codec is a promising technology which is over two times more efficient than MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 codec technologies. By adopting this technology, an 'AVCHD' video camera recorder can record high quality HD video images onto 8cm DVD media.


Mike's Comments - H.264...hmm....first off, this is yet another camera system that is recording to a digital format for ACQUISITION in the same compression style used for DISTRIBUTION....and that is not ideal. But H.264 is a very very efficient codec - so at 18mbits, I'd imagine it should be able to at LEAST hold it's own against 25mbit HDV, if not do better.

BUT...H.264 has very high encode/decode processing requirements. I can say with certainty already that on a given system, you'll be able to do less realtime effects with this AVCHD format than you'll be able to with HDV (unless there is graphics card acceleration or something unique to it), and if you think your conform and encode times are long with HDV, just you wait! This also implies that all other things being equal on a system, AVCHD will be capable of fewer RT effects that rely on CPU in Final Cut or similar NLEs, since the CPU will be spending more time just decoding the signal. So when contemplating shooting HD, for instance, DVCPRO HD will allow for more RT effects than HDV, and HDV will allow more than AVCHD (aka H.264 encoded).

Also, the 8cm DVD format - good luck getting that to properly insert and read on a slot loading drive, such as is standard in iMacs, minis, and all Apple laptops. Hopefully the cameras will have a FireWire or similar port.

The good news is that desktop based systems, IF they have proper codec and NLE support, it'll be a snap - just drop the disk in the tray and import the files. The good thing about this format is that it won't be any problem to archive - just plunk these cheap discs on a shelf.

This format also opens up the possibility of playing these things back on a Blu Ray player, but I don't know if that's for sure, but I'm betting that's the game plan since it is Sony and the press release mentions living rooms and HDTVs.

They don't say what the color space is for the format, and I don't know off the top of my head whether H.264 implies a 4:2:0, 4:2:2, or what for the color sampling (UPDATE: it is 4:2:0, says so right on the graphic I posted, I just looked right past it - thanks to reader for pointing that out - duh....). It is an 8 bit format, and it records to an 8cm DVD. Those things hold 1.4 GB of data - is about twenty minutes of footage.

Audio - the format includes the ability to do up to 7.1 channels, and 5.1 channels using AC-3 compressed audio, or even uncompressed linear PCM for stereo at up to 1.5 mbits.

Other good news - they are already, right from the get-go, recognizing the demand for 24p, so that you'll get 24p available in BOTH 1080 and 720 resolutions - this is GREAT!

Other advantages - hello, it is a disk, so you've got non-linear access. How fancy they get with this, and how much it is treated as an IT/file based system rather than a tape-and-timecode based system remains to be seen. For that matter, will it support 24 hour timecode? Somebody on the DVInfo.net form already postulated that Panasonic will have higher bitrate versions for their professional cameras, but I've seen no evidence of that yet. Sony is said to be developing a camera based on this tech, again wait and see how good it is.

Ready, set, speculate! as Chris Hurd has said in the past about new tech, and I want to thank him for pointing this new tech out to me. Also, he already has a discussion thread going on over on his DvInfo.net site if you want to get into it over there, or feel free to post here using the comment link below.

-mike

MacWorld coverage here

There was so much to see at NAB, I had to break Day 4 up into several groups of photos:

NAB2006Day4pt1 has pictures of:

Silicon Color Final Touch HD & Final Render, Tangent, ADTX, S.two Take2, EditShare, Panasonic Plasma 103 inch HDTV, FireStor DTE FS-100, AJ-HDX900 specs, Mini35, Editcam HD, HJVC GY-HD200 & GY-HD250, 16mm lens adaptor, redrock micro 35mm adaptor, JVC 1920x1080 LCD, 9” HD CRT

Mike note: More pics to come throughout the day, and I'll be (hopefully) mentioning photos and linking when I post commentary on stuff from show floor. I need to add comments to the pictures. It is sooooo incredibly lame that even with the new iWeb, iPhoto does NOT hand off your picture comments to iWeb when trying to publish albums to the web - so I have to copy and paste and edit down....incredibly inefficient in this digital world! I have to go meet a client, more later today, I'll just update this page, so keep checking back.

Whee! And only two weeks late! What kind of party did he go to?
NAB 2006 Day Three has pictures of:

Pictures from Day Three of NAB 2006 - Ted Schilowitz, Red One Digital Cinema Camera, AIM Award, Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR, Autodesk, XDCAM HD import, Sony booth & many cams, Grass Valley Infinity, Thomson Viper Venom Flashpak, Varizoom, La Cie, Elvis, FCP User Group

50 or so pics. More pics from Day Four coming up soon.

Lots of good stuff and comments in there.

I could be really good and document it all for you lazy folks, but Only The Worthy Who Click will know what's in there.

: )

Seriously though - good stuff.

-mike

Yeah, yeah, razz me for being late but I'm just now getting back through all my notes and stuff. Here's what I learned in the Apple booth this year at NAB, in order that I liked'em:

NAB 2006-Apple Booth
=====================

In general, a pretty mild NAB for Apple - new 17" laptops with a few more features than the 15, no new towers, no new version of Final Cut Studio other than version 5.1 which shipped a few weeks ago. Tech demos of 24p HDV support, and some interesting 3rd party tools, but nothing "oh wow" from Apple itself. Rumor sites, eat your hearts out - now new Mega Final Cut, and no changes whatsoever to the XServe RAID, not even in price.

New PowerBooks

Apple introduced their 17" MacBook Pros, similar to the 15" model except for:
-bigger screen - 1680x1050 vs 1440x900
-FireWire 800 (none on the 15")
-2.16 GHz Core Duo (instead of 1.83, 2.0 standard on the 15, 2.16 is CTO only)
-three not two USB 2.0 ports
-6.8 not 5.6 pounds
-8x dual layer Superdrive instead of 4x single layer

The addition of FireWire800 brings me a big sigh of relief - there is now a standard high speed bus on these guys. The 8x dual layer DVD burner is also a noteworthy feature, but the main thing is the screen size - if you want/need more desktop real estate, this is the way to go.
All MacBook Pros of any size use the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics chipset, the question is whether it has 128 or 256 MB of VRAM - the stock 1.83 15" has only 128 MB VRAM, the 2.0 and faster machines have 256. I could see this making a difference when using Motion, for instance, and as more professional applications start to lean on the GPU for horsepower, this will matter.

