Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Interesting new UNIX commands/binaries in OS X Mountain Lion « Ask Different Blog

Interesting new UNIX commands/binaries in OS X Mountain Lion « Ask Different Blog:
In addition to those on its well-known list of 200+ new features, OS X Mountain Lion also brings along a handful of new UNIX commands and binaries. Most are probably outside the scope of Ask Different (e.g. commands concerning Radius Authentication, Kerberos or Berkeley DB maintainance) but some of them may prove valuable to (aspiring) power users out there. As always, you will find more information in the corresponding man pages.

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Vizrt Web Design Tools Create Mobile Device-Aware Services

Vizrt Web Design Tools Create Mobile Device-Aware Services:
The Vizrt Online Suite works as responsive web design software supporting broadcast Vizrt-SVT-Sweden
companies that need to shift content and services across mobile devices.

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New EBU subtitling specification published

New EBU subtitling specification published: EBU-TT is a new XML-based subtitling specification that's suitable for modern file-based production methods.

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Blackmagic Design Releases DaVinci Resolve 9 Public Beta for Mac, Windows and Linux

Blackmagic Design Releases DaVinci Resolve 9 Public Beta for Mac, Windows and Linux:
image
Blackmagic Design today announced the release of DaVinci Resolve 9 public beta, a major new update to the world’s most advanced color correction tool featuring a completely redesigned user interface to optimize workflow speed. DaVinci Resolve 9 public beta is now available for free download to existing full featured DaVinci Resolve customers, as well as the free DaVinci Resolve Lite!

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MIST and RAIN get new features

MIST and RAIN get new features:
Marquise Technologies has released some new features for MIST and RAIN.



Monday, July 30, 2012

Post Haste

Post Haste:
Create customized folder structures with Post Haste to get your projects off to a running start.
One of the biggest roadblocks to an efficient video project workflow is consistency.
There may be thorough naming convention and project organization guidelines at your studio, but they’re no use if they’re not consistently used.

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MediaSilo

MediaSilo:
This week’s Tools Spotlight interview is with MediaSilo VP of Product Management, Erik Freid.  MediaSilo is an emerging Cloud-based platform for video asset management, multi-user collaboration and file sharing and distribution.  MediaSilo 3.0, unveiled at this year’s NAB Show, introduced hundreds of new features and a unique user interface based on plug-and-play widgets.  These “Pods” as they are called, give users a flexible toolset for interacting with content.


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Premiere Pro memory settings explained

Premiere Pro memory settings explained:
In the Preferences dialog for Premiere Pro there is a section called Memory that allows you to specify how Premiere Pro and other Adobe applications will use your RAM.

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

OS X Server: Advanced Administration: OS X Server basics

OS X Server: Advanced Administration: OS X Server basics:
With OS X Server, small organizations and workgroups without an IT department can take full advantage of the benefits of a server. A nontechnical user can easily set up and manage OS X Server for a group. Other users in the group can automatically configure computers using OS X and iOS devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to get services from OS X Server.

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Automatic Duck Somewhat-Almost-Best Practices

Automatic Duck Somewhat-Almost-Best Practices « robgwilson.com:
Quick note: What I’ll talk about here is transferring between Avid and Final Cut Pro, because that’s what I have experience doing. However, since Adobe After Effects workflows are prevalent nowadays as well, I’d love to hear about your experiences there. Please, leave comments.

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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Running DHCP on Mountain Lion Server

Running DHCP on Mountain Lion Server:
DHCP is one of the services that Apple has removed from its server product in the latest release, Mountain Lion Server. Given that the Server app and serveradmin command line tools no longer support using DHCP, it would seem on the outside that Apple no longer supports DHCP. However, when enabling Internet Sharing, the DHCP service is enabled and started.

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New Free Editing App “Automatically” Edits Your Videos in Cloud

New Free Editing App “Automatically” Edits Your Videos in Cloud:
You need help editing your videos, but you’re not a professional video producer, nor are you a business who can hire a web video production company.  Where can you go?

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Backup and Archiving Workflow with Premiere Pro

Backup and Archiving Workflow with Premiere Pro:
Since my recent switch from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro, I have had to make slight adjustments to my backup and archiving workflow. The main reason for this is Premiere Pro’s ability to work with native formats.

