HD For Indies

Variety.com - Blockbusters take toll on f/x shops:

Fellow blogger Stu put it well:

"Stu Maschwitz, co-founder of the Orphanage, recalls a movie where the bond company insisted on auditing his shop's books, having been burned by another vfx shop that went bankrupt in midproduction.

'They were going over our financials with a fine-tooth comb while at the same time the production was beating us up on price and delaying payments. It never occurred to them that there was a connection between the two.'"

The time crunch, the sinking pay, the willfully uninformed client demands made me realize a few years ago this wasn't a business I wanted to stay in.

In 1996 I attended a conference where a business consultant talked about all the new 2-6 person post houses/edit shops (at the time, Media 100 was the big new tool for low cost/high quality) - "When you get underbid for a job - and don't worry, you will, and often - don't get upset that the other guys got the job. All that means is that they are going out of business faster than you are."

Giant Killer Robots shut their doors for six months to consider what to do next, and decided to make their own animation content rather than

There is lots of discussion about a "War of the Worlds" schedule - VFX was done in a few months immediately following principle photography, but part of why it could be done quickly was that Spielberg understood VFX technology, and was working with longtime collaborator Dennis Muren, a longtime VFX industry veteran - those two knew how to zip through it.

If editorial houses were the new thingy in the 90s, and VFX houses have been the thingy more of late, what's next? Small 1-4 person Colorist shops as a micro-trend?

Moving cross country for a project? Working 70-80 hour weeks, nights and weekends, for months? That's what my 20's were for - I'm DONE with that.

More of the same kind of stuff at ILM - Variety.com - ILM at center of visual effects storm: "ILM had to turn down some 'Pirates 3' shots, and warned all clients that the f/x house didn't have excess capacity for any large, late additions.Even so, John Knoll had a crew of 300 artists on 'Pirates 3' working six-day weeks starting at Christmas, with long hours each day, then went to seven-day weeks for the last six weeks before delivery."

Both of these stories were found from CinemaTech.
-mike

PS-my personal record was 105 BILLABLE hours in a one week on a frog project....hopefully never again...

YouTube Coming to Apple TV: "Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive will be available tomorrow for a suggested retail price of $399 (US)."

So I will probably have a burning itch to sell my 40GB AppleTV and Toshiba HD-A2 to get their slightly better cousins - the 160GB AppleTV and the Toshiba HD-A20.

Anybody want to buy? They are in excellent condition, low use, and I have all the boxes & docs.

-mike

Studio Daily Blog � The great codec bake-off

I wouldn't call it that (the great codec bake-off), since it is just a first step, and I have a lot of technical quibbles (see my comment, and Graeme's next in the article) - so don't let the headline throw you - I think it is of interest to compare the two, but the results as shown are not what I would consider final nor unequivocal.

I'd like to see the One River Codec test image used to compare them, use some real footage (DCI StEM, anybody?), test/experiment with the 4:4:4 chroma filtering option, etc.

-mike

UPDATE - he redid some tests, and the results make ProRes look better, but it isn't clear if his currently posted images are the new-and-improved, or the old-n-busted. I'm still going to fool with it on my own when I get a chance.

Just got off the phone with a client asking about whether ProRes obviates the need for a RAID for HD work...good question, I don't have a definitive answer yet. Let's presume it falls between the quality of DVCPRO HD and uncompressed (a pretty reasonable presumption) - therefore for SOME amount of the market it will be good enough for their needs - the real question is how much of that market - and I don't know the answer to that yet, I need to do my own testing now that I'm back in town.

At this point, while he's said he retested, I'm not sure whether the posted files are the original testing methodology or the second improved-but-still-potentially-have-issues testing methodogy - so while his intent may have been to have a conversation starter on codec quality, I don't consider his downloadable files & samples worth seriously evaluating in depth until his testing methodology is clearly documented, updated results posted, etc.

Otherwise, his post is merely a conversation starter as he states but his headline implies otherwise, and his presented data lacks relevance to the core question at hand. To me, the core issue is how good are these codecs in their "native" environments first (Final Cut for ProRes, Avid for DNxHD), and a secondary but still interesting question is how good are these codecs for intermediate files rendered out of After Effects. Methodology is crucial in these regards.

-mike

Labels: codec, DNxHD, NLE, ProRes

Apple CEO Steve Jobs | D5 | AllThingsD: "Apple will be offering a free software upgrade come June that will allow Apple TV users to view YouTube videos on their televisions."

Headline says it all. From the D5 conference.

More details:

Macworld: News: Steve Jobs at D: All Things Digital, Live Coverage: "%u201CWe%u2019re not selling HD yet, because of the tradeoffs between download time and quality. But that might change in the future,%u201D said Jobs.
Jobs acknowledged the popularity of the Google-owned Internet video site, YouTube. %u201CWouldn%u2019t it be great if you could see YouTube in your living room? So we%u2019ve had a great opportunity to work with the YouTube folks, and we%u2019re putting YouTube in the main menu,%u201D he said."

Labels: Apple, AppleTV

Blackmagic Design: Intensity

Got a note from BMD - the Intensity Pro is now shipping, their $349 card that has HDMI in/out, and analog SD/HD in/out.

I haven't tested one yet, but if you DON'T need HD-SDI in/out, do FireWire based ingest, and need HDMI or analog monitoring, this sounds pretty good.

I need to double check on 23.98 support though.

Doodling about making some test footage to take with me out of town, I'm getting ready to cook the DCI StEM footage down to ProRes.

Suddenly I notice an option on the export dialog in After Effects 7.0 - a checkbox for "Enable 4:4:4 chroma filtering" - now, is this a smoother cleaner way to get 4:2:2 results, or is this enabling 4:4:4 sampling? I notice it says filtering not sampling, so that gives me pause. Anybody got any more details on it than that?

I'm about to leave town, can't look into it now.

Wizdom of the Interweb Tubez, Inform Me!

-mike

Further note 1/2 hour later - you have to edit your After Effects setup text file (I've blogged on it in the past, don't recall off teh top of my head) to get ProRes to write out to ACTUALLY 10 bits - so that "Trillions" will be available instead of just "Millions" - my test files are going to be 8 bits worth of data, even if in a 10 bit codec. All part of the due dilligence thing, doncha know...

-mike

Tuesday night update - "Enable 4" does not appear in the FCP user manual, nor in the Compressor manual.

Consensus is that it is to help with chroma aliasing, so it truly is chroma FILTERING, not chroma SAMPLING. I emailed Adam Wilt on the issue and he sent me a test file to verify, I'll get to it when I can to have specifics.

I'm pretty much incommunicado this week, so if elsewhere on the web somebody has details, please email or add a Comment (link below) to fill me (and the rest of us) in.

-mike

Labels: FCP, Final Cut, Final Cut Studio 2, NL

Silicon Imaging

Video tutorial on Silicon Imaging's SiliconDVR software - how you record from the SI-2K Mini to a hard drive.

I'm out of town for a few days, so I may not be able to post much if anything depending on web access.

Hope ya'all (Americans at least) enjoyed your long weekend!

(.....and everybody else had a good, um, regular weekend. Anyone having a bad day go read this and remember what is like to be 12 on the Interweb tubez.)

-mike

EDIT - video offline whilst they fix some technical glitches (as of 9pm CST Monday night)

Labels: disk based recording, NLE, SI-2K

Hey all -

especially after the particularly loose and rambly post I just put up, I wanted to address what's been going on with the blog.

I know I've been news light of late, I've been trying to get a bunch of infrastructure in place to grow the blog. It's hard, since I've been just the one person up until now producing about 98% of what you read on here. The good news is, part of the lack of news is due to my efforts to be ready to cover more, in greater depth, in the future.

I've signed on a couple of interns (let's call them G & A until I get their permission to be publicly revealed), and in the process of seeking interns a couple of other working professionals have volunteered to help with some aspects of the overall HD for Indies endeavor (I'm honored and pleased they would choose to spend their time this way). Some other folks are being hired for other tasks as well, you'll hear what that's about in the future when those eggs are closer to hatching.

I'm trying to reorganize and restructure HD for Indies, as well as my own use of time, in a way that will make this thing sustainable. I've been running HD for Indies in an out-of-my-pocket, out-of-my-soul kind of a way for over three years now, and that takes its toll - and cannot be sustained indefinitely. Hopefully the new way will be sustainable long term.

So a bit more patience, please - I'm getting my ducks in a row, I hope to start them* marching soon.

-mike

* (I'm a duck too in this metaphor, no diss on anybody. Quack.)

Labels: housekeeping

an off the cuff observation, coupled with some other thoughts that weren't quite their own entries, and some miscellaneous ramblings, all pasted into one blog entry since I don't have time to develop these enough to stand on their own wobbly/ugly duck feet:

If you're lookin' for real news, there isn't any here, just some self-indulgent thoughts and sloppy writing. Perhaps somebody like Scott Kirsner can make some sense and order of these ideas (or perhaps already has, I'm weeks behind on his blog). In any case, if you're looking for some hard facts, move along, these most definitely aren't the droids you're looking for. OK, you've been warned.

The main premise - TV's fix for dwindling revenue seems to be to chase downmarket, while studios making feature films are trying to push upmarket to solve the same problem. (I then ramble all over those ideas like a drunk at a wedding.)

Can they both be right? Are they both wrong? One or the other? Some other possible variant? Is the answer 42, Douglas Adams?

Premise: ALL media producers are getting concerned about their future revenue potential as the ground shifts beneath their feet:

-Newspapers are concerned about dwindling subscriptions - will the web & TV be the future of news? Both are used to being free or advertising supported (or cable) - where will they go, what will they do? The benefits of newspapers (depth, easy transport, 12 hours to market) are dwindling as laptops & blogs & CNN continue to encroach. Their theoretical trump card, quality writing by professionals, continues to be not as well implemented as theory would indicate. Sigh. But I get their dilemma - it takes some serious TIME and effort to properly research a story and verify all your facts - and it is tough to either have the time, or be able to cost justify the time. A good, serious test & review takes me days to do - that's why I do so few of them anymore, and usually for a magazine, not for the blog (not enough income generated from the activity!)

-The broadcast networks, on the other hand, are concerned about dwindling ratings - I've been reading stories lately about lots of network affiliate stations getting sold off, as this is considered about as good as it is going to get. Cable TV draws away audiences, as does the Internet in general and video games for the younger & maler* skewed demographics.

* (and yes, I just molested a noun).

-The response? The trend seems to be, in part, more cheaper television - a few years ago it was reality TV - it was cheap to produce, didn't need high production value, didn't need stars (certainly not expensive ones, except for the hosts that became stars), and could be cranked out by the bucketful. Now the trend is towards game shows - I just saw an ad for Friday night primetime bingo - as the Wicked Witch said, "What a world, what a world...." Or for competition shows, which seem to have been milked dry - witness A&E getting down to hair & interior design as competition shows. Power yawn. But again - the weekly talent is either hosts (usually non-major cost), the weekly talent is free, and the production value doesn't have to be too terribly high. See footnote (1).

-Studios & theaters are concerned about dwindling box office - it has already been the case for YEARS that DVD income tops theatrical release income - most theatrical releases are a break-even at best, and profits don't occur until DVD time. Most studio films cost roughly $60M to produce, with another roughly $30M in marketing & advertising costs. Yowza. But cable TV, DVDs (which seem to be getting rented more than bought these days - anybody got any hard numbers to back up that supposition?), high def home theaters are snacking away on the studio's piece of the entertainment pie, as well as video games and the Internet now vie for our evening and weekend attention.

So what are they doing? Making fewer, bigger movies that play to the angle you can't get at home - the SPECTACLE. Movies that you WANT to see in a darkened room, with 300 strangers, on a really big honkin' screen with really beefy noise - a fully concussive, immersive experience. Disney has come right out and said that they're doing it (fewer more expensive at least), blaming it on an inabilty to manage that many quality feature projects. Really? I'd think you'd just hire some more six figure execs to oversee projects. If talent is scarce, steal'em from competition by offering them more money. $300K/year isn't much as compared to nearly $100M/feature. Is the issue really managing projects, or that it is harder to impress folks nowadays?

-The counter argument? Sometimes movies can be made that go low market, and they'll work - witness Borat and Jackass: The Movie. Both scathingly funny, relatively cheap to produce (Borat shot on Varicam, BTW - see? It IS an HD for Indies post! ......................................NOT!) But risky - both coulda flopped bigtime, and while production costs were low, they didn't exactly skimp on the marketing of those two films - regardless of production costs, if studios want to push a film, it is still big money to do so. Keep in mind - the typical marketing budget of a mainstream studio film is enough to produce 1-3 (or more) modest but decent indie films. So even if a distributor picks up YOUR movie for $2M, if they're shooting for wide theatrical release, they're going to spend MANY times that marketing the film - and they'd be expecting to make an ROI on that money. Of course, you'd be lucky as hell if they were going for wide release with your $2M acquied movie, but that's another post entirely.

