HD For Indies

Hey all - I'm at NAB, and between work and networking, I'm actually atttending panels - which is the point of the whole thing ostensibly this weekend.

Here's my first piece of coverage from the Digital Cinema Summit:

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

...and I have a quickie here's what's up piece too.

I'm not the only one - check out all of Pro Video Coalition's NAB coverage here - I think there will be about six of us at the show.

-mike

Labels: NAB

This one's short and sweet, but I wanted to get it exactly right and have it be its own freestanding article.

FACTS

Aside from new accessories coming from Red (separate article coming), Red announced 3 new classes of upcoming products. To be precise and accurate, I'm going to directly quote Ted Schilowitz, the spokesperson for Red:

1.) A "professional pocket camera" - also referred to elsewhere as a handheld camera

2.) A "new line of 4K projectors"

3.) A "new line of 4K displays"

I asked "Plural on both?" he said "Plural on both."

No timeline, no pricing, no features on any of that beyond the obvious. At this point, I think they've learned about saying too much too early, so they are just putting it out there.

100% SPECULATIVE CONJECTURE

My tea leaf reading based on those statements:

1.) "Professional pocket camera" - Ted was clear to point out "PROFESSIONAL" - NOT a prosumer camera, a professional camera. I think he said something about not plastic, too. Therefore high quality and not cheap. "Pocket" - not handheld, not small form factor, the word "pocket" was explicitly used, so that implies a pretty small camera to me. So if it is small, I'd guess that would imply it has to fit in your pocket with the lens on it, right? And if the lens on it (presumably fixed I'm guessing, otherwise what mount is small enough to fit a lens on it in your pocket?) is small enough that the whole thing fits in your pocket, would that not imply a smaller sized sensor? And if a smaller sensor, wouldn't that imply lower res? If Red One is as small as they could make a 4K camera, wouldn't pocket sized have to be lower capability anyway with fewer electronics/power/image processing? Therefore lower res as well? All conjecture based on "pocket" - I dunno if that will all logically follow from there...

2.) 4K projectors - man, that's takin' the fight right into Sony's face, as they are the only 4K projectors presently on the market (although I keep hearing rumblings about others under development). I didn't get a chance to research projectors at NAB. But if the pricing of it is in line with how Red prices other stuff...is it possible to build a 4K projector for under $20K-$25K? I hear the bulbs are wickedly expensive, some $1000s of dollars apiece for a high intensity Xenon lamp, which spectrally is the way to go. And a LINE of 4K projectors - we don't know if they are talking about something powerful enough for theatrical applications, or business applications (DI work, medical & industrial visualization?), or even home applications (based on the arc angles of human vision, how big a screen do I need to even SEE 4K if sitting 10-15 feet away?). And other than theatrical distribution, where would 4K footage be coming from? Video cards are soooooo not up to doing 4K at decent frame rates these days, which leads us to...

3.) 4K displays - for editorial and VFX work, these'd be great - to FINALLY see all the res of what you're working on. Wait a minute, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself - are these computer displays, video/image displays, or both? Unknown at this point in time. An especially large concern of mine would be what the interface is - the only known video interface for 4K at this time is a big fat wad of HD-SDI dual links - a total of 8 to be exact - Sony's 4K projector is actually 4096x2160, which is the DCI spec for 4K, which is four dual link 2048x1080 images set up in quads. Kind of a hassle. Is that what we'd have to use for an interface for video stuff? That'd require some new hardware, to say the least. And when they say line of displays, my eyes light up on that one - I'd love to see a 32"-36" 4K display for doing post work, and a bigger (50-80 inch) display for client, coloring and living room viewing. The thought of the price point on that could get pretty scary, too. For computer displays, there are twin dual link DVI to drive 3840x2160 (or is it x2400?) displays, but frame rates can be an issue - I think we had something like 16Hz at best at IBC trying to drive a 3840xwhatever display from a computer video card. DEFINITELY takes a high end, specialty video card.

Notice they haven't said diddly about display tech either - LCD, LCoS, plasma, etc., just "4K," "displays," and "projectors" - the rest is all speculation.

If they had announced these kinds of things last year at NAB or even IBC, they wouldn't have been taken seriously. But to have working cameras in the booth, a Peter Jackson demo, nearly 2000 (I'm guessing, was around 1700 on morning of day 2 I think) cameras on order, working software, Final Cut native support already working....Red's level of credibility is MUCH higher now.

Considering the new markets Red is entering, Sony (in particular*), Panasonic, JVC & Canon won't be resting quite as comfortably post NAB as they have in years past. While Red has yet to ship reliable cameras in bulk, they are right on the cusp of shipping first cameras to clients. The next 6 months should be very telling for Red, and very informative for their competitors.

I would hope/expect that the pricing on all these new items would be as similarly aggressive as the Red One is compared to other professional HD+ cameras. Will this NAB put a dent in other high end camera sales/rentals this year? Will anybody decide to wait on buying a 4K Sony projector to see what Red comes out with, considering how aggressive the Red One's pricing is in comparison to, say, the F23 (at roughly 10x the price)?

Push the Big Red button, indeed.

-mike

* - since Sony makes 4K projectors, the F23, the F900R/F950 cameras, small professional cameras, displays, etc. - all stuff Red is taking on now

Update - somebody pointed out this:

In the comments somebody pointed out this:

Westinghouse's 56-inch 4x 1080p LCD - Engadget

...at about $10K estimated price point, minimum.

Labels: NAB, Red

...so I'm sitting in the Vegas airport, my flight leaves in about an hour.

Riding the monorail back to the hotel, I was talking to a guy from Genelec (marker of badass speakers) that after this week, the most complicated technology I wanted to deal with for the rest of the day would be a beer bottle...and it had better be open already.

I am sooooo whipped and tired - it has been a long hard week. You might have noticed that I haven't blogged much the last few days, but fear not, I have been gathering a lot of information that I'll be transcribing and posting soon.

Monday and Tuesday I was working in the booth at Red, and Wednesday was unfortuntately mostly lost to prepping for the panel. I did have a very nice lunch with Andreas Wittenstein, creator of the Sheer codec. We talked about the new Final Cut, and lamented the lack of improvements in RGB 4:4:4 handing in >8 bits. But we did doodle around with the idea of how we might use Synchromy (his tech to do lossless coversions between Y'CbCr & RGB) to do high quality finish using a 10 bit 4:2:2 timeline with the High Precision button clicked in Sequence Settings - that triggers a 32 bit float space calculation (why so slow). So if anybody has any bright ideas (Prolost & Creative Workflow Hacks, i'm thinking of you), it'd be good to figure out. May take some rendering and transcoding passes, but could be worth it.

Wednesday night was the giant Final Cut Pro User Group meeting, we (the Red group) got there late, in part because we brought a toy...a built up Red One. I was out talking in the lobby when they went up onstage, so when I came back in they were up there so I shamelessly trotted up on stage as well. Ted told the crowd about the new camera, projectors & displays (more on those later), and answered a few questions about workflow. I got pulled into a conversation about a possible post supervisor gig, so I missed everyone taking off. So I chatted with a bunch of folks and eventually headed over to the G-Tech/AJA party, and MAN they had a swank suite - rotating bed, infinity hot tub on the 31st floor, the G-Girls, etc. etc. etc. Pictures etc. to follow.

A note of thanks - I don't even know how many dozens of folks came up to me during the show or at parties or whatever and said thanks for the site, or that it had truly helped them accomplish their dream projects, etc. - that really, REALLY helped to hear after all the time I've put into this thing. So thank you right back. Also, thanks to all who asked about my Dad - he is doing fine, home and well, and will be hiking this summer in Colorado, so all that could be hoped for has gone well.

Thursday I got up early and headed over to the Red booth to put on my other hat - blogger/journalist. I interviewed Ted about the new products, talked geek with David Macintosh about the viewfinder and its special features, to Deanan about the import software, and to Ted & Stuart about some of the new hardware bits that were introduced at the show.

From there, I went to the booths of Sony, JVC, Canon, Panasonic, Abel Cine (for Vision Research's Phantom HD & 65 cameras, Mitch Gross was entirely helpful and cool, always good to put a face to a name), Band Pro for the F23 (Randy Wedick and Michael Bravin filled me in with all the deets), Adobe, Apple, plug-in pavillion, Matrox, and more.

All in due time.

After the PA announced the show was over at 4 (to a tired but heartfelt cheer from all the vendors), I went back by the Red booth where the gang gathered to watch the Peter Jackson film one more time all together and applauded and whooped at it - most of us have only seen it once maybe twice all week. I said goodbye to everybody and headed back over to my last of 3 hotels this week (Imperial Palace, I wouldn't wish that boil of a hotel on anyone), got my stuff, and my friend Greg Bernstein picked me up.

Let me tell you a little about Greg - we met in California when I was working at a crazy place, a mafia daddy's money tech startup, and at the time he'd been telling me about his involvement in Project Bandaloop - which involved rock climbing for a day up the 3000 foot sheer face of El Capitan. (Greg used to be Search & Rescue in Yosemite.) He then bolted in and hung off the sheer face with a VX1000 to shoot his friends performing dance moves while dangling off 80 feet of rope thousands of feet off the ground. Gorgeous stuff like syncronized leaps out into space while harnessed in.

He convinced me it'd be fun to learn to rock climb with my tall & lean (once upon a time, ahem) self, so after three trips to the rock gym in San Francisco, we hopped in a van and drove to go climbing outdoors for the first time with him and his girlfriend Moon ("Moon" is her full and complete name on her driver's license, think Sting/Cher/Bono/Moon).

Where do we go?

The Black Cliffs.

In Cannibal Gulch.

In Donner Pass.

"Donner Pass? Dude, isn't that where people, like, ATE each other because it was so hard to get out of there?"

Yep. That Donner Pass.

I made the multi-pitch ascent, it scared the crap out of me, but I was elated once we made it to the top.