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion: Videoguys notes and links

Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion: Videoguys notes and links:
Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is now available for download in the Mac App Store for $19.95. Before you rush out and upgrade, here is some advice from Videoguys:

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GovernmentVideo: Budget 4K: The Next ‘New Thing’

GovernmentVideo: Budget 4K: The Next ‘New Thing’:
In January 2012, JVC announced a sub- $5,000 hand-held camcorder—the GY-HMQ10—with native 4K-resolution, which is a little more than twice the resolution of 1080 high definition. If the GY-HMQ10 becomes popular with indie film and television producers, Sony, Panasonic and Canon might focus on budget 4K as well.

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Facilis Rolls Out TerraBlock 5.6 with Support for 3TB Drives

Facilis Rolls Out TerraBlock 5.6 with Support for 3TB Drives
Facilis Technology, a leader in advanced shared storage solutions for post-production and content creation, today announced the release of TerraBlock version 5.6 with support for 3TB drives. The new version also includes enhanced Ethernet client performance for the DPX workflow and new administration features that make it easier for post production professionals and content creators to streamline and manage the flow of data. For a limited time, Facilis is offering sales promotions tied to the release.

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Where Did All My Server Commands Go In Mountain Lion Server?!?!

Where Did All My Server Commands Go In Mountain Lion Server?!?!:
Mountain Lion Server is a lot more self-sufficient as an app than it used to be. Not only do you no longer need the Server Admin and Workgroup Manager applications to manage the server, but the Server app actually has a faux root for the tools that were once distributed almost half hazardly across the rest of the file system. These objects are now stored in a faux root, where /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot is the path to the faux root itself.

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Does Your Editing Software Work With Mountain Lion?

Does Your Editing Software Work With Mountain Lion?:
On Wednesday, July 25th, Apple unleashed the next major release of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, via the Mac App Store.
CUPERTINO, California—July 25, 2012— Apple® today announced that OS X® Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a download from the Mac® App Store℠. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion includes iCloud® integration, the all new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration, Dictation, AirPlay® Mirroring and Game Center. Mountain Lion is available as an upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard for $19.99.

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Wonder what's new in Photoshop CS6 for video and motion? Watch this webinar!

Wonder what's new in Photoshop CS6 for video and motion? Watch this webinar!:
Richard Harrington does not need an introduction as he is a well-known editor and expert in the field of filmmaking. Recently Richard had an eSeminar during which he described the new features in Photoshop that benefits the motion graphic artist and video editor. If you had not the possibility to watch it yet, Richard posted a recording of the event. He covered many new features in this one hour session, and here’s a brief outline of the features and how you can use them in productions:

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Transmit

Transmit:
The new Transmit is faster and has a Finder-like interface. One of the best FTP clients for Mac just got better.


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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Understanding Bits, Bytes and Bottlenecks

DV 101: Data Rates for Digital Production: Understanding Bits, Bytes and Bottlenecks | www.creativeplanetnetwork.com:
Despite the fact that it’s 2012 and we’re more than a decade into the digital revolution of high definition (and beyond) moving images, there is still a very narrow bottleneck that keeps digital shooters from getting everything they want. That bottleneck is data.

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Remote SSH using Back To My Mac

One Thing Well | Remote SSH using Back To My Mac:
If you have more than one Mac running OS X Lion and you’re signed in to the same iCloud account on all of them, you can SSH between them via iCloud’s IPv6 network.

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ClipWrap version 2.5.2 adds conforming and other new features

ClipWrap version 2.5.2 adds conforming and other new features:
image
USA-based developer divergent media (which prefers that we write their name in all lower case) just released a update to their ClipWrap application, about which I published a complete review back in November 2011. The new palindromic version is 2.5.2 and includes conforming (i.e. to create natural 2.5x slow motion by conforming AVCHD 1080/59.94p to 23.976p, or fast motion by conforming a slower framerate to a faster one) and a few other new features as you’ll see ahead.

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DSLR Video Tips | Video Tutorial from lynda.com

DSLR Video Tips | Video Tutorial from lynda.com:
This weekly course covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR cameras, from choosing a frame size and frame rate to understanding moiré. Authors Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman will also help you understand the impacts of compression and the difference between cropped (or micro 4/3rds) and full-sized sensors in cameras, and much more. This continual FAQ guide is a handy way to find the answers to the questions that plague you the most.

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Metadata for File-Based Workflows Becomes Core Component

TVTechnology: Metadata for File-Based Workflows Becomes Core Component:
Media management, storage systems and video servers all employ varying degrees of metadata to keep track of the assets stored on their systems.

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Getting started with Adobe SpeedGrade

Getting started with Adobe SpeedGrade:
The addition of SpeedGrade to Adobe’s Creative Suite 6 line-up gives users yet another powerful tool for film-style color correction and grading. The Adobe SpeedGrade interface is minimalist with few menu commands, so it will help for new users to seek out some of the online tutorials before diving into their first project.