At the same time though, some broadcast & cable networks are going upmarket too - look at the cost & production value that goes into Lost, for instance. (footnote 2). They spend a fortune on that sucker, especially in the early episodes. That first one with the crash was lower end feature quality, but on a TV budget. I continue to read about how TV VFX work is done SO fast, under SO much pressure. It clearly isn't as good as feature film work, and they don't try anything nearly as complex (think about Davy Jones in Pirates 3), but strictly in terms of results/dollar/production hour, it is pretty damned impressive. Alias was another example of this a few years back, and Battlestar Galactica has done a nice job of Looking Big on a not huge budget (thanks to cheap & fast 3D hardware/software - curious to see an inflation adjusted analysis of original Battlestar Galactica episodes as compared to today's). There have also been some damned impressive mini-series, but not lately - remember Band of Brothers? Wow. There are some - Planet Earth on Discovery HD was damned impresive as well, but in a different way.

In any case, a lot of this is just gut feel and supposition, I don't have hard data and analysis to back it up. I pretty much just watch Comedy Central (Daily Show junkie), SciFi, my too many HBOs for my own good, and the HD channels (I'm still too impressed with good looking HD, hopefully I'll get over it and recover some of my life back). In any case, clearly not enough contemporary mainstream TV to claim any of this with any authority, this is just my feel of the situation.

Thanks for reading my ramblings here, this is has been another episode of Sloppy Blogging. If you have facts to prove or disprove any of my gut suppositions in here, feel free to Comment away using the link below the end of the article. If you want to chastise me for my meandering and sloppy writing, send it to our ever vigillant complaint department. We'll get back to you real soon now, promise. :D

Footnote (1) BIG FAT FOOTNOTE, PERHAPS SHOULD BE ITS OWN ENTRY: As a side note, I think it says interesting things about us as a country/culture - we fully acknowledge and admit we, as a Society, want Fame & Money - the national infatuation with Reality TV a few years ago was simply the nation having a discourse with itself on the subject of Just How Far Will You Go For Fame Or Money? I kinda enjoyed the physical challenge bits on Fear Factor - balance on a beam above the water and grab the flags, challenging your inner fear of heights, or race the clock for....something.

There was, at least, a healthy challenge to that - strive to do something scary to yourself, and achieve some bit of physical prowess. I can connect with that on a personal level - the first time I finished a multi-pitch ascent (rock climbing up several hundred feet, up the Black Cliffs in Cannibal Gulch in Donner Pass, and can YOU think of a scarier name for a place to climb outdoors first?), or the first time I finished a marathon (I burst out into tears, and I'm REALLY not the type to do that - I didn't cry when I crashed a bicycle at 50mph, or fractured my elbow, or....hell, anything physical).

Anyway, there was a robustness, a sincerity, a physio-spiritual quest to those challenges. Some of the challenges seemed too much to me, eliciting such a primal fear that it seemed dangerous to suggest anyone try it - the cylindrical water tank with clear plexiglass horizontal dividers with a random hole in it - swim down this one-way-only pachinko trap while holding your breath, then navigate your way out - I could just feel the drowning terror in my lungs just thinking about it. That seemed too much, too unhealthy - or maybe it is my own severe fear of drowning, and I'm not so afraid of heights.

Then there was The Eating Of Goat Balls, and All Such Similar Activities. As any Klingon can tell you with a straight (but wrinkly) face, That Hath No Honor. So reality TV was just us watching ourselves, either literally or figuratively (which Survivor do YOU most associate yourself with?), carefully quantifying with lab test care just how far we'd go to be America's Next Top Schpootie Doo or to win $50,000. Personally, I wouldn't eat goat balls for $50K, not even if you told me I was the only one competing and here's the check, ready to go.

It all boiled down to this - how much are you willing to abase yourself? You're willing to do WHAT? Kewl, we're gonna film that - just sign this release in case you die, or have a permanently mentally damaging shiver/hissy fit from being covered in cockroaches, slugs, mealworms and/or snakes up to your eyeballs, preferably all at the same time. And how many shows did they shoot before they realized they needed goggles, nose pinchers, AND earplugs? Eww ickie grody yick Yick YICK HURL. Oh, and do you have huge boobies? Great, we'll book you next week, wear this tight low cut top.

I like boobies* at least as much as the next 18-35 year old single male (wait, DRAT, I'm not one anymore, let's face it, I'm 39 in a coupla weeks), but that really put the icing on the Lowest Common Denominator Cake, and in a sickly, overly factory sugared way, not the fun way.

* (and I use that word on purpose in this context, as demeaning as I'd imagine the show producers would say/think it, to ram home how Not Cool their approach was)

Footnote (2) Talking about Lost, I loved that show at first, but it suffers from the same syndrome that befalls all my favorite shows (The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex & the City, The X Files, etc.) - after having a successful show because they set up an interesting challenge and started to make progress resolving those conflicts, once they started getting successful, they had to freeze any real character growth or change or development - because while they managed to hit the magical hit formula, if they changed something they might break the spell - so Tony Soprano meandered away from the interesting plotline of mobster with a conscience having panic attacks. 4 women trying to find love & happiness in New York is fun and interesting, 8 years later they're all still single? (And so am I?) That's f*****g depressing, change the channel.

The X Files posited some fascinating questions when they turned the corner from what I think of as the Old Testament (anything goes, lots of strange stuff happening) to the New Testament (One Grand Unified Theory of aliens green & grey, impending genetic attack, black oil, etc.) - once they embarked on the fascinating quest of It's All Real & Here, they could NEVER answer and resolve it - because they'd have to end the show. How interesting would it have been for The Big World Showdown to have occurred, Sculley & Mulder right in the thick of it, resolve it, and then move on? Coulda been fascinating, but they'd never risk it (nor could they afford to produce it fiscally).

Lost is, by definition, lost & hosed now - the show is so successful, they can NEVER get off the island. They've been stringing us out for so long (SPOILER ALERT), they had to show flashFORWARDS not flashbacks at the season ender of life after the island the other night, and I'm still trying to figure out what it all meant, and what was "real" in their fictional world. But I shouldn't - I thought deeply about the meaning of the shark with the Darma Project logo on its tail in an early episode, until I realized the only reason it was there was because the writers thought it was "just neat-o to throw that in." THEY don't know what's happening next episode, I strongly suspect, their job is to just to write an episode that makes you wonder what's going to hapen next week. The Big Picture? What Is The Island? What does it all mean? I don't think they know either, and that's what's galling. Think of all the false lead plot threads that have never been resolved (big scary monster stomping around the jungle & stealing people? Hullo? Did the Smoke Monster eat you or scare you off?).Feh. I was prepared to blow it off, but durnit, they made it interesting again...but only by coming up with NEW challenges, characters, etc. (Note we didn't know/care about Ben until HOW far into the show?) I wonder how many episodes he was signed on for when he first appeared, or if the writers knew his character arc/trajectory? Hmm. But without a sense that SOMEBODY has a Cool & Glorious Grand Unifying Theory of the island to drop on us, thus explaining all to us, slackjawed with amazement at the clever, subtle, sublime, ultimately simple bitchingness of it....I don't think it'll be worth watching indefinitely.

I'm also alarmed at how many cop/solve-it shows are on TV - Law & Order & CSI spinoffs, oh my. But that's another thread entirely. Are we THAT obsessed with having to turn to fictional justice served, since it is so hard to find in reality? I watch these from time to time as well, either in primetime or on the cable reruns*. Note what products are being advertised during those shows. Think about who that means they are marketing it to. Feel perturbed, regardless of whether you are in the target demographic.

* (I think you can watch those one of those two shows non-stop from 4pm till 3am if you have enough cable channels)

-on a related note, I used to like The West Wing until 9/11 - then the real world was more interesing yet far scarier than anything they could do on there. They lost their reason to be when the real West Wing switched from {omit my deeply personal political viewpoint} to having to try to deal with truly important issues instead of minor, day to day stuff, and then {omit personal/political perspective on wisdom/success/how insightful approach taken}.

OK, I should stop now, it is far after 1am and I started this at 10pm thinking it would take 15 minutes to get my thoughts out, hahhahahaaaaa, and this is getting into shades of David Foster Wallace (a personal hero, but this trait may not be a good one to emulate)

If you got this far,

a.) thank you, and

b.) my condolences.

As Dennis Miller said, "Stop me before I subreference again."

Too late.

-m

Labels: OT, think

I updated my original article from the other day, scroll to the end to see my new notes there.

Another handy tidbit - on the tutorial DVD, there's a ROM folder with all of that content as H.264 files, compatible with AppleTV as well - handy! They are just little QuickTime movies, so you can copy them onto your local drive if you want as well. They are lower resolution (640x360 or so) than the DVD (720x480), so the DVD is a little sharper for seeing the UI details demostrated. No biggie - it is handy to have the option, and you wouldn't know it was there if you didn't look.

It would have been nice if Apple had treated it as a TV series or something so it would self-organize a little better - they just fall into place in alphabetical order, which isn't necessarily the order you'd want them to play in. And there's no playlist organizing them, either. Points for putting AppleTV QT's on the DVD, but it would have been nice if they were organized a little better.

As a related question, how tough would it be to make a QT movie that has embedded navigation that works in AppleTV? It is totally doable (and it'd also be nice if a DVD Studio Pro project could be exported this way as well - Adobe's CS3 can one button export a DVD to Flash...response Apple?)

QuickTime has all the hooks to do this - referring to other movies in the same directory, etc. And since AppleTV seems to be a fairly full featured QT client, shouldn't this be possible? Somebody test! The chapter markers in a movie work in iTunes - can we get a little screen with navigable links to do the same in a self-contained QT file? That works on AppleTV? Chapter nav is awkward on iTunes movies on AppleTV as is.

Anyway, moving on - I don't leave until Tuesday instead of this Saturday, so more time to test & doodle, and try to get some other stuff done in the meantime.

Other tidbits - MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR INSTALLERS - last year at one point I dropped an installer disc I was carrying and stepped on it, scratching the media side - uh oh - it didn't install any more. I had to borrow a friend's and make a copy. I've heard you can send in a damaged installer and get it replaced, but I'll bet that takes weeks - if you're on deadline, that=bad Bad BAD.

I also put the installer serial # in the notes field of an Address Book entry named Serial Numbers - that way it is on my iPod, my .Mac, my phone (anybody else starting to get that junkie arm-itch to get an iPhone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), all my computers, etc. - I'll always have a copy somewhere. I also print'em out (and the SN from the prior version needed to install it) and tuck it in my one big CD wallet thingy I use. And that's where the copies of the installer goes, the originals stay in a place that NEVER LEAVES THE HOUSE. I have friends wanting to borrow old OS installers, for instance, all the time, and it is always hell getting them back. It is just human nature, like loaning out DVDs - they tend to get sticky at the destination and not leave. Anyway, never let an original installer out of the house - otherwise odds are better than 50/50 you won't get it back without having to ask for it.

This may seem like overkill, but with all the installers I have - Adobe stuff, Avid stuff, Final Cut, Shake, iLife, iWork, and the 8 bazillion plugins I've bought, been given, or am reviewing, it is necessary to keep up with the library. Nothing worse than setting up (or reconfiguring or reinstalling) a box, and you can't find the right installer for what you need. And since I'm constantly tearing up and down box and reconfiguring, I need all that stuff on tap consistently.

-mike

PS - On a related note, B-Scene Films has a nice report from last night's LA Final Cut Pro User Group meeting where Soundtrack Pro 2.0 was demonstrated.

I've been so busy I missed reporting that this was coming up - sorry LA folks, sorry Michael for not plugging this event.

-mike

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut Studio 2, NLE

IGN: PS3 Firmware Upgrade Set to Upscale: "Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today that the latest PS3 firmware upgrade - scheduled to hit consoles on Thursday, May 24 - will add full 1080p upscaling for standard-definition DVD's as well as games for the original Playstation and Playstation 2. "

Be interesting to see how well this works - I have heard/seen that the uprezzing on older games (not sure if was PS1 or PS2 games on PS3 I was seeing) was utterly poopy - or was that PS1 playing on PS2 perhaps? I don't know for sure, just know that I've seen a newer Playstation uprez older Playstation games very badly.

Anyone that knows better, please comment, as IANAG (I Am Not A Gamer).