Sony XDCAM HD import (& export?) into FCP

-Sony XDCAM HD import - go to a File Import==> XDCAMHD, it launches Sony XDCAM Transfer, a little standalone application (SEE & LINK PICS)
-you get little preview clips of the shots
-you can play back these low res proxies
-can preview and set ins and outs and acquire just the parts you want
-you can set MULTIPLE ins and outs and grab just the chunks you want - you have a little queue you can build up from
-one implementation annoyance - while CAN import in background, the window leaps to front every time it finishes a clip (or perhaps subclip as well)
-you connect to the camera via FireWire
-proxies come in as low res proxies at about 40x realtime
-while it is pulling in other proxies, you can already be editing other stuff that's already in
-it is a Sony product, not shipping yet, will by from Sony it would appear
-CAN do 35mbit on the timeline - will require a newer version of FCP. The version of FCP that will support this isn't shipping yet (DEFINITELY need a new version for 24p support), and the Sony XDCAM Transfer app isn't shipping yet either. A month-ish was the demo guy's guesstimate I think (that's from top of head not notes, so could be wildly off base there)
-Sony XDCAM HD stuff, may or may not need a new version of FCP for XDCAM HD stuff, and it won't be too long of a wait somebody somewhere said. No idea how official or informed that statement was.
-timecode on the XDCAM HD stuff does build as you go, and the transfer app works with SD & HD footage, 18, 25, and 35 mbit
-it'll require v5.1 FCP with some new codec update that's coming in a few weeks or whatever, the Sony Transfer app is in beta and is expected to ship in a few weeks (or whatever). No solid dates there, just general guidelines
-25mbit is Apple's recommended, with 18 & 35mbit won't get RT effects at present, perhaps some future version will give RT support. But for now, if concerned about RT FX w/FCP, 25 megabit CBR on XDCAM HD is the recommended way to go for FCP.

"Technology Demonstrations" of 24p support for JVC and Canon 24p HDV

-they weren't previewing new versions of FCP, just showing some tech demos of what will be possible soonish - but the important part was support for native 24p HDV editing on the timeline in FCP. If I had to make a wild guess, I'm thinking June for this, and maybe it'll be 5.2 or 5.1.2 or something, but these features alone don't qualify for a v5.5 update in my mind. And Apple wasn't showing off any other significant new stuff. I'm surprised at Apple - this was kind of a funky way to show things off - if they were only 3 weeks from NAB when they released v5.1, why NOT wait and have that be the new thing to show off? Perhpas they didn't want to be showing off "new features" supporting Intel with no serious, production grade desktops available to support it.

Digital Heaven's AutoMotion in the Apple booth - cool animated script based thing to do cool stuff in Motion. From their website - AutoMotion is a groundbreaking new application which automates the production and management of multiple graphics in conjunction with Apple’s Motion. So it's a standalone adjunct is the way they make it sound. I saw a very brief demo of it, looked cool. So if you need to crank out a bunch of title graphics all formatted the same way, here's your ticket is what they're trying to pitch this as.

-DVD Studio Pro - showing version 4.1 in the booth - same version we already had as of a few weeks ago. Key benefits - now includes HD DVD v1.0 (final) specifications, so discs authored w/v4.0.3 or 4.1 should play back correctly on the shipping HD DVD players. Oh, and since is a Universal binary, runs on Intel and G4/G5 based Macs. (PDF with v4.1 release notes is here).

Live editing during ingest with PictureReady was shown on the show floor - enables real time replay and editing of footage as it is recorded. Good for live event/news production. Here's a link to an Apple page discussing its use during Tour de France.

Video Asset Management with Proximity Artbox - Proximity Artbox is a video asset manager:
-$20K setup
-for big shops
-client/server setup
-does low res proxies for your shots and clips
-what indies might this be viable for? Big production, well funded docs might want to use this to go through all of their shots in a hurry, but for most indies this is overkill

Xsan got a version bump to v1.3 I believe, nothing too terribly exciting, I think I heard them say LUNs bigger than 2TB - if that's a new feature, I'm surprised, that shoulda been in there a long time ago for the file sizes HD is playing with.

Also in the booth they were showing Final Touch HD doing HD color correction in real time (it's still not QUITE realtime from field reports I hear, I need to test that myself), AJA Kona3 doing 2K at both 2048x1556 (traditional film scan spec) and 2048x1080 (DCI spec) resolutions.

And that was pretty much it that I saw that was of interest - I don't get excited about LiveType and that kind of thing.

-mike

Aperture 1.1 review : Page 1

For those who haven't followed the life of this still image manipulation program, Aperture 1.0 turned out to blow chunks. Chunky pixels, that is.

Version 1.1.1 fixes most of v1.0's sins, and while still lacking some basic tools (Selective color correction? Curves adjustments? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?), it is Getting There.

So why am I writing about this? Read this, because things like this may well start popping up in future post workflows - there are a number of cameras that are using single sensors and recording in RAW mode (ARRI D-20, Panavision Genesis, the forthcoming cameras from Silicon Imaging, Red, and Vision Research).

Once in RAW, there are choices that can be made that will affect how the image looks, and tradeoffs to be made that you might not want to leave to a "everybody gets treated the same" algorithm in the conversion process. Even working from the same data, subtle changes can make significant viewing differences. Read up on the RAW interpretation stuff in this review, and you'll see how old and new versions of Aperture compare to two other RAW processing tools already on the market.

In the Fyoo-Chorr, there will be other issues raised for RAW image file formats in moving images - things that are fine in a still may become an issue once there are temporal issues - standing or shifting noise or repeating patterns frame to frame, stuff like that.