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How To Use Photoshop Files in Your Adobe Muse Website

How To Use Photoshop Files in Your Adobe Muse Website:
Efficiently converting PSDs into Web content can be an enormous time-saver*. Here Terry White shows how to put two great tastes together for HTML:

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Monday, July 23, 2012

New AAF Importer up on Labs.

New AAF Importer up on Labs.:
In an effort to bring improved support in Premiere Pro CS6, Adobe now has an AAF Importer available for Premiere Pro 6.01, which has a number of improvements to the existing AAF support.

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

new ProRes, Kindle Fire, Nook, iPad, Android, and MXF presets for Adobe Media Encoder CS6 « Premiere Pro work area

new ProRes, Kindle Fire, Nook, iPad, Android, and MXF presets for Adobe Media Encoder CS6
We have recently released new sets of encoding presets for Adobe Media Encoder CS6. These include new presets for some mobile devices, including the Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook, iPad, and Android tablets, as well as new presets for XDCAM EX and AVC-Intra in MXF wrappers.

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Friday, July 20, 2012

Apple’s new patent: Final Cut Pro X is a platform

‘The List’ Cedric’s thoughts on the grading systems available today

‘The List’ Cedric’s thoughts on the grading systems available today:
Hi all,
there’s been a discussion that I’ve seen a couple of times about which system to choose, here is a little list I’ve compiled, feel free to comment!

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Interview with color assistant from EFILM

Interview with color assistant from EFILM:
What does a colorist’s assistant do?
Aaron Williams has a great interview with his friend Luis Silva on what its like to work at EFILM, one of the world’s major DI houses as a colorist’s assistant. There’s plenty of great advice for guys and girls setting out on the path to become world class colorists…

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 PC VS MAC

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 PC VS MAC: By how much can Shawn Lam’s 2012 Video Editing PC beat Jan Ozer’s 2009 Mac Pro?   This article is in response to Jan Ozer’s recent article in Streaming Media Producer entitled: “Benchmark Tests: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 vs. Apple Final Cut Pro X“. Video Production Article Discussion I wasn’t too surprised by the results.

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REVIEW: RAIDAGE GAGE

REVIEW: RAIDAGE GAGE:
OK, time for another review for a hard drive enclosure: the RAIDAGE GAGE104U40SL-SAUF 1U 4 Bay RAID Enclosure from iStarUSA. This one is cool…it stands out. That’s why, when the makers asked me to review the unit by commenting on a previous post, I leapt at the chance. Well, after first starting to compose the email gently letting them down… “Thank you for your interest in my blog. I’m sorry, but I no longer do hardware reviews for drive enclosures as I find them dull and the same old same old…” But then I got a wild hair and clicked on the link to look at the thing.
I liked what I saw.

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How to Properly Calibrate Your HD Viewfinder or Monitor

How to Properly Calibrate Your HD Viewfinder or Monitor:
While most cameras provide exposure tools like waveform monitors and zebras, having a properly calibrated monitor or viewfinder serves as an additional means to quickly determine exposure – something that is especially useful in run & gun situations. In addition to helping you gauge exposure, a calibrated monitor also gives you a way to check for color accuracy and can help in making color decisions.

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

ProVideo Coalition.com: Creating Motion Graphics by Chris & Trish Meyer | Founders

ProVideo Coalition.com: Creating Motion Graphics by Chris & Trish Meyer | Founders:
One of the early advantages of desktop video production software over dedicated hardware was that it could run on “any” computer. As tasks became more demanding (multiple streams of 4k video, anyone?), and computers become more capable (4 gigabyte drive modules used to be considered huge; now that’s a minimum RAM configuration), configuring desktop computers to get the most out of this software became more of a black art. Recent advances in using graphics processing units (GPUs) on video cards for tasks beyond faster interactive gaming have only upped the ante.

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Use the exFAT File System and Never Format Your External Drive Again [Hard Drives]

Use the exFAT File System and Never Format Your External Drive Again [Hard Drives]:
Using an external drive between Mac and Windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer you're using it on. Instead of reformatting it all the time, just use the much more platform-independent exFAT and never format it again.