-mike

I'm continuing to get the studio set up for some serious Final Cut Studio 2 analysis - but it is taking time. I now have 10.4.8 or 10.4.9 on two internal drives on each of two machines - My dual 2.5 GHz G5 has 10.4.9 on two different drives, one has Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 and the rest of Final Cut Studio (1), on it, the other has Final Cut Studio 2 full install on it.

My main box, a Quad 2.5 GHz G5, has 10.4.8 with FCP 5.1.4 and Media Composer 2.6 on it (they SEEM to coexist so far OK), and 10.4.9 with FCS 2 on the other internal drive. I've got the Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme card in it at the moment, but I plan to test it and my Kona3 to see how they compare with FCS 2.

Some preliminary tidbits: Media Manager SEEMS to be improved in its handling of some issues - Recompress To does NOT clip IRE values over 100 IRE at the moment. Sending clips with >100 IRE to Color works (no clipping) presuming you turn off the default Broadcast Safe filter (I need to study its behavior a bit - I'm guessing that with the filter on, you can dial back and the highlights are still there, just being clipped by the app @ 100 IRE - but I need to verify that myself).

The included DVD (16:9, natch) gives a nice overview of how to get your feet wet in Color. It is DEFINITELY a non-typical Mac app, and has MUCH more in common with the feel & vibe of Shake and other traditional "heavy iron" looking apps that have migrated downmarket. Which this one certainly qualifies as - keep in mind that Color 1.0 that comes with Final Cut Studio 2 @ $1300 includes ALL the functionality they used to include in the $25,000 Final Touch 2K - yes you CAN do 2K 10 bit log DPX film scans in this thing - WOWZA.

Yeah, I gotta start figuring out a way to get a Octo Mac, gonna need it...the Nvidia 7800GT card I have in the Quad G5 is not the optimal for this kind of stuff...

The timing is also unfortunate - I'm leaving town for several days on Tuesday as well (family vacation, the neice/nephew are only going to be 5 & 9 on a beach trip once...)

THURSDAY UPDATE - As I get Final Cut Studio 2 installed on various boxes around the office, I'm realizing...55 GB is an awfully large install! If you install everything from Final Cut Studio 2, with all of the LiveType, DVD Studio, and Soundtrack Pro extras, it takes up a HUGE amount of space - about as much space as laptop boot drives were just a couple of years ago. You can custom install to cut it down for stuff you don't plan on using (for instance, there are THREE discs of audio content), but if you want to comfortably have everything at your disposal, a bigger hard drive may well be needed - I found on a couple of machines I was having to push data off the boot drives to data drives...if there was space there. This update coincided with me "getting pretty full" in the studio in terms of stuff on drives, prompting to think about what I need to do for storage and backup - do I get more SATA RAID 0's? Do I buy an LTO-3 or LTO-4 drive for data backup for the inevitable RAID failure? Is it time to plunk down some serious change for a big fibre channel RAID? Man, it'd be nice to have consolidated storage so I could work with media from any box - a SAN would be great, but that'd be a, let's see:

-4 seats of xSan - $4000
-fibre channel switch - dunno, $4K?
-fully populated Xserve RAID, 10.5TB - about $14K, it'd format to 8.3TB in RAID 50, and only just under 7TB in RAID 50 with hot spare. Eww. I already have about 9TB of RAID 0 in the house...that's not so great. If I'm needing more space, I'd really need two of them, so $28K
-4 fibre channel cards - $500 a pop minimum, so $2K there

Total cost of SAN upgrade (list price): approximately $26K to have less space than I already do, or $40K to increase the space I've got. Considering the fact that I've recently vetoed the $9K Mac Pro that I want based on current financial situation, not gonna happen.

What are my other choices? I could stick with my RAID 0's, but I'd need a solid backup plan. Tape backup? New formats offer 800 GB @ over 400GB/hr backup speeds around $4K+.

Hmm...in the meantime, installation of Final Cut Studio 2 on the Dual 2.0 G5 is taking much longer than on the Quad G5 - slower optical drive to blame I would imagine - checking now, read speeds are about 8 MB/sec on that box as it installs off the DVD. So keep in mind, your install times can vary wildly, depending on:

1.) whether you do a full or custom cut-down install, as well as

2.) how fast your optical drive is (hard drive speed probably won't make a meaningful difference, optical drive speed will be the gating/limiting factor)

-mike

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut Studio 2, original

HighPoint-SATA RAID has a page just for Mac stuff - before I was kinda scared of their lack of presented Mac commitment, this helps. It is clearly organized.

OK, so you may have seen my rant last week about not getting FCS 2 upgrade.

Today, I called the Apple Store to see if they'd received any of the $499 upgrades instead of the $699 upgrades - she said yes. I said is that the $499 upgrade or the $699 upgrade? She didn't know had to go check (trepidation!). She came back and said yes, they had the $499 and plenty of them.

So I drove up there, walked up to the counter, and within 2 minutes someone was fetching it out of the back. I got rung up, tax exempt was no big deal (Texas has a sales tax exemption for products directly used in production, software/hardware counts).

All in all a good experience, with the one tiny quibble that the woman I originally spoke to had to double check that she had the right one when I asked.

I got some flack from folks when I originally said:
Lesson to Learn - nice enough people, but they do not know what the frickazoid razzle frazzle mumfaluff they are talking about. Remember, they are making Mall Wages.

Was I angry and irritated after spending nearly an hour of driving time for a fruitless quest? Yes I was. But I think part of what I do on this blog, legitimately, is express how an experience was for me - and from that perspective, I think that was a fair thing to express at the time. Do they ALL not know what's going on? NO. I've known some very knowledgeable and cool people up at my local Apple Store (Barton Creek Square Mall). After recognizing Naka in a movie line at Alamo Drafthouse once and geeking on moviemaking with him, I always sought him out when I went up to the Apple Store thereafter (he's since moved on I think). The biz sales guy went out of his way for me a number of times and I very much appreciated that, he was thoroughly knowledgeable and helpful and nice. That said....the Apple Store is, in fact, in a mall. And I've heard tell online and elsewhere folks that work there talking about how the pay is not stellar for those who know what they are doing. It was unfair of me to paint with that broad of a brush, but it is ENTIRELY possible to run into folks there who talk well beyond their knowledge.

And it isn't entirely their fault, either - it is, in fact, in mall, and they are, in fact, getting paid retail employee wages from what I can tell and have heard. Which is why many of them move on after a time there. If someone isn't an audio or video afficionado, to expect them to sell iPods and laptops and also know Final Cut Pro upgrade options is expecting a lot for what these folks are getting paid - Apple has a LOT of products, and they change fairly often. And that's a dig at Apple corporate, not Apple retail employees. An Apple retail store is a GREAT thing to have, I love it, but there are times as a professional working with high end Apple gear that it can be frustrating dealing with them - and this was one of them. The timing belt is off on my S2000, can Bubba Joe stop working on the Accord station wagon and see what's up when I take it over 8500 rpms under load....

An Apple Store makes great sense if you want an iPod, want a MacBook, want to buy & learn about iLife, etc. But if you want Final Cut Pro, or need to know about hardware intricacies for Logic, etc., it is a bit like having a Corvette and getting it serviced at the local Chevy dealer (or an S2000 at the local Honda shop) - if you've got a high end gadget, do you really want the folks who work on the soccer Mom vehicles working or recommending stuff for you? Maybe they know their stuff, maybe they don't, but the high end stuff is a fringe part of their job, not the day to day things they HAVE to know about(another reason to get a consultant or go with a VAR, IMHO...or just have someone to ask who KNOWS). Sometimes you get someone knowledgeable, sometimes you don't.

OK, back to installing Final Cut Studio 2:

-notes on installing FCS 2 on a MacBook (yes, a lowly Macbook, not a Macbook Pro)

it asks right up front about installing distributed Compressor & Qmaster - nice!

-lets you customize what to install, which is good, because full install is 55 GB (!!!!)

I tweaked mine down to a 6.7 GB install, and that is LIGHT - no PAL presets, no Motion Library content, no PAL DVD Studio Pro presets....LIGHT install

These days, a 250 is dead minimum for a "full install box" - what if you want all of FCS 2, all of CS3, all of our pics, movies, and music all on your boot drive?

For me these days, that'd require a 500 GB drive right there probably.

I clicked INSTALL at 10:01 pm...took to 10:35, but I missed a disc swap or two...

It installs!

FCP 6 launches!

720p24 SF Bay project opens!

Digital Cinema Desktop seems to be working OK as well, and a cross dissolve played back in realtime with no rendering required.

Color launches, but doesn't really work right - screen is too small

======

On to installing Final Cut Studio 2 on the Quad G5:

started the install (double clicked installer) at 11:09pm, by 11:10:30 it was installing after entering serial #, distributed rendering preferences, and what I wanted to install (everything!)

Some other notes - sounds like, from emailing somebody who already has installed it, that Media Manager no longer clips over 100 IRE values when Recompress To is used....but I wanna test that myself..

I was hoping to see some presets for things like live transcoding of HDV to ProRes on capture, or similar for P2 import of P2 media - I haven't found it...yet. I also noticed that while there are AIC presets for HDV at 720p30, 1080i60, 1080i50, but NOT 1080p24. Can we capture 1080p24 as HDV then transcode to AIC or ProRes? And do so WITHOUT clipping over 100 IRE values? (Hint: FCP 5.1.4 can NOT).

I'll update as this progresses.

Took until 12.17 to get installed (started 11:09, and I stayed right on top of the disc swaps - comes with 9 discs!)

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

-mike

Labels: Apple, Final Cut, Final Cut Studio 2, NLE, original

Macworld: First Look: Minor MacBook changes mean not-so-minor boost

Speed tests of PShop CS3, Compressor 2.3, and others. The new 2.16 GHz MacBook was only 5 seconds slower (at 2:17) than a 2.33 GHz MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo - not bad! And in the Photoshop CS3 tests, it was actually 1 second FASTER (1 minute 30 secs) than that MacBook Pro.

Read on for more details. Their usage of "Aged Filter" as an iMovie test is pretty engragingly foolish, and their iPhoto test is an import - more a test of buses than CPU. Zip encoding, MPEG-2 compressing, Cinema 4D rendering are all valid tests and included as well.

-mike

I had a friend asking me about what to do to feed his new Sony HDTV he bought (conveniently off my online store).

His question:

So I'm curious to know: if I ripped a DVD at whatever maximum settings an appleTV could handle and played it on my 1080p HDTV, would it look better or worse than the results from a relatively high-end upconverting dedicated DVD player?

-c

"Still looking for an excuse to buy an appleTV, thinking maybe v2.0 will be better."


UPDATE - BTW, that friend is Charlie Wood, creator of Spanning Sync, a nifty utility that synchronizes your Apple iCal and Google Calendar - try it! 15 day free trial

My answer:

So I pondered on that one a few seconds, hmm....

AppleTV

The uprezzing is really nice on the AppleTV. I've written previously here on how to get anamorphic DVD rips going to AppleTV at higher pixel resolution than Apple posts their movies.

BUT...you're transcoding and recompressing, so you're inherently reducing the quality that you started with on the DVD. How much? Depends on the bitrate and how much motion is in frame.

Also, keep in mind, you have to RIP and transcode and that is sloooooooowwwwww. And not all discs will rip properly (Casino Royale, anyone?) So the quality is acceptable, but the time factor is substantial - hours, far beyond realtime.

Uprezzing DVD Player

When I was researching what to get for my own set, my research led me to the Oppo DV-981HD Universal DVD Player with HDMI, 1080p Up-Converting, DivX & SACD. It slices, it dices, it does in fact julienne, and it is $229.99 on Amazon via my online store.

The good - it is lauded as the best uprezzing DVD player out there from the research I did, especially for the price. It also plays DivX & SACD discs as well - a damn nice little box. You can get cheaper uprezzing DVD players, certainly, but this is the one everybody pointed to when I did my research a few months ago. But even better than when I researched it a few months ago, I found that for an extra $65...

Toshiba HD-A2 & HD-A20 HD DVD players

The Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player ($296.99 at the moment) also has excellent uprezzing capabilities, and also plays HD DVDs. Why go halfway when you can get the full deal? For me, the incremental cost (now down to only $65 more than the Oppo), you get good uprezzing but can also play HD DVDs. For me, that was a killer deal - while who is going to win the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war is still up in the air (it looks like Blu-ray is pulling ahead in movie sales at the moment, but it has been a back-and-forth deal so far), for $65 more to play a bunch of high def discs too? Too easy a choice - I got this.

Since that time, Toshiba has released the HD-A20 HD DVD Player, which outputs a true 1080p (the A2 only does 1080i). If you have a 1080p set, worth doing, and it is only $359.88 at the moment on the online store - for a $65 bump from DVD to HD DVD, and another $65 bump to get full 1080p output (only worth having if your HDTV supports it!).