OK, so it's that Greg. He's a coolio badass, and I miss him, I hadn't seen him in years until we crossed paths at NAB last year.

He and his friend Atalanta picked me up at my hotel and we drove over to go see Ka, the massive Cirque du Soleil production. Turns out Greg knows Desiree, the Goddess of the Theater (manager of the enormous event), so we got to get in and got great seats.

Ever seen a Cirque du Soleil event? Before you die, you should. I saw "O" a few years ago, and it was the single most amazing live theatrical experience of my life.

So I couldn't wait to see Ka - it is an enormous theater with a stupendous physical infrastructure - Greg said the redesign cost $250M to do.

The show was amazing, with a huge set that wrapped about 200+ degrees around the audience. Every chair had stereo speakers in the headrest to augment the experience. We were dead center about 80 feet from stage. As with all Cirque productions, amazing physical feats, but in this production, there are ENORMOUS stage elements involved - 30x75ish foot stage elements on a motion base that can go up or down 40 or more feet and rotate to the full vertical with all kinds of extra tricks.

Some might perceive this as braggin', but I just really enjoyed having cool friends that do cool things. For all my techno-schpoop that I do, ya gotsta remember to do cool things in life and, ya know, LIVE. Greg gets to shoot amazing footage and do amazing things - last year he was shooting in extreme conditions in Alaska - makes me think of Rutger Hauer's speech in Blade Runner about seeing and doing Amazing Things - and life is to be EXPERIENCED, not just lived or documented (hint to self).

Oops, plane boarding, I'll finish this later...

Labels: NAB

Hey all -

Here is a link to a PDF version of my presentation I gave at NAB.

My topic was Digital Deliverables, I covered a wide swath from the DCI spec (4096x2160) down to web downloads (320x240) with lots of stops inbetween, including Digital Intermediates, the DCI spec, film festival masters (some good tricks for indies), HD tape formats and how to evaluate them for quality, a brief detour into what makes a good image from a camera, shiny plastic deliverables (DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray), and online deliverables, which was really the most fun and interesting part, diving into the business & consumer side of things on that.

So download and check it out if you want to. More NAB coverage comin'.

-mike

Labels: NAB

Hey all -

it has been ultra busy the last few days, been doing LOTS of stuff and learning all kinds of good things. Spent an hour with the Dalsa folks yesterday, talked to the developers of Color, lots more good stuff. I've figured out that my time is better spent gathering info and getting a few minutes of sleep rather than blogging. So there'll be a big bolus of info....soon enough.

-mike

Labels: NAB

Hey all -

Check out Red.com for a buncha new stuff on their site, including a TENTATIVE estimated schedule of ship dates:

RED Digital Cinema - TENTATIVE shipping schedule for RED ONE

April - May - Serial #1-12
June - Serial #13-100. (Partially enabled feature set)
July - Serial #101-300. (Partially enabled feature set)
August - Serial #301-550 (90% enabled feature set)
September - Serial #551-1000 (98% enabled feature set)
October - Serial #1001-1700 (Fully enabled feature set)
November - Serial #1701- 2500
December - Serial #2501- 3500


Also has details about how feature complete the cameras will be when, refund policies, etc.

---
Red / Workflow - screenshots of Redcine, which is quite cool but a very different kind of app than I've used before - pieces of a lot of things we've used/seen, but never in one place like this.
---
Also, the Peter Jackson movie should be downloadable off the website they've said, just didn't say when.

==========

Steve Gibby's Part 2 on Red has been posted:Studio Daily | RED at NAB, Part 2

As for my pre-NAB predictions (23 of them), so far it seems I got 14 right, 3 wrong, and 5 are still unknown (wait, I missed one in there somewhere, but whatevs). Just fun to keep score.

Also, Endgadget has an article up I won't bother linking to, since they got a ton of stuff completely wrong. Boingheads said 4K wouldn't work at first on the cameras - totally backwards - the first X# of cameras will ship only shooting 4K Redcode RAW and won't have the lesser RGB modes enabled. Other details incorrect as well. Feh.

That said, oopsie, a few things I've gotten wrong the last few days:

1.) Final Cut Studio 2 will NOT ship at first with Redcode RAW support - so Final Cut Pro 6.0.0 won't have it, but a future release will. Perhaps a 6.0.x or 6.x version. There is no official timetable for when, for now consider it like the "technology previews" of past when format support was shown at NAB in a demonstration and then shown some months later. New tidbits - there's also a transcode straight to ProResHD422 (regular or high quality) import module (DAMN handy), and a FX plugin that lets you color correct in Final Cut Pro with all the controls you have in Redcine - so you can directly manipulate the 12 bit RAW data in a 32 bit space, and delivers it back to timeline in...whatever timeline stuff is. Kewl.

2.) I got the Red Prime Lenses wrong in a previous post - they are actually 15mm f2.8, 25mm f1.9, 35mm f1.9, 50mm f1.9, 85mm f1.9

More to come, Day Two in the booth starts in a few hours. I'm working on my presentation stuff for my panel on Wednesday:
WED
2:00 - 3:15pm
Digital Delivery from Cinema to the Web

The DCI has finally set standards for transmission and delivery of digital content to theaters. But with podcasting, YouTube© and other venues now available, what is involved with encoding, encryption and the various aspects of the digital delivery of HD video content? Together we will explore this whole process.

Labels: Apple, NAB, Red

Here's pics from Red booth - detailed pics of cameras, accessories, etc.

I'll get more tomorrow. Line around the booth was constant, 45 min to one hour wait. Woah. Busy busy busy, big hit.

Pics of cameras in light/medium/heavy configs, etc.

I'll have more tomorrow.

Descriptions of each under pic, gotta scoot now.

-mike

UPDATE - just got back from the Red Team dinner - an interesting tidbit to me as a non-shooter - Matt, one of the industrial design guys, was talking about his experience in the booth today. He's working the other side of the booth on the camera side (I'm working the post/Redcine side), and he talked about realizing that the Red camera was changing the way people interacted and interfaced with a camera - for the first time it was a 360 degree experience.

At first when I heard this I had no idea what he was talking about, it sounded spacey oddball to me. Then he went on to explain - most cameras are interfaced with, as in handled with and by, a limited number of points - in the most basic terms, there are only so many places to grab onto that sucker. You typically have the handle on top, and if up on sticks, you may have a handle sticking out the back to one side. Sure you have your hand on the lens, but in terms of a solid physical anchor, limited choices.

Matt noticed that folks had a tendency to immediately reach out and grasp one of the handles on the "heavy" config he was working with - there are four handles on the Red Cage, one on each corner. And so suddenly folks could grab onto it from any side and manipulate it as they needed to. Even better, it was on a handling surface that was a short distance from the center of rotation. While a longer radius would give more torque, that can actually be a bad thing when you are trying to do small, subtle, precise motions. If you have a long lever with a lot of, um, leverage, the stiction of the camera head can be an impediment, especially when combined with the bending/elasticity of a control arm - you can get sudden gross movement. But with these close set handles (to the center or rotation), you could maintain high tension on the fluid head for limited/smooth motion, yet still do very precise moves.

Then David Macintosh kicked in a comment about how when you're looking through a viewfinder, you're losing at least half your universe or something like that by looking through one eye through the limited view of the lens, and Matt jumped back in pointing out how the ability to hold onto something (in this case the camera when on sticks) helped give you a physical point of reference, a somatic cartesian coordinate axis if you will (my phrase), to have confidence in limiting your field of view through the viewfinder.

Matt was very spot-on with this - it wasn't that his words were ultra-eloquent, but that he instinctively knifed straight to the value that this simple addition of four handles created.

My point here isn't about the benefit of this one specific feature (although for shooters it is definitely a nice feature), but that this kind of depth of experience & insight that hints at the depth that the Red Team has - Matt's a nice guy, I met him and we talked industrial design geekery at the LA screening (I used to work at ID firm frogdesign), but he surprised & impressed me with this sudden dive into human/machine interface subtlety, diving straight to the zen level interaction you want to have with a machine. I'm not capturing the essence of what he said, since it was off the cuff at dinner over drinks, but his ability to pick this experience out - to distill fact from the vapor of nuance, to pluck this wheat from the chaff of the day's crushing crowds and expeirence - is indicative to me of the consistent level of intelligence, skill, and Just Getting It that the Red Team seems to have in spades. I'm sure there are lots of bright 'n shiny people at lots of companies at NAB, but it is always a pleasure to find so much of this characteristic in one place. And it is this kind of interaction, when 5 people can suddenly all jump into a conversation on one very specific detail of something (even if it isn't their particular area of expertise) and all "get it" and contribute to the flow and thread, that really jazzes me about working with other groups of people. I typically work alone and am expected to be The Answer Guy, but working with a smart/creative/clever bunch just feeds my soul on such a wonderfully profound level that I don't otherwise get on a regular basis.

-mike, trying to blog the essence of something kinda intellecutally profound at 11:30 after mulitple drinks and over the drone of a snoring roommate....

PS - and oh yeah - I was talking to a friend who didn't know about Red and was asking about what the big deal was, and I was saying how many cool new approaches in so many areas of the camera were there - the sensor, the codec, Redcine, the Lego-like modularity and configurability of the physical form factor, the recording options, the EVF & LCD, the pricing, etc. etc. etc. Any of which would be toutable as a major feature on any other camera, yet here they are all in one.

Labels: NAB, pictures, Red

BUSY first day in the booth, LOTS of new stuff to talk about in the Red booth, 7:30pm, dinner in 1/2 hour across the Strip, so a quickie update:

first off, the fun gossipy stuff -

As you may already know, Red was approached by a director who wanted to shoot some test footage - so Red said OK. That meant spinning up Jim's jet for a nonstop flight to New Zealand to drop in on Peter Jackson.

Thinking he wanted to shoot some charts and stuff and maybe set up a scene or two, they showed up with Boris and Natasha, the two testbed cameras. Turns out he had a script and actors and extras and everything...and everyting included planes, tanks, shooting from helicopters, 'splosions, teddy bears, the WORKS.

