HD For Indies

Can't say where, when, who or how, but my sources indicate that the Radeon X1900 PCIe card (see specs here) is coming to Macs, both for the current G5 based towers AND the everybody-expects-them-at-WWDC Mac Pro towers.

Specs include (this from the above link on ATI's site):

64-bit floating point HDR rendering supported throughout the pipeline

Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
32-bit integer HDR (10:10:10:2) format supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
Multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sparse sample patterns, and centroid sampling
New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing feature with Performance and Quality modes
Temporal Anti-Aliasing mode
Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions


So what does all this jargon mean? For editors, it means some major computing horsepower to do things like realtime scaling, reposition, rotating, and especially high precision color correction in realtime.

At present, the core code of FCP is all about one codec, one frame size, and one frame rate at a time - this is getting very long in the tooth, as many other competing NLEs can mix and match SD and HD on the same timeline. With CoreVideo (an OS X 10.4, akaTiger feature), realtime graphics manipulation using the GPU is possible and much easier.

So if my sources are right (and I'm 90+% sure they are) that this high end card is Mac bound, then when Apple finally shows a version of FCP capable of seriously hooking into CoreVideo (let's call it FCP 6, and pretend NAB 2007 is announce date), this'd be an awfully nice asset to have. For years, the graphics card really didn't make much of a difference for editors - maybe the screen redrew a little faster with the better card - but in the last couple of years, especially with apps like Motion and After Effects (AE much less so than Motion) able to hook into the GPU for major performance boosts, the GPU suddenly became relevant to what would and would not work in realtime on the editor's workstation.

Also, if Apple were able to FINALLY rewrite that core code to handle multiple frame sizes, frame rates, and especially codecs on the same timeline, that would enable tricks like putting 720p24 footage and standard def 60i footage both on a 1080i60 timeline with 1080i60 footage and just editing, and not worrying about waiting for renders for normal operations (like cuts, live playback, cross dissolves, etc.).

-mike

Note - there's nothing film related in this, it is lazy, bad, self indulgent personal blogging - apologies Charlie

....so after cursing LA traffic all week (drove off a tank of gas in 3 1/2 days) - now it's Sunday, and it's all good.

After staying with Frank Reynolds for a few days, I'm staying with my friend Ruth (that I worked with at frogdesign (we started on the same day about 10 years (!) ago), and she lives in Santa Monica about a mile from the beach. So after DGA day yesterday (which was great, and I hung out and picked up some consulting clients at the after party), I got home and talked with Ruth and her friend Brian until about 1:30am (they'd gone to see Miami Vice).

Sunday I slept in, Ruth made some killer scones from scratch (anybody want the recipe? Ask in comments), then we all went down to the beach. Ruth and Brian (her boyfriend's brother) road bikes, but I walked a mile to the beach, jogged 2.89 miles (according to my Nike+iPod doohickey I got before I left, pace wittheld to protect the guilty), then walked and jogged on back, enjoying the people watching on Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach.

After getting back I cleaned up and Frank, Ruth, Frank and I went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, and Mama Ella took gooooooooood care of us. Oh my GAWD, that was good stuff.

Now I'm sitting in the cool Santa Monica evening, about to figure out what move to go see. So my LA experience is definitley improving.

-mike

If you'd like to be informed when the DVDs are available, send an email to mike AT hdforindies DOT com with "Shootout DVD" in the subject.

At the DGA's Digital Day today I mentioned the DVDs I'm working on - for those who are just now tuning in, here's the deal:

Earlier this year, we (Mike Curtis (me), Chris Hurd of DVInfo.net, and Adam Wilt of DV.com, and others) gathered six cameras:

Sony HVR-Z1U (HDV 1080i format)
JVC GY-HD100U (HDV 720p format)
Panasonic HVX200 (DVCPROHD format on P2 cards)
Canon XL H1 (HDV 1080i format)

as well as:
Sony F350 (new XDCAM HD format)
Panasonic Varicam/H (DVCPRO HD format)
(we'd planned a Sony F900, but that fell through)

We shot a wide range of test material - indoors, outdoors, static, panning, fast motion, 24p, 60i (some 50i too), charts, actresses, greenscreen, outdoors by a lake, etc.

All cameras were recorded to their native media, and when in studio, also uncompressed to disc (via HD-SDI or component analog to HD-SDI via converters) to RAIDs with AJA and BlackMagic HD-SDI capture cards.

There are something like 60 shots captured on all cameras - for charts and critical static tests, we rotated the cameras off the same set of sticks to match shooting positions, but for a lot of the action footage we lined them all up as closely as possible to get simultaneous footage (slated for sync).

I've spent a large amount of time capturing all the footage, converting/removing pulldown, uprezzing, etc. so all footage will be 10 bit uncompressed 1920x1080 @ 23.976 fps or 59.94 interlaced fields/sec (even if it started at another size or framerate).

The goal is to have comparisons, commentary, etc. for all of these available as both standard and high definition DVDs (high def DVDs will be for Mac playback only most likely, as I tend to focus more on Final Cut Pro than Avid).

It's 1am, more details to follow, but for those who attended DGA Digital Day, I wanted to let you know what's up.


-mike

Final Cut Pro: Minimum Allowable Free Space setting fails with HDV

If you're working with HDV, it's important to note that this setting is not respected with HDV captures. If you wish to reserve a certain amount of free space on your scratch disk when capturing HDV, you'll need to monitor disk usage yourself.


...which 5.1.2 will hopefully fix. The article also includes some good advice about leaving room for render files, etc.

-mike, still in LA

Hey all -

it's been a very busy few days:

-got in Tuesday and hung out with my editor friend Frank Reynolds, who's cutting a 35mm feature here in LA (he usually lives in NYC)

-Wednesday hung out with my new friend Nate Weaver (we met at the Texas HD Shootout a few months ago). Nate's cutting footage from a 7 camera XDCAM HD concert shoot he ran - footage looked really impressive, and a good example of why you spend $25K not $5K for some things. He's got a nice little FCP setup similar to what I have - a dual G5, BMD card, JVC HD CRT monitor, etc. More on all that later. Wednesday night I went to the LA Final Cut Pro User Group meeting (posted my notes here) and had fun hanging out with those guys then going out to eat afterwards with Michael and Philip and others.

-Thursday I got my car towed between 1 and 7am (Whee! Welcome to LA, that'll be $129), but at least LA is fast and efficient and nice about car retrieval (Austin, take note....ahem). Then I had a great meeting with Panavision discussing their Genesis camera (I'll need time to write up those notes, so stay tuned) and saw some PHENOMENAL test footage, then went to a BBQ at the the DR Group and talked shop with Nathan Adams over there (I'll have a writeup on them and commentary on their approach as well, again stay tuned), then while there did a phone in interview for The Digital Buzz Podcast. That was enough for one night, I just GPS'd my way back to Frank's (crashing at his place) after that. By the way - the Digital Buzz link is for this week's show, the permanent link to the podcast is here. I haven't heard it yet, just my portion, but I'm going to listen in a minute, the other speakers sound really interesting.

-Friday (today) I had my schedule moved around, and went to a very nice high end facility (name wittheld until I get clearance, let us just say they have BUDGET in that shop) and had a great talk with Ramona Howard of SpectSoft, makers of RaveHD. Lots to say about that, but again, a later writeup. I did learn another valuable lesson - just because the post facility says "name" LA, doesn't mean it is in LA - there's two of that street, one in East LA (I REALLY didn't expect to find a high end post facility there) and one in Santa Monica. Guess which one I showed up to first. Classic example of over-reliance on technology. Bad, BAD GPS! (Right - my fault anyway). From there I went to Plaster City Digital Post and had a great time touring and talking with those guys. Again, another lengthy writeup to follow, but I'm beat and gotta get up for the DGA Digital Day tomorrow, which unfortunately I won't be able to cover as press, but should be fascinating nonetheless.

