HD For Indies

UPDATED - see bottom

Joined friends in line at 4:30, had by 7, doodling now.

WOW.

I have one.

Are you in California?

You can't get one yet as of this writing.

As BJ says,

"Suck it!"

No time, must PLAY!

MAYBE a Blogwad.....tomorrow....

UPDATE at 11pm - my articulate self earlier was a wee bit excited, to say the least. Waiting in line w/two geeky friends (BJ Heinley and Charlie Wood), he hung out for a couple of hours, ran over to Whole Foods across the street for sushi & beer, and enjoyed ourselves catching up on a warm but shady afternoon. We all got the phones we wanted (I got 8 GB model), we immediately went back to BJ's house nearby and hooked up, set up, sync'd up, and started to doodle. The UI is extremely elegant and cool, the screen looks good, we just hung out and geek revelled. As one of their wives put it - "You can go hang with your geek friends and beep."

Beep On!

-mike

Saturday Morning Update

OK, NOW that I'm sober and having passed through the giddy Day Zero Hype Factor, it is still cool.

A few things I'm noticing:

1.) They say you have to give the keyboard some time to get used to it. Clearly so - I'm hunting and pecking and missing a bit. Won't be routinely blogging from this sucker.

2.) Had trouble joining my home WiFi network - entered the password a zillion times that I've entered a zillion times before. I'd been on the WiFi at BJ's house no problem. Hmmm. Went in and changed the WEP from 128 down to 40 bit - then it worked. CRAP. This means I have to run my home network in a less secure fashion for the iPhone to work. Hopefully they'll fix that in a future release.

3.) Camera has no video capabilities. Seems like it should be able to shoot videos - would be so Apple. Drat, it doesn't. Maybe next version will have 2nd camera on front for video conferencing. : )

4.) Ringtones - YOU CANNOT LOAD YOUR OWN - there is no mechanism provided. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAME - clearly AT&T holding out for ringtone sales. This is lame beyond all recognitiion - you should be able to use a sound snippet from your iTunes library to do this. SO incredibly lame and frustrating.

5.) The camera - takes surprisingly decent pictures for a camera phone - 2 megapixels even! It doesn't rival my Canon S450, but it beats the snot out of my T616's camera (and what do I do with that inert little brick now?)

6.) The peeps turn out - as we're all waiting in line (I saw 2 other people I knew - my boss from 8-10 years ago (creative director at frogdesign) who had been waiting since 1pm, and Leah, who was an intern at T3 when I worked there in 1995 - fun to see all the geeky folks come out. And those two represent the target demographic - geeky guys and busy Moms (Leah gets double demographic points - she's a busy mom and works in marketing - I ran into her at MacWorld '05 repping my friend Patrick's game Stubbs the Zombie).

7.) iPhone snobbery is an evil, but fun, thing - as we're waiting in line (all 100+ of us at a small AT&T outlet) - somebody walks past the store minding their own business on a sleek little cell, like a Razr or something, and somebody says in a silly taunting voice - "Look at him, he's on a REGULAR cellphone!" and everybody busts out laughing. We're evil nurds.

8.) the unit itself - a beautiful little thing, and MAN you don't want it to get scratched! I thought I'd wait to figure out accessories like cases, but saw a DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters) silicon rubber black sleeve, so I got that for $20. BJ got three different ones to try out since he can return them (he lives about 8 blocks from the store, so no biggie). He got the same rubberized sleeve I did, a clear plastic hard case with a belt clip, and a leather belt clip that completely encloses/encases/protects the unit. He said he has a friend with a Treo or Blackberry that leaves it in a case that has a flip-open top, and it never leaves that - the thing is sealed and protected when not in use. Not a bad idea. As is, the little rubberized sleeve I have leaves the glass front totally exposed - it basically just protects it from a drop (hopefully) but leaves all buttons and ports accessible. But this phone pretty much guarantees I'm wearing cargo type pants. When we discussed this in line, we realized we were ALL wearing khaki cargo pants, t-shirts, and sandals/Tevas. Yep - we're geeks, confirmed. Anyway, my lifestyle is pretty accomodating of large pocket pants, but come colder weather or Client Time, this is kind of a big thing to lug around.

Oh, more on the DLO case - it has a thing on the back to wrap up the headphones (the special iPhone ones with a microphone and call/answer/pause/play button) and it will tidily stash the earphones and the plug for toting around in "normal" phone mode - nice.

9.) The web - yep, it really, really works. Just small and slow. But hdforindies.com works! Just get ready to squint. You can do the pinchy/squeezy zoom in/out thing, and that helps. Turning it sideways for wide view helps too. Flash doesn't work though.

10.) Email - yep - pictures work. Haven't tried QuickTime yet, but I need to.

OK, somebody's coming over to work, more later...

Some pics from the iPhone camera: iPhoned

Notice BJ's pic looks not bad in terms of tonal range. Mine is taken in front of a glaring daytime window, and Charlie's was taken at night in the dark by parking lot lights.

Best cameraphone quality I've seen.

More details:

- you can't read email sideways - drat.

-calendar - NO TO DO ITEMS - EEK!

-calendar events can't be separated by type - you have to see ALL calendar events

-mail - a little funky to figure out what accounts you're reading/sending from - gotta study a bit

-calendar setup stuff - you pick which calendar events are to have been created on your iPhone from in iTunes - a pop-up shows the list. It defaults to Home, I tried to change to Work, but now it only defaults to the third choice, Work Sched, which is the one I least want it to use.

NO SIDEWAYS KEYBOARD IN MAIL! You can do sideways keyboard for URLs (or something, I remember noting wide keyboard mode somewhere), so the code is i there and working, but mail is strictly portrait not landscape at this point in time - that'll be a big 1.1 update feature I hope.

-pictures are scaled down to be about 2x res of the screen - so you CAN zoom in, some, for more detail. But not full rez pics, and that is probably a good thing 95% of the time - would chew up all your space! I look forward to 16, 32, 64, adn 128GB iPhones in the years to come.

-Many, many little details and lack of choices look like they were made in order to cut corners and get it out the door. Not much that feels overtly broken, just not as refined as I'd like. Very few things that seem like they might be unfixable in software (such as can the camera do video), but clearly when they bumped Leopard to October, they STILL crunched to get this out the door and stable, so they cut features instead.

MORE THOUGHTS SATURDAY NIGHT, AFTER USING IT TODAY:

-no copy/paste is a hassle - I had just written there is no easy way to share a link, but WRONG! There is a very nice feature - if you're looking at a web page, click up in the URL field then a "Share" button appears at top left - nice!

ACCESSORY COMPATIBILITY: I already had an iPhone dock charger and a tape cassette adaptor in my car - when I plug in the power adaptor, it puts up a message on iPhone that says something about this accessory not designed for iPhone, do you want to use Airplane Mode, Y/N? (no WiFi/Bluetooth/cellphone/EDGE functionality). Bleck. Worse still, the cassette adaptor in my car makes a horrible clicking/thumping noise about once a second when plugged into the iPhone headphone jack - UGH! Is this some signal that the microphone/pause/answer phone is supposed to respond to? Do I need to plug in a different way, such as through the headphone jack on the car power adaptor? I'd guess so, I haven't tried that.

And as long as we're talking about the headphone jack - it is so far recessed on the iPhone that MANY headphone cables don't go in far enough - such was the case with the one in my bathroom that I have hooked up to some speakers (what can I say, I geek that way - don't YOU crank tunes in the shower? Or at least listen to NPR podcasts, depending on the mood? I'm either childing, a geek, and/or old fogie - take your pick!)

AS A PHONE, THIS IS MISSING SOME EXPECTED FEATURES - my cynical friend David gleefully pointed out that most any decent cellphone over $200 has GPS these days. I don't track the market, but that sounds somewhat viable. No GPS on iPhone, even though we have Google Maps...dammit.

Also, BIG CRITICAL MISSING FEATURE - there is no Profile or Modes, uh, mode on this phone - I'm so used to two-button-press to get silent mode on my phone, and there is no equivalent here - I want Meeting Mode - vibrate only, no "beep" during button presses. I want Movie Mode - total silence at all times, dim screen. I want Outdoors Mode - vibrate AND loud ring from the get-go. There is NO WAY AFAIK to set these things in bulk - you've got to laboriously dig through the prefs and set them one at a time. This is bad Bad BAD!!! EDIT - just RTFM, Mike - the physical switch on the side is ring/silent - nice! But the modality question still lives on.