So they shot for 2 days with two alpha level dev cameras 2 1/2 weeks ago. Then they edited it in a pre-release Final Cut Pro (with the native 4K footage), did VFX, color graded on Weta's Pablo, and kicked out 4K files that are being screened in the Red booth in 4K on a projector in their own little 40 seat theater. And WOW, it looks GOOD. So there's a twelve minute short directed by Peter Jackson set in World War I showing in 4K in the Red booth with two storylines - one literally in the trenches (that was my cheating allusion the other day), and the other in the sky. They shot from a helicopter chasing two vintage WWI planes dogfight around the sky.

If you're at NAB, COME SEE THIS.

Other gossipy bit - Red is developing new product lines - 4K projector/s, 4K display/s, and a mini, handheld professional camera. No timetable, no prices, just know they are coming. Perhaps what they are showing at the booth will be convincing enough for folks to take them seriously when they say they are going to do something.

:D

I'll break it down more later, but that's the coolio news.

Next up - new lenses. The bad news first - the 18-85 that was due later this year is "on delay" with no set timetable. Bummer. The good news, however, is that an 18-50 zoom will be promptly available to folks as their cameras are ready. And YES you can switch your reservation over. And YES, it costs less, only $6500 not $9500. I'm probably going to switch over for my camera.

Other good news - reservation holders get priority, so don't sweat freaking out about nailing down new accessories immediately - they'll call you when your # is up and you can sort it out then - no need to panic and order - priority based on reservation # - you get all your toys at once, so don't worry.

Other new lenses - primes! UPDATE - I had them wrong previously, the correct #s are: 15mm f2.8, 25mm f1.9, 35mm f1.9, 50mm f1.9, 85mm f1.9. Prime set for about $20K for the full set (and only sold as a set, but Jim has said thinkin' about selling the 18 & 85's separately has been reported elsewhere).

-Redcine - waaaaaaaaaay more powerful than I'd expected -this would be at LEAST v3.0 for anybody else. Lots of gestural controls, keyboard shortcuts, stacked views of scenes (horizontal) and takes (stacked vertical on top) etc. - this sucker is built for speed. That said, it is daunting to sit down on for the first time - there is no "Oh, clearly I start here" about it. Even knowing what it was supposed to do, there was a lot I had to wrap my head around. It bears a strong relation to Assimilate's Scratch in its organizational structure, but no wonder - Scratch has been color correction tool of choice for all presentations to date (IBC, LA, NYC, etc.).

Another major thing to wrap your head around - it is NOT a color correction tool - no secondaries, no vignettes, etc. What it does, and all that it does, and all that it is SUPPOSED to do, by DESIGN, is...mimic what can be done in camera. You have curves. You have exposure controls, the units are exposure stops. +1 is 1 stop over, -1 one stop under. You have channel controls, etc. So anything you do when assigning non-destructive color decisions in Redcine....can be saved to a file and loaded into the camera via SD card as a preset look, so that future stuff will have that look assocaited. But it doesn't bake that look in - it is just metadata associated with the clip that rides forward. So when you play off the camera, you'll see that look. I think it is some kinda combo LUT/matrix kinda thingy they are doing, gotta find out more. But the idea is that is just a non-destructive look applied to footage - you can remove that look and still edit/alter the RAW data. That's the power of it. Think of it as shooting RAW mode on a digital still camera, and bringing it into After Effects and tweaking the colors there (or dropping into FCP timeline and applying 3-way CC on it) - you can change stuff, but always change your mind and put it back the way you had it. And those looks can be transferred, saved, loaded on camera, loaded on 5 cameras on set, etc.

All the benefits of this will take some time to soak in and percolate.

Redcine is waaaaaay more than just a conversion tool. There are storyboarding things that help, there's...lots to learn, and clearly they have ambitious plans for it. Wait and see.

More good news - WORKING CAMERAS (YES PLURAL) IN THE BOOTH. Live output from one on a 64" plasma, working EVFs in the booth, working LCD panels (the little ones on camera) in the booth, new widgets in the collection of stuff for the cages,

No demo of focus assist, exposure control, no working Red Flash units are only bummers.

Cameras 1-12 shipping over next 6 or so weeks, then ramping up to hopefully fulfill the 1500 or so pre-NAB pre-orders

Speaking of orders, no more reservations, they are orders - no fixed serial #s, gotta put 10% down on PayPal or credit card.

More details at red.com, I haven't even had a chance to look today.

OH! And I forgot to point it out this morning - my buddy Steve Gibby got the scoop du jour with his article on all the new details, he probably covers tons of stuff I missed.

OK, gotta zip, gotta clean up and go to dinner.

OH OH OH - one other thing I got WRONG yesterday - Final Cut Studio 2 due next month will NOT support Redcode RAW from the get go - a FUTURE version will. We were demoing it running in FCP today, you can File==>Import==>Redcode to pull it in, and works w/4K footage and extracts 1K or 2K (depening on horsepower, a MacBook Pro can do 1K) in REALTIME on the timeline. Or can import and directly transcode to ProResHD, low or high quality.

-mike

Labels: NAB, original, Red

Hey all -

I got an exclusive interview with Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema in the booth at NAB today before the show opens tomorrow (Monday). It is a video interview, and you can see a bit of the booth in the background. I talked to Ted about Apple's announced Final Cut Pro 6 and support for the native Redcode RAW (the compressed Red RAW bayer data) format. Ted talks about how you can use 4K Redcode RAW in Final Cut, and what your viable options are for finishing work in 4K, HD, SD, etc.

We also talked about the Red Drive (you can see one in the video) and how your footage will flow from camera to editorial in a surprisingly simple and painless flow. The idea of nearly 3 hours of 4K footage that fits in your cargo pants pocket....wow.

The fact that Redcode is natively readable by Final Cut opens up a lot of doors potentially - I need to verify details, but it SOUNDS like you'd be able to use the native Redcode RAW (the 27.5 MB/sec compressed, not the 325 MB/sec uncompressed) in Final Cut Pro 6 (this is verified), but also in Motion, Shake, After Effects, etc. - other apps on your INTEL Mac (not PPC) that support the QT import architecture. Again, I need to verify details, but this sounds BIG.

I'll have more to say tomorrow...when I can.

-mike

UPDATE - there's this video now up on Apple's site: Apple - Final Cut Studio 2 - Final Cut Studio in Action - is a Red specific video

CORRECTION: Final Cut Pro 6.0 (.0), that'll ship with Final Cut Studio 2, will NOT support Redcode RAW 4K right out of the gate - it'll be a future release, is just a "technology demonstration" for now. Apple has committed to supporting it, we just don't know when that future point release will be. Think about HDV 24p demo last year at NAB.

Also, you directly transcode to ProRes422 (regular or HQ) when importing Redcode RAW. So Redcode RAW 4K gets read in, but ProRes422 gets written to disk.

Labels: NAB, Red

Further thougths on today's announcements

1.) I'm glad I'm not a Final Touch HD based shop right now - it's for free to all the owners of next Final Cut Studio, most of whom will consider it good enough to do themselves

2.) So therefore I should be putting out some training materials toot sweet, right?

3.) ProRes 422 - hard to get a clear story on it - is it wavelet based? An optimized PhotoJPEG? I don't know, but I want to know more.

4.) ProRes 422 will be a big, Big, BIG deal for us FCP folk - consider it DNxHD at a fraction of the price

5.) I had been wondering about ProRes support in Color for output to a "real" monitor - one of the MAJOR shortcomings of Final Touch was that it was fine realtime on your computer display, but not the case out HD-SDI due to bus speed issues - but AJA's new I/O HD has HDMI in and out - perhaps we'll be able to connect HDMI to the DVI port on computer that is GPU accelerated and it'll handle conversion to component or HD-SDI for professional monitoring....but it'll only be 8 bit.

6.) I'd love to see AJA I/O with a PCIe interface on it so I could shoot baseband uncompressed video around - think of Kona3 and I/O HD mashed into one product. It'd solve some other issues. I/O HD only talks to computer via FW800, which has a very definite bandwidth limitation. What about apps trying to feed it? Rather than providing baseband uncompressed to a display, with this new box you have to compress to ProRes before sending out - thus stealing cycles from CPU if you were generating new footage, such as anything that renders on the fly - be in realtime FCP timeline stuff, or Motion, or After Effects, etc. - there's a CPU load "tax" on compressing this stuff.

7.) Just how long does it take to compress to/from ProRes 422 if you don't have the hardware available? If you have to transcode? How slow is it?

8.) Color really is a major, major thing. I'd used Final Touch, the basis of Color, extensively for about 7 months from fall 2005 to spring 2006. While the coloring tools were excellent, it had MAJOR workflow issues (getting in and out of Final Cut). The analogy I used today - "That bird soars beautifully in the air, but just don't ask it to (or watch) it take off or land." Since they were a niche 3rd party app, Apple wasn't too motivated to solve all their problems. Now that they've bought it, that makes them MUCH more interested in solving the to/from Final Cut issues. The other issue was realtime performance out the HD-SDI ports - again, gotta learn more. I had problems over a year ago with the Geometry stuff as well - Final Touch was really a FRAME coloring tool, there were problems when working with interlaced footage, such as for rotations and scaling. Presumably they've fixed all that.

9.) I got into a debate with a buddy about ProRes and cross platform issues - I was arguing that unless that was what they were using for small proxies in Final Cut Server, there was no way ProPres was going to be a cross platform codec - it'd be like the DVCPRO HD codec, only delivered on Macs running Final Cut Studio.

10.) No mention was made of Leopard or PPC during the preso today concerning Final Cut - my guess is that all that nifty realtime goodness will require an Intel box. How much runs on PPC will be a very interesting question.

11.) No mention of the RAID! Rumor has it that product is in trouble for internal reasons, so it may be QUITE some time before we see it.