Anyway, file this under Future Think as it isn't a production issue today. But if you want to be Bleeding Edge Tech Guy (or Girl), then it is something to be aware of and start thinking about.

-mike

CinemaTech: Big Month for BitTorrent

The file-sharing service BitTorrent will start offering movies and TV shows from Warner Bros. as soon as this summer, according to Chris Gaither of the LA Times. Gaither points out that BitTorrent can be harder for novices to use than Apple's iTunes Music Store.


This and the Brightcove/TiVO article are interesting hints of where movie distribution is going - and where indies can possibly get a foot in the door.

-mike

CinemaTech: Brightcove TiVo: Getting Net Video onto the TV

The Internet is a great tool for distributing video content ... and yet the computer screen is such a bad place for watching it. Brightcove and TiVo are hoping to solve that problem for anyone who owns a Series 2 TiVo that's connected to the Internet. The two companies will deliver Net video to a TiVo set-top box.


Sounds interesting! It's definitely a possible fix for "the last 3 yards" problem (from the computer to the TV).

-mike

Intel Mini

MacInTouch readers discuss home theater options using Macs (minis often), handbrake, Front Row, etc. If you're thinking about using an Intel based mini as a home theater PC, this is a great place to check in for tools to use. There are, of course, whole websites dedicated this, but I'm too lazy to look up links right now.

Pray to Google.

-mike

...is way late. I'd planned on putting up Big Summaries, but it is taking waaaaay too long. Whole days go by when I don't transcribe anything. So I'm going to just start posting up what I've got, before it all gets totally stale and dated. Lots of good stuff, stand by, it's on the way starting later today. Posting will be somewhat alphabetical, as that's how I started transcribing my audio notes, alpha by company.

-mike

UPDATED for the fourth time Wednesday - "we weren't wrong, Apple delayed! it Yeah right...see bottom

Updated for third time on Monday afternoon, 4:40 PM CST - again, see bottom

UPDATED YET AGAIN SATURDAY: SEE BOTTOM

Think Secret - Briefly: MacBook's day this coming Tuesday

ThinkSecret is reporting that MacBooks will be announced on Tuesday. My best guess of what they will be:
-single core not dual core
-no FW800
-no Express/34 slot
-13.3 inch screen (widely reported)
-1152 by something resolution? It'd be nice to have it be 1280 pixels wide, which is the exact width of the lowest HD resolution. Hmm....If the 15" MacBook Pro is 1440x900, scaling that back a coupla inches would seem plausible to get 1280x720 or better...we'll have to wait and see. It be GREAT if it was 1280, but it also would be fairly high res for their consumer notebook.
-Will there be a DVI out port on their consumer model?
-Will it be typical silver or white? If Apple comes out with a 13.3, 1152 res, no FW800, no DVI, white laptop....I ain't buyin' yet. I'll hold out and see if they come out with a 13.3 MacBook Pro, with added DVI and a silver finish.

Thinking about it, I can live without FW800 (have been on this one for a couple of years, my 12" G4 PBook), I can live without the expansion port (but I'd really like to have it as well), but I GOTSTA HAVE DVI. That's how you connect to all the good stuff, and I DO use that feature on a fairly regular basis.

Since MacBook is a consumer product, will it be iPod white? Or iPod shiny metal and white? Or maybe in white and black? I could live with black (just don't leave it on the black leather seats in the car on a hot Texas summer day), but again, I can't live without DVI out.

OK, end of rant.

By the way - does anybody know if they make an s-video out for the MacBook Pro? It'd be nice if ONE of these days there was a component analog output on a laptop, esp. if it could do HD. But that definitely sounds like a Pro feature to me.

-mike

UPDATE

Well, I postulate and then AppleInsider comes down with their article.

Here's what they say:
-development finished last month
-production has begun
-WILL be called MacBooks
-Core Duo (OK, I was wrong on that one - good!)
-built-in iSight (same as all other new Macs)
-magnetic latching system
-magloc power plug same as other Intel based laptops
-bundled with Front Row and PhotoBooth (is that new? Never heard of it - Aperture Lite kind of a thing?)
-iMac white (DRAT!)
-possible color options on top of white.
-make mine BLACK.

-mike

FURTHER UPDATE SATURDAY:
Updated ThinkSecret article from above now says:

Further, sources report that the MacBook will be thinner than current iBooks, will be available in both black and white configurations, and will likely cost slightly more than previous iBook models—not unlike the price increase Apple's Mac mini saw with its transition to Intel processors.

Hmm....I may be getting one of these, but I'll wait a bit for the "1.0 bugs" to get cleared out of hardware...unless I hear rumors that there will be a 13.3 MacBook Pro. There really wasn't too much differentiation between the 12" iBooks and the 12" Powerbooks, just some port removal and speed drops for the iBooks. It would appear Apple is simplifying their product lineup during the transition to Intel with a single 13.3" consumer laptop (rather than 12 and 14" models). As for cost increases mentioned above, this makes sense - Intel chips were quite a bit more costly than the Motorola G4 chips used in the iBook/PowerBook products. In any case, my understanding is that there is not going to be a 13.3 MacBook Pro - anybody heard otherwise?

-mike

UPDATE MONDAY AFTERNOON

Ah, rumor sites - gotta love'em. After telling us it'll be Tuesday, now AppleInsider is telling us "wellllll, maybe not Tuesday after all" (my paraphrasing). At this point, I'm thoroughly convinced that the rumor boards simply spin out stories in order to drub up traffic, and like lemmings we rush to the trough (to mangle the metaphor. Or meat-a-for. Pigs, lemmings, whatevah.)

Update Wednesday morning

So yesterday when nothing happened at Apple, ThinkSecret declared "Apple pulled its MacBook announcement, expected today, at the last minute due to supply issues related to the new laptop. The MacBook is now slated to arrive next week."