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Adobe Prelude: Ingesting and Converting DSLR Footage to ProRes

Adobe Prelude: Ingesting and Converting DSLR Footage to ProRes: Leverage the tools within Adobe Prelude to ingest and transcode your video footage to ProRes - a solid intermediate codec for video editing! We've got the scoop on how to do it.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

DaVinci Resolve Lite for transcoding Avid MXF media

DaVinci Resolve Lite for transcoding Avid MXF media:
A recent projet required the editorial department to transcode dailies using a set-generated LUT for the ARRI Alexa camera. The simplest method to transcode media, apply LUT, and prepare for cutting with Avid Media Composer is using DaVinci Resolve Lite.

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The BMFM

The BMFM:
The Big Mean Folder Machine restructures your file collections into folder hierarchies according to a range of criteria.
This app allows you to batch rename files that you often get from cameras.  You know, stuff like MVI_0722.mov and the always fun Untitled16.mov.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

What I like about Red Epic…and what I don’t like about Red

What I like about Red Epic…and what I don’t like about Red:
Last week I posted about how camera companies need to step up their game now that competition is starting to come to fruition in the 4K market. Red was one of the first companies to truly push 4K (okay 3.2K).

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Monday, July 16, 2012

Nine External Thunderbolt Storage Devices, Rounded Up : Nine Thunderbolt Devices Feel The Need For Speed

Nine External Thunderbolt Storage Devices, Rounded Up:
We compare nine different Thunderbolt-based storage solutions, delivering scorching sequential throughput. Of the nine, three submissions rise to the top. Although it remains pricey, in the applications where it makes sense, Thunderbolt cannot be beat.

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HD Magazine Pro Video Camera Database Is Online

HD Magazine Pro Video Camera Database Is Online:
HD Magazine's traditional pro camera database is now available onlineHD Magazine print edition has always had an equipment list at the back of their magazine, it is now available online as a fully searchable and editable database. The database is currently holding details of 99 pro cameras that are being used on the market today, some of the cameras are not available for sale anymore and some cameras are still to reach the marketplace.

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Man Pages

Man Pages:
For those learning OS X or other Unixy based systems, and for those who have been using them for decades, man is one of the most important commands in our arsenal. The man command is short for manual and shows us how to use each command that has a man page, or a page that acts as an instruction manual for the command (or method). Another command, apropos, searches the whatis database for objects that match a string, or entry. For example, if you’d like to see a listing of all man pages that reference the word case, use the following command:

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How To Get Your AMD / ATI GPU To Work In Premiere Pro CS6 MPE

How To Get Your AMD / ATI GPU To Work In Premiere Pro CS6 MPE:
One thing that may of been missed by a lot of folks in the release of Premiere Pro CS6 - support for real time full res full frame effects by using OpenCL in Mercury Playback Engine. Almost everything thats done with CUDA on nVidia cards is also now being done as well in OpenCL on ATI / AMD GPU's. Read more on adobe site for the details. So I wanted to try this out on my iMac 27" as I figure it had a new enough GPU and enough VRAM to work.

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Safecopy

SafeCopy: 
Safecopy is a data recovery tool which tries to extract as much data as possible from a problematic (i.e. damaged sectors) source - like floppy drives, hard disk partitions, CDs, tape devices, ..., where other tools like dd would fail due to I/O errors.

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Revenge of the great camera shootout from Zacuto part 2 now live…which camera looks best to you?

Revenge of the great camera shootout from Zacuto part 2 now live…which camera looks best to you?:
Part two is here…I think it’s an improvement on part one, which I very much enjoyed though. Less talk and more substance! It’s fascinating to see how all the cameras faired against each other when lit. Let me know in the comments what you thought looked best. I have my top three in the blind test, the Alexa, Epic and F3…what were yours? Did the plucky GH2 blow you away. They all looked totally usable…well the iphone looked like the iphone but still a usable tool.

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Home page | Apertus - Open Source Cinema

Apertus - Open Source Cinema:
The goal of the Apertus project is to create a powerful, free (in terms of liberty) and open cinema camera that we as filmmakers love to use. The idea of using an Elphel camera for this particular purpose was born in 2006, found many followers over the years and ultimately resulted in this community driven project entitled "Apertus" (word definition) and this website.

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Speedy tracking camera brings crazy new perspective to sports | DVICE

Speedy tracking camera brings crazy new perspective to sports | DVICE:
By combining a tracking system with a response time of one millisecond and a high-speed camera that can take HD footage at 500 FPS, the University of Japan has developed a way to precisely track fast-moving objects on video in real-time. You've definitely never watched ping pong like this before.

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Via Adi Soffer

Saturday, July 14, 2012

External Hard Drives for Video Editing

External Hard Drives for Video Editing:
There's more external hard drive options than ever before, so which one is right for you? This quick video tells you what to consider when choosing a hard drive for video editing.