So...teething pains. The lack of some software features seems eminently fixable with upgrades, the accessory imcompatiblities is annoying, considering this is now my FOURTH iPod I've bought (original iPod (Dad has now), Mini (recently recovered from stolen, hallelujah), Shuffle (died..dammit), and Nano (still going strong jogging w/Nike+iPod widget). Now this one (which I went ahead and got because I heard that engraving wasn't going to be available any time soon). Distraction - point being, I have a bunch of existing iPod accessories, be nice to have good interoperability with iPhone to leverage that investment - I don't want to buy a new car charger, stereo adaptor, etc.

Also, a note on power usage - now of COURSE I am doodling with this thing constantly, but I went through an alarming amount of the battery percentage today.

QuickTime playback from websites - NICE! you get a little blue "play me" icon on any QT movie, and if you click on it, it plays back full screen (or at least, this was how it worked looking at QT's on Apple's on site). You can turn the iPhone sideways for fullscreen playback. This is SUPER elegant and slick and nice and WOW, everything cool about iPhone the way it is supposed to be. That said, some display pixel glitches watching one of Apple's own videos. Confirming on my laptop - is the iPhone playback, NOT the source file - probably a hardware H.264 decoder? I should make a test page to see what kinds of QT files this device can play back - betcha H.264 and not a whole lot else. More testing to be done....

...learning as I go - Apple is, of course, ready for iPhone, and has iPhone specific pages on its site, such as movie trailers - VERY nice! A great demo. Looking at some other pages with quicktime movies, if it is outside of spec, it won't play. Durn. So iPhone optimized pages and QT content matters. Doesn't play Flash video, predictably, either.

SOME ACCESSORIES:

This is similar to what I got but flatter since no cable management:

The Apple Store (U.S.) - Incase Molded Rubber Case for iPhone (Black)


Static cling cover, protects from scratches etc. - this sounds like a good idea since almost all cases leave the front vulnerable. But these are guaranteed to still work w/multi-touch.

The Apple Store (U.S.) - Power Support Crystal Film Set for iPhone

The Apple Bluetooth thing looks sleek and nice (and black not white!) but is absurdly expensive at $129. The Apple Store (U.S.) - Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset


STRESS TEST - KEY SCRATCHING AND SIDEWALK DROPPING - YouTube - iPhone's first scratch/crash test ever! -iPhone Stress Test

Some of the features may be fixed sooner than we think according to one rumor site:

AppleInsider | Apple planning host of iPhone updates before Leopard release - report: "A true instant messaging client described as a mobile version of iChat, will arrive 'very, very soon' and certainly before Leopard, the designer says. Customized ringtones were also set to appear within the same timeframe.

But fall 2007 is when the iPhone's features are set to expand in earnest, he adds. The iPhone will not only gain a disk mode for transferring computer files but should also receive a full-fledged file browser that lets users store and open documents."

HD video: iPhone interface complete walkthrough - Engadget

Apple - iPhone - Tech Specs

Video Apple - iPhone - Tech Specs: "Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

Gallery: iPhone Take-apart - they pry apart an iPrecious...the horror....the horror....

BareFeats analysis - Apple iPhone

Macworld: First Look: Up close with the iPhone, Page 1

For those without, simulate the messiness - Bram.us � My iSmudginator 0.2

iPhone Central: iPhone news, reviews, opinions and more from Macworld's Apple experts - MacWorld's dedicated iPhone blog - quite nice actually! They point out and expand on a lot of the tidbits I found over the weekend - the iPhone specific version of the Apple movie trailers page, the Bluetooth pros & cons (I paired my GPS to iPhone, so I can answer hands free in TWO different ways now)

Also, the Apple Bluetooth doohickey is NOT in stores yet, but is $130 and does come with a dual cable and dual dock (meaning you can charge iPod and headset simultaneously) and it DOES "MagSafe" click in to its charger, which is nice.

Daring Fireball: iPhone First Impressions - actually, this one is particularly nice - his version of this article, breaking down by category his issues with the various attributes of the iPhone.

Just checked - the Nike+iPod transponder does NOT work with the iPhone - you get a message to the effect that this device doesn't work with this accessory or somesuch - no go. But this could be a fixable thing in the future - just a software update. And of course, software updates are likely to occur via iTunes...which you'll be connecting to regularly anyway.

I had a couple of syncs take a looooooong time, and I've "crashed" the web browser a few times where it suddenly goes back to the Home screen. So a little bit of bugginess. But hey - 1.0, first weekend, could be addressed in 1.0.1.

OK, here's one for everybody - if the iPhone is supposed to be the best ever iPod for playing back video...where/how do we play back back video from it on a TV? Where's the cable, etc. to do this?

-mike

Thursday update:

Other notes on iPhone - there is no way to Bluetooth beam or even email your contact info to someone. Feh.

You can't Bluetooth to use the iPhone as a modem for your computer. Double feh.

On the Go playlists either forget themselves entirely or I'm doing it wrong - twice I've spent time putting together playlists, and it is gone later. Grr.

Apple iPhone - Missing Pieces

Some complaints about missing features.

Tops on my list for iPhone 2.0: GPS, 3G, & video.

I'm hoping iChat, Bluetooth modeming, Bluetooth contact beaming, and a host of other issues can be resolved with software updates.

Protective Cover For iPhone : Incase Products - another good protective cover that leaves the front face open, but no cord management like the DLO one I got (Digital Lifestyle Outfitter's Jam Jacket for iPhone, can't find a web page on it as of a few days ago).

Griffin Technology: Headphone Adapter - Use your headphones with iPhone - looks way handy

Optimizing Web Applications and Content for iPhone - thanks to commenter Evan for pointing this out.

Ready for iPhone 1.0.1 update. Can has pleez?

-mike

Labels: iPhone

In 3...2...1....

MUST....


HAVE....

First, the easy fun stuff:

Got my latest Creative Cow print magazine in the mail the other day, some good articles:

-the role passion plays in success- I just skimmed it at the time, but I keep thinking about it - it is really true
-cross platform workflows using the Sheer codec (which I've written about in the past as well)
-five tips for film festival success
-tips for a good color key
-pros and cons of self-employment
-Adobe Illustrator for use in video and film

There are others, but these were the ones that caught my interest.

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

Turmoil and Accusations of Censorship at the Cow

This whole thing started with an email I got from a reader talking about a thread on fxphd where it seemed that certain words, particularly those mentioning some sites that the Cow thought might be competitors, were being censored - posts mentioning them were being withheld and note posted to the forums.

I then was directed to this article:

General Specialist - Tips, Tricks and Tinkerings: Censorship at CreativeCow.net

which made it seem like they were DEFINITELY screening content.

So I thought about it - the Cow is a privately held business, and has the right to do anything they want that is legal (and being nice or being a jerk is still legal). On the one hand, they can set any policy they want to restrict discussions.

But on the other hand, the Cow is largely a bowl, a vessel, and most of the content, and most of the value derived from the Cow, comes from the stuff the users put into it - the bazillion forum posts (way over a million posts now I hear). So while not legally true, there is some SENSE of community ownership or rights going on there, since the Cow wouldn't be much without all of their users (pushing towards a half a million a month I found out).

So I wrote a big long thing and was getting ready to hit post...then decided to ask the parties involved what's up. I emailed somebody I knew at the Cow and asked about it and talked to Tim Wilson, and he said hang on, let me send you a link:

Updating Creative COW Policies

...which within the first couple of lines says this:

some have made their feelings crystal clear that you think we've failed to keep up.

We agree.

Sounds like a mea culpa right there. Tim goes on to explain what happened from their side, and his explanation sounds reasonable. He says their intent has always been to create a civil place to discuss, and to maintain a high value, good signal to noise ratio on the site (what I frequently refer to as wheat vs chaff). He explained to me over the phone what had happened, as he discusses in the above article, and it sounded fair enough - often both sides just need to talk to avoid the different misunderstandings both have - I think both sides misinterpreted some of the others' actions. Tim was completely polite and patient answering my questions - nice guy on the phone.

I don't have the time or energy or interest to dive into what might or might not have been blocked legitimately or furtively or whatever in the past. When people email me with a question, and I don't have the time/interest to answer for free, or they don't have budget to hire me, one of my stock answers is "Go ask it on the Cow." There's lots of good help in there (and from time to time not so great help - it is an open community forum - is that a genius or a yahoo answering my question?). If they've censored mention of sites they consider competitors...that's an edge case in my mind, see the two arguments above.

And it could also be contextual - was it a helpful suggestion or a blatant plug to blow off the Cow and go surf QPSKFJDKF.com? I don't know the details of the past, don't want to get into it. In short, if they did do sucky things, then poo on them.