And what of Blu-ray, as long as we're thinking about it? The Sony Playstation 3 is still $599 on Amazon (via my store, same price either way), and the least expensive standalone Blu-ray player is the Samsung BD-P1000 at $470 (today's price).

Aside - What's Wrong With AppleTV

The AppleTV is basically a nice interface for iTunes content - I bought one, I like it, I even have another blog all about it - AppleTVhacker.com. But it isn't truly a replacement for a DVD player at any resolution. I see the ability to play downloaded TV shows as a bonus feature, the downloaded movies don't look as good as DVDs (but WILL play back on iPods & computers, so that is bonus), and the ability to see my pictures in high def on the screen is also a bonus. But in the end, I see it as a supplement to, not a replacement for, a high def DVD player (or even a regular DVD player). If version 2 had an optical media slot and played 1080i footage at full res, we'd be talkin'.

I think Apple has lost a significant market advantage, however, in that they STILL don't have downloadable high def movies - check out this article on the 10 minute 720p Ratatoille - download and watch it, and imagine that quality on your HDTV. That plays, right now, on my AppleTV. But I can't buy movies that resolution and quality. Get with it Apple! At $300 to play downloadable 720p movies, that'd be a viable contender against $500+ HD DVD & Blu-ray players.

But now that there are options that look better and cost LESS than AppleTV, with a MUCH wider range of movies...AppleTV's window narrows quickly unless they can get LOTS more content available for sale, and also at higher resolution to make a compelling case. I've bought 3 or 4 movies online, mostly to doodle with or so my neice/nephew can watch, but that's about it - I don't plan on buying any more. I DO buy TV shows (season pass to Lost, episodes I missed of Battlestar Galactica). YES, I could download high def freebies via BitTorrent, but that's more time and hassle than I want to deal with - and then they wouldn't play back on my HDTV via AppleTV anyway, which was the point. Feh.

Bottom Line:

I recommend either:

-a cheap uprezzing player that does a good job (I don't have a specific recommendation for that)
-or spend under $300 on a 1080i HD DVD player - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player
-or a $360 1080p HD DVD player - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD Player
-or a $420 Blu-ray player - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray Disc Player - NOTE - today it is $470 - yesterday was $420 - they like to fiddle with these things, clearly!
-or a $600 Blu-ray playing PS3 if you're into games - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Sony PlayStation 3 (60GB) (and don't forget the remote)
-or the $480 Xbox 360 Elite (because it has HDMI outputs & 120GB drive) and the $200 HD DVD module for another game/high def movie player combo - which can also download and play back excellent quality HD content as well. - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Xbox 360 Elite System Console Includes 120GB Hard Drive, and the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player

To get a $230 uprezzing DVD player without spending the extra $65 to play back HD DVDs strikes me as penny wise and pound foolish, unless for some special reason that makes sense to you. - HD For Indies Amazon Store - Oppo DV-981HD Universal DVD Player with HDMI, 1080p Up-Converting, DivX & SACD

Summing up - to my mind, at this point in time, the Toshiba HD-A2 hits the sweet spot of bang/buck.

Note: All prices based on Tuesday, 1pm CST published prices from Amazon, they change their minds and run'em up and down as they see fit, I don't control it - so if they change and I don't update this article, please let me know. I posted the prices I saw.

Labels: AppleTV, Blu-ray, HD DVD, home theater

\Fantastic Fest 2007: Sept 20-27

Fantastic Fest went live with their 2007 New 'N Improved website - this is an event run/organized by Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews.com, and my friend Paul Alvarado.

Last year's Big Surprise was an early screening of Apocalypto, with Mel Gibson in attendance.

All movies are at the oh-so-awesome Alamo Drafthouse.

They've announced some of the movies that will be showing this year, with many more to come - so get yer tix now and come on down to Austin this September!

I've gone the last two years and really enjoyed it - I've been able to meet a lot of the filmmakers, editors, DPs, etc. in totally relaxed circumstances, it has been great.

Labels: FantasticFest, film festivals

Interview with Mike Curtis at HDforIndies.com

Tom Parish of Talking Portraits TV came by the studio a few weeks ago and we sat down and had a long talk about....me. And where I came from, how the blog started, why I started it, stuff like that.

About halfway through I start talking about Red, where they came from, what I think it'll mean for the market, why I think they'll be such a big deal, etc.

I also discuss what I thought was cool at NAB.

You can also hear why I've been dubbed The Little Old Cat Lady of Hard Drives.

If any one is interested, check it out.

Of course, _I_ think it is a fascinating watch...

-mike

What's the Matter with HDMI?

A long rant on the sins of HDMI, which I don't entirely agree with.

I agree that the ability to not reliably do long runs is a problem (witness my own troubles with a 50 foot run, requiring a $130 signal repeater).

I agree that it can be confusing - digital and analog on same cable, many frequencies supported, etc. - but it also allows it to work in a lot of situations.

But I disagree with the writer's complaint about basing it on DVI - he says they should have started all over with a new spec, I say not necessarily - there's a whole multi-billion dollar industry all set up to pump out DVI signals called the computer industry, and if we can make TVs more compatible with that, all the better. I can connect my graphics card to my HDTV with an adaptor or a cable with DVI on one end and HDMI on the other.

As a matter of fact, right now I have a DP in the other room color correcting, and the DVI output of my Multibridge Extreme is running 50 feet under the floor into another room where the client is sitting comfy on the couch watching the live studio output on a 60" HDTV to get a sense of what it'll look like for average viewers (....with 60" TVs, admittedly). If HDMI weren't based on DVI, I wouldn't be able to do that.

The writer does go into a bunch of the electrical shortcomings of HDMI as well, no argument from me there.

He talks about the difficulties of routing and switching the signal, no argument from me there.

He talks about how if it had been up to broadcast engineers rather than IT type engineers, they would've come up with something that could handle longer cable runs. Mmmm.....sure, OK. But WAIT - this is intended to be a CONSUMER format, NOT a professional format. It is intended to plug consumer devices into each other, and that's it. He proposes that when broadcast engineers needed a way to run HD video and a buncha audio signals around, they put it all on coaxial cable for HD-SDI and you can go 300 feet without repeaters. Yes, very true. But the beefy cables aren't exactly cheap, and have you priced HD-SDI cards or other HD-SDI based gear lately? Obviously the price would plummet if it were introduced into the consumer space and the dev costs amortized over a larger base, but HD-SDI is high end professional gear - overkill for our needs here.

What I am surprised about is that he didn't even touch HDCP, which creates all kinds of other interconnection problems.

But if you're into this stuff, here's some Sunday afternoon reading for you.

-mike

Labels: AppleTV, HDMI

AJA

Kona 3/3x drivers - this new v4.0 driver is SPECIFICALLY for Final Cut Studio 2, if you have FCP 5.1.4 you should be using version 3.4.

Kona LH/LHe drivers - version 4.0 is for Final Cut Studio 2. Wait, they spell it out nice and cleanly for us:

AJA Driver Compatibility as of KONA Version 4.0 is as follows:
FCP 6.0.x (Final Cut Studio 2)- Kona Driver version 4.0
FCP 5.1.x - Kona Driver versions 3.1 through 3.4
FCP 5.0.x - Kona Driver version 3 (first Universal Binary version)


Kona2 drivers

Blackmagic Designs

Blackmagic Design: Software Downloads - DeckLink 6.2 and Multibridge 6.2 support Final Cut Studio 2, ProRes capture/playback, and other improvements. And YES these drivers are supported for FCP 5.1.4 (but NOT previous versions).

FYI - Intensity 1.4 suports Intensity Pro but doesn't mention FCS 2.

So there - if you have the new Final Cut Studio and an AJA or BMD card, you should be good to go. Congrats to both teams for being ready Day Zero, it doesn't always happen.

If you have AJA gear, DON'T upgrade to the v4.0 drivers UNTIL you get FCS 2.

If you have BMD gear, and you're running FCP 5.1.4 (latest 5.x version), you CAN upgrade to latest drivers and get some new UI benefits, you don't have to wait for FCS 2. But I'd install it after installing FCS 2 (again if previously installed drivers 6.2) just to be sure everything is working right.

-mike

Apple - Trailers - Ratatouille

Nine minute preview, and YES it is 720p and plays back on AppleTV, and YES it looks great, and YES I'm REALLY looking forward to this more than I was to Cars (for some reason, my brain can handle talking toys, bugs, fish and rats better than anthropomorphized cars).

I think it no accident this copies right over to AppleTV and plays just fine.

-mike

Labels: AppleTV

HighDef.com Home Page

Free subscription - sign up.

my local apple store has 2 copies of FCS2 upgrade in stock, and they won't hold one, even for me.

(edit - no, I didn't really try to play the "But-but-but....I'm SPECIAL...[sniff]" card)

Insert driving video game.

3, 2, 1....GO!!!!!!!

and I'm off....

-m

UPDATE

The Fun Part:

Music To Exceed The Posted Speed Limit By, By More Than A Little Bit, from the playlist labelled doitdoitgogogo (aka Finish Da Race for the last few miles of a footrace):

Track 15: Underworld - Cowgirl ("Everything everything everything....I'm invisible...")

Track 16: Snatch Soundtrack - Hernando's Hideaway - good castanet action - I can't believe iTunes doesn't have this!

Track 17: Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - Lady Marmalade - it's nice when life times out such that the engine is hitting the high note at the same time as Christina Aguillera. My baby hit a high note around 8000 rpm's, I dunno what the Khz was for Christina. I did like the symmetry of those two pure, high, clean notes in perfect, crisp synchronicity.

....aaaaaaand shift. :D

Track 18: Fight Club Soundtrack - Stealing Fat This one lives on another playlist, truly and literally entitled "Music to Conspire To Take Over The World By"

....and that was enough to get me to the mall in rush hour traffic.

Result?

....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand denied.

Drat.

The Not So Fun Part

YES they have Final Cut Studio 2.

YES they have an upgrade box.

YES I called ahead and specifically asked if it was the one for Final Cut Studio, NOT Final Cut Pro.

YES they said they had that.

Upon arrival and inspection, GEE, it is the $699 one that upgrades BOTH Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio.

NO, I do NOT want to pay an extra $200 more than I need to.

They called the one other store (WAaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy on the other side of town in Friday rush hour traffic) and they had the same thing, so no need to spend 2 hours driving.

Lesson to Learn - nice enough people, but they do not know what the frickazoid razzle frazzle mumfaluff they are talking about. Remember, they are making Mall Wages.

NOW I remember that this is exactly what I went through a year or two ago with a prior upgrade, a false start run up to the mall for...the wrong version.

IF you face a similar predicament, THE WAY to fix it - when you call ahead, tell them to tell you the price on the box - the Final Cut STUDIO upgrade is $499, the Final Cut Pro upgrade is $699.

I want it, but not $200 for 4 days want it bad.

Harrumph.

I Am Jack's Impotent Rage.

I bought a book on iLife '06 so my parents maybe won't call me with, shall we say, BASIC questions quite so often just to make the trip not QUITE such a loss. I then realized it was 5:30pm (I left the house around 5) on a Friday and I'd be fighting all the other salmon upstream, so decided to check out what movies they had in the mall. The thought of Shrek 3 ("On Four Screens!) makes my skin peel, so I went to see The Invisible. Ehh - wait to rent it, or even for Cinemax to carry it.

Back in the car, the perfect denouement music was queued up for me - Fight Club Soundtrack - What Is Fight Club?" - truly music to brood and mull and conspire to take over the world by.

And When I Am King, false answers on software in stock shall be dealt with....harshly....where'd I put that lye?

Only kidding when thinking about telling mall employees, in a calm,perfectly perfunctory chipper tone: "This is a chemical burn. This will hurt more than anything in your life."

...aaaaaaaand pour....

....or maybe I just need a hug to deal with my disappointment...





I'm Tyler behind the wheel (or at least _I_ think so), but I Am Jack's Bitter Disappointment sitting at home in front of machine NOT running the new toyz I know are out there...

-Cornelius

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut, OT

Soooooo........Firefox.

When I started to get some reports about Firefox not working with some of the changes I'd made on the site, I was annoyed that what I was doing was damaging the user experience, but I wasn't too upset - I did a little research and found that Firefox had about 5% of the browswer market, and since I already knew my readership was about 70% Mac, I felt the Firefox window freeze was sucky but survivable. Then Google updated their Analytics features the other day and I discovered that Firefox is about 1/3 of my browsers. Gulp. So I spent some more time on the issue, and it APPEARS to be working reliably on my own system, running 10.4.9 on a Quad G5 with latest Firefox (2.0.0.3). So how about you? Anybody still locking up a Firefox window on Macs running latest version? Please let me know, using the Comments link below.