12.) DVD Studio Pro is still alive, but literally only mentioned, no demo, no improvements. Will there be a sizeable upgrade once Blu-ray spec is finalized and Apple an code to that target? Or what is the holdup? I was surprised that NOTHING was mentioned other than "It's in there."

13.) Compressor launching instances is clearly a hack to solve the poor threading control in Tiger until Leopard ships. Hey, if it works to launch 2/4/8 instances, that is fine, but I'd like to see it run right on ONE instance. In time - Leopard and then a 3.1 rev or somesuch.

14.) As I'd guessed, this version of Final Cut Studio not officially supported on integrated Intel graphics stuff - aka Minis & my MacBook that I'm typing on. Final Cut runs on those machines (I captured the Ted interview in FCP 5.1.4 from HVX200 footage in the booth, thanks to Bart & Brian for shooting and assistance!). So will it install, what will/won't work? Gotta wait until it ships. In the meantime, FCS wasn't officially supported on this box, but I can still do useful work even though some things (like full screen playback) don't work.

15.) I'm curious how far the support for all the new stuff goes all at the same time - I noticed that Open Format Timeline was one timeline, and they said "switching to a ProRes timeline" - so it SEEMS THAT Open Format timelines are "special" and not the standard deal. I could see how Open Format timelines would have less realtime performance than others, since they are doing extra work to scale and 3:2 pulldown and all that stuff. But, for instance, can you use Redcode 4K RAW in Color? Can you use ProRes in there? Can you ProRes and output to I/O HD in Color for realtime HD-SDI playback? Or will this be like when they said it does 8 bit, it does 10 bit, it does realtime, but only 8 bit realtime not 10 bit?

16.) As someone pointed out in Comments, whither Spotlight searching in Browser? That would have been super-nifty-keen. Maybe is there, but I didn't see...

17.) Drat - no new GPU or optical drive options. We were all caught up in the other stuff. As I suspected, what we got last week was the "hide in shame" release that underwhelmed. Unless they are going to spring it on us in the AM, which I doubt, since I was walking through the Apple booth today, which is Red Drive throwing distance from Red's booth (AJA is inbetween).

18.) ProRes - support for alpha? Somebody asked in comments, good point.

19.) Final Cut Server IS Proximity that Apple bought last year. Minimal visible differences, akin to what was done with Final Touch/Color.

20.) No mention of Media Manager or other fixes, but they did say they listen and fixed a bunch of stuff, those aren't the kinds of details they give us in teh big overview - gotta get an engineer in a corner and drill, drill, drill...

21.) Whither 4:4:4 in the new version? Final Cut Pro 5.1.x only halfway supports 4:4:4 - you can use an AJA or BMD 4:4:4 10 bit codec, but all RGB processing delivers 8 bit back to timeline. 10 bits is 4:2:2 only. Has that changed? Unknown.

-mike

Labels: Apple, NAB

Apple Sunday Press Event Notes:

Not exactly sure how it happened, but I ended up in the VIP section and got a good seat, also got to hobnob a bit beforehand and talked to the crews from CreativeCow & Silicon Color, makers of Final Touch (bought by Apple and been busy bees I'd bet since). I bet Apple will shut down the WiFi shortly before they get going, so keep checking back on this page, I'll update as I can.

I'm sitting next to Graeme Nattress of Red, I'll see what thinks he smirks at to read the tea leaves.

: )

BEGINNING:

ROB, VP of something

-2 yrs ago, 250K FCP editors worldwide
-doubled to 500K last year
-over 800K paid FCP users,
-over 100 training centers around the world
-Amazon search on FCS, find 100s of books
-dozens of 3rd party plugins
-high end extensions to FCP - Automatic Duck, Pixel Farm, Omneon, Digital Heaven, etc.
-"It's a Final Cut World"
-sampler of FCP cut stuff video shown
-watching video....commericals, movies, TV, etc.

feedback from the world -
-"massive amounts of digital content"
-non-linear collaboration required (this bodes well)
-srhinking production schedules

NEW PRODUCT

FINAL CUT SERVER

=media asset management and collaboration
-works for 2 person collaboration up to multi-national news org
-cross platform client
-producer on a PC has a client as well "stuck on a PC"
-over 100 file types recognized
-auto proxy generation
-keyword searching
-sophisticated access control
-
Worlfkow automation:
-customizable templates
-watch and respond system
-review and approve tools
-automated encod and publish
-is an event based system, triggering as things happen
-if producer needs to be alerted to review, email gets sent out
-baked Compressor into it - can control delivery from Final Cut Server

FINAL CUT INTEGRATION;
-time saving shot selection tool
-proxy rough cut editing
-save as FCP project
-offline/online workflow

when you check out a low res proxy of a project, can connect and conform back to high res project, automated system

-KCAL in LA been testing for a couple of months
-they've bet big on Final Cut Server as a foundation for their system
-WATCHING VIDEO FROM KCAL - HD news
-up to 16 individual units, 300-400 promos/week
-promo world, assets come from all over
-can search by date, person who created, etc., can play back PC or Mac (implies codec stuff)
-can mark notes & communicate to editor/graphics person
=screening tool - can kick out a small QT file,
-being able to play realtime HD in quantity was necessary (more hints of codecs)
-everybody is able to be in/out of projects without waiting on next domino to fall, can work faster
-decided they wanted to be aggrressive - $999 w/10 concurrent licenses
-$1999 UNLIMITED concurrent users
-available this summer



FINAL CUT STUDIO:


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

-wanted it to be the biggest upgrade ever
-FINAL CUT STUDIO 2
-Final Cut Pro 6
-
PRO RES 4:2:2 codec
-10 bit 4:2:2
-full raster
-uncompressed project was 1TB, converting to highest quality was 170GB
-bandwidth efficiency, gotta work across a SAN OK
-color space headroom - 4:2:0 converted to 4:2:2
-support for next gen devices
-edit friendly
-translates whatever may come
-SONY - introducing new HDCAM SR system, 1080p60 w/ProRes 4:2:2 will be a good solution according to Sony
-to use that 1080p60 stuff, want it in an edit friendly format - can capture as ProRes 422
-PANASONIC - betting big on AVC Intra, ProRes 422 is an "outstanding post-production format for Panasonic's new genration of AVC-Intra based camcorders"
-RED (FIRST TIME THERE'S APPLAUSE) - VIDEO
Red Video
-edit 4K w/ease & elegance
-2 ways to work w/4K files in FCP
-native Redcode for DI finishes
-ProRes for broadcast work
-can plug 4K footage, plug into laptop, convert to ProRes 422 (!!!!)
-CineAlta cameras - MacBook Pro running Final Cut, how to get F900 into
-NEW HARDWARE - AJA device to get HD-SDI into FW800
-looks like a little G5 w/a handle on it, crapload of ports on the backside
-"I/O HD" hardware
-has ProResHD codec IN THE HARDWARE can move 10b422 ProRes - SD/HD up/down/cross conversion all in hardware
-10"x12"x15" or so guesstimated size based on seeing it
-PRICE? introduced at $3495, available in July
-exciting to work with upstarts like Red, AJA

OPEN FORMAT TIMELINE:
-mis formats
-mis resolutions
-mix framerates
-5 minutes after using it, you stop worry, IT JUST WORKS
-Smoothcam - remove unwanted camera motion right in FCP
-background optical flow analysis
-adjust parameters

EDITABLE MOTION TEMPLATES:
-access Motion templates directly w/in FCP
-can access templates in timeline in fCP
-can change instances to edit the master - IS LIKE STYLE SHEETS
-Motion is more integrated, and is a part of, Final Cut Pro

DEMO:
-Open format timeline, Paul demoing
-drag a file to timeline, FCP can set timeline to match
-22 MB/sec for 1080p24 4:2:2 ProRes
-if you drag a DVCPRO HD to timeline that is 1920x1080, it'll scale and aspect ratio correct on the fly to make it right
-mixing uncompressed w/ProRes to DVCPRO with a realtime effect, UNCOMPRESSED 10 BIT with realtime effects
-have interlaced DV footage, drop on timeline that is progressive, it just figures it all out
-could always send video to Motion, now can bring graphics to you - add templates from Motion are in FCP, can Superimpose, Overwrite, or Insert
-opens in Viewer to edit the text in FCP
-(has an orange render bar)
-unrendered Motion Template over 10b uncompressed video, plays...but w/low frame rate
-when change a template, ripples through EVERYWHERE you used that template - style sheets!
-FXPlug stuff - drop a plugin onto timeline, GPU realtime stuff
-plays back in pretty damn real time
-ProRes vs. Uncompressed video (using DCI StEM footage) - has split screen, plas it fullscreen
-the sample they are showing us, that I don't see a difference in, is TENTH generation - they've encoded and reincoded
-
back to Paul Saccone

MOTION -
-=======

embracing 3D
-multiple cameras and light sources
-intuitive navigation
-adding paint
vector based paint- particles, pics, etc.
-pressuure pen, speed sensitive
-edit strokes in 3D space
-apply behaviors to strokes
-
MATCH MOVING
-simple now
-autmatically follows the path of any animated object
-suggests points and inltelligently creates motion paths for video
-associate a path to an object, it handles it
-track, match, move on

RETIMING:
==========
-retiming w/out keyframing
-hold frame, set speed and other creative timing effects
-slip and slide retiming effects
-isn't tied to the piece you started with, can apply behavior elsewhere

AUDIO BEHAVIORS;
-aimations respond to the soundtrack
-control animations based on volume and frequency (After Effects already did some of this years ago, but was work)
-assign to any parameter on any object

DEMO OF THE NEW MOTION:
=======================
content library in Motion - tons of new stuff
-animated lines & widgets and stuf
-can animate the details of those library things to find the track you want it to effect, set scale to amplify it
-no copying of keyframing, is just a behavior
-tracking - new behaviors for tracking behaviors
-tracking points gives a 4x zoom, just shows the zoom
-hold down option and it shows you good tracking points WOWOWWOWOWOWOOWW
-Motion analyzes and figures out color space and subsampling etc. FOR YOU
-can also track in 3D space, does cool 3D parallax thing
-true 3D stuff in Motion:
-can move "observer" camera of scene w/out altering the shooting cameras
-while working in perspective view, get a live feedback of the camera's view
-there's sweep and dolly behaviors for cameras that do those move for you
-all behaviors have a little text description as well
-cameras can have targets to watch "scenes" that you set up
-as a former 3D guy, this is SOOOOOOOO much easier - isolate the movements by type not just axis
-Motion's new paint tool to add a "swoosh" around the text
-can create a paint stroke from anything, as well as their existing large library
-a lighting effect can be a brush
-can alter every attribute
-can edit the path of the stroke to move the stroke through 3D space
-can click a "make particles" based on a glowy bit
-have full controls of particle system
-but can click the "3D" button for particles to make them 3D (coooool, and applause)
-can alter the size of the emitter - be a point or even a box
-IMPRESSIVE realtime performance!