Uh huh, suuuuuuuuure, right guys - you've been spot on all along, it's APPLE who changed something, not you guys hyping us up over vapor for the umpteenth time. See, if they keep saying "It's due next week!" eventually they'll be able to say "Yep - told ya so. Had it right."

I realized I don't even need to change the headline now - it's ALWAYS going to ship "this coming Tuesday", pick any Tuesday you like.

I'm getting so sick of covering this stufff, thinking it is aabout to happen....I don't know which is worse - the "nothing till it happens" attitude of Apple, or the Chicken Little rumor sites spouting off every nine seconds about Apple shipping Sliced Bread 2.0 next Tuesday....of course, if/when Apple does ship MacBooks, I'll be happy about it...probably.

-sour grapes mike

AppleInsider | Fox delivers 16 series to iTunes Music Store

So there are now more than 90 different TV shows (not episodes of shows, but 90 different SHOWS) available for purchase and download on iTunes.

I don't recall where I heard or read it, but somebody else was saying that there wasn't that compelling a reason for Apple to sell movies online, but there was for TV shows. The reasoning went like this:

1.) There are plenty of avenues for watching movies already - between video on demand (anybody ever use this regulary? Bueller? Bueller?) and DVDs available at either your corner Blockbuster, via Netflix, or for sale in retail at Walmart or for sale online via Amazon.com - who needs to be buying lesser quality versions online?

2.) Whereas for TV shows, if you miss it on Tuesday you can download it on Wednesday. And the DVDs don't come out until after the end of the season at the soonest - so there is a compelling reason for buying and downloading the TV shows (this is how I watched all the Battlestar Galacticas that weren't on the DVDs several months ago).

As gung ho as I am for Apple to push into the living room market with Mac minis as home theater servers, I have to admit that this argument makes sense.

AMUG Sonnet Fusion 500P 5 Bay SATA PM Enclosure Review

The AMUG folks have done another excellent in depth review, this time on the Sonnet Fusion 500 5 bay SATA enclosure with port multiplication support (means you can connect up to 5 drives using only one SATA cable to host).

The unit is quiet, looks good, keeps drives relatively cool, and the only drawbacks of note are the requirement for a port multiplying HBA card (the SATA card in your computer) and the drive modules can be a little finicky to insert.

Read on for all the details on this $500 enclosure, which Sonnet DOES sell bare, a move I vastly appreciate, laud, herald, et cetera.

I would have bought one of these the other week but they were backordered, I've got a 5 bay MacGurus Burly port multiplying enclosure I'm happy with so far, I'll post more on it later.

-mike

AppleInsider | Intel gives name to next-generation chips

What have been codenamed Merom and Conroe will be referred to as "Core 2 Duo" chips when they launch in Q3.

Woodcrest, the high end desktop and server chip targetted at high performance enthusiasts (uh....us!), will be called "Core 2 Extreme." But the bigger news is that these Woodcrest chips will begin shipping in June, much earlier than expected. Conroe (not so high end desktop) ships July, and Merom (laptop) ships August.

So this lends credence to the possibility of Apple showing (and possibly shipping upon or shorly thereafter) ProMacs (or whatever the high powered, highly expandable desktop Macs will be called) during the WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference), which was rescheduled from it's usual May/June timeframe to August this year. We'll verifiably be seeing OS X 10.5, and now there's good odds we'll be seeing those new tower Macs as well, that should be of keen, keen interest to folks wanting to cut HD.

Video games a key battlefield in high-def DVD war - Yahoo! News

Since the two big new consoles will support different high def DVD formats, the video game platforms may be strong influences on which high def DVD format is dominant -

Microsoft's XBox 360 will support HD DVD (as will the Vista operating system), while

Sony's PS3 will support Blu Ray.

Xbox 360 has already shipped, but Microsoft says that there will be an HD DVD module to add to it to allow HD DVD movie playback. Xbox 360 lists for about $400 as is.

PS3 will have Blu Ray as the native media format, and is "widely expected" to hit the market at $499 - the E3 conference coming up would be a likely time for them to commit to a price point.

So $400 plus the cost of the HD DVD unit for movie playback for Xbox 360/HD DVD combo, and $500 for PS3 including Blu Ray onboard.

Mike's Comments:The first computer Blu Ray burners (not just playback) are shipping for $1000, and the first HD DVD consumer players are about $500 at minimum. Even with Microsoft's collosal buying power and an incentive to deliver a low cost product, I seriously doubt MS will be able to offer a $100 HD DVD module to maintain price parity with the PS3's playback abilities (at least, not without eating LARGE costs on a per unit basis). And if MS were to be willing to take a loss for the movie playback module....why would they? Cheap Xbox 360 means more licensing fees for MS. Cheap playback unit means more money for...somebody else.

OK, so remember that MacBook Pro vs. wait for MacIntel desktop debate I published the other week? So I emailed my friend Zane once I got back in town after NAB, and asked if he'd made a decision yet, and specifically if he'd bought a 15" MacBook Pro before the 17" was announced.

He wrote back, and I cut comments in. Zane is in italics, I'm in plain text below:

On May 4, 2006, at 12:10 PM, R. Zane Rutledge wrote:

Mike:

Didn't buy yet. Was waiting for local Apple Store to get the 17" in, just so I can go cozy up to it and imagine/visualize working portable for awhile.

Still trying to weigh the pros (portable Starbuckyness, now) versus the possible cons (power, slots/expansion, mostly for raw capture). I'm also just slightly hung up on the fact that the resolution is close but not quite the 1080 ideal for a fullscreen of highest HD. Not sure why that bugs me, but it does a little. (Of course I have the external Dell 24" for that output, but hey.)

Yeah, I have the same quibble, but a 1920x1080 on a Mac laptop is asking a LOT. And if you have the Dell, that pretty much puts that to rest.

I certainly did read the writeup, and appreciate the post in addition to all the thoughts you put into it. Anything post-NAB that factors additionally for you one way or the other now? I do think eSATA/ExpressCards for $200 makes the portable RAID idea nice, not to mention the Matrox MXO as a possible $1000 box off of it.