Labels: housekeeping

Any Given Tuesday

So now my VAR may be an info source - he's saying it looks like new MacBook Pros are coming next Tuesday. I haven't read any other confirmations, so let's see if this comes true.

-mike

Amazon has four different configurations of the new MacBooks for sale, I've got them all on my online store:

HD For Indies Amazon Store - Apple MacBook MB061LL/A 13.3" Notebook PC (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, 6x Combo Drive) White - this is the bottom end new laptop, presently $1094.99 on the online store. It has a smallish drive and can't burn DVDs. Not recommended.

HD For Indies Amazon Store - Apple MacBook MA700LL/A 13.3" Notebook PC (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive) - White - this model CAN burn DVDs, but the hard drive is still on the small side. It'll be enough to get you started, but by the time you get all your heavy apps on it, and some pictures, audio, movies, and video files on it, you'll find it fills up pretty quick. Replacing the drive is a hassle, I recommend just getting one of the better ones with a bigger drive. Current Amazon price: $1149.99

HD For Indies Amazon Store - Apple MacBook MB062LL/A 13.3" Notebook PC (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive) White - now we're talkin'. Burns DVDs, 120 GB drive...but white. Current Amazon price: $1294.99

Some like it, I prefer a darker, more professional look, therefore...

HD For Indies Amazon Store - Apple MacBook MB063LL/A 13.3" Notebook PC (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive) Black- aaaahhh.....this is more like it. Burns DVDs (single layer only unfortunately), 2.16 GHz processor is a twee bit faster, a honkin' big 160 GB drive, and that nice professional black color. I have two versions ago of this laptop, and even though I had some trouble with it early on (classic 1.0 issues addressed in this newer model), if I were buying a laptop NOT for Final Cut Studio, this is what I'd get. Current Amazon price: $1494.99.

-mike

Labels: Apple, Macbook, online store

The Professionals

Short mockupromotional * video about a video production company. It is a magnificent case study in how to do do every little possible detail wrong. So just don't do anything they did, and you've got hope.

This is brilliant - they've scrupulously studied how to do everything wrong - I love it.

In Hell, these guys' parody characters are my clients and I have to fix their project for Sundance submission.

In twenty minutes.

Among many, many other things, they would be angry that their $300 one chip DV camcorder's 60i footage doesn't look like film after scaling up to HD. They would scream and yell that it was my fault, and that I didn't know where, or was hiding, the Make It Look Better Button.

It is scary how clear my vision of this is. They would definitely have managed to hit every single one of my Top Ten List of Indie Things Not To Do.

BIG LUV to Shane Ross' Little Frog in High Def blog where I found this.

* Random aside - "Propagandutainment" was a word that came out of a conversation I had the other day.

Software isn't here yet, but we can start getting some questions answered.

Final Cut Studio Manuals

LiveType 2 manual (appears unchanged since FCS 1)

Motion 3 manuals

Qmaster 3 manuals (distributed processing/compressing stuff)

DVD Studio Pro Manuals - includes DVD SP 4.2 new features

Compressor's page doesn't list the latest manuals, but they are listed on the main Apple - Support - Manuals page. Direct links: Compressor 3 New Features and Compressor 3 User Manual - Note some manuals not found elsewhere can be found in the "Recent Manuals" list on the lower portion of this page!

Cinema Tools 4 User Manual

Cinema Tools 4 New Features (manual)

Apple Qmaster 3 and Compressor 3 Distributed Processing Setup

A few goodies: finalcutpronews: More nuggets on FCP 6.

A bunch of new Apple support docs have been posted over at Accelerate Your Macintosh! News Page - 5/17/07, including FCS 2 issues, color issues, Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro, etc.

UPDATE - reader Michael Ryden found the Color Manual online, so download and learn...

...and here's the Color 1.0 Release Notes - just read'em, and WOW there are a lot of caveats to be cautious of - when sailing those waters, there are lots of rocks and reefs just below the surface, and the occassional sandbar as well. Consult this map to safely navigate!

-mike

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut, NLE

Hey all - it would appear that Final Cut Studio 2 is shipping - I got an email from a reader claiming they received a "has shipped" confirmation from Apple, and Apple's online estimates have shifted (see pic). New versions are shipping first - as a business decision that makes SOME sense - serve new clients, with highest profit margin, first.

In the meantime, it would appear that existing loyal upgrading/updating clients are getting served...after that. Maybe it is just that the new/standalone versions were ready or ordered first, and the upgrade versions were ready or ordered second, but it does stick in my craw a little bit - couldn't they have both been ready at the same time?

In any case, update versions are stated to ship in 2-3 weeks, new versions ordered now will ship in 3-5 days according to Apple Online Store as of Wednesday afternoon (May 16, 2007).

If you haven't ordered yours yet, now that it IS shipping it might be a good time to do so. You can order your new copy, or an upgrade from Final Cut Studio, or an upgrade from any prior version of Final Cut Pro from the HD for Indies Online Store. It is an Amazon Affiliate store, so you're dealing with Amazon and paying the same Amazon price, but HD for Indies gets a cut to help support the site.

OH! And kudos to Apple for shipping EXACTLY when they said they would! That is SUCH a rarity for an NAB announced product - they said it'd ship in about a month, and they actually beat that estimate! Congrats, FCS team....go sleep!


-mike

UPDATE - and Michael Horton of the LA FCP UG pointed out the manuals can be downloaded here.

Rockin', thanks Michael!

Time to go scratch 'n sniff around in those....as if I didn't have enough to do already tonight...and for the record, as expected, the word "Redcode" does not appear once in the FCP 6 manual, the Working with High Definition
and Broadcast Formats manual, nor the New Features in Final Cut Pro 6.

A future version is expected to support Redcode RAW 4K, we don't have specifics on that as yet.

-mike

Labels: Apple, FCP, Final Cut

'300' to Conquer Blu-ray, HD DVD This July | High-Def Digest

July 31st, but July nonetheless. I'm pleased to see the combo release, and I'll be ordering the HD DVD for my Toshiba HD-A2 Player.

And yes, as soon as Amazon lists it, I'll be pimping it on my online store, because homey swings like dat.

This should look pretty amazing in high def. And, oddly enough, the HD DVD will have more goodies than the larger capacity Blu-ray. Both will use the same VC-1 transfer (that part makes sense).

: )

-mike

OooooooOOOOOoooooohhhhh.....this is HANDY!

finalcutpronews: Reel Names in FCP. Did you know this?

When you capture a tape with a timecode break, FCP 5.1.4 automatically changes the reel name.

Read on for why this roxors like Slayer.

-mike

I started writing this one in November 2004 and never finished it. While digging for something else I stumbled across it and decided to make a quickie run over it (as in with a car) to get it out there as well. I've fixed a few glaring errors, if anybody else spots something wrong please let me know. Keep in mind, MOST of this info is two and a half years old except for a few things I've updated. I thought it was of enough interest to go ahead and get it out there (finally). The info presented is NOT all inclusive - so if something isn't listed doesn't mean it doesn't do it.

--------------
UPDATE: Randy from Band Pro caught a big mix up in the HDCAM SR part - I was talkin' HDCAM not SR. Apologies. That's what I get for publishing a 2 year old draft...

So, at long last, here is the second part of my coverage on What's Wrong with Videotape Formats.

In the last installment, I talked about DV, DVCPRO 50, Digibeta, and HDV. Now I'll be getting into the professional HD standards: DVCPRO HD, HDCAM, D-5, HDCAM SR (4:2:2 and optionally 4:4:4), SRW-1 double rate 4:4:4 RGB.

HDCAM

Sony claims anything over 1500 pixels of resolution on F900 is only going to be capturing noise. OK, if you take that at face value that merely implies Sony's CCDs aren't resolving the full detail capability of HD. Fine. Things will improve over time.

HOWEVER from what I hear back from DoPs in the field, they like the color better on the Panasonic Varicam cameras. Is it a function of the higher color sampling, or the CineGamma, or just better "stuff" in the camera? "Um, whatever, it just looks better when we're done." was the response.
"A 10-bit, 1920x1080i image makes a 1.5Gb/s data stream -- a healthy payload. Sony deals with this by converting the 10-bit data to 8-bit, bringing the stream down to 996Mb/s. Now for the controversial part: Sony "pre-filters," or down-samples, the data, reducing it to 662Mb/s. At this point, the Y sampling is technically 55.68MHz (vs. the ATSC 74.25MHz). The sampling ratio becomes 17:6:6 (vs. the ATSC 22:11:11), which calculates to 1440:480:480 pixels.

If you just look at the numbers, you'd say HDCAM is inferior, as D5 is the full 1920:960:960 and D7 is 1280:640:640. Some even describe HDCAM as a 3:1:1 system. (If 1920:960:960 were represented by the numbers 4:2:2, then mathematically 1440:480:480 would equate to 3:1:1). You might be thinking, "Hey, 3:1:1 is worse than a prosumer DV camcorder, which has 4:1:1." But keep in mind that the first number of the compression ratio represents something different in the HD and SD worlds. Comparing SD 4:1:1 to HD 3:1:1 is like comparing grapes to grapefruit. The ratio to use is 17:6:6 compared to the full 22:11:11."

I don't recall where I got the above, apologies.

Input resolution: 10 bit 4:2:2 1920x1080, 29.97 interlaced frames per second (NTSC) or 23.976 psf, or 24.0 psf (progressive segmented frames), 29.97p, 30.0p
Output resolution: 8 bit 4:2:2 1440x1080, @ 25 or 29.97 interlaced frames per second, or 23.976/24.0/29.97/30.0p, compressed
Compression type & amount: compression is about 7:1 (the jump from 10 bit 4:2:2 down to the recorded 22.5 MB/sec)

Panasonic D-5

"Panasonic's D5 HD machines, because they are based on the D5 format, work in the full bandwidth 10 bit domain (there's no prefiltering or postfiltering of the signal as is done with the Sony HDCAM. Also the HDCAM works only in the 8 bit mode.) Panasonic's D5-HD is also switchable to an 8 bit mode. While in that mode it uses a 4:1 intraframe compression. In its 10 bit mode, it uses a 5:1 intraframe compression.
The VCR is switchable between 59.94 fps and 60 fps, and also handles 23.976 and 24.0 fps, and also handls 720p with flag framing for 24p work (by padding out to 720p60 and flagging the "good" 24 frames - thanks to commenter for pointing out my dangerously ambiguous prior phrasing).

One thing setting the D5-HD apart from other formats is that it records a true 1920 pixels by 1080i image (Panasonic's DVCPROHD records only 1280 pixels and Sony's HDCAM records only 1440 pixels). It is also switchable to 1035i and 720p. One reason why the D5-HD machines can record such a detailed picture is that they're throwing 235 megabits per second onto the tape, (as opposed to DVCPRO-HD's 100 megabits per second, D9-HD's 100 megabits per second, and HDCAM's 140 megabits per second).

EDIT MAY 2007 - I heard tell of a mod to do DCI Spec 2K - 2048x1080 on it, but I don't recall the full details. Since at HD resolutions it was only 4:2:2 and single link, I'm thinking the 2K would be 4:2:2 as well, but I don't know that for a fact (anybody with a link to prove one way or the other please use comments). IF only 4:2:2, that is just "Umm...feh." in terms of what i desirable - 2K work is generally 10 bit log RGB 4:4:4 color space/sampling, not Y'CbCr 4:2:2.

It's compatible with native 720p and 1080i full-bandwidth 22:11:11." Oh, and it is 10 bit

I don't know where I got the above, I'm quoting from...somebody. I wrote this over a year ago, and I apologize for not citing my source - if anybody knows, tell me and I'll be happy to link to it.

HDCAM SR -

EDIT MAY 2007:

HDCAM SR is generally considered the highest quality HD tape format (sorry, Panasonic). With the ability to handle 720p, 1080i, as well as 1080p at FULL raster (fully 1920 pixels wide recorded, not 1440 or 1280), and is 10 bits not 8 bits of bit depth (1024 steps black to white not 255...actual numbers are even less for both).

Modes are:

10 bit full raster 4:2:2
10 bit full raster 4:4:4, if has the 4:4:4 board in it
normally 440mbit, but SRW-1 and 5800 can also do 880mbit (does the 5500 as well? Can't recall - anybody? Bueller?)

I've learned a bit more since then. There's the Sony 5000 (HDCAM SR only), 5500 (HDCAM as well), HDCAM SR (HDCAM and I think Digibeta too optionally). The 5800 is the only one AFAIK that can handle the double data rate of the SRW-1 for 880mbit (the super high quality mode), and also for 1080p60 work with the HDC-1500, F23, and other new cameras from Sony.