AUDIO:

SOUNDTRACK PRO - marriange between picture and audio
-3-up video HUD for placing clips (of audio)
-precisely align
-
Advanced Take Management for dialog replacement
-bring in multiple tracks and composite multiple track out of portions that work for you, take the composite down the road, and be able to dive back in and change the settings of that comosite
-surround sound embraced at core
-surround mixing
-single project for 5.1 an dstereo
-intuitive panner w/automation
surround sound plugins
-library of over 1000 music tracks and sound effects in 5.1
-good panning tools for speaker to speaker controlled by mouse in realtime as you do it
CONFORM:
-sync changes between picture and sound
-see diffferences highlighted in the grpahical view
audition, then accept or override changes
-if the edit changes for picture, can go through changes to accept or reject, or just let it work to move all the stuff where it is supposed to go

Soundtrack Pro 2 Demo

common to make fades in audio
-just drag corners
-drag clips over each other to do cross fade
-to detail crossfades, double click and you have a fade selectior HUD
-linear/log/s-curves/etc.
-location dialog - lots of potential problems
-showing a base thump in a clip (bumped microphone)
-waveform editor for any clip
-hit tilde key and get tool you need under mouse cursor (nice!)
-can scrub and find the problem
-have a frequency spectrum view
-can see brights for amplitude and frequencies
-can draw a box around an area in frequency spectrum view to edit just that part
-and it fixes the thump REALLY well
-and it is all non-destructive, so is all editable
-if there's a bad clip from set, they have 3 ADR options to try to fix it
-they can do a multi-clip take
-can take the 3 editors into multi-take editor to find which one works better
-can create a composition that will fix it
-with the take editor, can cut into the phrases and drag around and do fades to find which portion of which take you want to use....and all the bits and pieces will remain with the clip - at any time can go back and fix, if goes into a different comp, that all comes along for the ride

after dialog, want sound effects
-ships w/over 2000 royalty free sound effects
-does a search for "door" to get a door slam sound
-traditionally is tough to sync, gotta add a marker on picture to target where I want it to go, there is a multi-point video HUD
-get a 3up view for before, after, and where the mouse is
-didn't catch how all that works, but looks very cool, quickie drag and do
-drag & drop it in, drag around, hold donw V-key, and it is done to sync an effect to the shot - yeah is FAST
-
(LIVE COMMENT FEEDBACK - THE I/O HD BOX IS $3495, WE DON'T HAVE PRICING ON FINAL CUT STUDIO 2 YET...dunno if you need other stuff for converting to ProRes - I/O HD does it in realtime, but how long does it take without? Dunno yet)

-he's doing audio stuff - the updated revised picture edit comes in, and get to see an overview w/changes
-conform audio to adapt to picture changes is quick and easy, w/overview view that makes it simple to see what's up and where things have changed, can review it to make sure it all correct before committing and finding out might be incorrect
-has many dish panners, double click and get a new HUD that is NICE - get a circle that oyu can drag source around in the circle, and it shows you what speakers those are getting mapped to
-can do it live in realtime too - so play it back, and move the audio source sound around
-cranks the LFE knob to make the fireworks hit be heavier
-can have surround and stereo mix in same project - can optionally use surround panners for the full project
-stereo mix lives separately from 5.1 mix, but stays all in sync (nice!)
-over 150 royalty free sourround mix music beds for temp tracks or final delivery
-over 1000 new surround sound effects
-when you pull in surround clips, all 6 channels come along for the ride with all channels along for the ride - is just ONE thing to drag around and control
-professional multi-track editing,

COMPRESSOR 3:
=============

-is a major item now
-they use it inhouse to do all content for iTunes Store
-MPEG-2 broadcast streams
-iPod/AppleTV presets
-Telestream Episode Pro for VC-1, WMV, FLV, GXF, & MXF as a third party plugin to drop into place (big deal)
-timecoe overlays (!!!)
-audio and video fade in/out
-animated Motion watermorks (even unrendered Motion stuff)
-w/an 8 core station
-10 min HDV video to H.264 for iPod, takes 16:45 to do w/version 2
-compressor 3 talks to each thread on SAME BOX to 6:08 - 2.8X
-faster than realtime encoding

RICHARD TANNER talking about compressor 3

import a project as was done in FCP
-in compressor, can see markers from timeline
-new looking UI
-presets are better organized, defined by targets/presets for devices
-for the stuff you use over and over
-can create a custom folder with all your custom presets
-can drag it onto a clip to start the batch and applies all the presets
-can inspect settings as applied to a clip
-new features - can see source and change the settings for that clip
-16:9 content for iPod, for instance - can over-ride to make 4:3 if wished (stretched or cropped?)
-filters in Compressor are new
-Watermark & timecode generator
-timecode generator - can be either to start at zero or can pick up from original source clip (or from timeline for first option I take it)
-watermark - can "choose" a Motion project or a QT file
-doesn't even have to be pre-rendered
-a renderless pipeline between motion and compressor
-for the chapter markers in FCP timeline, can select one and open the edit window for it. HAve a # of devices on my list - can be relevant to all of them
-can give the chatper marker a name and URL or even an image - can be picked up from a file, or from a frame (for podcasts to pick the poster frame you want)
-iTunes will show the URL and the poster frame
-in System Prefs, can select # of instances (aka cores) to run 8 instances of Compressor to run one per core (this is in Qmaster settings)
-there's a badass core gauge that looks like %age utilization, and they swing up till all 8 processors get up to 95-100%
-in iTunes- chapter points all work with a pop-up, links that you typed in will take you out of iTunes to the web to the URL you set if you click in iTunes
-can publish to any device on the planet now
-

PRICING - IS STILL $1299 for Final Cut Studio 2
$499 upgrade from Final Cut Studio
$699 to upgrade from ANY version of Final Cut Pro
AVAILABLE NEXT MONTH


Back in 1999 in Final Cut Pro 1.0
-pro editing was $100K back then

Pro solution for color grading

-pro coloring is upwards of $100K
"SO not OK!"
-want to do for color grading what they've done for editing

simply called
COLOR
(this is where Final Touch went)

-realtime pro color grading for the FCP editor
-inherent all the goodies of FCP for color
-Coen Brothers have been FCP since 2003
-video of Coen Brothers talking aobut color
-color is an element you use in a film
-in Oh Brother, was first DI process
-only way to target what they wanted
-have done DI since then
-looks just like Final Touch - seeing footage
-the UI looks exactly like what I've seen before in Final Touch HD
-3D color viewer is new (some kind of 3D graph of color)
-(and that 3D think plays in realtime!)
-Send To Color is an option in FCP
-
logical task based workflow
-starts w/primaries, on to secondaries, then color FX, then geometry
-all same as final touch HD was
-3 way color corrector
-rgb & luma curves
-lfit/gamma gain
-3D scopes
-pull mattes based on crhoma, luma, and saturation
-custom chaped vignettes
-custom hue & sat
-up to 8 secondaries/shot
-ColorFX - over 40 effects to start
-exposure, film grain, vignette, alpha blend, noise reduciton
chain nodes together in any order
geometry - pan and scan, apsect ration conversions, zoom/pan/rotate
-can create looks that are saved & emailed

DAVID GROSS DEMOING:
-music video working on
-got an edit in FCP
-go to file and use Send To Color
-shots drop in
-preview up in top corner, works on one screen (this is new from FTHD)
-working custom 1920x717 2.35 aspect
-have our 3 wheels as always, but now has curves below on same screen
-can make chnages to curves and get realtime feedback on screen
-secondaries room, have 8 tabs for 8 secondaries - have 9 ways to fiddle w/image
-he wants to drop a grad in, but didn't shoot it (as was wise)
-so grabs vignette tool, defaults to circle, switches it to square, can drag around in UI to get it the way he wants it
-secondaries have inside and outside control for masks, so can give secondary #1 look A inside and look B outside the selection
-so really 17 total adjustable color things - if you can't do it there, you've kinda blown it
-MY BIG QUESTION - REALTIME OUT HD-SDI?
-another shot - has grainy shot
-has an auto-balance tool (think Photoshop)
-can do sat curves - saturation control on a curve, add markers to a curve
-can do secondary color corrections - to suck the blue out
-can drag and drop grades between shots
-to play with color on his shirt, can go to preview tab and key the shot, got a 3D scope - all the pixels in 3D space, like an MRI for the picture
-can zoom in on it
-like a lamp-post - whites at the top, shadows at the bottom, and colors in a ring around
-a good way to learn how to read color
-can see the blues of his shirt in the scope
-can "paint" your key (like FTHD did), but dragging the eyedropper along, see the matte appear - drag it over different colors to add'em to key
-then have a "cage" around the pixels in the 3D scope, can edit in the 3D scope to isolate
-but it changed his hair, so added a vignette to isolate and soften, so only does shirt not hair
-another shot - geometry room - can pan & scan and rotate
-drag & dropped a look from another shot, made a secondary, made a vignette, so adds a b-spline custom shape
-can light more flatly as you shoot, can then tweak more in post - can soften the shape differently inside than out
-can even edit the b-splines of the sottness inside and out - drew one spline for the shape, added softness, THEN that made new splines for inside out, and THOSE can be edited on a point by point basis (and perhaps keyframed?)
-ColorFX room - bleach bypass, etc.
-(Graeme's plugins from before for FTHD - should work here too?)
-saved looks that are node trees in Final Touch
-can drag those looks of node chains to other shots in bulk or onesy twosey
-showing before/after - major differences
-they aren't demoing exactly how it gets back, but I assume it is MUCH easier than it used to be - still have to render all your shots
-questions in my mind - realtime preview runs where? Where do we see it? Can run through BMD or AJA card in realtime for 1080p24? Can we run it through the AJA I/O box?
-SD, HD & 2K grading
-primary & secondaries, custom curves, scopes, 8 secondaries, saveable looks, naturla extension of Final Cut
-PRICE - gotta make it accessible to everyone
-IS INCLUDED IN FINAL CUT STUDIO 2
-huge applause from audience
-

AND THAT'S IT - NO MENTION OF DVD STUDIO PRO - so probably no new killer features there - are they waiting for a winner to emerge?