Saturday (tomorrow) - DGA Digital Day, should be very informative

I'm figuring out pretty quick that LA is a BUSY place - schedules are fast and fluid, with lots of rescheduling, even if you flew in 1700 miles to see them. Paying clients come first, even if its a biz dev meeting you're there for. Also doing a lot of thinking about what would be involved to work here, esp. since I live in, have family and friends, am from, and own a house in Austin, Texas. An awful lot to think about between what I've learned and what I'm figuring out on this trip.

-mike

Macworld: News: Flip4Mac 2.1 adds Intel Mac support

Now you can watch WMV media on your Intel Mac (such as my MacBook, which may or may not be fixed yet...)

Free download from here

BTW - I'm seeing lots of cool stuff I'll post about later, to busy doing to write about it.

-mike

AJ-HDX900 2/3" DVCPRO HD Camcorder Announced - DV Guru
Missed this one on Wednesday, the SDX900 I keep hear of as being referred to as the best po' man's Digibeta. This successor's specs are HD and:

4:2:2 color sampling
intra-frame recording at 100Mbps in 11 high definition formats
1080i/720p recording
DVCPRO HD format
2/3' 3-CDD
1394 jack

$26,500 list price - i think I blogged on this at NAB when a proto...

Went to the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group meeting tonight, was on the panel for Stump The Gurus, then played civillian for the rest of the show. Here's my notes:

LA Final Cut Pro User Group Meeting Notes from 7-26-06
=========================================

Stephanie from Smartsound Sonicfire Pro 4

a standalone but also some plugins

-for making music to fit to your sized project

-have a Maestro (assistant) - pick your music style, then GIVE it a length - it auto configures music to fit - tell it you need 16 seconds or whatever and it fits that length, no cross fades, it is "composed to fit" as it were
-lets you customize stuff since it is all dynamic
-you can drag the length longer/shorter without adjusting tempo, it just makes more music to fit that length
-10 minutes or 10 seconds
-variations - has variations in style - just changes in style
-it is rights free
-can modify it further with Mood Mapping - if you need a background mix you can do that, a dialog mix, leads, string feature, orchestral, dark, open, etc. - it modifies a mix of up to 7 layers, can manually modify them to audio rubber band to set keyframes, can delete specifc parts of it if you want (logical units)
-you can do the easy "big handle" mode to make gross scale adjustments, or you can get in under the hood to make specific changes
-can bring in reference music
-if you bring in reference video, you drag and drop and it'll auto fit to the length of the piece
-or you can make markers to do music by chunk
-can add markers
-the Maestro is a search engine
-can search by style, intensity, library, instrument or keyword in the Maestro
-in the search, you can search "all" that hits the Internet and pulls samples from their site, or pull a given song for $20 or a library for $99, can download on the fly by entering a CC # right in the program
-$200 purchase price for the software
-her demo is winnowed by source (local, all, owned, etc.), by styhle, then by keyword (or other searching parameters)
-you can click "Add Mood" which defaults to a 2 second transition to the new mood (can customize the transition length) to alter as needed
-it is real music, not MIDI, so it is all sample based from live performance
-each song is in logical chunks, which you can manually assemble, and they codify them to indicate stuff like "this is a good beginning piece" or ending piece or "for what you've just used, these would be good next pieces" - all this indicated
-because it is using sound blocks, if you ask for 15 seconds it might be 14.5 secs - because it is arranging and rearranging blocks to fit the length you need, the blocks are created intentionally in varying lengths so it can build something to the correct length
-original source is 48k
-mood mapping is new as of April, so only since April stuff has mood mapping - 12 or 13 of the libraries, all new libraries will have the mood mapping capability

Standard $200 is software and two library
Filmmaker $399
Full Studio $5000
Telesion Edition $450
Mega Bundle - $800



CAN YOU IMPORT FCP MARKERS?
-over 115 libraries
-at least one new per month, sometimes 10


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

Jungle Software's FrameForge3D for storyboards

in terms of planning ahead to do things like not break the 180 degree rule, or have impossible shots boarded, etc.

-this is previz software

-gives an optically correct shot

-relatively inexpensive and easy to use

-3D set to put teogether an environment to grab pieces from their virtual dollhouse
-tell it what cameras you're going to use
-will end up with
-the software creates a report for the crew - gives an overhead shot and a "through the lens" shot with cam height, focal length, angle of view, etc.
-lets everybody know where the camera goes, where the lights can't go, etc.
-better communication
-to make a project, tell the software what you're shooting with, for 35mm TV safe for example, it sets the aspect ratio and optical qualities etc. - all that stuff is in there, have 1/4 to 1 inch CCDs, 16:9 and 4:3,
-can give set parameters such as maximum camera height to limit your compositions to that as max
-lenses - on prosumer gear, can crank in the mm ratings so that you can't be too tight or too wide; all the prime lenses are in there too so you can only pick from the appropriate options available - typical sets are already in there or can customize lists as well
-customize set size, can dimensionalize the set to know what you've got
-they have panoramas to wrap around the set
-they have object and camera controls
-can have as many virtual cameras as desired
-characters in FrameForge default to 20 years old, can age them with a slider
-can dress (or undress) them all you want
-has a library of poses and stuff
-can make clothes different colors, etc., change hair color, skin color, etc.
-can alter faces to make'em gaunter, eyes further apart, etc.
-doing a shot/reverse shot setup
-it's easy to do things like open the door, add a tree and some bushes, etc.
-cam controls are all about roll, pan/tilt, zoom, dolly, crane, etc.
-"match eyelines" is one click
-tons of poses were programmed for these things
-relationships - touch a bike he rides it, in cars, etc.
-NOTE TO GUYS - CAMERA MOVING CONTROLS, A LA ELECTRIC IMAGE, in camera view
-can make the actors correct heights based on reality
-when you've got it the way you want it, you store the shot - it saves the presets, renders a still, makes a report of the lenses used and heights, is pretty much like saving a shot because all the set stuff is done to match
-certain cars are in there, but not a huge variety
-Q: can you export to a 3D app? A: you can export a text file with all the camera info
-Q: can you export to motion control or 3D software? A: not really
-slideshows are made as Flash and export it
-can add arrows to imply stuff moving
-so this is all about stills - no QT movies with the actually timed stuff
-can import a script from a standard formatted script to have the dialog underneath it
-three fucntions: exploratory to figure it out, demonstrational to show or print out, communicational to show crew what you want
-Q: is there an auto reverse shot setup? A: no, but you can use the first shot's info to create the other side and use the distance function to get set up on the other
-PRICE IS $399 FOR PRO VERSION, $199 FOR THE STUDENT VERSION (can't make'em naked in student version)
-Q: dialog on slide show? A: No, but can export JPEGs to use it in iMovie, iPhoto slideshow with music
-upgrades are available from earlier versions

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

syncVUE

Michael Buday - offline/online editor

been trying to do more editing remotely since the commute blows
-a year ago he set up an FCP suite at home
-wanted to get his clients to go to him (too far away)
-next thought was to get'em to work remotely with him
-he's going to demo using a Nintendo project being done in Houston and Austin
-syncVUE takes a media file (QT file), get it to somebody else, it'll play it in sync with the folks on the other side - FTP, podcast, mail a disc, whatever
-a streaming version peer to peer live up to 5 users by end of year
-runs on the Skype network
-Skype is a free IP based voice over IP solution, good voice quality, Macs and PCs, has an open API, they use Skype as their highway (without having to open up their own ports) and has built in voice communication
-working with Steve Cohen an editor in Venice Beach
-way it works:

-incoming request from the user
-shows how many folks involved in session
-the solid icon indicates he is in control
-if a file isn't present, it shows on your screen, and you can tell if others don't have the file (of the 5 simultaneous users)
-in this mode, the other guy steers
-can configure so ANYBODY can grab control and scrub the file
-ANYBODY can add markers (locators), created markers are shown by who made it
-anything QuickTime can load syncVUE can load
-can crosslock files of different resolutions - somebody can have H.264 and somebody else has uncompressed to lock'em together
-has standard JKL controls just like FCP
-hit caps lock and can draw on top of it, and everybody gets their own color to draw on top of the frame
-the drawing persists across the full movie for now
-at SIGGRAPH can export storyboard mode with notes etc.
-the project being worked on an Inferno in Austin, TX
-can work offline - somebody else can mark it up, when you connect later it'll sync up - all yours and his notes go to all users, or can export it straight to FCP as XML, then pull in the XML from sync VUE
-the markers set in syncVUE come through
-creator and notes come in on notes - DAMN HANDY FOR COMMENTING!
-Windows version at SIGGRAPH next week
-Mac version available now
-built in licensing scheme - clients can use it for a limited period of time
-shows all the licenses that he's purchased - put in their skype login, plug in the month/date/year that it'll turn off
-THIS SOLVES THE "I DON'T WANT TO BUY IT FOR ONE TIME FOR A CLIENT!" problem
-price per seat is $189 per user, more users cost per user goes down
-the really nice thing is the sync management
-other bonus - since it is Skype, the call and the connection is FREE!
-for those who say why not use iChat to do live stuff, but if you need to see the high quality stuff, syncVUE is the only way to get that done
-live link is a different issue
-if locators exist on the same frame, whoever started the call has dibs
-they are also working on a session recorder
-play the movie and record all interactions with movie, and send that file (a tiny audio file with control commands) to play that whole session for them
-THAT IS COOL!
-virtual laser pointer is persistent across the whole thing, a vector based drawing tool that lets you set mark in/mark out
-Q: what about distributing the media? A: FTP is the easy way, in November syncVUE Share will move files in the background for you using P2P based technology - trusted sources and targets to keep it running and distribute it all, trusted targets will get the pieces so that connections for file movement will go to trusted sources
-P2P is better than FTP
-the notes can be exported as text - comma delimited or Excel files
-can show embedded timecode, running timecode from start, or a frame counter

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

Marco Torres - San Fernando Education Technology Center

iCan film festival, 7th year

after August 5th can see the movies to be shown at the festival

-LA recently banned Macs from schools, so they had to fight back

-let the school board know why PC only is a BAD IDEA

-Aug 5th in San Fernando is the screenings

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

DVD thing going on at Dolby tomorrow night

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

Final Cut Studio Multicam tips and tricks with Steve Martin

-multicam feature

-some advanced multicam workflow

-for this demo, we have a 3 camera t-ball game footage

-what if there's a scenario where you're shooting all day at varying times over multiple days with hours of footage - how to deal with and manage it all?

-find a sync point (such as where bat connects with the T), set In Points, then create Multiclip

-that's great if three cameras and single tapes

-but 3 cameras over multiple days

-could take you all day to sync'em up

-there's another way to do it

-how to take all the cameras with time of day timecode and group them together

-in order to use this workflow, HAVE TO USE cameras that support 24 hour timecode

-either have record run timecode (normal), it picks up from where it start/stopped

-another method have free run timecode, aka Time Of Day timecode

-trigger them all simultaneously with the remote, can start/stop camera, change tapes, change batteries, etc., the timecode keeps rolling

-timecode gets broken and capture is a problem at start/stop, so CHANGE TAPES when you start/stop per camera

-select FOLDERS of stuff and make Multiclip Sequence - when you do it, they get grouped weird - the group based on timecodes as long as the timecode values match, but they won't, it'll make them all in separate tracks lined up, but they're all on their own tracks since the timecode starts aren't exact matches....so the default blows and doesn't quite work


-SO...select folders of footage, Make Multiclip Sequence, the divider lines indicate groupings of multiclips, you can put in a delta value - which is how much can they vary - they vary a range within a minute (or whatever) SO USING MULTICLIP SEQUENCE is all about getting the correct delta to group'em right - it'll make multiclips based on common timecode overlaps, and he gets the right multiclip (and the way to get the screen to update based on your changed value is to hit the Tab key and then press update)

-another method of grouping is to use overlapping timecode - you pick miminum overlap

-so the overlapping timecode works well, just drag it to the left to get'em to group up

-rippletraining.com is his site, the demo of this is on his site

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

Eric Huffman - talking about Musicbed DV, Synk Audio, Muscbed DV and Season One, synkaudiostudios.com

(what is Mouseposé? It lets you highlight where the cursor is - I should use this!)

MusicBed DV is OS X app for customizing stock music

-looking at at trailer for "Isolated" - a movie from a Las Vegas company

-music created from stock music but with some custom composed attributes

-Season One is a library of cinematically themed music, comes from 11GB of data, 2500 individual tracks, broken up into music packages, each from a GB of data

-each package has a large # of musical elements that can be combined in different ways

-video displayed in a page

-can browse by various musical characteristics (orgamic vs synthetic, background vs prominent, melodic vs percussive, sparse vs. dense, soft vs intense, dry vs spacious, smooth vs punchy, then pitch & tempo controls)

-all those parameters are independent - can have sparse AND dense

-by clicking on the items above (picking on of the X vs Y stuff), it limits the list on the right of pieces available - it winnows the list, and changes the feel of the music playing live

-can import markers from FCP, use'em for scoring markers

-once the clip is in the timeline, you can edit it in more detail

-can set keyframs for dense or sparse - again it is manipulating submix portions of the music to make it do certain stuff

-it SEEMS to my incredibly expert eye, that this gives more control over the feel of the music - the controls in the other app were more about lowering the volume of a given instrument pack, but this SEEMS to my inexpert audio knowledge that this manipulates more of the FEEL - the math on how it is building this stuff seems more rich and complex, to build the feel, not just by instrument packs but by mood and tone - to say "make more dense from here to here" rather than "bring the strings down in this part"

-you can export a stereo mix or stems (individual tracks per instrument) to take into Logic or whatever, can also export a surround 5.1 track - ambients are stored separate from the instrument tracks - can create appropriate surround mixes

-they have different surround mixes - moderate vs immersive mixes
-can export tempo as MIDI - can sketch out a music bed by style, then kick out a MIDI file and then populate it in another app

-they are working on Season Two library is much more commercial
-$199 price point INCLUDES Season One

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

Show & Tells

-Ryan Garry has something he brought - did a series of webisodes for Factiva, their paid Down Jones & Reuters search engine for fact checking, etc.

-the search is vetted by human beings, but humans go through it and weed out the junk (porn and incorrect info)

-it isn't cheap but they needed a campaign to make it more fun so universities would sign on

-made stuff like "The Office" - little webisodes

-factivafindstime.com

-after the summer it goes to broadcast

-wheee...whatever.

...and that's it - then the raffle, which is going on now, but I sauntered in as a speaker but I have no tickets, so I can't win nuthin'

-

What's Hot!

Headline says it all. I am somewhat insane, sitting in LA and blogging, must get going for the day, but can't resist my blogging addiction.

-mike

Compressor 1 and Compressor 2.0 not compatible with Qmaster 2.1 (included with Shake 4.1)

Here's a nasty gotcha if you buy Shake (now $500) and don't have the latest Final Cut Studio installed:

If you have installed any version of Compressor other than 2.1 (part of Final Cut Studio 5.1), it is important to note that the Compressor software relies on the Qmaster software.

Shake 4.1 includes Qmaster 2.1 (installed via the Node Installer), a later version of the Qmaster distributed processing technology, and does not work with Compressor 1.x or 2.0.x.

In order to maintain compatibility with earlier versions of Compressor, Qmaster 2.1 should not be installed on the same startup volume with a Compressor 1.x or 2.0.x installation.