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Friday, July 13, 2012

Entangle: Controlling Your DSLR Camera From Linux

[Phoronix] Entangle: Controlling Your DSLR Camera From Linux:
Entangle is an open-source program that allows for "tethered shooting" from Linux with digital SLR camera. A major update to Entangle last weekend introduces new features.

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Dailies Workflow with Pomfort LiveGrade & DaVinci Resolve

Dailies Workflow with Pomfort LiveGrade & DaVinci Resolve:
Pomfort has put together a new tutorial on how to use their LiveGrade software in conjunction with DaVinci Resolve to create dailies. LiveGrade can be used with hardware like the BlackMagic HD Link Pro to create LUTs live.

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How I Work: App List

How I Work: App List:
I use a lot of extra, smaller programs to make my work easier. After gauging interest on Twitter, it seems many people are curious about what I use. A while back, I wrote about some iOS apps, but an expanded and updated list including Mac apps is due, since many of those apps have been abandoned, or have been replaced in my workflow with others.

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An IT Manager’s Checklist for Integrating Video at Your Company

An IT Manager’s Checklist for Integrating Video at Your Company:
Integrating more video into your network doesn't have to be daunting. These 8 tips will help you smooth the way. By Guest Blogger CorporateTechDecisions

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Avid Media Composer/Symphony 6 R3D Complete Workflow 11min Guide

Avid Media Composer/Symphony 6 R3D Complete Workflow 11min Guide:
Works with RED One, RED MX, and RED EPIC files up to 5K. Does not work with HDRx. Scarlet support coming soon.

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Quantum Stornext 4.3 Released. Supports Named Streams.

Quantum Stornext 4.3 Released. Supports Named Streams.:
By: abstractrude
The most relevant section of the press release "For Mac OS X only-based StorNext File System environments, StorNext 4.3 now supports Named Streams. StorNext 4.3 enables simpler hardware upgrades and disaster recovery. With the ability to migrate file system metadata stored on the metadata controller to a different disk geometry, the software allows customers to take advantage of new drive capacities and technologies."More after the break....

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Autodesk Flame’s Evolution Gives 3D Compositors the Edge

Autodesk Flame’s Evolution Gives 3D Compositors the Edge:
Autodesk is celebrating 20 years since the launch of Flame. VFX artist Caroline Journo at Digital District in France tells why her skills in Flame make a difference in the world of visual effects.

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HTML 5 and Web Video

HTML 5 and Web Video | Blog Central | Crews Control:
One of the best improvements with HTML 5 is its ability to play video. Previously HTML alone was not able to display video so solutions such as Real Player, Flash, and Quicktime have been filling the gap.

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TVTechnology: Selecting An Xsan Replacement

TVTechnology: Selecting An Xsan Replacement:
Many companies who have deployed Apple Xsan as a storage system are interested in selecting a new storage solution that is consistent with their longer-term requirements. In this paper we will discuss the key criteria to consider when selecting an Xsan replacement.

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TVTechnology: Metadata Is Paramount to Content Files

TVTechnology: Metadata Is Paramount to Content Files:
Metadata has two broad definitions. One is “structured data about data” or as some say—“the bits about the bits.” Another definition is more literal and comes from the Greek meaning of meta—alongside, that is “alongside” that being described.

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10 נקודות למחשבה למתלבטים אם לצלם בRED חלק ב’

בחלק הראשון של הפוסט הזה דיברתי על 5 נקודות למחשבה למי שמתכוון, מסתקרן או מטלבת אם לצלם על מצלמת RED
הפוסט מתמקד ביכולות של הקטנה במשפחת RED הSCARLET שהיא כרגע מצלמת ה4K לקולנוע דיגיטאלי הזולה ביותר להשכרה בארץ.
אז… בלי פטפוטים מיותרים, הנה חלק ב’


Premiere Pro CS6 render & export times

Premiere Pro CS6 render & export times:
(UPDATE JULY/11/2012 … plz scroll down)
A lot of numbers flying around in the interwebs regarding the power of CUDA in Premiere Pro. Mostly they are about how much layers of blur or how many “tracks” of HD video can be played in realtime without dropped frames without rendering and stuff like that. All that is very nice and indeed the combination CUDA & Premiere Pro  is very powerful. In Fact its the most impressive native codec / footage performance I have seen and experienced so far – if you have a powerful machine.
On a 2006 MacPro you will not have the same experience at all.