I think what IS important is that they are shifting base and opening the doors wider now - sounds like that won't be their policy going forward. Talking to Tim about what was and wasn't kosher, he made the case that policies came about only in response to uncool behavior in the past by companies or individuals - blatantly lame behavior that didn't further the level of discourse.

Anyway, Tim then goes on to announce a bunch of new policies of the Cow, such as solicitation of outside content, promotion of same on the Cow, etc. I'll deal with that in a minute.

In case you have any questions or doubts, here's their new terms of service/code of expected conduct:

Creative COW's Policies and Code of Conduct

OK. Some thoughts on their new stuff, quoting some of their policies in italics, my comments in plain:

We actively solicit material that you create for your own purposes to be reposted at Creative COW, including tutorials, articles and reviews, whether presented in static or dynamic form. We strongly believe that our dramatically higher traffic and wider variety of promotional tools will result in far greater exposure for your information, and your company, website or online community.

That all sounds well and good - they have huge reach.

We reserve the right to decline any such submission for any reason. We reserve the right to edit any accepted material, offering the opportunity for your review and approval before posting at Creative COW.

Again, generally reasonable, but their right to edit makes me a touch nervous - but authors can review and approve (and presumably offer alternatives), so that seems somewhat OK. You couldn't expect them to run anything and everything from anybody as submitted - publications need to maintain standards and practices etc. I'll let anybody comment so long as they aren't blatantly rude on HD4NDs, but I'm very picky and selective and careful about what I'll run as an article (although I too welcome well considered reviews, articles, etc. - feel free to send stuff in!).

But the devil is always in the details - if they were to routinely not reproduce high quality material submitted from a perceived/potential competitor, that'd be lame from the community benefit/"we're here for you"/group hug mentality of an online community for the benefit of the users. We'll have to wait and see how this shakes out.

Any accepted material posted at Creative COW remains the sole property of the originating copyright holder. Creative COW explicitly makes no claims of ownership, exclusivity, or reprint rights except where specific agreements have been entered into.

GOOD. Not everybody does that - some sites claim ownership on your words you post on their site - that never quite sat well with me since you wrote it in the first place.

After acceptance, we will remove any material provided to us whenever requested by its owner, with no reason or explanation requested or required. We ask for a 30 day notice to facilitate their removal from our system.

Again, good that authors maintain control, although 30 days seems excessively long - a week should be more than enough AFAIK - I'd like to hear why 30 days - that is a full and thorough news cycle - the vast majority of the benefit would have been derived by that time. If there isn't some big good reason for it, that feels not cool to me - "Sure man, we'll be happy to take it down....in a month." I'd like to see changes made there - should be days. Could be 24 hours from somebody checking their mail.

We will publicize all the material we accept in the same manner we use for publicizing material created directly by Creative COW and its members, including featuring in our newsletter and inclusion in our library.

Fair treatment, same as in-house, good.

We will also explicitly identify the source of this material, and provide links back to the originating website as well as any other included links that meet the standards described in these Terms.

That all sounds good - no link co-opting.

A little further down, though, it says this:

Any post made in The Creative COW is fully public, without restriction. Posters are free to publish the same information anywhere else they choose to. At the same time, The Creative COW reserves the right to include any public post in advertising, publicity, or other commercial or non-commercial material, without compensation to the author.

I like the first part - again, no claiming your words as theirs - very good. However, the second sentence gives me pause - not only would I want to be asked first if somebody wants to quote me wide, esp. in an ad, but I'm also not to be compensated for it? No likey. No likey at ALL. Not only am I (or you) giving up control/ownership of our words/thoughts/expression for them to do what they want, but they also specifically reserve the right to not compensate the author. This seems to fly in the face of normal business practices about things said. If Bob Smith is filmed in public saying "I like Cheetos, they're yummy." and the six o'clock news wants to run it, fine. But if Cheetos wants to run it as an ad, wouldn't you expect they'd need to get Bob's permission to do so, and probably compensate him for it?

EDIT - I brought up this point and Tim agreed, they're going to address that situation. Asking permission makes sense. So that's fixed already.


They also require folks to identify their affiliations - that seems entirely valid too - if John Smith says Product B is a POS, and John Smith works for Competitor Company A, as a reader we really should know that to be able to evaluate the credibility and allegiances of the source (so I should note I've worked Red's booth when I comment on Red over there, for instance).
EDIT - new policy fixes my quibbles on that count - quick response on their part.

In another section, when discussing "companies, websites, and online communities" in particular, they say:

Rather than provide links to external websites, we require the option of hosting the intended material at Creative COW, following the guidelines above. We will expedite posting it to provide timely access to its information.

If I were a company making a product, I probably wouldn't have a problem with that - a tutorial or whatever directly in their site? GREAT!

If I were a website or online forum, however, that feels a little grabby to me - I understand their business desire to be the Grand Hub, but that feels like it is stepping a foot over the line to me. Because to host the content themselves, unless there is some kind of a revenue share, that is basically them saying "We want the ad dollars." from my perspective. As a company/website, I (and probably others in a similar boat) would welcome the added reach of getting our content out to a wider audience, but the "for free" side can rankle if your business model depends on ad revenue from readers. I'd like to see them offer or discuss revenue share from those particular pages that somebody else's content is on.

They continue with:

Where hosting this material at Creative COW is not possible or declined in favor of allowing an outside link, we require a reciprocal link pointing back to Creative COW.

Again, that strikes me as a bit grabby and presumptive to demand it. I've long been in the habit of posting links here (duh) and posting links on other forums, blogs, etc. If somebody said to me "Yeah I'll link to you! ....but only if you'll link to me!" that feels too much like Conditional Link Luv, as it were. It feels a little too conditional, and a little dirty - so if someone doesn't want to give up their content and ad dollars, you won't link to it? Without me cross linking? Feh - doesn't feel friendly.

If you're going to run an informational site, and say you're here for the community, requiring links from the other feels grabby. It would be one thing to request a "this information is also posted over on this page at Creative Cow." - I'm not too averse to that if I (or whoever) were to cross post an article on both - that strikes me as fair and balanced...but a touch commercial. But that's OK. But for ANY link to "snarfed" and rolled in? That's too much. And what are the terms of these links?

I'm friendly with Jarred at Reduser.net, Chris at dvinfo.net, Matt at FreshDV.com, Shane at Little Frog in High Def, etc. - we link back and forth and are pretty casual but definitely respectful about quoting content from the others' sites. While the Cow has a business, and don't want their Town Common to be abused, a little casual friendly reciprocity goes a long way. We'll have to see how that plays out in practice and in details.

To require full posting rights WAY oversteps the bounds of normal reciprocity for a content creation site in my opinion. The option to cross link? Can be fair, depends on how they want it implemented. Double checking, I already have a link to the Cow on my front page in the "Great HD Links" and it has been there for years, because it is truly a good resource. But what are the terms otherwise? On your page as posted originally?

All that said, my very strong independent hackles rise over this....yet if you ask me about having a link to the Cow on my site I'll calm down and say "Oh yeah! I have a link to them, they have tons of good stuff!" Yes, I am inconsistent. Or medicate-able. Or something.

But the above are all fair questions I think.

I'm encouraged that they do seem to listen, and their attitude seems to be one of learning as they go. So hopefully they'll start thinking about revenue share for higher end original content (and how to determine higher content from "the usual" - ugh, THAT'S a meeting I don't want to have to sit through). If it is a company providing a demo or tutorial for their otherwise for sale product, revenue share wouldn't make sense - content creation isn't those folks' primary endeavor. But for qualified featured reviews, analysis, articles, etc. - I feel some kind of revenue cut for those specific pages makes sense for content above a certain level if they want the right to reproduce it in full. But that's just me. *

OK, enough on that, moving on.

The thing that catches my eye is actively seeking solicitations for written stuff - they get HUGE traffic, so if anybody wants to write and get stuff out there and get known for it, Game On. It'll be interesting to see how they pick and choose and how good the submissions are. The only downside to that plan is that the Cow catches all the advertising income from said posts there.

I think with some tweaking, I could be cool with everything they are doing. And ongoing tweaking is necessary to figure this kind of stuff out.

If you have further information, insight, or comments on this matter, feel free to Comment below or email me. If you are staff at the Cow and would like to respond to anything I've said, I'd be happy to post that as an addendum to this article. If you are another content site that feels you've been slighted by past policies, or are another content site that wants to comment on these policies, again feel free to comment or email, I'll fold in as an addendum as I judge appropriate.

-mike

* - I obviously have a horse somewhat in this game as a writer trying to make a living in part by writing. Reach is great, finding new readers is great, driving new traffic is great, but being expected to hand over content rather than link, or at least link reciprocally as a mandate.....doesn't feel so great.