I think those (eSATA and Matrox MXO for HD-SDI & SDI out) are HUGE factors. Coupla things that make me wonder: Express/34 isn't as fast as the PCIe slots, so - how fast of a RAID can I set up (barefeats.com has a review of this thing with a two drive setup, up to 146 MB/sec!) is one question, and does it support port multiplication is the other (dunno yet, emailed 'em). And if it does do PM, what's the max data rate on that bus, since Express/34 isn't as fast as full fledged PCIe slots in desktops. (I think it is single lane, 250 MB/sec max theoretical).

Caveat - SORTA portable RAIDs - we're definitely talking about AC powered, not-small devices here. Keep in mind, SATA (and even eSATA) do NOT carry power on the bus the way FireWire and USB do. And you wouldn't want to power a SATA array off your laptop anyway, if you wanted the battery to last a reasonable amount of time.

Don't know how much uncompressed input is in my immediate future anyway, as long as I can manipulate such data if I need to, and the eSATA and FireWire 800 seem to potentially cover that fairly well. (Is there any path for uncompressed IN to such a laptop you see? ExpressCard to internal drive momentarily? Then shuttled off to external? Just curious.)

Uncompressed in - I talked to vendors at NAB about this, the problem is the only high speed bus in or out of that machine is the Express/34 slot - and that maxes out at 250 MB/sec theoretical. So IF you could do some kind of outboard device with that to capture, the one bus you'd need would be oversaturated by the time you factored in storage. Then there's power problems, etc. I really don't expect to see an integrated HD-SDI input and drive bus solution for these machines, there's no one company with the combined expertise. (I've written about this elsewhere before, just don't recall when). But the possibility of some kind of outboard box for SD output is feasible, using FW400 or FW800 for storage (if not the internal drive). But there are already products like the AJA I/O that do that (FW400 based SD box including SDI in and out).

The 17's inclusion of FW800 is a significant factor for speed.

I *wish* I could actually just use one for a week or so...Load the Windows side with Softimage XSI and drive an external monitor and see if I really feel a difference in general usability. Not to mention just get the flow to Boot Camp and see how MacDrive and such would need to work to really be reasonable. It seems all doable on paper.

Yeah, that'd be nice if they had a Test Drive program. I suppose if you took really good care of it, buy one and return in a week if it didn't meet your needs (just wipe that drive, though)

Half a terabyte of Firewire storage is pretty cost-effective these days as well, and in a fairly portable form. Its just hard to say how much I'm going to need that portability -- it seems dang handy right now, on the jobs that seem likely. But I hate to regret it in 4 months when the new towers hit and blow my mind. Sigh.

Gee, get both!

: )

OK, back on planet earth where budget matters, I'd say it depends on where your priority is - does MOST of the work that you'll do on this thing fit within the hardware capabilities - is it fast enough, have enough RAM and GPU for your needs? If you're going to do 3D, how much of a performance gap will there be between this and a desktop? And how often will that be crucial? Some applications are not too sensitive to performance gaps - Photoshop and Illustrator (woops! Bad examples, no native Mac versions, gotta go Boot Camp!) are "fast enough" for working speeds. It is rare that I've worked on a PShop doc where I waited any meaningful amount of time for something to finish, that would make a meaningful difference at the end of the day. But some things have crucial thresholds - you either are or are not getting realtime, press-play-and-it-happens performance out of apps like Final Cut Pro.

I did talk to a friend about seeing the other partition, it sounds like MacDrive MIGHT be a workable solution for the "seeing the other OS' partition" problem. Haven't confirmed but sounds promising. You can format the PC side FAT-32 to see it from Mac, but then you have a 32GB max volume size limitation, as well as (I think) a 2GB file size limitation. So for cross platform data writing, putting common assets on the Mac partition and using MacDrive to see the Mac volume while booted as PC sounds cool.

And my buddy Charlie Wood is running that other software that lets him do multiple running OS installs, so he has Linux, OS X, and WinXP all running on his 15" MacBook Pro and he's loving it. He's a developer and doesn't need killer graphics performance, so it works well for his needs.


Shrug.

zane


After I sent that, he responded with the following, after I asked if I could use that as a follow up:

Mike:

Sure, feel free to repurpose as you wish, omitting any obvious social frivolity. (And excuse the length here. Man, you and I can be VERBOSE. Heh.)

The TestDrive website is certainly pushing BootCamp possibilities, so it seems to work. I'd much rather have ONE big (and unlimited) storage space for all things production related, and I'd actually rather that be on the Mac side, as long as on the PC side it just shows up as a drive.

My needs definitely include 3D; that's really the main thing I still use a PC for (well, After Effects as well, if performance is better in PC-land). As an XSI preferer (I do Maya work too), I'll definitely still spend time on the Windows side, even after the Adobe suite might be available on the Mac side. But the 3D I do most these days isn't absolute high-end push-the-latest-envelope bells-whistles with heavy scenes and massive character rigs. Doesn't mean I won't get into some stuff on that end, but the usual wireframes or shaded stuff I'm typically previewing in XSI isn't really difficult for a decent game box PC these days. I don't even need the latest multi-proc workstation anymore, just a fast Dell XPS box or something. So I'm imagining the Dual Core and even the graphics card in the MacBook will *probably* be adequate 95% of the time. (Hmm...What is pushing the DVI out to the 24" monitor? The same Radeon X1600 graphics card, right? Yeah. So is that going to be limiting at all while going out to a 24" as well as the 17"? The website touts driving a 30" Apple Cinema HD, so -- hmm -- well, at what resolution? "View more than 4 million pixels..." it says. Meaning both monitors? That should be at least HD on a 30". Well, the specs on this card seem pretty nice, so I think 3D needs ought to be satisfied. Especially with dual-core kicking on other tasks. But it would sure be nice to actually see this in action somewhere, driving a second monitor with, say, Maya or Soft running under Windows. I really think the versus-desktop "performance gap" for 3D will not be that noticeable for most of the 3D I do these days. But I'd still like to see it in action to know for sure. This is probably my biggest hesitation right now on just doing it.)