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White Paper: Deliverable Data Management and Hard Drive Usage in Video Production | Blog Central | Crews Control

White Paper: Deliverable Data Management and Hard Drive Usage in Video Production
Crews Control has collected statistical data reflecting the trending shift from tape-based cameras to tapeless formats in video productions where the deliverable is a hard drive.  We've produced this detailed report covering:

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Visual Field

Rocsafe MX

Rocsafe MX:
With an embedded keypad and smart-card authentication, Rocsafe MX is the most secure external drive on the market today.



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הדיסק הזה מציע פתרון לאחסון נייד ומוגן. הדיסק מוגן ע"י סיסמה וכרטיס מגנטי. מגיע בנפחים של עד 1GB, עם ממשק FireWire ו USB2. בולט בו החוסר ב USB3, E-sata ואפילו ThunderBolt שנהיו סוג של סטנדארט בדיסקים ניידים.
הרעיון של דיסק מסוג זה יכול לקסום להפקות רגישות ו/או עם אופי סודי. בגלל הנפח הקטן יחסית והמהירות הנמוכה הוא יכול להתאים לפרסומות או קליפים יותר מאשר להפקות קולנוע או טלוויזיה. אם המוצר הזה יתפוס ויהיה לו ביקוש, בטח נמשיך לראות בעתיד מוצרים כאלו בעלי נתונים מרשימים יותר. מחיר המוצר הוא $590 לדגם ה750GB.

Download AAF Import for Adobe Premiere Pro - Adobe Labs

Download AAF Import for Adobe Premiere Pro - Adobe Labs:
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) Import for Adobe® Premiere® Pro Preview, comprised of the AAF and FCPXProjectConverter modules, provides improved AAF import capabilities for Premiere Pro CS6.0.1. This preview release allows Premiere Pro users to import AAF sequences exported from Avid Media Composer that reference AMA and some Avid MXF media.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

On set Post Production

On set Post Production:
Light Iron Digital’s On Set Post Production
This video from Michael Cioni and his team at Light Iron Digital is seeking to demonstrate a) how their kit works and b) their vision of the future of on/near set post production. Its a really interesting watch…

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וואו!
הוידאו המצורף לפוסט הוא אחד המצגות הכי מרשימות שראיתי למערכת DIT. שווה להשאר את כל התשע דקות, יש טוויסט בסוף!
העלות של מערכות כמו זו של של Light Iron או של המתחרה הפופולרית Colorfront OSD (שהייתי מעורב בפיתוח שלה), יכולה להגיע לעשרות אלפי דולרים ליחידה. מצד שני, כשמחשבים את עלות החומרה בלבד - מחשב עוצמתי, מוניטורים רגישים ומכויילים, רייד דיסקים גדול ומהיר, טייפ LTO, נתב רשת ועוד, נראה שהרווח על המערכות האלו הוא לא כזה גבוה. גם פתרונות "עממיים" יותר כמו Premiere או Resolve Lite החינמי, יגיעו מהר מאד לעלויות דומות, אם יותקנו על חומרות דומות.
כמו תמיד, החכמה היא לדעת להתאים להפקה את הפתרון הכי נכון בשבילה.

How to create timecode tracks for H.264 movies in Compressor

How to create timecode tracks for H.264 movies in Compressor:
I had this question asked to me the other day so I thought I'd write a quick article on it. You may have noticed that Compressor does not create H.264 files with timecode tracks when using the Apple Devices presets.

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Benchmark Tests: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 vs. Apple Final Cut Pro X

Benchmark Tests: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 vs. Apple Final Cut Pro X - Streaming Media Producer:
There have been lots of comparisons between Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro CS6, with most focusing on features and workflows. This article discusses a series of multiple-format benchmark tests that analyzed comparative performance between the two programs.

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eyeon® Ships Highly-Anticipated AVID® Connection

eyeon® Ships Highly-Anticipated AVID® Connection:
image
eyeon Software Inc. announced today the shipping release of the highly-anticipated eyeon Connection® bridge to the AVID workflow. Strategically based upon AVID’s AVX2 architecture and eyeon’s 6.4 version release of Fusion™, Connection seamlessly opens the Media Composer®, Symphony™, NewsCutter®, and *Avid DS™ product lines to an infinite degree of creative possibilities.

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Monday, July 9, 2012

CutRec | Edit Geek

CutRec | Edit Geek:
CutRec allows live vision switching decisions to be recorded as an EDL for use in an NLE. Its primary use is in multi-camera as-live production. By recording on all cameras and creating an EDL you are given a significant head-start in post-production.