Update later that evening - a friend and industry veteran emailed me asking if this was the end of the Cow, the beginning of a downward spiral - I said if they stick to their monetizing guns, maybe so. If they adjust their course, open up to revenue sharing, I think everybody could be happy with it. "I think they started with a good idea - opening up - then went a bit awry in the execution, getting a little too hungry." I said. But that's fixable.

Labels: analysis

My intern Geoff Frost has an HVX200 he got a few months ago, and after a recent frustrating experience (while working on his John Woo film contest short, some P2 footage was lost), I encouraged him to write up some thoughts on P2 and HVX workflow from his own perspective as indie filmmaker. I kept leaning over his shoulder and pestering him to add this and that, and it grew into the article below. Here's Geoff's take on the HVX, as a 22 year old recent film school grad doing his own projects, with my own interjections:

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

(I dedicate this post to all the HVX users waiting on their free P2 cards)

Anyone who owns an HVX can feel timid with the first experience with their camera. Yes, I am one of the many who purchased the camera back in March thinking I would be shooting and editing projects in the weeks to come. Wrong.

Up until March 31st, Panasonic had a great offer: buy the camera, and you receive a free 8gig P2 card. Estimated delivery time: 4-6 weeks. It's been ten weeks and counting and still no P2 card. I received a letter from them explaining that the 8gig cards reached full production and they would be replacing them with 16gig cards. AWESOME! Right? Wrong.

As the 11th week has approached, I've completed two projects, both of which have not been shot on my own personal P2 card. I've had to rent P2 cards numerous times (4gig = $25/day, 8gig = $60/day from local vendors... it adds up) and have been lucky enough to have a friend lend me his 4gig card for the longer shoot.

I browse the forums at dvxuser.com and see numerous people complaining on why they haven't received their cards yet. I'm a pretty patient person, but going on three months is pretty long. Imagine if PEZ had a shortage of candy and all you could do was click the head back and forth all day long.

I have a $5000 camera and am always anxious to shoot HD, but wait, I could shoot DVCPRO 50 with the same color sampling and lesser compression without the P2 card. Wait, no I can't... you can only shoot DVCPRO 50 on the P2 card. So that leaves me with a mini DV tape shooting SD for the last three months on a $5000 camera. NOT COOL!

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

Prepping the HVX for a 16gig card

If you have an HVX and are planning on getting a 16gig P2 card, you must download the proper firmware update from Panasonic. Here are the links to the Firmware Update and the .pdf instructions to update your camera.

Firmware Update


Note: You also need a SD Card (64MB or higher) to upload the update on it. You can buy a USB Adapter for the SD Card to put the files from your computer to the card. You then put the SD Card back into the HVX and follow the instructions on the .pdf.

Also, if you have a PCMCIA slot on your computer, such as a Powerbook, you need to download this driver to update your computer so it can read the card:

Panasonic Support page


You definitely need more than one P2 card when you're shooting. There's a reason for two P2 card slots on the camera, so take full advantage of them. One 4gig just doesn't cut it. I bet an 8 gig would be great, 16gig would be awesome, but here are the downsides...

On a 4gig card, you can shoot about 8 minutes of 720p/24pN (Native mode~literally 24 progressive frames/sec). It sounds like a lot, but when you're shooting it goes by in a flash... The positive side is that after you copy the contents of the P2 card onto your laptop/hard drive/etc... you need to have someone archiving the folder on a DVD using a DVD burner. It's really the only way I feel safe with my footage- I have a physical form of footage rather than just data on a computer.

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

15" and 17" Powerbooks

These are the only two Mac laptops that can read the P2 cards directly from the PCMCIA slot.

First thing learned: ALWAYS HAVE A PERSON ON SET TO DUMP THE P2 FOOTAGE... a.k.a. P2 WRANGLER. I can't stress this enough.

The drives on the 15" and 17" Powerbooks are either a combo-drive or super-drive. The super-drives can only single-layer burners, so if working with 8gig cards you would need to purchase an external dual-layer DVD burner (Mike note - a quick search didn't indicate that Apple made a G4 based Powerbook with a dual layer burner - are we wrong? Was there one?). The downside to the 16gig P2 card is that you can't fit its entire contents on a single DVD (mikenote - thus losing the 1-to-1, P2-to-burned-disc ratio which keeps life simpler). So how do you transfer/back-up your footage?

UPDATE - Mike here - we forgot to include the Duel Systems Adapters - an ExpressCard to PCMCIA adaptor that lets you use MacBook Pro computers (MacBooks can't because they have NO expansion slots of any sort). They worked OK with 10.4.8, ther were issues with 10.4.9 that may not be fully addressed yet, dunno about 10.4.10 - somebody who knows please comment or email me so I can update this. Around $100 though, not bad.

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

5 Options to transfer/archive P2 Footage

A) Have a dedicated hard drive to store your footage via a direct data dump from camera to drive, no computer necessary. By dedicated, I mean buy a hard drive and don't use it for anything else. ONCE YOU CONNECT THE CAMERA VIA FIREWIRE TO THE HARD DRIVE, THE CAMERA FORMATS THE DRIVE AND CREATES FAT32 PARTITIONS FOR EACH TIME YOU DUMP THE P2 CARD CONTENTS. (mikenote-thus obliterating anything you had on there before!) The size of your P2 card determines the  of size each partition it will create. Meaning if you only have 2 gigs of footage on a 4GB card and dump the card to the hard drive, it will create a 4 gig partition instead of only 2.5 gigs. There are a maximum of 15 partitions that can be made on the hard drive, so that means you can only dump the card contents 15 times on the hard drive, which turns out to be ~ 60 gigs. (mikenote - or 120GB if dumping 8GB cards, or 240 GB if dumping 16GB cards...a 250 GB drive probably isn't QUITE big enough to dump 15 full 16GB cards to - formats to 232GB usable.) Advice: don't buy a dedicated hard drive over 150 gigs (if shooting with 8gig cards) and nothing over 80gigs if shooting with 4gig cards. The hard drive must be bus powered, meaning the camera cannot power the hard drive directly - thus the hard drive needs power from somewhere else.

Or...

B) Dump the P2 card directly through the PCMCIA slot (note: MACBOOK PROS CAN'T READ THE CARDS, ONLY 15" AND 17" POWERBOOKS CAN). If you own a Powerbook, I advise you to make sure the PCMCIA slot is clean and dust-free. The card will show up as a disk image with NO NAME as the label. *****************CREATE A NEW FOLDER ON THE DESKTOP/HARD DRIVE AND COPY THE FULL CONTENTS OF THE CARD: THE "CONTENTS" FOLDER AND THE "lastclip.txt" FILE.************* If you don't coy the text file then FCP won't be able to read your folder.

Or...

C) Connect the HVX directly to the laptop via firewire cable, the camera should show up as a drive labeled "NO NAME" just like the P2 card. Again, COPY THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE FOLDER, same as above. LABEL YOUR FOLDERS ACCORDING TO P2 DUMP # AND ITS CONTENTS... FOR EXAMPLE: "p2_01_beach", "p2_02_beach", "p2_03_beach" etc... There is no alternate solution for changing the "NO NAME" label when the P2 card shows up.

Or...

D) Use a USB2 Hard Drive that has the USB "On-the-go" protocol. Connect the camera via USB 2.0 and in the camera menu choose OTHER FUNCTIONS>PC MODE so the camera will operate as a USB device. Switch to dubbing mode on the camera and press the "copy" button on the hard drive and it will copy the contents of the P2 card on the first slot it sees.

Or...

E) Open FCP 5.1.4 and click File>Import>Panasonic P2 (On FCP 6 it's File>Log and Transfer, and it has some enhancements over FCP 5.1.x). The P2 import window should pop up. Before you do that, you should create a logging bin to dump the P2 card contents. With the P2 import window open, click the add button and just choose the whole P2 folder you want to dump, don't toggle the contents folder, etc... Click open and the clips will show up in the viewer. This is a great way to log/label/note all your clips before importing. I do not recommend this option...

Here is a little video tutorial on how to import p2 cards to your hard drive/computer/FCP:

FCP 5.1.4 P2 Import Tutorial

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

P2 Alternatives/Accessories/Hardware

FS-100 Portable DTE Recorder (Firestore)

"Weighing about one pound and only 1.5 inches thick, the FireStore FS-100 is an HD recorder designed to work with the new Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 camera, supporting DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO/DV recording formats. The FS-100 provides long recording times and improves workflow with Direct To Edit® technology. It can also be used with other Panasonic DVCPRO/DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD devices that have a FireWire port."