Canon XH Series Watchdog

My buddy Chris Hurd is ever vigilant while I'm out of town - Canon has announced two new 1080i HDV camcorders (with 24F & 30F modes also). Think of them as the very similar little brothers of the XL H1. Key differences:

-two new models, the XH A1 and XH G1
-those two are the same, except the G1 has timecode and HD-SDI outs
-$4000 and $7000 for the two (HD-SDI model, the XH G1, costs more)
-otherwise the two new cameras are the same
-FIXED lenses not interchangeable like the XL H1
-new feature - Instant AF, very fast auto-focus using infrared
-the HD-SDI on the G1 embeds audio and timecode, the XL H1 does not
-some control range differences between these and the XL H1
-no four channel audio recording
-uses same 1/3" chip and optical block as the XL H1 for both of these
-XH A1 $4000, due late October, XH G1, due mid November, $7000

See Chris' page on the skinny on the XH cameras and the FAQ he put together (from which all of this article is drawn).

I'd read this as there will be an XL H1s coming out at some point with these improved features (Instant AF, embedded audio and timecode). As for image quality, they will be similar to the XL H1, but I'd imagine the lenses won't be as nice (look at the price difference!).

Yesterday was just getting into LA, getting the rental car, hooking up with my friend Frank Reynolds and hanging out for the night - walked over to the Grove in Culver City and ate at what may be the original Johnny Rockets before it chained out, then hung out and talked movie geekery (movies we liked, what's up with DI's, future of HD, what to make of Disney scaling back productin, etc.).

Today I'm catching up on mail then hooking up with some more friends and then I don't know what.

-mike

I'm prepping for LA, and I'm right on my usual track - it is 2:45am and I just finished packing.

I am not a light traveller - cell phone, laptop, GPS, digital camera, voice recorder, iPod, etc. etc., and all the accoutrements of chargers, cables, and docking stations - oh my! On top of, you know, clothes and stuff.

The neighbors are feeding the dogs and keeping an eye out, the alarms are set, and I haven't made half the appointments I need to for once I'm there.

But it'll all get straightened out.

Blogging will probably be sparse to nonexistent for the rest of the day - I'm in transit.

If you want to book some consulting time, I still have some available slots - I'm in LA until August 4th.

-mike

Amazon to go to the movies - MarketWatch
An Amazon.com video store is expected to be open for business in about four weeks. Advertising Age says consumers will be able to order VHS and DVDs of movies, and also download ad-free digital versions of full-length films and TV shows from the online retailer. Amazon 'DV' is expected to offer subscription and a la carte options. Pay by the month and you'll get a package of movies online, or you can buy exactly what you want.


This has been rumored for quite some time - that you could order the DVD from Amazon, and then immediately download a copy of it to watch on your computer in a few hours after it is done downloading. If Amazon is first to market before Apple, ouch for Apple. Amazon also has the advantage of they can (if they can swing the Hollywood hookup) do this for minimal charge to the consumer - it is an add-on to the DVD sales, which is where Amazon makes their money (sort of like how Apple music & videos are a barely profitable division, all the real profit is from the hardware iPod sales). Apple, on the other hand, doesn't have a product to tie in per movie sale - just a possible video iPod sale, or maybe a computer sale (much less likely). So Amazon definitely poses a threat to any Apple online video store.

-mike

235 Studios has a nice PDF based tutorial on how to remove the 3:2 pulldown from HVX200 footage that wasn't pulled down for you, as it should have been, when you clicked the little box.

Read the PDF, good workflow tips.

-mike

Studios Shift to Digital Movies, but Not Without Resistance - New York Times

My buddy Scott Kirsner wrote this NYTimes article is spot-on for the stuff I'm interested in - shooting movies with digital technology. If you're an HD4NDs reader, this article is a must read.

Projects mentioned that were shot digitally:
-Superman Returns, Click, Miami Vice, Star Wars Episode II, Apocalypto, Flyboys

Product companies mentioned in article:
-Plus8 (rental house), ARRI, Red (several times), Panavision, Thomson Grass Valley

Mike's Comments: I started to go through and pull out some good quotes, but there are too many - just go read the full article.

But some salient details:
-big budget movie folks are risk averse-with a full crew and high dollar talent on set, it is no place to be experimenting or having holdups
-DoPs spent lifetimes learning how to squeeze every last drop of nuance out of film - digital is a different technology, and film has until very very recently been considered universally better than anything digital. Factor in that the tech is moving so fast it is outstripping perception in the marketplace and opinions are slow to shift
-there also has been, for lack of a better phrase, a bit of a snob factor involved - think about how it is perceived among peers - "I'm shooting on 35mm" vs "I'm shooting on videotape" - which project would you rather work on? I think this perception gap and anti-digital bias is getting better fast, esp. compared to a couple of years ago. I hesitated to include this, until I remembered some of the conversations I've had on the Cinematographer's Mailing List I've mentioned here a few times. OH YEAH - it's still out there.
-Panavision estimates that even at $3000/day, Genesis saves about $600K in film stock and developing costs etc. on a big budget movie - and that doesn't get into the further cost savings of no scans for effects and DI, which are de riguer on big movies these days
-the digi-cinema cameras are being chosen for reasons other than cost - Flyboys chose it for long takes, Miami Vice chose it for LONG depth of field (most digital cameras are criticized for that), as well as good low light performance as compared to film (not mentioned in article, but that was a reason for Collateral as well); as well as the usual no film stock/developing/FX scanning reasons.
-the digital companies are careful to not say they are better than film, multiple vendors say they are just offering alternatives - I read that as being sensitive to how touchy DoPs are about "the glory of film"
-Red gets multiple mentions and quotes (I told Scott, the writer, about RED at MWSF this January), glad to see that, mildy surprised Silicon Imaging wasn't mentioned in this article
-...and REALLY surprised that Robert Rodriguez isn't mentioned - but he's not Hollywood (he's based here in Austin) and this article is more gear centric than people centric

So, just as a refresher, here's the list of cameras to consider for big projects - the full on, no excuses models:

-bottom rung: Sony F900 - 1920x1080, 4:2:2, records onboard to HDCAM up to 30 fps progressive, or 60i interlaced (with pretty heavy compression) - preferable to run out to D-5, HDCAM SR, S.two or other uncompressed/low compression outboard recording device
-more reasonable - the Panavised F900s, and presumably Panavised F950s, both up to 30 fps progressive, or 60i interlaced
-squeeze the Sony F950 in there somewhere too, but nobody's been chosing that lately that I've been hearing about. They are 1920x1080 RGB 4:4:4 up to 30 fps progressive, or 60i interlaced. Oh, and the F950 is a camera not camcorder - no onboard recorder.
-the usual suspects: Thomson Grass Valley Viper or Panavision Genesis - both shoot 1920x1080 RGB 4:4:4 log with a 4:2:2 linear option on Viper
-ARRI D-20 is out there, but I don't recall large projects shooting with it yet, it has an oversampling sensor that delivers 1920x1080 RGB 4:4:4 log or lin.
-the above 3 cameras - Viper, Genesis and D-20 - are all cameras that you can bolt a Viper Venom Flashpak onto (that's the manufacturer's name, but the others put different names on it) - a big box of RAM that'll record about 8-10 minutes (about a film load) of uncompressed HD material onto (but it's a $55K-ish box by itself). It connects via single or dual link HD-SDI connectors. Otherwise, folks are using HDCAM SR tape decks (which can record 4:2:2 at up to 60 progressive fps, or 4:4:4 at up to 30fps at 440 or 880 megabits/sec) or S.two uncompressed disk recorders (which can record maximum fps output of these cameras in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4).
-Dalsa Origin is out there, but still considered young/experimental even though they have a rental facility in LA (that I'm going to visit on my trip) - but they can shoot 4K log RGB 4:4:4 (lin too presumably, but who's going to bother at this level). They record to a whoppin' big minifridge of hard drives last I saw, I'll get an update when I'm out there.
-in the future, Silicon Imaging will be coming to market presumably in the next few months, and RED will be coming to market sometime next year (hopefullly early in the year if they stay on stated track).
-other than Sony's HDCAM SR format (the defacto high end tape standard) there are also a ton of uncompressed DDRs (digital disk recorders) out there as well, such as from RaveHD, Codex, doremi and other companies, varying in price from reasonable to ludicrous.