The other end of my performance needs are of course simply to bring my weary G4 (which is perfectly fine for cutting SD) up to fully HD-capable. I'll be bundling Final Cut Studio, and want to be able to handle the typical HD editing needs (DVCPRO HD, etc) in a cozy way, as well as all the easily-done HDV to go with the lil' camera I've got. I imagine with the 24" as a full preview monitor and the 17" for the workspace, this will be fine, and I do kinda dig the idea of editing mobility (though who knows how much editing I'll ever actually get done at Starbucks). ;-P

So...for 3D and 2D XSI/Photoshop/AE I can imagine this being decent and very handy compared to carting my 24" monitor and my XPS box around. Even with a decent sized Firewire drive and my graphics tablet, I think this would be pretty mobile. For editing it'll be okay. And now that eSATA and MXO make some of the higher-end output/color-correction possible in my home office with the 24", I think true slots/uncompressed capture is really all I'm losing, minus of course whatever power bump or graphics card superiority the new desktops might have. And how much I'd be doing uncompressed capture, compared to simply doing something WITH someone else's uncompressed capture...really remains to be seen.

Would be good to know a bit more about the true bandwidth possible with the ExpressCard slot, as you mention. I think you're right that it's really a limited RAID arrangement, and might not support the fullest uncompressed needs. Wish someone was really testing that to know. (Maybe you can get an eSATA loaner and we can put it all through the paces if I get mine soon?) I can still imagine most severe HD work I do would just be previewed with compression anyway, and then output uncompressed for final delivery. I did a recent 1080 job that was all h264'd till the final, and then delivered to an Avid DNx codec for delivery. Rare I deal with raw source and raw final, though it would be sweet to need to do more of that work and be able to.

I'll let you know how I go, but I'm about 80% convinced I'm going to give the portable thing a try and blow off uncompressed capture for the next short while. RED cameras and other crazy digital filmmaking futures in 2 years or so will have me re-evaluating everything anyway soon enough. For now, the MacBook Pro 17" seems a pretty sweet machine, with lots of pros and a fairly small set of cons for the next little bit.

-zane


...all of which is to say, the casual question of "Can I do what I need to do with a MacBook Pro" is not trivially answered if your living depends on it and you use a wide variety of tools.

I will say that the Matrox MXO and the options of FW800 (see related article today) and SATA (from Firmtek and possibly others) changes the picture for what can and can't be done on a laptop. Now, obviously, there needs to be some field testing to make sure these live up to the promise of what they can do. The throughput of the Firmtek SATA stuff is fast, fast enough for uncompressed SD and SOME forms of HD - just looking at the barefeats #s from two drives, it would be possible in THEORY to do some 720p24 uncompressed work (even 720p30), but NOT 720p60 or any 1080p at any bit depth or frame rate, even 24p. But does it drop frames, is it reliable, etc.? I don't know yet, but hope to find out soon.

The MXO sounds fascinating, and if it works as they say and present could POTENTIALLY be a viable production output for SDI, HD-SDI, component, composite, s-video, etc. But depending on how the inner architecture works, it might only be suitable for less than perfect quality needs, or might be a good monitoring but not a mastering solution, etc. I just need to learn more about how it works and then play with one before rendering a final opinion. I'm not saying it WON'T be production grade, I just haven't VERIFIED that it is production grade and I'm withholing judgement until I can play with and test one myself.

Wait, back on track - so whether a MacBook Pro will work for you can be a subtle question. If you're a VFX/motion graphics type, it's a harder decision than if you're a straight DV/HDV/DVCPRO HD editor. If you ARE a straight up editor, just using Final Cut Studio, and only needing FireWire ingest/export, it's a viable option (but storage issues and possible bus contention issues should be THOROUGHLY researched before committing). Be sure to research all your needs and checkbox all your needs before committing so you're not three grand into it and saying "Ohhhh, shhhhhhhh**********t...." in a month hip deep in a project.

OK, back to the NAB notes, I gotta get that stuff transcribed and published before it's all stale...

And as for the The Texas HD Shootout, Rita Sanders was kind enough to come in and spend about 10 hours organizing footage while I was at NAB, so that is moving forward as well.

Thanks VERY much to Zane for letting me out our conversation here, I think that even if the particulars here don't apply to all the readers, the questions raised should trigger the right questions for others to ask themselves about their particular needs.

And, in the obvious shill mode, if you are contemplating what would be appropriate for your own particular needs, I am indeed, as it says at the top of the page, available for consulting. At the moment my primary mike at hdforindies dot com email is down while server migration isses are resolved, so use hdforindies at mac dot com to reach me until that gets fixed.

-mike

Court skeptical of FCC on broadband wiretap access - Yahoo! News

This is way off topic but I think of relevance to, well, everybody that's reading this. The FCC was trying to extend their wiretapping rights to include broadband internet services, and the judiciary shot it down, even calling the proposal "gobbledygook" at one point. My favorite exchange:

"Your argument makes no sense," Edwards told Jacob Lewis, an associate general counsel with the FCC.

"I'm sorry I'm not making myself clear," Lewis said.

"You're making yourself very clear. That's the problem," Edwards replied.


America's legal system isn't COMPLETELY messed up, apparently...thank whatever entity you wish for that one.

-mike

NitroAV (Akumen Inc)
:: PCI and CardBus Adapters
:: 2-Port NitroAV FireWire800/1394b Professional Express Card (34mm) Interface Adapter (MacBookPro)


Two FireWire 800 ports on an Express/34 adaptor for $90.

This fixes a BIG problem for the 15" MacBook Pros.

-mike

Tepid interest seen for next-generation DVDs in 2006 - Yahoo! News

A poll of Peerflix (hardcore DVD users) found that only about 20% were "somewhat" or more likely to buy a high def player in 2006. Six percent of respondents from this more-than-average-interest group said they were "very likely" to buy a high def player in 2006, and 13% were "somewhat likely."