Here are the new features they just came out with:

- The ability to record native 720/24p, 25p and 30p in the MXF pN format; Allows users to only record the required frames in a DVCPRO HD stream, eliminating the need to remove advanced pulldown or duplicate frames during import to the edit system.

- QuickTime support for native frame rates as well as other 720p and 1080i DVCPRO HD record modes for DTE workflow within Apple Final Cut Pro; Allows DV, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD clips to import directly into the FCP timeline.
- Extended record time; Native frame rate recording allows users to double the record time from 100 minutes to over 200 minutes

- New included accessories such as a high-capacity 180 minute battery, a cradle to mount FS-100 onto all shoulder-mount camcorders with an Anton Bauer adapter, and a new 4-pin right-angle FireWire cable for an extra secure connection to the camera.

- The ability to easily bring non-P2 Panasonic cameras into a DTE workflow; Any DV, DVCPRO 50 or DVCPRO HD camera with 1394 can take advantage of IT workflow.

Visit Focus Enhancement's Official Website for more information.

AJ-PCD20 P2 Drive

"The AJ-PCD20 P2 solid-state memory drive answers the need of today's video professional for faster, easier file transfers on the desktop or in the field. This flexible, time-saving internal/external drive allows users to mount five 8GB P2 cards simultaneously for instant access and continuous editing of all recorded content in sequence. The P2 drive now offers an IEEE1394b interface (in addition to USB 2.0) for high-speed transfers of DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, or DVCPRO HD content into nonlinear editing systems and servers. Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and MAC OS X, the AJ-PCD20 can be installed directly into a standard PC 5.25" bay drive enclosure or connected to a computer and local area network (LAN) via its USB 2.0 or IEEE1394b interfaces. The flexible AJ-PCD20 also serves as a stand-alone external drive when connected with laptops for in-the-field use."

Visit Panasonic's Official page

AJ-PCS060G P2 Store

P2 Store is a 60gig hard drive and is battery powered, so no computer necessary. it serves as a great buffer when working in the field. It can then be used as an external hard drive to link to a computer via USB 2.0.

Visit Panasonic's Official Page

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

And now a very important message from the trenches, aka "See this scar here? That's why I don't that anymore."

If you want to view the contents of a P2 folder while you are on set, do so from the archived DVD. BURN THE DATA DVD FIRST, THEN REVIEW THE FOOTAGE IN FCP. This way your files are FOR SURE safe and won't be deleted.

I was toying around importing P2 footage with FCP 5.1.4. When importing footage, DO NOT delete the video files from the P2 log window. They will be deleted forever... you will end up with a P2 folder with all it's sub-folders but no contents within the sub-folders.


Let's set up the rules of P2:

1. Always have a person on set to dump the P2 footage... a.k.a. P2 Wrangler.
2. Always have a person on set to dump the P2 footage... a.k.a. P2 Wrangler.
3. Have at least 2 or 3 places to store your p2 folders. You never know when that day will come when your computer/hard drive crashes.
4. Burn data DVD's if possible and asap.
5. If dumping directly to a hard drive, use it strictly for P2 dumps and nothing else. remember it makes FAT32 partitions on the hard drive.
6. Always copy the entire contents of the card, including the "LAST CLIP" text file. if you don't, you're S.O.L.
7. If importing with FCP, do not delete the clips from the P2 import window, just leave them be. I REPEAT, leave them be.
8. Format the P2 card within the camera, not from the computer. it makes things much easier.
9. Label your folders according to P2 dump # and its contents. For example: "p2_01_beach", "p2_02_beach", "p2_03_beach" etc...
10. If you are on set and want to reviwew the P2 contents safely, view them from the archived DVD and not the Hard Drivesource footage

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

Panasonic really put a lot of effort into the P2 workflow, which in turn spoils the shooter to never want to revert back to tape. But there's something that doesn't feel right when you're shooting and dumping, almost like you never feel reassured that your footage is safe. with tape, you can hold it in your hand and say to yourself "I control you and I decide if I want to get rid of you." You should do the same with P2 to data DVDs.

Keep the P2 folders on multiple hard drives and back them up on DVD's if they are less than 4 gigs. Hopefully within a year, BLU-RAY/HD DVD burners will be affordable and you can back up 16gig/32gig cards on the discs for just a few bucks. Hopefully that day will come sooner than we think.

If you don't own a Powerbook and want an easy workflow in the field without tying up tha camera, a good choice would be the P2 Store. the downside if you have a 16gig card you can only dump it 3 times, but up to 15 dumps if you have 4gig cards. working with multi-P2 camera shoots, the P2 Drive would be a great option. If both of these choices are out of your price range, another option would be to buy a modestly priced PC laptop with a PCMCIA slot. Even ANOTHER option could be to somehow get your hands on a 15" or 17" refurbished Powerbook for a pretty modest price.

-Geoff

Mike's Comments: First off, thanks to Geoff for spending all the time to put this together.

As you can see, there are a BUNCH of options for how to deal with your P2 footage. One way not mentioned, because it isn't very budget/indie viable, is to just have a stack of P2 cards. With the recent price drop, the 16GB cards are awfully compelling, as their GB/$ ratio is MUCH better than the 8GB cards. Geoff did some spot market research and found that 8GB cards were going for around $675, and 16GB cards were going for about $900 on the street - so why NOT get the 16GB ones if you're on a budget? The "fits on a disc" is the only reason I can think of to even consider not doing so.

The P2 Store gets points for being small, battery powered, and simple to use - load and go with a a readout. The downside is the price. The other good thing about it is that the camera isn't tied up while you're using it. So if small size, portability, and immediately freeing up the camera is your goal, P2 Store makes some sense (or multiple ones).

Keeping track of which cards have been dumped and are ready to wipe and recycle from those that haven't is KEY if you have multiple cards.

The P2 Gear is good for better funded field work as you can review on it - think of it as an HVX with the lens and sensor sawed off.

The direct to drive option is nice, but makes me slightly nervous in terms of being sure you've got the footage- I'd want to plug it into a laptop right away.

The FS-100 is still kinda big and bulky, and P2 cards are finally starting to catch up with it. But for shooting a lot of footage in one go, it is a good answer for that.

The P2 economy/ecology is growing and advancing, and you have lots of choices as you can see. If you have budget for it, and/or need to be sure you can keep shooting, having a pair of cards to shoot with, the pair of cards you're backing up, and a spare pair keeps you guaranteed rolling.

Carefully analyze the needs of your shoot, see if you can spare staff to wrangle P2 cards, see if you need to keep the camera free to shoot, or if it won't be a problem to have it tied up offloading in down time. Standing around waiting for the P2 cards to download while everyone impatiently taps their feet as the good light is fading is definitely not a situation you want to put yourself into.

OK, happy shooting!

And keep multiple backups of that footage!

-mike

Labels: cameras, Final Cut, FS-100, HVX200, NLE, P2, post, workflow

I very often update articles after posting them - so if something is of interest, check back. I've updated the Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 update article twice, both in significant ways, pointing out new features and discoveries from personal usage.

I updated that Top Ten audio workflow article with a long piece on single vs dual system sound, I updated the ProLost article on Redrock's new camera gadget with user submitted photos, etc.

So if something catches your eye, be sure to go back and look again. Or if you read regularly, every once in a while skim back over the week to see what you missed. I try to always note at the top in bold when it is updated (but I realize I did that 1 time out of 3 here, so I need to get better at it.)

-mike

Labels: blogs, OT

Why I'm Not Getting an iPhone : Gina Hughes : Yahoo! Tech


Outlines a bunch of valid reasons to not get it:
-cost of phone
-cost of service
-limited carriers
-limited storage
-sucky plans
-network isn't 3G
-1st Gen - "Never buy a 1.0" Syndrome
-long lines to get

-mike, who is probably going to get one tomorrow anyway.

Magic Bullet Colorista v1.0

Got an automated email from the team - Colorista is now half off through June 30 - so only $99 instead of $199.

Enter coupon code mbc99 during checkout to get the discount.

I don't usually run sale announcements, but Colorista is especially cool and $99 is a deal.

I've been noodling on the pros/cons of Color, and FCP plugins still make sense for a LOT of projects and workflows.

-mike

Apple - iPhone - Tech Specs

BTW - I realized I'll be able to blog from my phone (!!!!!!!!!!!!).

What bizarre level of geekery is THAT?

-mike

THURSDAY UPDATE - SEE BOTTOM FOR COOL NEW FEATURES

My Apple contacts dropped me a note to let me know Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 was out:

About Pro Application Update 2007-01

Pro Application Update 2007-01 updates the following components

Apple ProRes 422:
Delivers improved encoding performance for Power Mac G5 computers.