-mike

Microsoft Confirms Plans for IPod Rival: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Gartenberg said Microsoft confirmed to him that it would release a wireless device that would play both music and video this year. The device will have an accompanying content service, Gartenberg said.It's not clear how the service will fit into Microsoft's existing plans. The company recently partnered with MTV Networks Inc. to launch a music download service to compete with Apple's iTunes. That's in addition to Microsoft's own service, MSN Music, which was launched amid much fanfare nearly two years ago but hasn't garnered much attention since.

...so not HD news, but certainly affects the whole indie content distribution world. Interesting to note that after a lot of intial buzz, I haven't been hearing much about content on Sony PSP lately - although the UMD (right name? or whatever) format has entirely fizzled, and studios are pulling support for it - who wants to buy a movie that only plays on the PSP? Better to rip your DVDs (illegal but shouldn't be) to watch on a memory stick in the player.

As everyone is learning, consumers want flexibility in their media.

I'd also say this:

Until/unless there is a viable, cost effective home theater PC standard, and affordable, reliable, easy to use HTPCs, any movie download service had better allow DVD burning if it is to be successful.

...and I'd put support for Mandatory Managed Copy from HD DVD and Blu-ray into that list of must-haves as well.

-mike

Using Fibre Channel switches and hubs with Apple Fibre products

Deep geekery on fibre channel, Xsan, Macs, and hub settings. For the propeller beanie crowd, but useful.

Another update Tuesday - check out the comments, some interesting conversation going on about whether AMD would stop supplying Apple and others. I have a lengthy rebuttal to the "They'd never give up the money they get from Apple sales" argument.

UPDATE - OOPS - IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN - see bottom for more details in update

AMD seen nearing $5.5 billion deal - source - Jul. 21, 2006
Advanced Micro Devices, the No. 2 supplier of computer processors, is close to a deal to buy graphics chip maker ATI for $5.5 billion, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.Any such deal would shake up the processor industry, which is witnessing a battle over market share between AMD and larger rival Intel.

ATI is one of two major graphics chips makers, along with rival Nvidia (Charts), and is a big supplier of chipsets - the cluster of secondary chips and interfaces that surround a computer's processor - to both AMD and Intel.


This would certainly have a bearing on Apple I would think - if the purchase happens, and AMD decides they want ATI to only play ball with them (and that's a big maybe - ATI sells LOTS of stuff for Intel based systems), that could potentially shut Apple out of a major vendor. That is a maybe built on a speculation, so I don't know. But I'm sure Steve & crew are running the what-ifs if they have to solely rely in nVidia. I'm sure they are making contingency plans for an nVidia only world. But again, that is just speculation about a possible risk if a rumored acquisition goes through. Apple has bounced back and forth between the two vendors, but ATI has been seeming to have the edge lately for inclusion in Apple products.

Anybody got any better thoughts on all this? I'm not a follower of the whole PC subcomponent industry, anybody else feel free to comment away with the link below.

-mike

UPDATE 11:30AM CST

Oops, now it is confirmed:

AppleInsider | AMD to acquire graphics chip giant ATI
By 2008, AMD said it plans to move beyond current technological configurations to transform processing technologies, with silicon-specific platforms that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors to address the growing need for general-purpose, media-centric, data-centric and graphic-centric performance.


...so that would imply AMD wants to fold ATI into their stuff...the question would be whether ATI would continue to make chips and boards for non-AMD platform stuff, which depends on how aggressively AMD wants to use ATI's value as a leveraging differentiator and deny others access to the tech, or keep making money selling ATI chips/boards to others, thus reducing the "only from us" advantage. Depends on a lot of variables, and would probably be a multi-year transition if they were to taper off development of non-AMD integrated chipset stuff.

This brings up anti-trust issues as well - ATI and nVidia are pretty much the two industry giants - would it be legal for ATI chips/boards to be taken off the market, or would AMD get hit with anti-trust suits?

Interesting times, indeed. I'm sure Apple, if not already aware of it, was people freaking out about this today.

-mike

AppleInsider | Intel actively shipping both Merom and Conroe
Apple Computer, which recently switched its Mac line to Intel chips, is likely to adopt Conroe and Merom Core 2 Duo processors in future revisions of its desktop and notebook computers.

Apple's MacBook Pro notebooks currently employ Intel's Yonah Core Duo processors. Since Merom was designed to be backwards compatible with Yonah platforms, Apple's first move could come in the form of an abrupt boost to its professional laptop line.

...so Apple could drop faster chips into the laptops for a quickie speed boost. I think they'll do that with the MacBook Pros, in order to differentiate them from the regular MacBooks, and in so doing reinstate the usual performance difference between consumer and pro models.

I don't think they'll do this, however, until AFTER the new tower Macs, which everyone is expecting at WWDC in August. Why? Because having a laptop that potentially outperforms your high end desktops would be embarassing and would represent an imbalanced product offering. In much the same way that car vendors never allow the smaller sports car to be faster than the big one.

So I think this Intel move potentially alters Apple's schedule on laptop upgrades, but won't affect new product development - Apple still has to get the rest of the computers based on these new chips designed and manufacturing ramped up - if the chips are available earlier or in greater bulk great, but that doesn't affect release date. As my friend (and onetime biz partner) Ian Steyaert used to say to clients about scheduling projects:

Nine women, cannot, under any circumstances, make one baby in one month.

: )

-mike

OK, so now that I'm prepping to go to LA in two days, I FINALLY plunked down for something I've been meaning to get for over 6 months - a GPS navigation doohickey, in this case, a TomTom Go 910, which is just joyous, ludicrous, massive overkill for what one really needs. But as the Barry McGovern said in Joe Versus the Volcano,

"If I had the need and the wherewithal, Mr. Banks, this would be my trunk of choice. I could face the world with a trunk like this by my side."

...that trunk is this GPS.

It slices, it dices, it does, in point of fact, julienne, sirrah.

Things it does:

-plan a route from A to B, even if A is 4000 miles away. It is interesting watching it calculate and display "27M roads to process" (M as in millions).
-it has a 3D perspective map, updated several times a second, showing exactly where you are
-it speaks out loud to tell you when the next turn is coming up
-it includes maps of all of North America, and Central and Western Europe, default from the factory (the pocket sized Garmin that was the same price could get Euro maps....for $350 extra)
-if you miss a turn, it recalculates and tells you the new route
-you can plan trips on your computer and download into it (Windows only, so Boot Camp or Parallels now has another reason to live on my computer)

Lots of GPS units will do that, so some extras:
-it will play MP3s and audio books, including playlists
-it will display photos you put on there
-how does it store all this? On a 20GB internal hard drive
-it'll run for hours on internal batteries
-it can communicate with tomtom home base through via GPRS via your cellphone via Bluetooth
-it can do LIVE traffic, weather, and system updates
-it comes with Mac OS X support (LOVE that, even if their software doesn't work right yet - no 910 option in their HOME application)
-it works right out of the box, don't even need to charge up the batteries
-it can control your iPod
-it can Bluetooth communicate with your phone to enable hands free cell phne coverage
-it even comes with a remote so you can control it remotely if you don't want to reach all the way over to it
-it comes with ton of goodies - a car charger, a USB cradle/charger, a microphone for hands free usage, a remote with mount, a microphone for hands free Bluetooth cell phone integration, an audio cable so it can speak through your stereo....on and on and on.
-..and can probably place a charges reversed call to The Supreme Being and teleport you to Her Supreme Coordinates, if I can figure out how to config the durn thing. Which shouldn't be too hard, since the UI is NICE, which is another reason I picked this one over the Garmin Nuvi 350, which is so tiny it is legitimately pocket sized. This one is cargo pants possible but still bulky - but I am SO looking forward to having it in Amsterdam - I already checked, the maps are in there...with all 8 bazillion POIs already in (Points Of Interest).