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DCP עשה זאת בעצמך


בפוסט הזה אנסה להסביר על התהליך של ייצור חבילות לקולנוע דיגיטאלי בעזרת תוכנות חינמיות. התהליך דורש ידע מקדים בהליכי עבודה של פוסט פרודאקשן, סטנדרטים ופורמטים שונים.
קודם כל נסביר מהי חבילת קולנוע דיגיטאלי. DCP, או Digital Cinema Package זוהי תיקייה המכילה בתוכה קבצי וידאו, אודיו ומטה דאטא, ששרתי קולנוע, כאלו הנמצאים בבתי קולנוע דיגיטאלים יודעים לקרוא ולהציג.
DCP תקני מורכב מרצף (sequence) של קבצי JPEG200 עטופים ב MXF, קבצי האודיו הם WAV שגם כן עטופים ב MXF, בנוסף אליהם קובץ רשימת ניגון בפורמט XML, קובץ רשימת קבצים בפורמט XML וקובץ המזהה את הכונן שמאחסן את הקבצים.
השלב הראשון והחשוב מכולם ביצירת DCP הוא זיהוי ואפיון חומרי הגלם שאיתם נתחיל את התהליך. השלבים שיבואו אחרי הם ידועים מראש (פחות או יותר) וכמעט שלא משתנים מפרוייקט לפרוייקט. הקובץ ההתחלתי יכול להיות קובץ וידאו כלשהו (QuickTime, AVI...) עם תמונה וסאונד ביחד או בנפרד, הוא יכול להיות רצף של קבצי תמונה עם סאונד בנפרד, הוא יכול להיות קלטת HD או SD או בכל מדיום אחר. הכרחי לדעת בתחילת התהליך את מאפייני חומרי הגלם כדי שנוכל להשתמש בפרמטרים אלו בהמשך הדרך.

בגדול, התהליך הוא כזה:

- זיהוי מאפייני חומרי הגלם - גאמוט, פלטת צבעים, גודל, פרופוציה ופריימים לשנייה.
- המרת הוידאו לרצף של קבצי TIFF, המרת הקול לקבצי WAV.
- המרת הTIFFים לרצף של JPEG2000, התאמת הצבעוניות, עיטוף החומרים בMXF,
- ייצור DCP
- העתקה לדיסק נייד
- בדיקה


במדריך זה נשתמש בתוכנה החינמית OpenDCP, למיטב ידיעתי זו התוכנה היחידה שמוצעת בחינם, ויש בה יכולות שלא נמצאות בכל התוכנות המסחריות. מה שאין בתוכנה זה האפשרות להצפין את הDCP. ההצפנה היא קריטית לסרטים מסחריים ולאולפנים הגדולים. לסרטים עצמאיים אין לה כמעט אף פעם חשיבות.
שלב 1 - זיהוי חמרי הגלם.
אנחנו חייבים לדעת את מאפייני פלטת הצבעים והגאמוט (סוג של מנעד) של חומרי הוידאו הקיימים, בכדי שנוכל לשנות אותם בצורה מדוייקת לאלו של הDCP. רוב מצלמות ומערכות העריכה המודרניות יודעות לעבוד גם בHD. פלטת הצבע או הגאמוט של HD נקראת REC709. אם ידוע לנו שלאורך כל תהליף הפוסט (דגימה, עריכה, אנימציה, אפקטים...) עבדנו ב REC709 אז אנחנו בסדר. אם אנחנו לא בטוחים מה יש לנו ביד, יש כמה דרכים לנסות לברר. חלקן טכניות ומדידות, וחלקן ע"י תשאול המעורבים בהפקת הסרט. לצורך ההסבר כאן נניח שאנחנו בתסריט הנפוץ ביותר - REC709.

שלב 2 - המרה לTIFF
בשלב זה צריך לשים לב לכמה דברים, העיקריים הם מספר הפריימים לשנייה (FPS) וגודל הפרים. הסטנדארט של קולנוע דיגיטאלי הוא 24 FPS וגודל פריים של 2K. בשרתי קולנוע מסויימים אפשר לנגן גם סטנדרטים אחרים (24-60 פריימים לשנייה, 4K, HD ועוד) אבל אנחנו נלך על התסריט הנפוץ יותר של 2K@24FPS. ניתן לעשות את שלושת ההמרות - המרה ל TIFF, שינוי פריימים לשנייה והתאמת גודל הפריים, בהליך אחד. ניתן לפצל כל שלב בהמרה לכלי יעודי. בשוק קיימות המון תוכנות להמרת קבצים. אחת התוכנות הטובות יותר היא MPEG StremClip החינמית. אפשרות נוספת היא לבצע את ההמרה ישירות בתוכנת העריכה/אפקטים.