ProAppsEffects:
Delivers filter improvements for Motion 3.0 and Final Cut Pro 6.0 customers.

PluginManager, FxPlug, ProFX, and FxPlugWrapper:
These shared components deliver updates to Effects Support, 3D Support, and Versioning Support.

Helium.framework:
Delivers improvements for SmoothCam. This update is required for customers using Motion 3.0 and Final Cut Pro 6.0.
Requirements for this update:

Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later
QuickTime 7.1.6 or later

Apple - Support - Downloads - Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 : "Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 contains several updates, including:
- Improved stability
- Support for the AVCHD format through the Log and Transfer interface
- FXPlug improvements with Motion and third-party applications
- Improved master template support
- Resolution of issues with long filenames (greater than 32 characters, up to 255 characters) on non-HFS file systems (network or Xsan volumes, FAT32 volumes, and so on)

This software update is recommended for all users of Final Cut Pro 6.0."

Final�Cut�Pro 6 Release�Notes

Apple - Support - Downloads - Color 1.0.1 : "Color 1.0.1 contains several updates, providing the following fixes:
- Improved stability
- Improved metadata support from Final Cut Pro
- Improved single-display mode
- Floating-point processing on computers with NVIDIA graphics cards
- Dissolves of 2K files during rendering

This software update is recommended for all users of Color 1.0."

Color Release�Notes

Apple - Support - Downloads - Motion 3.0.1 : "Motion 3.0.1 improves stability and resolves performance issues that may be encountered when using Motion 3.0 on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macintosh computers. This software update is recommended for all users of Motion 3.0.

This update Includes specific fixes for:
- 32-bit float projects
- Rendering of intersecting 3D groups
- Final Cut Pro integration"

Motion 3 Release�Notes

Apple - Support - Downloads - Soundtrack Pro 2.0.1 : "Soundtrack Pro 2.0.1 contains several updates, including:
- Improved stability
- Improved performance
- Delay Designer surround effect plug-in

This software is recommended for all users of Soundtrack Pro 2.0."

Soundtrack�Pro�2 Release�Notes

Apple - Support - Downloads - Compressor 3.0.1 : "Compressor 3.0.1 contains several updates, including:
- Improved performance
- Improved stability
- Provides compatibility updates for Apple Devices

This update is recommended for all Compressor 3.0 users."

Compressor�3 Release�Notes



Mike's Comments:

the good stuff is:

FCP 6

-AVCHD support - as expected, ONLY transcoding to ProRes or AIC is supported - this dodges the whole huge processor load and having to handle another long GOP format. Actually, AIC is an unexpected option - ProRes is what they discussed at NAB.

-FCP doesn't calculate transcoded sizes, so you need to pay careful attention to disk full situations when ingesting. Once again, VideoSpace (see blog from a few days ago) will help.

-AVCHD files are tiny. AIC and ProRes are NOT. From the release notes:

AVCHD has a much higher compression ratio than the Apple ProRes 422 codec, so the ingested files are significantly larger than the original files. For example, a 2-minute native AVCHD file is about 200 MB. After transcoding to the Apple ProRes 422 codec, the file size can be as large as 2 GB.


-can't set in and out points for AVCHD in Log & Transfer - bummer. Gotta pull in the whole clip at once. Maybe will be fixed in future, maybe not. So long takes - ESPECIALLY pay attention to estimated converted size. FCP really should give you some guidelines on this - while AIC and ProRes are variable (non-fixed) bitrate, a guess would help.

Motion 3.0.1

buncha little fixes, over a dozen bug fixes, some nice tweaks and changes to in depth stuff - read the release notes (link above)

Color 1.0.1

-drop frame now supported in sequences and media timecode - hooray!
-Color Corrector 3-way now converted to Primary In filters - NICE! Obvious and needed to happen. But due to Y'CbCr vs RGB issues, the conversions are approximate and not exact. But a good place to start. But only one CC 3way filter per clip - stacked 3way filters (wait, that sounds dirty) won't carry over.
-Cineon/DPX sequence EDLs support transitions now (biggie for film crowd), but linear dissolves only
-256MB or greater NVidia cards can now do floating point processing, they couldn't before
-ceiling and floor IRE now purportedly works right - I had trouble with this in Final Touch a year ago
-Pan & Scan settings now flow to FCP correctly
-960x720 render artifacts fixed
-read the known issues, there's still lots of things to be careful of. You absolutely cannot assume that any FCP project that you make will flop into and out of Color just dandy - there's still lots of things that can go wrong!

Compressor 3.0.1
-256 kbps for iTunes plus audio stuff
-custom pixel output ratios
-auto-center cropping (nice!)
-podcast fixes
-iPhone format support
BTW - I just realized I can blog from my iPhone. Oh My God.

Pro App Update

-encoding improvements for G5's for ProRes - should improve performance

Thursday Update

I happened to be working on some workflow issues for a client (they wanted to efficiently color correct hundreds of individual HDV shots and deliver to 8 different deliverable files from HDV down to 160x120 quicktime files...for an interesting usage scenario), and I sent them a bunch of customized Compressor settings to use for their specific needs. Final Cut Pro doesn't quite want to work in individual file batch mode, you have to alternately cajole it and beat it with a stick to get it to do it.

But in doing so, I learned a bunch of cool new stuff. I had sent them some presets that cropped 16:9 source down to 4:3 center cut - but it wasn't doing it for them. A little R&D later I figured out that was one of the new features in Compressor 3.0.1 - the ability to intelligently crop down to a given aspect ratio, THEN scale those results down. A very common need in this world of 16:9 source and 4:3 deliverables - awesome!

So DEFINITELY run Software Update for Compressor 3.0.1. And be clear and careful about usign it on 3.0 version of Compressor, because 3.0.1 has features 3.0 doesn't - so update ALL your machines. On the 3.0 system, the intelligent cropping got ignored, so their 16:9 source got squarshed into 4:3, rather than center cut and scaled down.

-mike

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE - a sharp eyed reader noticed that AVCHD support apparently is only for Intel Macs - can anybody else verify? Read the comments for more on this.

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

For owners of Toshiba's second gen HD DVD players:

Firmware Update For 2nd Gen HD DVD Players Fixes Dreaded Chroma Bug.: "The firmware fixes the dreaded “Chroma Bug”, a.k.a “CUE” or “Chroma Upsampling Error” that was present in the players prior to this update. "

Chroma Upsampling Error - we see it all the time in DV and HDV footage - it drove Graeme Nattress so nuts he wrote some plugins to fix it in Final Cut.

Anyway, plug in your Ethernet cable and run the patch.


On the PS3 side:

PlayStation.Blog � Firmware 1.82 Coming Soon…: "firmware 1.82 is an update that enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files"
-mike

Labels: Blu-ray, format war, HD DVD

Short version for the attention span impaired:

1.) Get your name and home phone and/or email address engraved on any expensive iGadget you buy
2.) If lost, makes for an easy way to find you
3.) If stolen, makes it tougher to sell as easier to identify the true/original owner
4.) I wrote a fun little story that you might enjoy reading if you enjoy some of my sillier asides on the blog.

Long version:

So the other day I commented down in the bottom of the blogwad that somebody went into my garage (set back 50 feet from the street in a quiet neighborhood) and stole my mountain bike and then went into my car and stole an iPod.

The bike I fear is a goner (an indestructible 1991 Bridgestone MB-2 with lots of customizations and great memories, dammit), but I got a call from a stranger saying she'd found my iPod. Since I'd gone to the trouble to order it with my name and phone number engraved on the back, she called the number, met me at a gas station on her way home, and handed it over with a thanks and God Bless. Well, Big Thanks to Andrea for taking the time to do the right thing and call me - MUCH appreciated.

Secondly, that right there is why I won't be walking out of the Apple Store with an iPhone on Friday. YES, I'll almost certainly be ordering one, but I'm going to sit out First Geek To Touch week of doodling with it (and probably starting a related blog, and yes I reserved iphonehacker.com but will probably hold back doing anything with it). That alone will vastly increase my productivity that week.

But I'm going to order one with my name, email and home phone number engraved on it* - because if I hadn't done so, there's no way in hell I'd be holding my silver iPod Mini right now - I figure the bum who stole it either didn't have headphones, the battery ran out and they didn't have a way to charge, and/or they saw the name and number on the back and figured that'd be a hindrance to selling it at a pawn shop. Same thing likely to apply with the iPhone - there will be a zillion units virtually identical to look at. YES, there will be a database of serial numbers, but if the SIM is replaceable, no one will probably ever know. It'd be great if Apple & AT&T had some clever anti-theft detection network going, such that any phone reported stolen could be remotely shut down at a serial number level. But I haven't heard of such yet to date.