I will hug it, I will squeeze it, I will in fact call it George. I will in fact cry like an infant if it gets stolen in LA.

OK, today's (further) proof that I am a geek - the images you see here:

-the top one was screen grabbed from a website that I surfed wirelessly in a trendy Wifi'd lunch place, then Photoshopped and posted remotely to server via WiFi.

-the lower shot is the prize, though - taken with my cameraphone, sent as email attachment to my laptop (9 inches away that I was too lazy to send via Bluetooth), retrieved via Wifi in said trendy digs. Oh, and it shows my present location - N 30.24407 deg, W 97.74624 deg.

Final Cut Pro: Timecode Error when capturing from Canon XL H1

The fix:

Confirm the following settings before capturing:

Choose Final Cut Pro > Easy Setup.
From the pop-up menu choose HDV - 1080i60 FireWire Basic.
Click Setup.
(Using the "Basic" variant of the HDV FireWire device control protocol with the Canon XL H1 helps to ensure greater interoperability).


.....or may have something to do with stuff shot on one camera and captured to computer on another, read article for details.

CinemaTech: Director M. Night Shyamalan on New Technologies, Filmmaking, and the Theatrical Window

Scott Kirsner got to sit down and interview Night about digital vs. film acquisition and post, about theatrical windows, etc. - the whole interview is posted here.

I'm coming to LA for a variety of things - the DGA's Digital Day, visit some facilities, visit some vendors, but I still have some holes in my schedule -

I'll be in LA from July 25th through August 4th, if you'd like to book me for some face to face or in facility consulting, please contact me at mike AT hdforindies DOT com.

(I am, as always, available for over the phone or via email consulting as well.)

I've planned the trip pretty wide and loose so I have some holes to fill with consulting work between facilities and vendor visits and generally checking out the film scene in LA.

I'll also be going to Amsterdam for IBC in September and staying after the show for several days, so if any of my European readers want to book some face time, that is available as well.

-mike

CineForm Unplugged: Silicon Imaging in 48 hours a Success.

OK, this is the kind of blog entry I love to link to - new toys, and the hands on nitty gritty of using it in the field, and for a 48 hour film contest, no less!

Read on for how it went, what they used, problems encountered and overcome, etc. etc. etc.

They won best cinematography out of 44 entrants, and there are even HD downloads of the final short available as well.

Glad to see SI is pushing forward with their camera in field tests as it draws closer to commercial release.

-mike

If you've been following my MacBook difficulties (posts here and here), here's the latest:

-after hearing nothing for a week, I got paranoid that maybe it was missing, lost in shipment, stolen off my porch, etc.
-tried to check case status without the Case # by using my Apple ID, it showed no repairs (that fueled the "It's gone!" paranoia)
-called Apple Support, the automated system insists on tracking by Case ID or Repair ID, neither of which I had
-so treated it as a fresh repair until I reached a human being and he could check status
-they have it, it is on hold, awaiting a new logic board (so clearly a full mobo replacement is under way)
-but new mobos not expected until tomorrow, then a day or two to fix, then 3 or 4 days to get it back to me
-so not likely to arrive until I'm in LA (more on that shortly) - drat!
-that will have been about 2 weeks from the day I shipped it off - make of that what you will, but 2 weeks is a long time to go without - I'm fortunate I still have my 12" PowerBook and that I haven't sold it off (yet)
-checking the website now that I had the Case ID #, I can see that they received it the next day (reported problem on 12th, received shipping materials on 13th, they got it back on the 14th, excellent on their part), but that it has been sitting there waiting for the part (logic board) since the 14th.....boooooooo! Phone tech support said part should come in tomorrow, but don't know whether to trust that as real or as a default "get the customer off the phone" move.

Aside - (It often seems that tech support feels that their job is to get you off the phone, esp. when troubleshooting - where the mission seems to be find a reason it is the user's fault, tell them to reinstall something that takes a long time, then they can hang up while the user does that - "Call back (hopefully getting someone else) if that doesn't fix it, OK?").

So what's to be learned from this? Going without a computer, even for a fairly speedy repair, can be BAD, especially on deadline. Having a punt plan (secondary hardware available or rentable), having good data backups (as well as OS backups so you can get your OS, applications, codecs and drivers "just so"), and being prepared to wait a dead minimum of 10 days (1 day to get repair shipping materials, 2 days to ship it back, 2 days for repairs, 2 days to ship back again, plus a weekend in there to slow things down) for repairs if you're one lucky punk. But 2-3 weeks is entirely likely as well, or longer in case of part shortages. Apple (or any other sane vendor) would MUCH rather sell new models rather than fix old ones with the limited number of parts they have - so repair parts are constrained if the products are in high demand...and with this being back to school academic bulk purchase buying season...drat! That is probably related to why it has been sitting there cooling its heels for nearly a week.

In this case, it is costing me having the BlackBook in LA. Bummer. I just BETTER have it when I go to IBC in September.

-mike

FresHDV found it first, so props to Matthew - The Smoking Gun got a copy of the detailed script breakdown from M. Night Shyamalan's (or "Shyammalammadingdong" as I mentallly refer to him) The Village.

OK, who cares? You do - because buried in there for the unitiated is all kinds of "what does it cost?" information that is otherwise hard to come by. Keep in mind, this was a $70M budget for a major feature film, so they're hiring better than you would, and it was 3 years ago (dated 2003), but if you're curious what rates are for different parts of the equation, there's about 70 or 80 pages to dig through and find it. Unfortunately, it is all scanned pages rather than searchable text, but I was curious to go flippng through the budget sections for areas I don't usually work on, or to see what studios get charged for processing, or how many feet of film they expected to shoot (322,000 feet of 5248 and 5279), or what the ratios were for film shot to film developed to dailies printed, etc. (page 32). Page 75 has some film finishing costs detailed, and the last few pages of the document are an index to tell you where to find particular costs by page.

So good stuff to find in there, but the chaff to wheat ratio is a bit much...and that's not even getting into the gossipy bits about the perks the stars get....keep clicking the image for the next page...

-mike

NBC to offer DVDs before premiers on TV - Yahoo! News

AS much as six weeks before broadcast premieres. This is an interesting ploy - NBC was dead last in the ratings last year, so they'll do whatever they can to catch up - and this includes taking risks, so I think that's a good idea. They're going to release them via Netflix - also a very good idea. I'd love it if more shows started doing things like this. I'm STILL waiting for the rest of Battlestar Galactica Season 2 to come up on Netflix. I wish TV shows would trickle them out to us a bit more aggressively - start releasing individual DVDs maybe a few weeks after airtime, only on Netflix etc., then sell the sets a month after season end? I hate all this waiting around crap...

American Cinematographer reviews the Andromeda now that it is out. The Andromeda is a $2500 modification to a DVX100A that taps into the CCD and extracts the RGB data before any processing is done to it. The good thing about this is 4:4:4 color sampling at 10 bits, but the downside is that it has to be captured to a tethered notebook, and frames have to be processed with a LUT before they are usable (Mac Mini did about 80 frames per minute to process).

I give these guys high marks for trying to do something cool - the modification nets about 1 stop of shadow detail and 2 1/2 stops of highlight detail according to the manufacturer's tests - but I question whether it is worth the additonal hassles of workflow - could that money be better spent in another way? I don't know, but I would like to find out more.

The ASC's summation matches my own (except that I haven't seen it yet):

For low-budget filmmakers, especially those who already have a DVX100, the Andromeda offers a relatively economical way to work at higher resolution and a much better color depth. Andromeda isn’t for all filmmakers or all projects, but it offers a lot of interesting possibilities and is well worth exploring.


Not HD but still indie moviemaker interesting, further down that page here is a review of the new ARRI 416, a Super16mm format film camera with "variable speed from 1-75 fps, a mirror shutter adjustable from 45°-180°, a completely new lightweight ergonomic design, integrated electronic accessories, and compatibility with the same accessories and PL-mount lenses used by its 35mm siblings."