We were quite surprised to see that a very small number of those die-hard DVD fans envisioned moving into the high-definition format this year," Levy said. "With all the talk and excitement around high-definition DVD they are still a long way away from moving into that format."

Tom Adams, chief executive of Adams Media Research, said the Peerflix numbers were in line with his firm's expectations for early technology adopters.

"If you did a random sample of the general population, it would be a fraction of that," Adams said on Wednesday. "These are heavy movie fans that certainly early on will get a player and they are not too concerned about the format war."

As I wrote last August, having two formats places high def DVDs at extreme risk of becoming Laserdisc 2.0 - expensive, rarely implemented, and difficult to work with.

Macworld: News: Sony delays first Blu-ray Disc titles

Not such a big deal - titles delayed until the 20th, but Blu Ray players aren't expected until the 25th of June.

But both HD DVD and Blu Ray have been suffering delays. HD DVD players and discs went on sale in April.

From another article on the same subject:

Samsung Electronics has originally planned to launch a player on May 23 and Sony's original launch date was chosen to coincide. However, a month ago Samsung said it was delaying the sale of its player. At the time Sony said it wouldn't hold up its Blu-ray Disc launch, but on Thursday said retailers had requested a delay to match Samsung's launch date.


-mike

Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger � My weird life, continued (meeting a Discovery Channel exec)

My friend Charlie Wood sent in this link - it's a blog entry by a Microsoft employee talking about meeting some execs from the Discovery Channel, and they talk about how successful HD has been for them.

So HINT HINT - making a doc? SHOOT IT IN HD! But check first and make sure it meets the target specs of all the networks you want to submit it to. Make sure you KNOW IN ADVANCE what is and isn't acceptable to these folks before deciding on a camera, it can often close you out of certain distribution options.

In any case, more ammo to use to convince yourself or others how much benefit HD can be to a production.

By the way - I pick on MS & WinXP systems much the way I pick on Texas A&M University (the Aggies). I went to the University of Texas at Austin, and the two are long time sports rivals. So I pick on MS as a Mac geek the way I pick on Aggies as a Longhorn. It's fun, but I don't really mean it. Do I have a personal, biased favorite? Yeah. But when somebody asks me about the two, I at least TRY to be balanced about it and recognize my own internal bias.

Also, the blog is still having some issues, but I'm gearing up to do some pretty cool field work/field testing tomorrow, so no time to work on it.

The field test stuff should be very, very interesting to those of you looking to work with film but want to do a high quality, lower cost post production workflow.

Another issue I'm having, however, is my mike at hdforindies dot com email is still down, so I AM NOT RECEIVING ANY MAIL SENT TO THAT ADDRESS. If you want to reach me, use hdforindies at mac dot com.

-mike

Hey all -

so today I embarked on my server migration, essentially peeling myself from the ancient dent in the guest couch at bytestacker, where I've been generously allowed to freely roost since the site was started over two years ago, over to Dreamhost.

The plan was to try to seamlessly migrate, and have the new home all set when the DNS switched over.

Umm, er, uh....didn't happen.

So I'm working on it, I know the site is down sporadically, and has other issues. If you want to email me, my hdforindies.com mail isn't working at the moment, try hdforindies at mac dot com if you need to reach me, or if there's something not so obvious going on (like the site doesn't work with browsers other than Safari or something like that).

At the moment, the main page is working, but images are not. Most of the archived articles are working (back to May 2004), but not all are. I'll be working on it on an ongoing basis, patience please.

I'm still sifting notes from NAB, I'll be dropping big clots of info once I get the site back up and get done sifting notes into categories. I'm thinking of an NLEs posting, a plugins posting, a cameras posting, etc.

-mike

PCWorld.com - First Look: First Blu-ray Burner Is Impressive

-Windows drivers only at this time it would appear
-$1000 burner model
-44:45 minutes to burn 22GB - therefore 67 megabits/sec=8.4 MB/sec
-two lasers - one for read/write Blu Ray, one for read/write DVD
-does NOT write CDs, DOES NOT READ CDs
-doesn't write to dual layer 50GB media
-Sonic has close-but-not-final software for data backup - DigitalMedia SE
-theoretical max is 72mbits/sec for 2x BD-R
-you should be able to play back Blu Ray movies with this thing on your computer, BUT you'll need compatible software for playback, which is not included at this time

Mike's Comments: this is the first step. Yes, it is pricey, yes, nobody else can read these disks if you make them, but this is the first step. Now that SOMEBODY (in this case Pioneer) is shipping an external unit, the idea of Apple having internal Blu Ray burners on the Intel based Macs that are rumored to ship this fall (although I heard that Intel is shipping Merom and Conroe chips this summer, ahead of schedule) is plausible. Certainly not guaranteed, but plausible. It'd be a great move for Apple - if they want to push folks to make the leap from G5 to Intel, including Blu Ray burners would go a long way to push folks over the edge.

-mike

Think Secret - Briefly: MacBook still slated for May, 99 cent songs here to stay

Apple's highly anticipated iBook replacement is still on track for an introduction in May, Think Secret sources recently reiterated. Details remain otherwise unchanged from our early April report.
Internally, Apple is expecting the 13.3-inch MacBook to be the hottest Mac seller for the quarter, sources say, contributing substantially to the company's bottom line, despite its introduction half-way into the quarter.

Mike's Comments: I hope so - if the specs are right, it'll be my next laptop. I really like the compact form factor (I'm writing this on my much-used 12" G4 PowerBook), but I'm concerned that in order to differentiate the pro from consumer product line, they may not offer a dual core processor, and especially FW800 and an Express/34 slot. I'll just have to wait and see and see how I feel about it. If it is single core, FW400 only, no expansion port, that's what the small laptop is going to be for the next year or more most likely, and I'll have to decide then what's "good enough" for what I need. I bought this current laptop thinking I might want to do mobile editing on it every once in a while - and I never have. So that might be a theoretical need that makes me feel better to have, but single core is likely to be much spritelier than this one, and I may just go ahead and do it. But I DON'T want a big honkin' laptop - I love the tiny form factor of this one, and since I have big desktop systems, the laptop is just used for what it is best for - portable writing & browsing.