Also, what are YOUR thoughts as to home # or email address? EDIT - there's room for all, see above. Home phone # is easily reverse lookup-able to find your address online, so can be a security threat there - I've heard never let a criminal find out your address, gives them a specific target. Plus, by definition they know you have substantial disposable income (you just spent 10X going rate for a cellphone, QED). BUT....home phone number is cake and easy for someone honest to call and say they found it. If you do email address, that's a little harder for somebody to go to the trouble to let you know they found it, it couldn't possibly be a long distance call...but they have to have an email address and go to the trouble to do so. (you could always invite them to send you an email on the phone...but no room to explain all that. Then they'd try it and love it and not want to give it back....) ; D

With so many exactly visually identical iPhones about to hit the market, it just strikes me as a really good idea - and don't even TRY to tell me these won't be one of the hottest things to steal this summer.

Oh - I'll betcha you can only get engraving done if you order it directly from Apple online, and not from AT&T (that's a guess).

So yeah, I'll be itching like a heroin addicts while my friends play with theirs and shout "No touchie!" over their crouched shoulders (Hmm, something like this, I wonder? Remember Mmmmm....iPrecious from when iPhone was announced?)

So long as I'm talking Off Topic, I wrote this fun little story about my friend finding her glasses, me finding my iPod, my friend Kitty, God, miracles, and Schrodinger's Cat. It is 97% true. If you like my goofy asides, you'll probably like this one - I had a lot of fun writing it.

* yes, they haven't announced that yet. But I Have My Sources.

Labels: iPhone, OT

In DVD War, Body Blows for Toshiba

Good overview article on latest status of the format war.

Summary:
-Blockbuster recently committed to renting Blu-ray only in the retail stores (but online HD DVD still available)
-Blockbuster says no clear winner, but obviously leaning in Blu-ray's favor.
-Netflix renting both formats, but not sharing the split between publicly (here anyway)
-Blu-ray discs outselling HD DVD 2:1 since January - but sales still miniscule for both overall
-Toshiba sold 100K HD DVD players in the first year, Blu-ray standalone less than that...but 3.5 MILLION PS3's have been sold, and they include a Blu-ray player
-China deal is a mixed bag for HD DVD group - lower component prices, but more cheap competitors likely to cheat on licensing (as is done with DVD players)

Someone on my LSOS mailing list (buncha friends) posted this article and asked who had taken the plunge. My advice there, as to anybody else, based on budget (po' to pimped):

1.) Sit it out until there is a clear winner.

2.) Punt - get the low cost HD DVD player and see regular DVDs upconverted well, with bonus playback of some of the high def discs (HD DVD only not Blu-ray). Be ready for Blu-ray to possibly take the lead in the future.

3.) Gamer? Buy a PS3 and lament the titles you can't get on HD DVD, but watch Blu-ray on it.

4.) Drop a wad of cash and get both. Ugh.

But skip the combo players unless you want a single box and not two, and unless you have no interest in games. You can get a PS3 AND an HD DVD player for less than the cost of the combo players.

Hard core gamer & A/V geek? A PS3 & a Xbox 360 with the HD DVD player will set you back about $1200. Or buy an HV20 and go make your own HD movies - that'd be the REAL indie way to do it!

;p

I'm pretty happy with what I've got, but if I were shopping now and wanted one (or both), I'd get the Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD Player ($395 on Amazon at the moment) if I had a 1080p set, or a Toshiba HD-A2 ($300) if I had a 1080i or 720p set. For Blu-ray, the Sony PS3 ($600) seems the way to go - 1080p, nice rezzing, plus killer games. Don't forget the Bluetooth remote, since PS3 is Bluetooth only, no IR for your "normal" universal remote. Don't want that kind of gaming heroin sitting around the house sucking up all your free time? The lowest cost Blu-ray player I've found is the Samsung BD-P1000 for about $510.

Don't forget cables, and don't pay too much for them!

-mike

PS - don't buy Monster Cables! Totally not worth it.

Labels: Blu-ray, format war, HD DVD

I don't know diddly about audio production. Well, here's what I know:

1.) Get good sound.

2.) Get somebody good on set to handle it.

3.) Once burnt or echoed, It R Gonn, just like video (many many similarities to running too hot in both)

...so I don't do audio related stuff, other than to recommend don't use the built-in mike on your camcorder, odds are 99% it isn't that great (it is a common place manufactuers cheap out on cameras...because buyers don't pay much attention to it.). And get somebody good with good equipment.

OK, so that's what I know about audio. Oh - and just like video, Compression R Badd, M'kay?

That's the fun way to put, but as always the truth isn't so pithy - careful and light compression can be OK, but it limits your flexibility in post. Nothing succeeds like good source material, well balanced/exposed/noise free, with as little compression as possible in order to yield best final results and maximum room in post to have creative and technical flexibility and control. Some kinds of shots, and some kinds of post production processing, can survive more or less compression, depending. YMMV.

That's not nearly so pithy, is it?

Which leads me to this - a sound guy, Christian Dolan, came up with his own Top Ten audio related list after reading my 10 Things Not To Do.

sync.sound.cinema: The Fifteen [drops tablet]...Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture! (Part One)

sync.sound.cinema: The Fifteen [drops tablet]...Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture! (Part Two)

which references this:

An Open Letter from your Sound Department - A Production Sound Manifesto written by audio professionals

Good audio is worth having. If you're shooting on good, professional cameras (that have XLR inputs and DON'T compress the audio), I'd...hmm....not so sure if I'd say I'd ARGUE the point that it is OK to get good mikes, mix/balance, then run tethered back into the camera to record sync sound, but I'd certainly like to have a conversation about it. 

UPDATE

I'd asked why not go into the camera on set, and Christian Dolan came back with good answers:

Mike,

Most of what I wrote in the list was proselytizing, with a dash of ranting. The majority of what I do is corporate, industrial and reality, which is single system all the time, so it obviously works, but for features, I really feel that people should go the extra mile, especially considering that it may not add that much to the budget overall.

A) There is the quality issue, as measure by Jay Rose in that article that Bruce Allen linked to. I've done some of my own, non-scientific comparisons, and camera ADCs always seemed far noisier than a dedicated audio recorder.

For (non-narrative) TV, docs, and other programming with simple mixes (or whose audiences have different quality expectations), I think single-system is absolutely the way to go. It's simpler, direct, efficient.

For movies, though, things get more complicated in the mix. Generally, you will be applying some amount of signal processing, and in the case of adding gain and/or compression, you end up also raising the noise floor of the signal. With 16 bit audio (the only option in most cameras), the noise floor is higher than it is in 24 bit audio-capable recorders; throw in the self-noise of the camera's AD converters, and you're fairly limited in your range of gain before the noise floor becomes audible. When you start summing multiple tracks (as you definitely will in the mix), you'll be adding noise to noise. The more tracks you have, the more noise you'll be adding, which is why it's imperative to start with as quiet a recording as possible.

I think that the greater bit-depth argument may even carry over from HD, in that choosing 10 bit over 8 bit gives you much more latitude and wiggle room in post. (Of course, I am a audio guy, so take that one with a grain of salt:).

B) Confidence. With single-system, I set my levels with tone, tape down as many of the camera's audio switches as possible, and then cross my fingers. While I can listen to the headphone return, just about every camera I've ever listened to has had an incredibly noisy headphone output amp, which means that I have to do my critical listening off the mixer, dipping in here and there to make sure I'm still reaching camera. The noisy amp may mask subtle background noises (people talking, AC rumble,etc.), that become issues in post.

Plus, in my experience, every Sony broadcast-level camera mixed its audio tracks to mono to monitor. If I hear a crunchy buzz hit the audio, I can't tell if it's the wireless on track one, leaving the boom on two usable, or across both, rendering that take useless (unless you roll the tape back and manually switch the monitor output at the camera itself to check).

And even with the level-setting and taping off of controls, there may be a chance that a well-meaning, but very hurried cam op may bump an input setting (track one from me, track two now from the cam mic, still got audio, just sounds weird, why?) or an input level pot, giving me one more x-factor to troubleshoot.

With double-system, I have the audio recorder right in front of me. I can set,and more importantly, see, all of my audio levels. I can solo any input I want to see where that weird buzzing is coming from, and I can roll back to any take to check it without having to bother anyone else, or risk the "tape return" feature not quite doing what it's supposed to (that isn't a dig at camera at all. I've just seen it happen more than once where even veteran cam ops have rolled back to check a take, engaged the return, and ended up recording over some material).