Tune in later today, I'll report from the Avid event if I can, and there's lots more news coming this week!

-mike

Labels: Apple, Final Cut, NAB

Hey all -

I'm in Vegas now for NAB. Had dinner at Burger Bar and I'm beat, it has been a long day. So, straight to it:

Predictions for Apple's event in the morning:

I don't have any hard evidence on any of this, just my gut vibe. This doesn't really mean anything at this point, just fun to see how accurate I'll be.

1.) Final Cut Studio announced (we all expect this).

2.) It'll ship after the show (notice I'm fudging on how much after the show).

3.) It won't require Leopard. Since Leopard got delayed till October anyway, and possibly thereafter.

4.) LOTS of realtime performance taking advantage of Intel Macs, but moreso of GPU horsepower.

5.) It'll be able to mix codecs on the same timeline.

6.) It'll be able to mix frame SIZES on the same timeline - 720p/1080i/480i all on whichever timeline you want (if this feature is limited, downconversion seems easier to do than upconversion).

7.) Better rendering options to mix frame rates on same timeline (that's a bigger maybe).

8.) Speaking of rendering, hopefully they'll fix a bunch of the bugs/difficult features of QuickTime - things like >100 IRE clipping, bad rendering of HDV on 10bit422 timelines, etc.

9.) More on rendering - since it'll be GPU accelerated, it'll be able to do good, REAL RGB (more than the current 8 bits) without decimating it - so true 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 cross dissolves that are still, you know, 10 bit RGB 4:4:4.

10.) Bigtime render pipeline with higher bit depth internal processing, all able to be GPU accelerated. Floating point an option. Hey, if motion can do it....

11.) Dare I say it? Maybe Redcode support? Nah, that's too big of a stretch. Next year. (and no, I have zero inside scoopage on that - I don't guess when under NDA).

12.) Final Touch will live on (at least for now) as a standalone product, but some of its goodies will make their way into FCP's color correction tools - maybe windows and secondaries, stuff like that, for RT GPU accelerated goodness.

13.) Bug fixes - Cinema Tools database issues hopefully improved if not fixed, Media Manger bugs quashed once and for all, etc.

14.) No Phenomenon (aka next Shake) - too soon. MAYBE a "technology demonstration/preview" at best. But expect all that realtime Motion GPU goodness to be in Phenomenon.

15.) Speaking of GPUs, I'm hoping for new GPU options, but it'd be a funny rollout schedule since they dropped new Macs last week - why not have waited for them here? So probably not.

15.) In the hoping for but not expected category, a high def optical disc burner option. Maybe HD-DVD, since they've already got authoring working in DVD Studio Pro now, or maybe Blu-ray, since that's what Steve said we'd be able to do way back in MWSF 2005 with then head of Sony up on stage with him.

16.) A new RAID - 16+ discs, SATA, 4Gbit fibre channel - this seems obvious, since Apple's been selling a 4Gbit fibre card for months.

17.) Improved DVD Studio Pro - better HD-DVD authoring capabilities, maybe some fledgling Blu-ray authoring capabilities (but since the deeper interactivity layer specs still aren't done yet, don't expect those!).

18.) It'll be FAST, but not as fast as we'd hope, on OctoMacs, due to inefficient processor utilitization (stick a thread on a processor and LEAVE it there, please!) as well as memory bandwidth bottlenecking issues. But it'll still be impressively fast, and the GPU will have a lot to do with it.

19.) I've heard rumor of some new codecs to be used - an RGB codec seems logical, MAYBE Redcode but hey, isn't it still piping hot fresh out of Graeme's oven? I wouldn't think Apple could have tested and integrated it and had it ready to put on the shelf yet. So probably not.

20.) Something else really cool and unexpected. That makes it a nice round 20 items, and I can then claim like the rumor sites do that I got it right.

: )

I'll be taking notes through it tomorrow and posting them ASAP - if possible, during. So check back in the AM, and keep checking. Event starts 11am Nevada time.

-mike

more thoughts next morning before show:

21.) If Apple is going to fix QuickTime the way I'd want, they'd need to do some prety major re-writes. How many of my complaints are truly QuickTime's fault vs. Final Cut's behavior? It can be tough to tell sometimes.

In any case, if there were to be a new QT required to do this, they'd have to do dev work on it for some time, and I've only heard recent rumblings of heavy QT work going on, and no testing of it outside of Apple - so probably not....or FCS comes later this year if it did require it...


22.) And yeah, that asset management software too - the one they bought last year.

23.) I don't believe the Final Cut Extreme rumors, it just doesn't add up to make sense. But if they offered a bundle that included the media management stuff and Final Touch, I'd think that could be what those rumors were about. But Apple didn't buy those things until late last year, long after the rumors had started.

Labels: Apple, NAB

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on "other stuff" not so readily categorizable:

GENERAL/OTHER OF INTEREST:
===========================

ProLost: Gold Rims on the Hoopty Stu links to an image of an M2 adaptor on an HV20 camera. I've been dismissing the Canon HV20 out of hand as too small for serious work, but a lot of low end filmmaker types keep pointing to it as "ooh ah" in terms of 24p & high res (can shoot 24F mode @ 1080 res). Sample images of before/after with lens adaptor, and Stu shows off a sample of the forthcoming Magic Bullet Looks software on the original, pre-adaptor shot to show what can be done in post.

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ACE Members Tech Web Discussion Interesting survey of ACE members and what they are using, compared to last year as well. Avid still ruling the roost on high end production.

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ProLost: Is Film School Obsolete? Stu, Mr. DV Rebel's Guide himself, writes about somebody writing about whether film schools are obsolete.

I read it as a matter of learning broad craft and making connections at film school, vs. learning latest/greatest online and in the field on your own but without the networking benefits. Or at least, that's my 5 seconds of thought on the matter, if you're considering film school, think more than that.

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Extensive Light & Color Theory at FresHDV - "Itchy Animation has a pretty extensive tutorial on lighting and color theory,if you are wanting to enhance your lighting skills it would be great to check out."

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AppleInsider | Top secret features suspect in Apple's Leopard delay - I'm not the only one suspicious of Leopard's delay being blamed on iPhone - the math just doesn't add up, and a senior analyst at PiperJaffray agrees.

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CinemaTech: Grindhouse: Half digital, half celluloid

Scott Kirsner has a bit more on Grindhouse and how it was done, including a link to some stuff I wrote about it. Saw elsewhere that Shake and After Effects were used in the production as well for Planet Terror.

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CinemaTech: Acting for the digital camera
...and a bit more on Grindhouse, specifically from Marley Shelton who acted in both halves of Grindhouse - Rodriguez's digital (Genesis) and Tarantino's film. She talks about how with film you had time to compose and get into character - but Rodriguez just lets it roll to catch EVERYTHING. Read on, interesting stuff.

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ProLost: Mine%u2018s better than yours Stu talks about how unproductive "My software is better than yours" bickering typically is, and demonstrates something that After Effects can do quickly and easily that would probably take longer with another tool. Includes a 17 minute, unedited video of a master of his tools building a shot. Aspiring After Effects artist? Watch and leeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnn.......

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If you hear of other new stuff of interest, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

----

-mike

BONUS ROUND - OFF TOPIC STORY

....so I go into Zen, my local fast food Japanese place after running in the twin 80 (temp & humidity) conditions here in springtime Austin. Recall that I was throwing snowballs last weekend. Texas weather - go figure.

Anyway, I notice a cute buxom mid-20s woman sitting alone at a table while I'm ordering (single guy, that radar's always on). She's not the long/lean/slender runner type I'm usually attracted to, but she has her curvaceous charms.

I sit, she's nowhere in sight, I'm reading in the Chronicle (Austin's alternaweekly) that Chuck Palahniuk (guy who wrote Fight Club) has a new book out. She reappears, as if she's looking for something, and I realize I might be sitting where she had been. "Did you drop something?" I ask, "No, you just inspired me to get a Chronicle." So she goes over and finds one and sits back down.

I'm scheming of a way to start a conversation around Chuck's new book (wait, women aren't exactly into authors who write about guys beating each other up) or the Chronicle or something, when she says to one of the women who works there, in a taunting, not-serious tone: "Hey Jessica - I'm not worried if he flirts around with other women, because I'll just sleep with other men." They laugh about this together, as if she might actually.

Without looking up, I promptly reply, off the cuff: "I'll leave that low hanging comedic fruit right where it hangs, and just look at it, and enjoy its ripe, pendulous promise of possibility."

They both laugh. Before I leave, I say to them "I think I should get bonus points for the alliteration of 'pendulous promise of possibility' off the cuff."

They look at me like a puppy does when you make a funny whistling noise.

Drat.

As someone who writes, it is SO nice to actually COME UP WITH THE LINE WHEN YOU NEED IT, rather than think of the seed of the idea later, and mentally go through nine drafts before you get it right. That it doesn't always have the desired effect is just something else to deal with (shows where my priorities are).