And AH, here's the scoop:

SRW-5000 deck - plays/records HDCAM SR up to 440mbit, can do 4:4:4 with addl. board. Plays back HDCAM as well, but doesn't record to it.

SRW-5500 deck - plays AND records HDCAM SR (up to 440mbit, not 880 mbit) AS WELL AS HDCAM. Plays back and upconverts Digibeta as well (but doesn't record to). RGB 4:4:4 capable with optional card.

SRW-5800 - plays/records HDCAM SR (up to 880mbit, up to 1080p60), playback only on HDCAM & Digibeta. The big difference here is support for 880mbit HDCAM SR from the SRW-1 (which does 440 or 880, but James Cameron sez you can't tell the diff even for keys), as well as for 1080p50 or 1080p60 footage from the new high end cameras (F23 & HDC-1500 & others). 1080p50/60 is handy for making a "world master" - can make excellent, uncompromised 720p50/60 or 1080i50/60 (those are the broadcast standards) from 1080p50/60 footage. If you convert 720p60 to or from 1080i60, there's a quality/resolution compromise - not so if starting from 1080p50/60.

IN SUMMARY: The point of all this was to show how much information you're throwing away when you record that you can never get back. When people talk about capturing uncompressed in post, they often make it sound like they have the best possible image. Well, not quite - they have the best possible image given the compromises on the TAPE. The point of this exercise was to show that all, All, ALL HD tape formats involve some compression, involving throwing away some portion of the source imagery. Unless you're using a Codex or S.two or RaveHD or homebrew AJA/BMD setup over single/dual link HD-SDI to uncompressed files...you're compromising your image quality to some degree. Shooting 4:4:4 880mbit HDCAM SR? You probably can't tell a meaningful difference through normal post processes between that and uncompressed. Shooting HDV? Hell yeah - can spot it in any still.

Consider this: 1080i60, if you recorded RGB 4:4:4 at 10 bits, would be a 240 MB/sec datastream. LOTS of information. HDCAM SR pulls that down to a max of 110 MB/sec - and just naked eyeballing the two side by side, you'd probably never tell the difference, nor if you'd done a "reasonable" amount of color grading or other work on it. Keys? Ehhh...mebbee...I can't say for sure.

Then consider HDV - that 240 MB/sec gets keerunched down to 3.5 MB/sec - that's about 70:1. Yeah - you're losing some goodies in there - you've dropped from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080, you've dropped from 10 bits to 8 bits, you've dropped from 4:4:4 down to 4:2:0 color sampling, you've dropped from negligibly noticeable to significantly noticable compression artifacts. You can tell. And your audience certainly will, on either a 2 foot especially on a 60 foot screen.

Various notes/flotsam

READ THIS ARTICLE; http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFE/is_2000_Jan/ai_58629718

D-5 is 4:2:2 10 bit (FROM THEIR OWN WEB PAGE)

4:2:2 vs 4:4:4 defined on BlackMagic website: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/site/3support.htm

luma vs. chroma sampling, downsampling, DCT, interframe compression, intraframe compression, etc.

DV
DVCPRO50
IMX
Digibeta
HDV 720 (JVC) vs. HDV 1080i (Sony)
DVCPRO HD
HDCAM
D-5
HDCAM SR


DVCPRO HD

720p23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 59.94, 60, or any other progressive framerate between 4 and 60 in 1 fps increments
off camera (Varicam): 10 bit 4:2:2 1280x720
to/from tape: 8 bit 960x720

1080i: 59.94 or 50
to/from tape: 1280x1080 8 bit

HDCAM
1080p23.98, 24, 25, (possibly 29.97 and 30? Can't recall)
off camera (Sony F900): 10 bit 4:2:2 1920x1080
to/from tape: 8 bit 3:1:1 1440x1080

D-5
to/from tape: 1920x1080 10 bit 4:2:2

until I get better info, I consider the 4:2:2 quality a tie from what I know right now. However, as a deck, I give the nod to the HDCAM SR deck, since for the price of a D-5 deck you can get an SRW-5000 HDCAM SR deck with the RGB 4:4:4 board, and then you can do things the D-5 can't ever do (4:4:4 RGB).

HDCAM SR 4:2:2
to/from tape: 1920x1080 10 bit 4:2:2

HDCAM SR 4:4:4
to/from tape: 1920x1080 10 bit 4:4:4 RGB

SRW-1 HDCAM SR deck
besides all the HDCAM SR options of the SRW-5000, it also has a "double time" 4:4:4 mode where it only uses 2.7:1 instead of roughly 4:1 compression that the SRW-5000 does. That's the 880mbit mode

Labels: advanced, cameras, FAQ, hardware, high end, original, post equipment, techie, workflow

Apple - MacBook - Technical Specifications

Apple rolled out new MacBooks today, but it is no big deal - just minor tweaks:

-processors bumped up to 2.0 & 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo
-hard drives upgraded to 80/120/160/200 GB (hooray! BADLY needed)
-24x Combo drive (no DVD burn) or 8x SuperDrive (yes DVD burn)
-1GB RAM standard

Against the rumor mill, these units still have the same GMA 950 graphics unfortunately - no update there. Apple still has this one clearly in the consumer camp, as per original intent, and this one feature keeps it firmly in that realm.

For folks like us - these make a great day-to-day text/web/surf box (I do 90+% of my non-video work on my trusty Blackbook), but are NOT officially supported by Final Cut Studio (some things work w/Studio 5.1, some things do NOT) - and these machines aren't officially supported for Final Cut Studio 2 either.

If you want to buy one, might I humbly suggest buying one through my Amazon Affiliate Store, which will help support HD for Indies. Amazon isn't listing the new models yet, but I'll update the store as soon as they are.

The new configs are:

2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/1GB memory/80GB hard drive/Combo drive - $1099

2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/1GB memory/120GB hard drive/Double-layer SuperDrive - $1299 (this and above are white)

2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/1GB memory/160GB hard drive/Double-layer SuperDrive - $1499 (this one's black)

Optional upgrades include $175 upgrade to 2GB RAM and upgrades to up to a 200 GB hard drive. Bluetooth and Airport Extreme standard on all models.

Rumor has it MacBook Pro updates are in the works for the next month or so as well - and those WILL be viable editing machines.

-mike

Labels: Apple, hardware, Macbook

Here's a quickie update while I'm working on some other stuff for your benefit -

First off, the Red One has been DELAYED. They are on an engineering hold, and the latest info I can find indicates that we'll get a revised SCHEDULE in about 5 weeks. OUCH.

My take on it - well, I'm dissapointed, but I'm not surprised. My biggest concern all along has been what I dubbed the Space Shuttle Problem - if you're used to making parts with a 1 in 100,000 failure rate, you're doing great. But the Space Shuttle has 2 million moving parts....all of a sudden, it is a whole new ballgame. I think it is basically just the complexity and scope of this endeavor that is holding them up - given how many parts, from how many vendors are involved; and how many new technologies are being folded into this thing, just from a project management perspective it starts to get fairly inevitable that SOME piece of all this (when there are so many pieces) will get delayed for SOME reason...just based on simple math and odds. And we've arrived at that point. I'm bummed that this pushes back my early tests with Mark & Aldey in NYC and Steve Gibby in SoCal, but that's the nature of bleeding edge product development.

I have to say I'm also a little relieved for my own reasons - I have PLENTY to do right now, testing Red, whilst super fun, would cut a little deep right now in terms of what I'd have to give up to do it...

If you want the full skinny, you can read this thread: News... - Reduser.net (this was posted Friday).

The salient details: Jim said in part, in the above linked thread (snippets from a number of posts in that thread):

As you know, we are on an engineering hold. What that means is that the last 10% is harder than we thought. We got so far so fast that we were sure we could finish without problems. Wrong.

We have encountered a ton of detail issues.
....
We are working as fast as we can. I hope that we can share specific news/delivery schedule shortly.
....
I'm not real happy right now... but I understand the reality of product development. The good news is that the project is not compromised, just delayed.

I also recognize that our customers deserve the straight scoop. Always.
...
...the schedule could change at any minute becuase this is such a difficult trick. Given that, everyone should naturally have a contingency plan for their projects... and hope they don't need them.
....
All the problems are completely solvable... whew!
...
I expect (with all the tradional precautions) that we will be able to give a locked down schedule in 5 weeks (your number). But, remember that things can change... :-)
....
REDCINE works. REDCODE is supported in FCP and the conversion to ProRes works fine. Scratch supports REDCODE natively. Plenty of proven choices. Our delay is caused by several hardware issues... that we are working on.


This post by Haakon nails the prevailing response and attitude pretty well.

Next up - at least some Good News - 4K Redcode RAW...to Compact Flash?!?!?!?

Yep, they've got it working - see the pic and the thread here.

Pretty amazing to think about 4K footage of this quality level...in the palm of your hand. Let's see, some napkin math...if 4K@24p is 24 MB/sec (that was quoted at NAB, differs from the 27.5 MB/sec # from IBC), and 8GB card formats to 7.4GB usable, therefore about 4 1/2 minutes of 4K footage in a tiny chip in the palm of your hand...pretty amazing...

OH - and those 8GB cards can be as little as $200 (the ones that are fast enough, anyway). Take THAT, P2!

: )

Bonus round - you can see the on-camera UI running in the picture, too.


THIRD ITEM - A NEW SMALL CONFIG OF THE RED ONE

For those worried about how to configure a Red One as small as possible, Jim posted up NEW design to chew on... - Reduser.net. Same Red One body, but smallest possible handle & shoulder pad (that are included in the revised packages that you can see in the Red Online Store).

OK, that's our Red News for now...I've been looking into this whole CMOS smear thing folks were getting on about, I'll have a report on that when I feel I have a comfortable grip on it all, but so far it doesn't seem to be a deal killer in any way.

-mike

UPDATE Wednesday - there's been some questioning and debate about the nature of the delay. I've pulled my original off-the-cuff comments until I can collect some more facts.

Labels: Red

Just got back from seeing The Lives of Others.

WOW, what a moving, beautiful, richly complex film. If you haven't heard of it, it is about East Germany in the 80s and how Stasi watched over the populace with a staff of 100,000 and 200,000 informants working for them. The first half of the film I kept being scared by how much our own country is headed in that direction, and the second half was so wrapped up in the story and characters I didn't worry about the world politics anymore.

The story is in part that of the Stasi man set to watch over and listen in on the lives of a playright and his girlfriend. He starts to gradually bend then break the rules about how he should and should not perform his duties was particularly meaningful to me at this particular point in time. A man who sits in a room, alone, paying attention to information coming in over wires, and types up reports about it for unknown others to read....gee, no, I don't see how that bears any relation to my own life in any way...

The story is deeply moving, and I highly recommend any and everyone go see it. After watching the film with its claustrophobic, paranoid social environment for two hours, I didn't realize how tense I was until a character sitting in a basement steaming open letters for the East German secret service is told The Wall has come down...and he just gets up and leaves, simple as that. Suddenly, I could breathe deeply again, my chin lifted, my heart soared.

As theatrical experiences go, it should be noted I saw it at The Dobie, the only arthouse theater near campus for UT-Austin (50,000 undergrads). They are one of the original arthouse theaters in Austin in my lifetime. I was telling my friend BJ (who came to Austin to attend UT in the 90s) as we were grabbing a slice of pizza at Niki's outside the theater that I blacked out in Niki's once - heat prostration from riding my bike up to campus in the August Texas heat. Anyway, the Dobie isn't great as a theater - non-stadium seating (which makes subtitled movies all the more challenging, even though I'm 6 foot 4), smallish screens, goofy projection (last film I saw there they ran all the trailers with the aspect ratio wrong). But they do run some fantastic movies, such as this one. After a while you forget that you're reading the subtitles (leaning back and forth to read around somebody's head), and just get pulled completely into the experience. Sitting there quietly as the credits rolled (almost everyone else remained seated as well, basking in the warm cathartic glow), it reminded me of what's best about the theatrical experience, sharing an experience with a good friend and a group of people.

---------

On the other hand...

Last night I stayed up late since Netflix delivered an HD DVD to me...John Carpenter's The Thing [HD DVD] (and YES, I'm cheezy enough to put a link to my online store in an article, so THERE! ; ) ). For some reason, I just LOVE this movie - it came out when I was just barely a teenager, I don't recall who snuck me into it when I was too young, but it just blew me away with its audacity, open ended scariness, and of course, badass special effects.