C) Track count. As far as I know, just about every major SD/HD camera out there only accepts two line-level inputs. While two tracks can take care of most audio needs (indeed, the venerable Nagra never had more than two tracks, and countless classic films were recorded with that little Swiss tank), today's demands are changing, skewing towards more and more wireless mics. With single system, you must do a live mix on-the-fly for shots with more than two mics, which means that you end up with what you end up with. What happens if wireless #1 gives you an RF hit, spoiling the track that it was sharing with wireless #2, even though #2 was free and clear?

WWCD: Imagine a multi-camera movie shoot, where you have four cameras, but only one VTR. You have to do a "live switch" that is committed to the recording medium, without the benefit of iso-records to re-edit later. While this is all well and good for live TV, it doesn't make much sense for a narrative, where you want all the options you can have in the edit bay.

Well, as usual, I've blathered on for quite a while. I'm pretty new to tech writing; I guess economy of words will come with practice, but I'm certainly having a good time with the blog.

Thanks again for the links, and let me know if you need anything else.


Thanks Christian!

-mike

Labels: audio, Production

ProLost: Redrock Gets It

"Redrock Micro, maker of the popular M2 35mm lens adapter, is showing a new compact handheld rig at Cinegear Expo in LA today and tomorrow. Unless you snapped a photo of it at the show and put it on your blog today, the above is the first publicly shown image of the thing."

UPDATE: a reader sent in these pics so I wouldn't feel left out. Click each for larger view.

Labels: cameras, Production

ProLost: Tour The Bullet

"Studio Daily has an exclusive demo of the new Magic Bullet Looks by some muppet-sounding dude."

Labels: NLE, software

JVC's 4k Camera - The Digital Video Information Network

"The camera was in a white metal 'box' style industrial enclosure, with a custom made zoom lens on the front. The footage was being displayed live on an HD monitor. There was also a 4k projection demo including 10 or 15 seconds of live footage from the camera, plus another 1-2 minutes of demo footage shot in Japan. The demo footage all looked good. Before the demo footage, as they were showing off the capabilities of the projector, they also projected some 4096x2400 DSLR captures, which looked very nice as well."

Labels: acquisition, cameras

Reader and long time emailer/contributor Bruce Allen went to the LA based Cinegear Expo this weekend, and submitted this detailed report. he also sent in a big bunch of photos as well. As someone who knows how much time it takes to do this kind of documentation, BIG THANKS to Bruce for taking the time. If anyone else went and has something good to add, please let me know.

You might also be interested in reading Mark Allen's report from the Red presentation at Cinegear as well.

UPDATE - John Ott also posted his own thoughts on CineGear at Making the Movie: CineGear Expo 2007

Below is Bruce's report:

==========

Codex digital recorder - pictures included. Light, small, nice, takes standard Anton Bauer battery power. The "mag" seems to be 2.5" notebook hard drives - they confirmed it was running RAID-3. Cost is supposedly competitive with a HDCAM SR deck. It has optical in and will be able to take RAW data from the Red, do very light JPEG2000 compression (lighter than REDCODE) and store it. It has tons of cool options - ethernet output, H264 proxies, etc. But you get the idea. Cool high-end recorder. They also had huge big uncompressed boxes, fancy workflow solutions, etc. But as far as indies go, I can see us renting a Codex for a day, offloading via Ethernet to our PC at night (their software can output all usual formats - dpx, Quicktime, etc), then returning it the next day. Pricing not set yet - I heard $60,000? Don't quote me.

Mike note - Matthew Jeppsen over at FreshDV has some more on this new device as well, and I regretfully only folded my own coverage into the Friday Blogwad.

Wafian - I saw the HR1 and HR2 boxen. Big fellas, but nicely packaged - fine for a studio or greenscreen shoot. They are renting them - they quoted me something like $500 (per 3-day week?) for the HR1 or $800 for the HR2 (not sure, need to confirm that). They also had a prototype smaller box (picture included). It will run off DC power (yaay). The final one will have a larger screen, be more compact, etc. August. Basically, they are the indie equivalent of the Codex. And friendly too.

Phantom HD camera - I played with the Phantom HD camera (you know, the 1000fps 2k one) at Photo-Sonics (just one of the places that had it). Very very nice, very compact, etc. Records to built-in RAM - can store 4.5 seconds worth of 1000fps 2k x 1k frames. RAM upgrade coming soon. You can review the footage on camera, scrolling through it with a little scroll wheel, etc. It shows you how far you are through it, how much space is used, etc. Connect it via ethernet to dump frames to computer. Rental quote from someone was $2500 per day including lens (a nice 20:1 Cooke, I think) and laptop, I think. Claimed ASA is approx 600 - they were shooting footage live at the show (mix of sunlight & shade) at 1000fps and were at around a 5.6 and 2/3.

Dalsa - remember there are 2 branches - the 4k cine camera, plus the rental department. First off, the cine camera - they had footage playing. It looked incredible. Latitude, etc was nice, shots were very clean, no fixed pattern noise, etc. They had one shot that was available light at night. Wow. Some noise of course but just looked like a slightly high speed film stock. Advantages of this camera over Red are claimed higher latitude, plus definite lack of CMOS motion warping and better sensor alignment for 2:35 (theirs sensor is 2:1 aspect ratio I think?). Next, the rental dept - for a start, yes they are renting Reds.

MIKE UPDATE Tuesday afternoon - Dalsa contacted me to say this is not the case. "We have no plans to rent Red cameras at our facility in LA." according to their spokesman. Apologies for any inaccuracies....or are they? See other update end of article. End update, resuming Bruce's coverage...

I asked them whether you could do something mostly on Red and then switch to their 4k camera for a few days. They obviously felt that their camera's image quality was higher but said yes, as long as you were not cutting directly from one to the other, it'd probably work. Finally, lenses - they had their slightly-anamorphic lenses on display - I played with a 50mm 1.4 one attached to their camera. It was very nice and had that nice oval bokeh that we love out of anamorphics. On a side note - ah man - love that optical viewfinder. Anyway... they are aiming at a set of 6, all under T2.0. Yes, they are PL mount, yes they are for rent. Yes, you could use them on a Red - if you were shooting a 2.35 feature that might be a very good idea because it gets you more usable pixels. They also had a beautiful set of non-anamorphic PL mount primes - mostly Leica glass, plus Canons for the extreme zooms. They feel that the Leica glass is superior to Zeiss and Cooke for 4k acquisition. Again, no reason you can't rent those for your Red.

What else? Lots of Vipers running around - they are small and cute. Wish I'd had time to play with them. The amazing TechnoDolly thing was there again (like a motion controlled Technocrane). Lots of people with Modula HD mini-cameras. Didn't see Silicon Imaging. Red Rock was there with a prototype matte-box ($500, will have swing-away now and 3 rotating filter stages, designed to work with the Red). They also had a HV20 rig similar to what I am building. Many cool follow focus devices running from the Preston to the Bartech, but I didn't see the Red Rock one there (no time!).

I Saw a 18K HMI - it was successfully illuminating the underside of a tree 20 feet away in broad daylight. I played with the always-impressive weatherproof and dual-voltage Kobold HMIs and the O'Connor 1030HD. Looked around at the other LCD monitors - still nothing that competes with mine, yaay. I stopped by Schneider and talked to them about their DigiCon - you know, the latitude improving filter. The thing seems cheap for what you get. I'm going to have to rent some different grades and test.

Also checked out a crazy rotating iris gizmo that gives a supposedly "3D" effect (www.inv3.com) - believe it or not, it actually worked, although it was weird as shit. Basically, the rotating iris thing gives a still shot a tiny bit of parallax motion by, uh, going round and round. It's kinda like the stupidest thing you've ever seen and the cleverest thing you've ever seen at the same time. I'm not sure if I'll be using it on my next shoot, but it did get me thinking a lot about how humans perceive depth - those little movements of the head that we do are important - and also why the gradual dolly shoot has the psychological effect of sucking you into the picture. The human visual system is a fascinating thing...

Otherwise, played with the Petroff follow focus and matte box, the Vocas matte box (very nice, very light and very pro), Innovision's little "bird's eye" camera support tower (not much to rent - was something like $250 per day?), lots of LED lighting systems, the usual impressive Steadicam rigs. P+S technik were doing a demonstration of their Skater-Dolly hooked up to a simple motion control system - it seemed cheap but effective. But I didn't notice their 35mm adapters being talked about much. Abelcine did have the competing Movietube ST. But my tests with the SGpro have really satisfied me - I really don't think you can get much higher quality without going