That's all, it just happened so I thought it'd be fun to share. The point wasn't that I was somewhere on the dorky to suave continuum, the point was that I was QUICK. I also liked how my off the cuff statement actually mirrored her physical affect.

-mikey

Labels: blogwad, Genesis, NAB

This is a crazy busy week for me - all the press releases for NAB are rolling in at the same time I have a lot of other stuff to finish up. So when in doubt, punt! Thus what I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one article, in no particular order or significance. Here's my pre-NAB blogwad on new cameras at the show.

CAMERAS:
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BIG year for cameras - with new offerings from DALSA (Evolution prototype and Origin II), Sony's F23 that we've only seen tidbits of but not footage from, their new 4:2:2, 50 mbit XDCAM HD line-up, new player noX, the substantially revised and about-to-ship SI-2K, as well as who knows what else - it is a banner year for cameras.

This list is not complete or comprehensive, just what I had seen so far and had time to blog on.

And lest we forget, I expect to touch an actual working Red One on Sunday in their booth, since I'm workin' the show for them Monday and Tuesday. Be jealous. Very jealous. *

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Macdaddy - Reduser.net Speaking of Red One, here's a PHOTO (not a render) of a fully configged Red One, as I expect to see/touch at NAB next week. Click pic to go to Reduser.net thread with high res and more discussion/info.

Along similar lines, Red One FAQ - Reduser.net, Brook Willard over on Reduser.net has started putting together a MASSIVE FAQ on Red One. Well done sir! I'd been dabbling with idea of doing my own on here, but haven't had time of late. He's off to a great start.

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Studio Daily | XDCAM HD's New Innovations at NAB:
Sony will give NAB attendees a sneak peek at the third generation of its XDCAM HD recording system, which offers 4:2:2 processing and increased data capture of up to 50 Mbps (from the current limit of 4:2:0 at 35 Mbps). MPEG-2 and its inherent long GOP structure will continue to be supported. A dual-layer Blu-ray disc will offer 100 minutes of record time.

-1/2" for now, 2/3" in 2008 - dissapointing, everyone I talked to said 2/3" was coming when discussed last year

Sneak peak=not shipping yet - "won’t be shipping until later this year or sometime next year" so definitely next year, probably NAB if I had to guess. Things take longer, as we all know.

New NAS server called HDXchange to be shown too, supports QT, AVI, DVI, MPEG-2 & MPEG-4.

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Studio Daily | Ikegami and Toshiba to Collaborate: "the two companies will collaborate in developing the components of an advanced tapeless video production and editing system, including a professional-use camera and video recorder, utilizing the robust versatility of Flash memory as the main storage medium. The new system will support all aspects of video production, from news acquisition through to archiving, and Ikegami and Toshiba will jointly promote the concept to the industry before its targeted commercialization in April 2008."

Everybody's getting in on the IT based thang.

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Studio Daily | VICON Announces New F-Series Motion Capture Cameras: "The VICON F40 camera is capable of capturing 370 frames-per-second at 4-million pixels and the VICON F20 camera captures up to 500 frames-per-second at 2-million pixel resolutions. These significant increases in speed are matched by an improvement in the camera's marker throughput capacity, allowing for the capture of more subjects per trial or take. In addition to these speed increases, the VICON Vegas sensor offers a true "freeze frame" shutter, so the F-series cameras are tolerant of on-set or laboratory ambient light."

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Fraunhofer IIS MicroHDTV

Itty bitty HDTV camera - 4x4x8 centimeters, 2/3" Altasens 3562 sensor, camera NOT camcorder, booth C8828H @ NAB 2007

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In case you missed them, I wrote long pieces yesterday about new offerings from:
DALSA - revised existing 4K camera, new smaller 4K camera in 2008, untethered solid state recorder/playback module

Silicon Imaging and their newly revised SI-2K camera with new sensor, form factor, and features

noX - a new 2K camera that records uncompressed RAW to an onboard, fault tolerant RAID, uses a single 1.2" sensor, PL lens mounts (and C & F & other adaptors). Price unknown.

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If you hear of other new cameras, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

---------

* insert "neener neener neener" sound effect for for the fully childish effect

Labels: cameras, high end, NAB

This is a crazy busy week for me - all the press releases for NAB are rolling in at the same time I have a lot of other stuff to finish up. So when in doubt, punt! Thus what I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one article, in no particular order or significance. Here's my pre-NAB blogwad on software. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, just some stuff I haven't talked about before:

SOFTWARE:
---------

The big news, of course, will be from Apple and their press event Sunday - YES I'll be reporting what happens there.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the new Adobe CS3 stuff - Premiere Pro & After Effects in particular, but also what's up with Encore, their DVD authoring software.

Avid as some new goodies as well, I have an appointment with them next week at the show to get all the latest scoopage.

As far as stuff you haven't heard me talk about before, read on:

Cineform offers new cross platform NEO family - cross platform codecs for video work aren't quite there for HD work, so Cineform is introducing NEO. NEO is cross platform, Mac or PC. It has three products for different levels of production: NEO HDV, NEO HD, and NEO 2K, guess what those are for. You'll be able to work cross platform with the same files, moving between apps like After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Motion, Combustion, Vegas, etc.

NEO HDV is for HDV & DVCPRO HD folks, and handles 3:2 pulldown and 24p cadence issues, over/under cranking, spatial resampling, etc. as needed for JVC, Sony, Panasonic, Canon, etc. cameras. I'm guessing 8 bit.

NEO HD is 10 bit, full raster for higher end production.

NEO 2K offers up to 12 bit 444 with their RGB codec.

ALL versions can re-wrap AVI to QT and vice versa - that's a BIG deal - means it is fast and doesn't change/convert the files/footage - re-wrap, NOT re-encode.

Supports AJA Xena & BlackMagic cards (on Windows presumably), can capture as AVI or QT.

More goodies:

Pricing and Availability

NEO HDV, NEO HD, and NEO 2K will be priced at $249, $599, and $799 respectively

NEO for Windows will be available for purchase in early May.  Availability of NEO for Mac OS X will be announced later. 

Prospect HD v3 will be priced at $999, and will now include both the “Edit” and the “Ingest/Edit” capabilities that were previously provided in separate versions of Prospect HD. 

Prospect 2K-Edit, which now includes single-link HD-SDI ingest, will be priced at $1999.  Both will be available for purchase in early May.

As part of its new product rollout, CineForm is offering special pricing on most of its products through the month of April, details of which are available on CineForm’s website: www.cineform.com.  Upgrade policies for existing CineForm customers are also available on its website.


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Studio Daily | Sonic and Digital Vision Team Up To Deliver HD Mastering

Dense PR piece with minimum of hard data. Blu-ray and HD DVD authoring, but at what price point?

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Studio Daily | Converting AVCHD Files to MPEG: "The Windows-only application has two new modes that open files either as multi-source or single files, and has predefined HD-DVD and Blu-Ray modes with AVC presets. For audio, it can support .WAV, MPEG-1 Layer II, MPEG-1 Layer III, AAC, and AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) format files.

Elecard Converter Studio is available as a suite that includes Converter Studio, Converter Studio Pro and Converter Studio ProHD. Elecard Converter Studio Pro is designed for conversion of video with resolution up to standard definition (720x576).

Elecard Converter Studio and Elecard Converter Studio ProHD enable high-resolution encoding (HD 1920x1080). Pro and ProHD versions also support transport streams. Prices begin at $239.70."

Now, why you'd want to convert to MPEG-2....feh.

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POMFORT - SilverStack
From the site:

With Pomfort SilverStack you can open and inspect image sequences such as scanned 35mm film or rendered sequences as you would expect it from professional tools:

Browse sequence-based and timecode-oriented with a unique info-timeline that shows SMPTE timecode, frame numbers or a timecode calculated from file names
Open movie-typical file types such as DPX, Cineon, TIF in practically any resolution (PAL, HD, 2k, 4k, 6k)
View color-channels, inspect color with a selective RGB histogram, inspect pixels with a high dynamic range color picker and use a genuine pixel ruler for complete access to your image data
Visualize clipping pixels in blacks and whites
Zoom and pan to see every single pixel even on smaller screens
Apply Gamma- or LUT-based color linearization with custom presets
Apply primary grading (basic RGB-grading capabilities for both linear and logarithmic color spaces)
Playback-preview of image sequences on any machine using built-in QuickTime™ player


I'm getting a copy to doodle with after NAB.

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LITTLE FROG IN HIGH DEF: Matrox MXO v2.0 drivers available

: "* DVI monitor calibration - hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only adjustments * Super black and super white monitoring on the DVI display * Pixel-to-pixel mapping on the DVI display * 'Virtual bezel' on the DVI display * New HD editing resolutions - 1080p at 23.98, 25, and 29.97 fps; and 720p at 25 and 50 fps * New DVI output resolution - 1024x768 at 59.94 fps * Region of interest output selection in Presentation Mode * Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 support * Max OS X 10.5 Leopard support"

Read on, Shane has a good write up on what all this means.

More info here too.

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HD Monitor Pro - FireWire based software to do live monitoring including 1:1 pixel viewing (helps for pulling fine focus), record, sort, review, etc. footage from HVX. Can take notes and hand off to FCP. No mention of 24p - can it handle 24p and 24PN modes? "24p" isn't found in the release.