If you haven't seen it before, it is a cult classic amongst Scary Creature movies. The set pieces were excellent - a small group of men, isolated from the world in Antarctica, faced with a frightening unknown. What made it so good was the unknown aspect - a creature that could mimic anyone or any thing, and turn into anything it had ever been at any point. Seeing it in high def was a treat (and YES, Beer Makes It Better) - freeze framing when Norris' neck stretches out all green and gooey, the Crawling Head, the Dog Thing, all the good stuff. HD pays off BIG time for stuff like this - I don't think I'd freeze framed my way though since I watched it on VHS who knows how many years ago. There's TONS of supplemental materials on it, and I realized I've had a mistaken understanding of the plot mechanics for about 20 years - for those who care (spoiler alert), I'd always ASSUMED, ever since I very first saw it, that the Big Thing at the end was the Dog Thing that crawled off into the ceiling earlier in the film, and had been quietly groing and getting bigger ever since. I assumed that Blair, after walking off with his fingers hooked into Garry's face (GREAT sound design on that bit, implied all kinds of horribleness going on without showing a thing, or rather a Thing), simply got out of the way, and communicated with now bigger Dog Thing (that looked like a big roach that crawled into the ceiling) to go get MacReady now. NOPE! Turns out I never noticed that the Thing that pops up out of the floor, with the huge horrible teeth IS Blair! (This movie takes considerable liberties with conservation of mass). If you look closely (and HD allows for plenty of that), you can see to the left of the giant teeth is Blair's face - the giant mouth has grown out the left side of Blair's head, but you can still see Blair's mouth and eye. This is even more horrible and alien - you can see how The Thing has repurposed Blair's flesh in a way that shows contempt or lack of concern for Blair's somatic intactness - an invasion of Blair's wholeness - even moments after Blair looked fully human (but was really an alien copy of Blair). Psychologically, this makes The Thing even creepier and scarier to me, and makes me respect the efforts Rob Bottin put into not just the creature design but the creature concept/philosophy. Wrap that in with the dark, unknown ending, and you've got a total winner in my book (for this genre).

You can watch the extensive Extras and see looooooooong interviews with all the key people on the film - there's a great explosive story about the Norris chest burster scene. Watching some of their earlier concept art, you can see how close they came to making something that would have been utterly forgettable as an 80s creature flick. Bottin's design work, and Carpenter's willingness to let this then 22 year old kid go nuts and run with the idea, really gave the film legs (and 6 or 8 giant, bloody, wriggly, roach/king crab looking ones) to scamper into horror history with.

But in a COMPLETELY different way than Lives of Others, this was another way to enjoy a movie - at home, big screen, high res, freeze frame, pause for a beer break, and then an hour of supplmental materials.

Geek awesomeness, high propeller beanie RPMs.

-----------

Edit: I had this next bit after the Lives of Others segment, but to go to The Thing after this seemed really wrong, so I moved it. If it weren't 1:30am, I'd find a better way to break this into multiple posts or make it segue better, but whatever, if I don't hit publish in the next 30 seconds it'll never be read by anyone but me (that's of dubious value anyway). Yes, I realize my tone is see-sawing all over the place...sue me..

Earlier in the day (before Lives of Others), BJ and I had gone to lunch (the topic of an HD for Indies logo came up, he's a designer), and he'd been mentioning the oddnesses and restrictions of the world we live in - it was 11:30 on a Sunday morning, and they had company coming (he's married with two of the most adorable kids I know, Pearl* & Wren). BJ wanted to buy a bottle of wine, but Sunday morning is when you're supposed to be in church, so alcohol can't be sold in Texas. Just a small part of the state saying what they think is proper behavior. I commented that I recently had thoughts on church as an agnostic - I ran a 10K a few weekends ago, and I was remembering after the race, I walked back around to watch the finish line for my friend (an ex-girlfriend I'm still good friends with). While waiting, I watched others finishing the race. I tremendously enjoy the sense of community the racing crowd has - we've all gotten up early on a weekend to do something good for ourselves, that challenges ourselves to discover what we are capable of, to compete more with ourselves than others (at least at my level, the pros finish twice as fast as I do now). But a little competitive spirit can be a great thing - the finish of this race involved coming around a corner and then you could suddenly see the finish banner a short sprint ahead - it is truly amazing how big a physiological/psychological difference actually seeing the finish line can make - a HUGE burst of energy you didn't know you had. "Evil" (the guy who does the race announcements at all of these) was playing "We Are Family" and as the refrain was singing "I got all my sisters with me", two women in their 30s round the corner, one sees the finish line, glances at her friend, her friend catches the look and smiles back, and they both take off with all they've got left for the finish line. They finish at about the same time and slow to a walk, exhausted...but laughing and happy and throwing an arm over the other. That simple moment of joy, of sharing, of challenge, of completion, of sisterhood was suddenly the most beautiful thing I'd seen in weeks and weeks...and I realized THAT is my church - my place where I bond with my community, I try to better myself, we give back to the community (these things are all always fundraisers for a good cause), and it achieves everything church was supposed to do but so rarely did for me when I attended. I sat there tired, exhausted, chewing a half bagel and drinking some lesser Gatorade knockoff, and started to tear up, realizing how GOOD this moment was in every possible way.

For all the tech, for all gizmos, for all the latest & greatest NAB whatnot...it is all fluff. These moments are most important. Notice them in your own life however they reach you (running, church, music, whatever it is for you), and make sure you get enough of it - because that is LIFE.

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

* I'll always think of Pearl as the Girl Born With The Broken Heart - BJ was in San Francisco when she was born, and I was elsewhere, and the fragile, beautiful child that she was when born had a heart defect - so she was immediately whisked into intensive care, and had heart surgery shortly after she was born. But they fixed it, and she is All Better Now. It will always strike me as amazing and deeply symbolic that this small, perfect, smiling child has a scar on her chest, but it will forever be faint and stretched out long and skinny - it was created when she was at her tiniest, freshest, youngest, most healable. It strikes me as painful and wrong to ponder a universe where it was correct to blemish her fresh, perfect, newborn skin with the cold unyielding, unsympathetic steel of a scalpel (I get goosebumps even as I write this) - yet it was the right thing to do, for now she walks and laughs and runs and creeps down the stairs after bedtime with made up stories of a tummy ache so she can be up late and see what Daddy is up to with his friends. She is all that is bright and fresh and right and wonderful in the world in my eyes. She gives me Hope, that most valuable thing of all. Nothing is more important in life. Nothing. Go see Lives of Others and you'll know what I mean.

Labels: OT

Hey all -

If you're running Firefox on the Mac, there is a known bug I'm having where the page will freeeze the page (and I've heard of it locking up the entire Firefox browser, but I haven't been able to replicate that with my Quad G5, OS X 10.4.9 & Firefox 2.0.0.3).

You can close the page and proceed to other pages in Firefox if that happens.

I've received a dozen or more emails from folks telling me about this problem, several from friends of mine, so apparently more folks are running Firefox than I'm aware of.

SHORT TERM FIX: Use Safari.

How many of you are using, and relying on, Firefox on Mac that this is a real problem for you? Sound off in the Comments and let me know.

UPDATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON:

I removed the code for Precisioncounter.com since they seem to be permanently 404'd.

There was also one specific ad (the DV Rebel's Guide) that seemed to be causing trouble as well.

Is that helping?

EDIT EARLY SATURDAY MORNING: I've altered the site so it only lists the last 2 weeks on the main page, so it isn't 100+ screens tall on a 1200 pixel tall display. This SEEMS to have fixed the Firefox problem. If, on Saturday, it is still locking up for you, email me directly and let me know.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Now it seems intermittent - I load it one time in Firefox and it works fine, I reload the same page and it locks up. Hmm....folks still having trouble - try closing that tab and reopening the page in a standalone window. It is definitely the Amazon ads, they are definitely aware of it, but to be straightforward, the percentage of Firefox users, based on reader feedback, seems pretty small compared to overall readership, and the Amazon stuff, to be perfectly straightforward, is generating income...

MONDAY: did some testing to verify that YES, it is most definitely the Amazon ads, as suspected. Continuing to look into the matter, have contacted Amazon, awaiting their feedback - looks like a code issue on their side.

Some field reports and simple testing indicate that it would lock up the first window you tried to open the site on, but if you closed that window and started another, it would work fine. Hmm.

For the moment, I suggest that if Firefox is your preferred browser, you either try a couple of times in a "solo" (non-tabbed) window to get the page working, or use Safari in the meantime until I can get these issues resolved.

Firefox is a great browser, but represents a small percentage of my traffic, and this is the best I can do for now.

-mike

Labels: housekeeping

Internet speed battle escalates | Chicago Tribune

New Comcast links promise to fly along 25 times faster, and threaten to transform the television industry
...
Comcast Corp.'s chief executive, Brian Roberts, unveiled a computer connection that delivers data 25 times faster than today's cable modem services.
...
Called Wideband, the service could be available commercially in a couple of years, Roberts said, but declined to say at what price.
...
policymakers in Washington wring their hands over America's declining position regarding broadband connectivity. An international study last month found that more than a dozen countries now have greater coverage and faster speeds for Internet connections than the United States.
...
introduced a resolution to make it national policy to supply universally available Internet connection speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2015.

(Current broadband varies from 1 to 10 megabits/sec)

Consider that current HDTV is 19.2 megabits/sec, and you start to get the idea of what that could do for you.

Interest quote from an Internet based video service:

"In three to five years, there will be devices, not computers, that you can connect to your flat-screen TV that will bring anything you want to see from the Web," said Pulver. "You can bypass the middle people, including the cable TV systems, and just download programs offered by content producers.

"I believe the cable companies will try to put up roadblocks to keep that from happening. They will have the fight of their lives."


Obviously, this starts to open doors for indie content - what if you could host/distribute HD movies from a website or service directly to a TV without a middleman on a pay-per-view basis? That's a big leap from what the guy above is suggesting, but that'd be the ultimate - if you could subscribe to a show the same way you subscribe to an RSS feed (speaking of which, you ARE running NetNewsWire, right?).

-mike

PS - thanks to longtime reader/contributor Cord Frederic Romberg for sending this one in. See something you think should be up on HD4NDs? Send it in! Email at top of page.

Labels: distribution, future, hardware, Internet, online distribution, online video

BareFeats has been busy testing Mac Pro towers with 8 cores vs. 4 cores vs. other, lesser Macs.

They first ran some tests running multiple simultaneous applications and processes to see how well it multi-tasked:

Multi-Processing on the 8 Core Mac Pro

...and it did quite well, as expected.

However, for practical reasons, you aren't always needing to run multiple CPU hungry processes simultaneously - and especially when it comes to editing in particular, you don't want to.

So then they ran some tests on apps that are multiprocessor aware:

CPU Crunch Tests of the 8-Core Mac Pro vs 4-Core

CineBench, GeekBench, Photoshop CS3, Aperture 1.5, QuickTime 7.1.5, and After Effects.

Lesson learned here: it VERY much depends on the app you're running as to whether you'll see a speed improvement.

Photoshop was no faster on some of their tests, Aperture was perhaps 10% faster for 8 vs 4 cores, and CineBench isn't indicative of many of the tasks that I in particular use (is for Cinema4D, a 3D model/animate/render app).

HOWEVER...if you're running an app that can spawn multiple threads (After Effects CS3 (aka version 8) OR the upcoming Compressor 3, you can see CONSIDERABLE gains. These apps essentially spawn off multiple versions of the rendering code, one per core, and each then grabs its own chunk of memory (so heavy users - LOTS of RAM can help for big projects).

Consider these results:

Adobe After Effects 7 vs 8 (CS3) on various Macs

After Effects CS3 has a switch for multi-processors that lets it render multiple frames simultaneously, one frame per core AFAIK. And this works extremely well - an 8 core system rendered the test file in 168 seconds, a 4 core system took 247. Compare that to my once vaunted Quad G5, which took 421 seconds.

I would expect Compressor 3 to have similar improvements, but haven't seen hard numbers yet.

The article also makes it clear in a test results chart that After Effects CS3 is a BIG improvement in render speed over After Effects 7 - literally DOUBLING render speed gong from AE 7 to AE CS3 - and even though CS3 is the first Universal Binary (AE 7 ran in emulation on Intel Macs), even on PPC Macs, performance STILL doubled going from AE 7 to AE CS3.

Conclusions:
-if you are wanting better performance with a hardware upgrade, be careful that the applications that are dragging their feet at present will actually benefit substantially from the new hardware. Aperture users in particular should beware, based on this version.

-if you are an After Effects user, first upgrade to CS3, THEN upgrade to to the biggest, fastest, most-cored Mac you can afford. For After Effects CS3 users, an 8 core Mac Pro unquestionably cost justifies the price increase.