It sounds EXTREMELY clever and VERY well thought out, down to things like one handed battery removal, integrated battery charge reader that tells you how many more mags you can shoot on remaining charge, etc. etc. etc. Just reading the review, the thing reeks of well thought out design after years and years of user feedback.

-mike

Flat-panel TVs get less pricey faster - Yahoo! News

OK, maybe not - I just wrote the other day that the rate of price drops for HDTVs was expected to slow, but now Yahoo news is saying (and I saw it on CNN earlier today too) that manufacturers overestimated demand and are cutting prices to spur sales. A sales perk was expected for World Cup Soccer - didn't happen.

The rate of HDTV adoption is of critical concern if you're planning on shooting your stuff in HD for home distribution - is it worth all that extra effort if nobody is going to watch it in HD?

The example they site is that a 37" flat panel HDTV was about $4000 a year ago, but can now be had for as little as $1100 (not that I'd buy the cheapest). That's certainly progress! Based purely on my gut, I think under $1000, and then under $500, will be the price points to get SERIOUS adoption of big flat panel HDTVs. I've been waiting for the technology to get right (can I get a flat, bright, good black levels, 1080i/1080p set with full 1920x1080 resolution and accurate colorimetry and plenty of proper input jacks?) at an acceptable price point (I'm waiting for $2000, but I'm not sure what size I'm going for).

-mike

Cinema Minima: Personal Digital Cinema. News for movie makers � Final Draft vs. Movie Magic Screenwriter

Cyndi thinks Movie Magic Screenwriter is mo' bettah.

I don't usually cover this kind of stuff, but Cyndi's a friend and this is something indies should pay attention to. Final Draft is good for writing, not so good for exporting. Time is money, peeps.

-mike

Macworld: News: Sony unveils its first after-market Blu-ray Disc burner
-called BWU-100A
-$750
-burns BD-R or BD-RE (rewriteable)
-burner will do single or dual layer BD-R/BD-RE (dual layer 50 not 25GB capacity)
-ships with CyberLink BD burning software - PC only
-2X burn speed, 25GB takes 50 minutes to burn, presumably 50 GB takes 100 minutes to burn
-can also burn single layer 4.7GB DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, and DVD+R dual layer (8.5 GB) discs
-ATAPI interface
-standard optical drive size

Mike's Comments: this or a Pioneer is a likely option for the forthcoming Intel based Mac Pros, which are rumored to be announced at WWDC in early August. Prices will fall slowly in the first 3+ months but in 6-12 months prices will fall quickly if history is any indicator.

-mike

Macworld: News: Sony aims high with new camcorders

Users will derive maximum recording time from the HDR-UX1 by using a dual-layer DVD R disc. In the camera's highest resolution recording mode, about 27 minutes of video can be stored on one disc. In long-play mode this increases to 60 minutes. Using an 8cm DVD-R, recording time is between 15 minutes and 32 minutes. The HDR-SR1 can store up to four hours of video in its highest quality mode, and up to 11 hours in the lowest quality mode on its 30GB drive.

Also:
-mid September availability
-playback on computers only at first
-some DVD players will support AVCHD in the future (I wouldn't count on wide adoption)
-Sony's PS3 WILL play these discs - THAT expands the market for these!
-10x optical zoom for these cameras, 3.5" LCD, 1080i, HDMI output, about 650 gram weight for either model (disk or DVD)
-30GB hard drive in the model with a hard drive
-can use Bluetooth microphones (that'd be handy for the bluetooth headset crowd - is that what they mean?)

UPDATE - Scott Kirsner's excellent CinemaTech blog has more links, coverage, and analysis on this.

CinemaNow unveils download-to-burn DVD service - Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online movie seller CinemaNow late
on Tuesday unveiled a new service that allows customers to
download a movie from the Internet and copy it onto a DVD that
can be played on any standard DVD player.
The new, legal download-to-burn service marks a major step
for Hollywood as its movie and television studios seek to offer
movies and TV shows to consumers via the Web for playback on
TVs and portable DVD players.


Has limits though:
-only 100 older movies (Charlie's Angels, Scent of a Woman)
-this is a long tail play, not a newest releases play
-therefore probably just a test
-can only burn one copy
-but is a regular DVD-R
-takes hours to download with broadband

...but is a start. Interesting only 100 movies...I'd like to see more. There's usually a tradeoff between security and fault tolerance...hopefully the service can gracefully handle it if the download gets interrrupted, or your IP address changes if download interrupted, or if the burn fails you should be able to burn another, etc.

-mike

BitTorrent inks licensing deal with studios | CNET News.com: "BitTorrent is lining up entertainment companies as it prepares to sell downloads of feature films, TV shows and other video entertainment."

Pigs are clearly flying. BitTorrent makes sense to move a lot of content, and the security/piracy thing can potentially be addressed.

Read on for full details, I can't summarize (gotta go eat!).

-mike

Amazon stepping into digital download fray

Long interesting story about Amazon (and others) getting into the download fray. Most revolting concept - the studios feel that digital and DVD movie prices should be the same. So you can get a crappier quality, no extras, no physical media, limiting DRM after waiting hours for it to download and it only plays on your ONE computer....or get actually get up off yer butt and go to a store (or wait for Amazon or Netflix) to send you a physical DVD that plays on a variety of devices and can be format shifted (even if illegally, but simply).

Also an egregious error - they say technology is not a limiting factor, that movies can be downloaded in 10 minutes. This is abundantly, painfully not true, and a shameful hose-up on the writer's part.

Short matter can be downloaded at high quality in that time frame, but not high quality, long form content. Not even on broadband, and not even using a progressive download approach. Just, um, NO.

(found via CinemaTech)

HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 - Sony Unveils AVCHD Camcorders - News, Guides and Tips - Consumer Camcorders - Camcorderinfo.com

Camcorderinfo is the first source I've found with details on the first AVCHD camcorders:
-HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 are the first two models (see linked article above for pic of the UX1)
-records to 8cm rewriteable DVD
-HDR-UX1 due September, $1400 MSRP
-records to dual layer discs, 1 hour recording time - 1.4 GB is normal 8cm DVD capacity, so if 2.8 GB capacity for dual layer, then 1 hour is recording at 6.3 megabits (815 kilobytes/sec or so)
-HDR-SR1 is hard drive based, $1500 MSRP, September as well
-in "long play" up to 10 hours recording time (implies lower bitrate) - but what's the drive capacity? Built in drive? Replaceable?
-CMOS sensor based
-HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 AVCHD Camcorders - The Digital Video Information Network is a thread on the new cameras, and includes a link to a folder of images of the cameras, which are clearly straight consumer cameras.

-Panasonic will have an AVCHD camcorder later this year

Mike's Analysis: My ultimate takeaway - at this point in time, this is a CONSUMER format. While the specs include 24p and higher bitrate support, none of that is happening at this point in time. The other big issue - hello, how/where are you going to edit this format? Much like the other DVD recording cameras that record MPEG-2 to 8cm DVDs, there's no clear and easy path to edit this stuff. At this time, Adobe is the only of the Big Three NLEs to take interest in the format publicly/formally - Avid and Apple haven't officially signed up yet.

So I say it'll take several things before I'd consider using this format for anything even remotely serious:

1.) Much better quality cameras than what has been announced to date - better chips, glass, controls, etc.
2.) Higher bitrates, almost certainly recording to hard drives or solid state memory, for better quality video
3.) Native NLE support - there's ZERO native NLE support at this time as far as I can tell (anyone feel free to correct me)

...and even when native NLE comes, H.264 is a very efficient but very processor intensive format - you'll need a FAST, RECENT, POWERFUL computer to have enough huevos to edit this stuff in real time.

So interesting, but not for a while yet.