-mike

Macworld: News: Porn industry may be decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD battle

...and porn industry leaders think that PS-3 (Sony's Playstation 3) will be the "Trojan Horse" that gets a Blu Ray player into a huge number of living rooms this fall/Christmas. And if the kids are playing games by day, Mom and Dad (or Uncle Larry) are watching Blu Ray HD pornos at night seems to be the implication.

Always interesting how matter of fact the press is about the porn industry and it's influence.

: )

-mike

UPDATE-I've received some unconfirmed rumors that Sony is going to play gatekeeper in terms of what gets released on Blu Ray, and that they don't want to release extreme adult (hard core porn) on the format...depending on where they draw the line of what constitutes the "extreme" part of that, this could have a significant impact on the format's success potentially. Porn isn't the driving factor, but it's certainly an influence.

UPDATE- Shane (the poster) pointed out to me that the product is in beta and not commercially available yet.

P2 Genie is a cool little application that helps ingest of P2 cards, to help separate which shots came from which card (which you don't get with normal ingest options):

From Shane Ross' description:

What this does for you is automatically creates a folder, names it (you can preset the name (but keep them short, like 1 and 2 or A3, B4...etc), set your destination (like attached firewire or USB drive) and downloads the entire contents of the card to that folder (CONTENTS and LASTCLIP.TXT) with the press of a button. Open the application...insert card...set the naming scheme, press START BACKUP...done. I've tested it a couple times and man, this is a timesaver.

(found via FresHDV.com)

Apple - Final Cut Studio - Profiles

PR piece about David Fincher making Zodiac and cutting it on FCP. Shot with Viper, using downconverted DVCPRO HD files, they are able to do realtime, 6-up multicam selects to find the right angle and work quickly and smoothly.

Yeah yeah yeah, obviously a PR piece, but talks about the evolution, affordability, accessibility, and upsurgence of desktop based tools to do serious work at a high level.

-mike

Everyone's always been a critic -- but the Net makes their voices count - The Boston Globe

Scott Kirsner who writes the CinemaTech blog I link to so often has a nice column up in the Boston Globe about online amateur critics and the reach of the web. The fact that you are reading this right now is a great indicator of the viability of the web to reach niche audiences via media that don't rely on mainstream masscasting (print publications or TV). The web rocks at being able to connect physically disparate (sometimes desperate) groups with niche interests and let them communicate. I can reach you with the blog, and you can reach me publicly (via commenting using the links below the end of each article) or privately (via email, mike at hdforindies dot com).

In any case, why am I linking to this? Because as indie filmmakers, you should realize that most of the films you folks make may well not be popular with a mass audience. But that's an OK thing - there are audiences to be found out there, and while theatrical distribution is the traditional metric of success and is lots of fun, it isn't the only way to get out there, and even the Hollywood studios are very, VERY clear on the fact that the bulk of their income comes from DVD sales. And if you can't get on the shelf in Target or Walmart, then you had BETTER be on Amazon, Netflix, etc. and be tapping into every online means of getting attention, promotion, and good word-of-mouth out there on the internet. If you want to distribute an indie film that isn't metroplex ready, then you'd BETTER be an ace at understanding how the web can help get the word out and be a vehicle for distribution for your niche product.

-mike

MacMerc.com: Belkin announces wireless KVM switch aimed at laptop users

Cool mobile gadget - bring home your laptop and plug into the KVM to use a monitor, keyboard and mouse between the desktop and a laptop. Even was a wirelesss remote to switch between the two.

Hmm. It appears to be VGA based, but I should get a DVI based one so I can plug MiniMike (my 12" Powerbook G4) into a 23" LCD and a Matias Tactile Pro keyboard (the best keyboard available for a fast typist in my opinion, has that IBM Selectric III clickety-click vibe to it).

Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads

This isn't exactly HD news - well, hmm - there are ads in HD on the site - but is too much fun to NOT report. Apple (finally!) launched an ad campaign that targets PC users to switch with a half a dozen new ads, touting the advantages of Mac in 6 categories:
-viruses (my favorite ad)
-restarting
-better
-iLife
-network
-WSJ (Walt Mossberg's glowing review)

Anyway, they're cute and fun, and if you're "one of us" it's lots of fun to FINALLY see Apple touting their advantages. The virus laden PC guy says "I'm gonna crash" and falls over backwards as our casual Mac guy says "If you think that'll help..."

There's also a link to a new Which Mac are you? page, which carefully only discusses the Intel based Macs (at this point, Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro) and makes zero mention of the PPC based products (12" Powerbook, iBook, PowerMacs).

All good stuff. Waste 5 minutes and watch'em, forward to your PC only friends and remind them "Now you can run all your software on these, doncha know?" using Boot Camp (which I continue to hear good reports on).

PS - I hope to GOD (or really, I should be hoping to Steve) that the new towers are simply ProMacs - easy and rolls off the tongue. MacBook Pro just lacks the flow of PowerBook or TiBook. It at least makes sense that the new consumer laptops will simply be MacBooks.

Jim Jannard sent me this rendering after some people complained about Red making a shiny silver camera. No, they aren't going to make a shiny camera, those were just the first renderings.

I'm working on going through my notes, downloading pictures (stupid memory card isn't working right, working through the hassles), and working on my post-NAB reportage.

I finally also read the whole interview over on Studio Daily that Steve Gibby did with Jim Jannard, and there are all kinds of interesting hints in there about possible support for future codecs, different lens mounts, etc. If you haven't read it in full, worth it - one of the best synopses of what Red is and is about.

So don't worry, some non-Red HD For Indies coverage is coming, it will just take a bit of time. I've got about 180 audio notes, over 300 photos, and tons of brochures from the show, takes a little time to run all that through the mental sifter.

-mike

Labels: Red