-based on the knowledge that Compressor 3 can similarly spawn a conversion process per core, the semi-recent wisdom of using Mac Minis as the most efficient frames/hour/dollar solution may not hold true - 8 cores in one box each with its own dedicated memory and a high speed bus can get a lot of work done...more analysis to follow in the future once I get my own 8 core box. But it is safe to say at this point that if you do a lot of work with Compressor, such as generating MPEG-2 or H.264 footage for SD/HD DVDs, Compressor 3 and a 8 core Mac could/should be a very potent combination.

Bonus round - they test the new generation of fast 7200rpm laptop drives - Seagate Momentus 7200prm 160GB Notebook Drive

-mike

UPDATE - read the Comments (link below) for some VERY relevant discussion of how RAM fits into this...need LOTS to run multiple versions of AE CS3, dunno how much RAM footprint Compressor 3 will require...

PS - I still have at least one more announcement to make this week...

Hey all -

So I've decided I need an intern for the summer.

Qualifications should include:

1.) An interest, nay, a passion for and knowledge of digital moviemaking tech and processes in general. The more you know, the better. You'll know one metric kabundle more by the end of the summer.

2.) Knowledge of the web, HTML, etc. You've seen the page layout here, I'm not asking for much. The more you know the better.

4.) Writing skills and critical thinking abilities to parse a lot of info in not a lot of time. Again, more is better.

5.) Most important of all, a totally can-do, kick butt attitude when it comes to learning and doing new things. Afraid of new tech? Sorry, move along, these aren't the droids you're looking for.

6.) Availability to work preferably 5 days a week 3 or so hours each working day. Schedule somewhat flexible. I'm in Travis Heights in Austin, TX, so you'd need to have your own transpo rain or shine to get here daily. Yes, you're going to need to live in Austin or thereabouts.

In return for your time, you'll get to work hands on on the HD for Indies website, helping me to create content and reshape HD for Indies into a lean, mean, indie fightin' machine. Already at over a quarter million pageviews a month, I need some help with some of the basics & maintenance to free me up to do more interesting things for the blog - like critical writing, analysis, reviews, etc.

You'll also be involved in hands on testing of latest and greatest new products (hardware, software, cameras), testing new workflow methodologies, etc. I have lots of toys and access to more - this will be an incredible learning experience for the right candidate.

If you're a candiate, or you're regular reader and know a well qualified candidate, please get in touch - you know how to reach me, email address is at the top of every page.

-mike

Labels: blogs

Final Cut Studio Warp Speed Workflow # 1: Applying a transition to multiple clips at DVcreators.net

A NICE little video tutorial that shows how to apply the same transition to a bunch of clips. Also nicely illustrates some good keyboard shortcuts, so there's a lot of good info in this one short little video tutorial (a couple of minutes or so).

Time well spent.

-mike

Labels: FCP, NLE, software, tips, workflow

I'm messing around with a bunch of setup stuff for the site - so ads and graphic elements and stuff may be popping up in weird places until I get it all sorted out and tested on the various browsers, etc.

UPDATE THURSDAY: I'm aware load times have gone up with the new banner ads, and I'm also aware Firefox users are having no joy. I'm working on it...

Pardon my mess...


-mike

Labels: housekeeping, OT

Big Announcement #2:

Short version:

Did you see that DV Magazine article * I wrote (cover story April '07) about uncompressed HD workstations?

Did you wish there was a simple way to get exactly that gear in one place, from one vendor, customizable, who could sell & support it all?

DONE.

Meet the HD for Indies configurations over at Silverado Systems!

I've been buying my own gear for a couple of years from Torrey Loomis over at Silverado, and we've partnered up to offer the configs I wrote about in the article. They are:

System 1: for the truly starving indie type - the bare minimum to capture, edit, & monitor uncompressed HD.

System 2: for the moderately budgeted indie who wants a proper setup but doesn't have tons of cash.

System 3: for the well heeled solo operator that needs bulletproof reliability, or perhaps for a small single room facility.

System 4: Probably (I hope) of most interest to a lot of readers - my Best Bang For The Buck recommendation on a system to do feature length uncompressed HD editing & finishing (up to 1080p RGB 4:4:4) on a budget.

They are all accessible from this page on Silverado Systems' website.

The configs are a little different than what I wrote about in the article, I've tweaked & improved since I originally wrote it.

LONGER VERSION:

I've been formally & informally recommending systems to clients, employers and friends for about 15 years or so. For a brief time during the desktop publishing revolution, I was a VAR (value added reseller) myself, but I don't do that any more as that isn't where my interests and passions are.

But in the meantime, I've been recommending system configurations for HD editing for a few years now, and it usually boils down to me recommending a list of gear. Then the client asks where should they get it, and I say say try this that or the other vendor, and inevitably the client comes back to say that they can't get all my recommended gear in one place from one vendor. All too often it seems there's always a substitution or two, or a vendor recommended substitution or upgrade is of dubious value, or more likely a component or three that simply isn't available from that vendor. Which means if there's trouble, it is all the more likely that there will be finger pointing between Vendor A & Vendor B and much gnashing of teeth will ensue. And nobody wants that.

So I decided that the only way to get simple, turnkey, one click, gimme-that-one-right-there simplicity was going to be to partner with a VAR and give them the mandate that they'd need to provide exactly the spec I recommend without substitutions, and ALSO offer the upgrades that I wanted to provide, in the order that I recommended them. And after a LOT of work from both sides, that's what Silverado and I have worked out.

If you go to, for instance, the Indie Bang for Buck system, you'll see a list of gear and options. All of the upgrade options are ONLY those that I recommend - I've deleted a lot of what I consider bogus upgrades. The upgrades that ARE offered are also in the order that I recommend them - so while a 17" JVC HD CRT is the recommended monitoring choice, there's also a 24" professional LCD listed, as well as both, or a "step down" option of the JVC CRT and an HDLink/Apple 23" LCD option listed as well. I recommend a 2nd internal drive, but if you want to remove that you can. Or if you want to step down from the default 8GB config to 4GB of RAM, that's possible as well if it makes sense for your setup.

If any of this doesn't make sense, just scroll down the Silverado page for the config you're considering and each of the optional categories is explained in depth, with recommended options for different usage scenarios, when it is worth getting those, etc.

So you're getting the benefit of my latest and best advice, as well as turnkey solution from a known & trusted vendor. I was buying my own gear from Torrey at Silverado for two years before we set this up, hopefully that carries some weight with you folks.

What do I get out of this? Yes, I do get a cut out of the deal, which is why I've spent many days and late nights getting all this set up, but it comes out of Silverado's end - you're not paying any more than if you approached them with this parts list on your own.

Over time, I'll be putting up other configurations for other usage scenarios, and I'll be announcing them here. The options listed here will work for most folks for most scenarios, but as always, if you'd like a fully customized solution to your particular project's unique challenges, I'm available for consulting.

Personally, I'm really excited to offer this service, I think it makes for a good marriage of good advice, a trustworthy single source vendor, and solid gear that can get the job done - at an entirely reasonable price - that should make everybody happy.

And yes, this is that bigger deal I was mentioning several days ago about buying a new Mac editing setup. But I also still have at least one more announcement to go...

* For the record, DV Magazine is not involved in this deal, nor do they officially endorse, recommend, or have any role in this in any way shape or form. I'd just received a lot of requests about where to buy such a config, and folks were having difficulty getting all those exact parts in one place, so this just seemed like a good idea.

Labels: hardware, Mac, Mac Pro, NLE, online store, original, post, software, workflow

SHORT VERSION:

Hey all -

Want to know what gear to get, or what gear I recommend, or maybe support HD for Indies but don't have extra money sitting around to hire me for advice? No problem - go to the brand new HD for Indies Amazon Affiliate Store.

From there, you can buy all your usual Amazon stuff - books, DVDs (including Blu-ray & HD DVD), training materials, Macs, monitors, accessories, iPods, AppleTV, etc. etc. etc. - all with the same great Amazon price, support, return policy, etc....except that on my pages, you see what I think of the gear, you see what I specifically recommend, and if you buy from my pages, and HD for Indies gets a small commission on the sale.

LONGER VERSION

I see this as an "everybody wins" kind of a thing - if you buy stuff from Amazon, I'd appreciate it if you'd buy it through my store - you're still buying from Amazon, just that HD for Indies gets a commission. Same price, same everything you usually get, I don't see your credit card #s, etc. But I've also done a lot of sifting for you, and boiled it down to just the good/valid choices.

I have it organized by category and subcategory (see below), and I've included notes on those products that I specifically recommend (look for Mike Recommended in the notes). Just the good stuff, none of the rest of the fluff. I've gone through and scoured Amazon's bazillions of options and filtered it down to the stuff that I think you and I would be most interested in. And if there's something you'd like to buy that I don't have listed, please tell me and I'll add it to the store right away.

Aside from computer hardware and software, there's also an extensive listing of training materials, all of which I've vetted for "Is it good?" The ones that I have more intimate knowledge of and recommend most I've labelled with Mike Recommended.

Curious about what books are best for Adobe or Apple software? Want to know which HDV camcorders I recommend? Want to know what's the best deal on an uprezzing DVD player, or HD DVD or Blu-ray player? It is all in there.

So feel free to peruse the hundreds of items I've already added to the store, with more to follow:

HD For Indies Store - Home Page

BOOKS: Books on Movie Making, Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Studio Books, Avid editing books, Adobe editing/post books

CAMERAS: HD camcorders, Recommended Consumer Camcorders

MACS: Tower Macs (Serious Editing), Mac Pro Accessories, Mac laptop computers, iMacs, Macs for editing, Consumer Macs

MOVIES: DVD New Releases, HD-DVD New Releases, Blu-ray New Releases, Movies Mike Owns - Part 1, Movies Mike Owns - Part 2, Movies Mike Owns, Part 3

SOFTWARE: NEW Apple Video/Audio software, Apple Software UPGRADES, NEW Adobe Software, Adobe Software Upgrades

TRAINING MATERIALS: Training DVDs, Training Books

AppleTV & iPod: AppleTV and cables/accessories, iPod Shuffles, iPod nano, iPods (full size, video), iPod Accessories

HD Players- HD-DVD & Blu-ray

HDTVs

You can also buy:

DVDs from my store:



HD DVDs from my store:



Blu-ray movies from my store:



And again, if you aren't familiar with how an Amazon Affiliate Store works, you're dealing with Amazon, just through my front end built with Amazon's tools. The pricing is exactly what you'd otherwise get from Amazon.com, I never see your personal or credit card information, it IS Amazon except that you're going through my front end, where I've organized it in a hopefully useful way for you.

This is the first of several announcements I'll be making in the next day or three. If you're interested in buying a Mac based editing system, this is ONE OPTION, but NOT the bigger deal I was hinting at the other day.

-mike

Labels: online store, original

What version of Final Cut Pro will open my Final Cut Express project?

This is damn handy to know for the low end folks. Paraphrasing from their little chart:

FCE2 requires FCP 4.0 or later
FCE3.0 requires FCP 5 or later
FCE3.5 requires FCP 5.1 or later

Labels: FCP, NLE, post

Hey all -

so why so quiet this week with so much still to report from NAB?

Bwahahahahhaaaaaa....there be reasons, chile.

If I blog all day, I can't work on New Things.

Some hints:

1.) If you've been thinking about buying a Mac edit system, maybe holding off a few days could be a good idea.

2.) If you don't have a Google and PayPal account set up yet (for shame!), now might be a good time. And if they are both under the same email address, all the better.

3.) YES, I said announcements, plural.

Intrigued?

Good - then my work here is done.

Stay tuned over the next several days, by sometime next week some Good Things shall be revealed....

-mike

Labels: online store, original

OK, short and sweet:

IF YOU WANT TO "MAKE A MOVIE"*

11.) Thou Shalt 16:9.

11.5) Thou Shalt NOT letterbox. This means thou.

12.) Thou shalt 24p, but not CineFrame (once again).

Based on recent client conversations, I felt it needed to be said.

*-and by "make a movie" I mean make something that looks and FEELS like a movie - ya know, widescreen, 24fps...or else feel free to...you know...do it WRONG. Your call. These are follow-ups/additions to this and this.

Labels: acquisition, original, workflow

I threw a few comments about capturing content via analog from living room to studio (HD-DVD and digital cable) on my AppleTV Hacker blog. In short - the analog hole is alive and well, but does imply a quality loss.

And takes a looooooong time to encode/process. Many many times realtime.

Labels: acquisition, AppleTV, AppleTVHacker, consumer, DRM, Final Cut, hardware, HD-DVD, HDTV, home theater, how done