Also, I've seen no mention of 24p support for these cameras (although the format allows it) - so indie moviemakers, stay away from these cameras!

-mike

Studio Daily | JVC Announces New HD110U HDV Camcorder: "Updated Design Includes More Focus-Assist Settings and New LCD Display and Viewfinder Modes"

If you were about to buy a GY-HD100U, don't - get the new 110U. New features include:

Black and white viewfinder display mode
Simultaneous use of both eyepiece viewfinder and tri-mode LCD display when powered by Anton Bauer or IDX battery system
Selectable mirror mode on vertically flipped LCD display
Adjustable setting of FOCUS ASSIST function
Choice of three image formats on composite out (letterbox, squeeze, side cut)
User selectable DNR ON/OFF menu setting
13 segment audio level indicator
Manual audio control within FAS (Full Auto Shooting) mode
Audio limiter available in manual mode
Parallel power off management of DR-HD100 hard disk recorder

The Matrox MXO is now shipping, and I can now say that I already have a review unit on the way for testing ASAP. This was one of the most interesting new indie viable product announcements at NAB.

In theory it sounds great - adding composite, s-video, component, SDI & HD-SDI (single link only) to your secondary DVI output. For $1000, you could also be buying an HD-SDI input/output card that would do all MXO does and more, BUT those can only be installed in machines with PCI-X or PCIe slots. Connecting to the DVI, this enables an entirely new range of hardware to have high quality previews and outputs - so suddenly laptops have an HD-SDI out, which is a great new option. Plus, it is an outboard piece of hardware - presumably you could just pop it off and hand it to your studio mate if you needed to share it - relocating an PCI-X/PCIe card to another box is no trivial exercise.

I'm interested in finding out how the output compares to traditional HD-SDI output from an AJA or BMD card from the same source footage, and will be testing it as such.

Unlike a hardware only scan rate converter, the explanation I got about it is that it comes with some QuickTime components and does some trickery to the signal going out the DVI so that it isn't just a scan rate converter, but properly formatted video. Again, we'll have to wait and see what we get, and find out if things like 24p, downconversion, cross conversion etc. are supported or even possible.

So keep reading over the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting about it as soon as it comes in.

Press release follows:

Montreal, Canada, July 18, 2006 - Matrox Video Products Group today announced that Matrox MXO is now shipping. An easy-to-use DVI-to-audio/video output adapter for the Mac, Matrox MXO, takes the DVI output from a Mac computer or laptop and converts it to broadcast-quality video. Users can preview Apple Final Cut Pro projects or the output of other QuickTime-based applications such as Apple Soundtrack Pro and Motion, as well as Adobe After Effects as they will actually appear on TV and record them frame accurately to tape. Matrox MXO can also be used to provide a flicker-free video output of the computer desktop with any application, allowing the user to record and display Keynote and PowerPoint presentations, web browser sessions, and software application training.

"Matrox MXO incorporates patent-pending technology that provides important workflow enhancements for video production professionals on the Mac platform," said Alberto Cieri, Matrox sales and marketing director. "It's a cost-effective external box that's easy-to-use and portable. Final Cut Pro users will wonder how they ever worked without it."

Key features of Matrox MXO
- DVI to broadcast-quality video conversion in HD and SD
- Portable, hot-swappable external box
- Genlockable HD/SD SDI, HD/SD analog component, Y/C, and composite outputs
- Up to 8 channels SDI embedded audio output with stereo audio monitoring
- Workflow enhancements for Final Cut Pro and other QuickTime-based applications
- Conversion of DVI preview output to frame accurate video for insert editing and print-to-tape with guaranteed audio/video sync
- Interlacing artifact elimination and gamma correction when previewing video on a secondary DVI display
- Hardware accelerated output of DVCPRO HD, HDV, and Final Cut Pro Dynamic RT segments
- Realtime downscaling of an HD project to SD resolution with proper color space conversions
- Flicker-free, broadcast-quality video output of the computer desktop with any application

Price and availability
Priced at $995 US in North America (£619, EUR899), Matrox MXO is now available through a worldwide network of authorized dealers.

Studio Monthly | Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

I continue to be more and more impressed with Studio Monthly as I come across more articles from them. This one talks about the detailed steps involved in offline and online editing and mastering of a half hour show shot on HD and HDV. They skip over a couple of steps I'd like more granular detail on (timecode issues when downconverting HDV to DV, timecode matchback issues when recapturing HD?), and run into some problems that are (supposedly) fixed now (Media Manager 1 frame retimed shots for instance). But this is a nice overview of how to tackle these kinds of projects.

I'm growing increasingly curious as to whether, with a robust machine like a Quad G5, it is acceptably speedy to offline in HD. Some of my recent research has been to quantify what is and isn't realtime on various machines and various formats.

-mike

UPDATE Analyst says "it's unlikely that Apple will use its upcoming World Wide Developers Conference to introduce new music-related products.": "keep in mind WWDC is a Mac event and has not been used in the past for major iPod announcements." - which fits with my own thoughts on this - WWDC is a geek-a-thon, not a major product launch platform event.

And finally, somebody took the time to pick apart how often TS gets it wrong. I'm sure there's many more examples and it would be fun to chart their chicken little vs got it right ratio, but I don't have time for that.

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Think Secret - WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals

Claims Apple will have time lmited downloads (or limited # of times you can view it) to debut at WWDC. Hmm. I'll wait and see. In a similar article, they claim 3.5" LCD screen iPods have been delayed until early 2007.

That doesn't seem to quite make sense - I'd think these two things would be closely related.

Also, how good will the movies look? At what resolution and bitrate? If H.264 (most likely candidate), you're talking about BIG downloads here (esp. if the resolution is anywhere close to DVD's 720x480).

Again, this is from rumor monger extraordinaire Think Secret - they tend to say "The sky is falling/Apple product X is about to ship!" repeatedly until it does then claim prescience.

That annoys me.

If the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, or some other Hollywood press reports INDEPENDENTLY (not just saying Think Secret is reporting it) that this is true, that will go a long way towards lending credibility.

But if true, I find downloadable rentals....distasteful. If that's all Jobs can pull off in his dealmaking efforts...that's kinda lame. Other services are selling downloadable movies (I need to take a closer look now to clarify which is doing rentals vs. purchase). It's good fiscal policy for Apple and Hollywood, not so great for consumers.

...so if the studios are pushing for low res, slow downloading, no extras (cut scenes, behind the scenes, etc.) that only play on computers or current video iPods...that's not a very compelling usage scenario. Considering you can get Handbrake to make iPod versions of DVDs for FREE....the Rent/Rip/Return motif will probably be more popular than the downloadbles for all but impulse rentals. I find that even with 3 at a time Netflix, I still end up renting movies I want "now" often. (I have 5 rented movies in the house at the moment between Netflix and local indie movie rental place, Blockbuster wasn't trused to have Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control in stock).

-mike

LINK PULLED

I'm guilty of speed blogging this one - I saw topic headers that looked generally right and skimmed some content, but didn't read in depth. Graeme Nattress (rightfully) called me on the carpet on this one, so I just pulled the plug on it. Never mind, you do NOT want to see it.

-mike

Movielink licenses DVD-burning tools - Yahoo! News

Movielink LLC has licensed technology that allows the online movie service's customers to transfer downloaded films to DVDs for playback on standard DVD players.

The deal announced Monday with Sonic Solutions clears a technological hurdle for Santa Monica-based Movielink, but the company still lacks permission from Hollywood studios to offer their movies for DVD burning.


A good step - let's see if Hollywood bites at this revenue stream, or remains concerned about piracy and blocks the move.

-mike

Matrox MXO was one of the products I was most intrigued by at NAB - it is a small hardware/software combo that connects to your DVI output and has analog and SDI/HD-SDI outputs. NOT just a scan rate converter, they are intending it to be a serious output tool. For notebook computer owners where HD-SDI output is an impossibility, this is a big big deal.

So tune in tomorrow, kids, news on the way...