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If you hear of other new editing, VFX, or post related software, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

-mike

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Avid, blogwad, NAB, software

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on acquisition and post related hardware. This isn't comprehensive, just what I have come across so far and had time to blog:

HARDWARE:
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Studio Daily | 1 Beyond Announces Portable Uncompressed HD Direct-to-Disk Multi-Function Recorder
-HD D2D-MAX uncompressed HD recorded direct to disk for Mac or PC
-$18,995, available immediately
-2.4TB
-RAID protection
-single link 4:2:2 or dual link 4:4:4 HD-SDI
-4:4:4:4, 2K HDSL support (non-realtime 24p, that is limit of HDSL)
-"Native uncompressed DPX, Cineon, TGA, TIFF, BMP, YUV, AVI and QuickTime files" - but which AVI and QT formats is the devil in the details, and is >100IRE preserved?
-RS-422 machine control
-2.4 TB means:
20 hrs uncompressed SD
7.6 hrs 720p24 8b422
4.3 hrs 1080i60 10b422
-swappable disks
-RAID 3/5/6
-instant camera to edit workflow, can switch from camera to edit mode
-press release PDF, but no picture

I don't quite get it - freestanding device, Mac or PC? Need to know more about recording codec options and connectivity options and how direct to edit is it really.

booth number SL7427 at NAB

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eCinemaSystems new FX line of professional 1920x1080 LCD panels at 24 & 40 inches
From press release:

Founder and CEO Martin Euredjian: "With the proliferation of desktop video systems it became evident that there was a real need for a quality solution in monitoring.  This solution had to be full-featured yet offer a level of affordability on par with the applications for which it was intended.  The FX line is just that:  A highly-affordable eCinema monitor for desktop and general HD/SD viewing applications.  It was very important to us to be able to achieve excellent price points without compromising in areas that are important to our user base.  Colorimetry among other things, is excellent.  Upgradability is another.”

-pre-callibrated at factory
-inputs: HD422/SD capable SDI, S-VIDEO, Composite Video, Analog RGB and Digital DVI
-10 bit processing, suitable for "semi-critical evaluation" ...hmmmmmm.....just how semi is semi is the question?
-all non-1080 formats scaled to 1080
-discounts during NAB'07

They'll also be showing color critical LCD monitors as well. From another press release:

onitor in prototype form. This year we are showing the
Known as the "DPX" series, these new displays were designed
with high-end DI and Telecine in mind. They are LCD-based monitors that beat
CRT's in terms of contrast ratio, color gamut, bit depth, cost-of-ownership
and more. The first DPX monitors will start shipping right after the show."


This and Cinetal are the two leading contenders I'm aware of for color critical LCD monitoring. JVC's new $4500 24" 1080 res panel looks decent for lower end work according to a quick eyeball and looking at the specs, but I haven't gotten deep with it at all.

eCinemaSsytems will be in South Hall, SL9227

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Studio Daily | 3 Gbps Routing: A lot of Marketing Hype: "1.5 Gbps is More Than Adequate for 1080i and 720p, but Manufacturers Are Pushing Higher Data Rates"

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Studio Daily | 16x9 Inc introduces EX Super Fisheye for Panasonic HVX200 - $695

---------

Convergent Designs announced several new goodies:

Convergent Design, a leading developer of video converters, announced today an affordable HD/SD-SDI 4-Input to 2-Output switch for US$595.

nanoSwitch fills the need for a cost-effective tool to route numerous HD/SD-SDI signals into an NLE, tape deck or display system. This affordable tool supports all major HD/SD-SDI formats including 1080p30/29.97/25/24/23.98, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 480i and 576i. Input selection can be made via a local switch or via a remote USB based software application (included). Two identical HD-SDI outputs allow simultaneous display / ingest.

nanoSwich includes a sophisticated re-clocker to minimize jitter and maximize cable lengths. Using Belden 1694A coax, HD-SDI cable runs up to 175 meters and SD-SDI runs up to 400 meters can be realized.

and also

Convergent Design announced today the lowest cost HD/SD-SDI to HDMI converter, the nanoView for MSRP of US$325.

nanoView accepts HD-SDI (1080p, 1080i or 720p) or SD-SDI (486i or 576i) video + audio and precisely maps this stream into HDMI (video + audio) for display on professional or consumer LCD, Plasma, or projector system. This ultra-simple, ultra-small (2.5” x 3”) low-power (1.5 Watts) converter fills the need for an easy-to-use (no switches) device to display HD/SD-SDI video/audio at an affordable price.

HDMI is now the defacto standard interconnect for consumer electronics, with projected shipments exceeding 100 million in 2007. HDMI, built on DVI technology, carries uncompressed HD or SD video and audio at 1080p, 1080i, 720p or 486i/576i resolutions in YCbCr 4:2:2, YCbCr 4:4:4 or RGB 4:4:4 color space. The 100% digital video and audio quality is visibly superior to older component analog solutions. Additionally, a single HDMI cable replaces 3-component + 2-audio cables.

nanoView supports a broad range of HD/SD-SDI formats including 1080p30/29.97/25, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 486i and 576i. Up to 8-channels of embedded 48Khz 24-bit audio are also digitally transferred through nanoView.

Setup of the nanoView is ultra-simple. Just plug in the HD/SD-SDI input and the HDMI output (to the display device). nanoView auto-detects the capabilities of the HDMI display devices and adjusts the video stream accordingly (YCbCr or RGB). The ultra-low latency (60 uS) ensures that the video and audio are always in-sync.

and also

announced today significant cost reductions on their HDV to HD/SD-SDI converters. HD-Connect SI, which does HDV to HD/SDI conversion with RS-422 deck control is now priced at US$795, while HD-Connect LE, which adds component as well as AES and LTC outputs, is now US$1095.

and finally:

Convergent Design announced today their third HDMI to HD-SDI converter, HD-Connect MX. HD-Connect MX performs HDMI to HD/SD-SDI (with embedded audio and time-code) and includes reference-input, as well as AES and LTC outputs for a suggested MSRP of US$995.
....
All three HDMI to HD-SDI converters support HD and SD formats, including 1080p30/29.97/25, 1080i60/59.94/50, 720p60/59.94/50, 486i and 576i. Embedded 48KHz 24-bit audio is also seamlessly transferred from HDMI to HD/SDSDI.
....
Editors can enjoy affordable conversion of long-GOP HDV / AVCHD into I-Frame CODECs such as DVCProHD or DNxHD. These I-Frame CODECs support real-time playback from the time-line and eliminate most of the time-wasting renders and conforms associated with native editing solutions.


See their website for more details

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

Gleaned from the CML boards late this afternoon - Sony's F23 will be able to capture 60p 10 bit RGB 4:4:4, and a forthcoming upgrade to the SRW-1 will allow it to record that 60p RGB 10 bit 4:4:4 signal. Previously, the HDC-1500 could to 60p but in 4:2:2 to an SRW-1, now they'll step it up to 4:4:4. That the camera can do it is according to Band Pro guy Michael Bravin who knows what's up, and the SRW-1 info is from an LA guy I don't know (yet). In any case, I'll be swinging by the Band Pro booth to chat with Michael. I met him last summer, nice, easy going smart guy. Purportedly a $5K upgrade will let the HDC-1500 do 60p 4:4:4 as well.

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If you hear of other new hardware of interest, let me know. My time on the floor will be limited, so I'll need to prioritize and just see the Big Stuff, or little stuff that is particularly significant to the HD for Indies audience. Feel free to comment away with suggestions, and preferably booth #s, and why you think it relevant for me to check out.

-mike

Labels: blogwad, hardware, NAB

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on high def disc news:

BLU-RAY/HD-DVD NEWS
===================

AACS hacked to expose Volume ID: WinDVD patch irrelevant - Engadget

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Samsung to Launch Dual Blu-ray HD DVD Player - Yahoo! News But here's what's wrong with all the combo players:
"Sony's BDP-S300 will launch in the middle of the year for about US$599 while Toshiba's HD-A2 player carries a recommended price of $399 but can currently be found on Amazon.com for $309. In contrast LG's BH100 dual-format player costs $1,000."

...so if I can buy two separate players for less, or a $309 HD-A2 and a Blu-ray player for $600, or better yet a PS3 for $600....why would I spend $100 more on the combo player, other than for the convenience of "one box, one remote, one plug?"

They aren't solving the problem. The problem is price first, two choices of players second. Combo players need to be under $500, more likely under $300, for this market to move forward substantially IMHO.

With Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player available for $309 right now (no kidding!), and Sony's expectation that a $300 player is 2-3 years away, there's two choices - either wait for the format war to resolve itself (smart play, but requires patience), or say what the hell and get a more affordable player now and watch a bunch (but not all of) HD movies next week? Buy what I got - the HD-A2 if you're of a mind to buy in. This is from my Amazon Affiliate store I'm setting up, so I get a little luv from Amazon if you buy through me (but from Amazon really - all their sales/support/shipping/etc).

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And BusinessWeek agrees with me - Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Price Matters: "The war for dominance of the next-generation DVD market may be decided on price. Some analysts are betting that whichever format%u2014HD DVD or Blu-ray%u2014has the most players in stores for $500 or less in time for the holiday season will ultimately win over consumers. Everything else, including the movie studios that have already aligned with a particular format, will follow the money."

I so wholeheartedly agree with this article. Read on as they address issues of studio support, porn, price points, points of differentiation between the two formats (minimal), etc.

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Will Porn Settle Next-Gen DVD Battle? - Yahoo! News: "Now some think that the adult entertainment industry could play a critical role in determining which format comes out on top. Diane Duke, the Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, an advocacy group for the industry, said that adult filmmakers are part of a powerful industry.

'We have led the way on a lot of technology,' Duke said, 'and it would make sense that the adult entertainment industry would play a similar role with high-definition DVDs.'"

While I like Blu-ray better in theory (higher capacity, Apple backing, not entangled with MS for interactivity layer), HD-DVD is making a lot of financial sense. The biggest advantage Blu-ray has is studio support, in part because Sony owns their own. As I keep saying, technology is only as relevant as its price point...

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...so all this is to say, I'd LOVE to back Blu-ray more strongly, but the price point is making it tough to do so....a PS3 at about twice the price? Or a set top box with a $599 MSRP later this year? Better get on the ball, Sony folks, or you're going to lose this battle....AGAIN.

But if you do want to buy one, here's my Amazon Affiliate page with both HD-A2 & PS3.


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Labels: blogwad, Blu-ray, format war, HD-DVD, NAB