שלב 3 - המרה ל JPEG2000, שינוי פלטת הצבע ל XYZ ואריזת החבילה.
השלב הזה מתואר במדריכי התוכנה ובפורומים של OpenDCP. בהנחה וכל השלבים הקודמים נעשו בתשומת לב וצלחו, השלב של יצירת החבילה עצמה הוא די פשוט. מומלץ לעבוד עם הגדרות ברירת המחדל של התוכנה. לרוב הם יעבדו.
יש בתוכנה אפשרות להוסיף ערוצי תרגום והיא אפילו מאפשרת סגירה של סרטים סטראוסקופים. יש בתוכנה עוד מספר פונקציות מתקדמות, אבל לא נדון בהם כעת.

שלב 4 - העתקת הסרט לכונן
בסוף הליך יצירת החבילה הדיגיטאלית נקבל בעצם תיקייה המכילה את כל חלקי החבילה. שרתי הקולנוע מצפים לקבל דיסק שבו נמצאת תיקייה אחת בלבד בראש (Top level) הדיסק. בנוסף, מכיוון שרוב השרתים מבוססים לינוקס, הם ייצפו שמערכת הקבצים (File System) של הדיסק תהיה בפורמט EXT3. אין דרך קלה לפרמט ולכתוב את הFS הזה בווינדוז. הדרך הכי פשוטה היא להתקין לינוקס, אובונטו החינמית למשל, ולצלול לתוך ההגדרות.

שלב 5 - בדיקה
הדרך היחידה לבדוק תקינות של חבילה דיגיטאלית, היא באולם קולנוע. רק שרת קולנוע מקצועי שמחובר למקרן קולנוע מקצועי יתנו אינדיקציה לתקינות של DCP. יש תוכנות שמנגנות DCP של מחשב (1, 2), אבל הן לא מבטיחות בצורה מלאה את תקינות החבילה. פלטת הצבעים XYZ היא בעלת טווח דינאמי גדול מזה של כל סטנדרט וידאו, היא כל כך רחבה עד כדי שמסך מחשב או מוניטור וידאו "רגיל" לא מסוגלים להציג אותה בצורה נכונה.

סיכום
קולנוע דיגיטאלי הוא עסק לא פשוט. לא דיברנו בפוסט הזה על ניהול צבע, אמצאי אחסון מהיר, מוניטורים, עבודה עם קבצי מצלמה שונים ומשונים ועוד. ובכל זאת, יש לקולנוען הביתי והפחות ביתי מספר אפשרויות להפיץ סרטים לפסטיבלים וסינמטקים באיכות מדהימה, תאימות מקסימלית ובזול.
ניתן לפנות אלי במייל לייעוץ ופירוט מעמיק יותר של הליכי עבודה פחות שגרתיים.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

10 נקודות למחשבה למתלבטים אם לצלם בRED חלק א’

10 נקודות למחשבה למתלבטים אם לצלם בRED חלק א’:
אחרי מספר חודשים שיש לנו SCARLET רציתי לכתוב עליה קצת, ולספק בצורה ברורה ככל שאני יכול, את הסיבות שיביאו אותי כמעט תמיד לבחור בRED כאופציית הצילום שלי.

עוד...

Little fix to make using Premiere CS6 a little bit better! :)

Little fix to make using Premiere CS6 a little bit better! :):
One thing that bugs me though is when zoomed out on the timeline the icons are just too damn BIG. You are constantly zooming in to to do edits and tweaks due the icon size. My great friend, amazing shooter and English MacGyver has the same problem as me and has started work on reducing the size of the icons to make editing easier.

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Digital Cinema Package Tutorial

Digital Cinema Package Tutorial:
In this tutorial I detail how to create a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) from a quicktime video file.  The source video in this example was HD 1920x1080, 25 frames per second in the ProRes codec.  In order to be sure that the DCP will work on any server I convert it to standard cinema 2K pixels and slow it down to 24 fps.  This demonstration is done on MAC but all operations can be done on PC as well.

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Getting to grips with making a Digital Cinema Package

Getting to grips with making a Digital Cinema Package:
Up until now the words Digital Cinema Package (DCP) had usually been followed by many pound (or other currency) signs. Numbers like £10k, £30k and £50k+ were being used. My initial reaction, we're all doomed, there's no way I'm getting my short films shown at high resolution on the big screen. Enter, OpenDCP and the modern age of Indie distribution. It's free, it's open source and it's is so simple to use. Too good to be true, surely?

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All You Can See

All You Can See:
What is 4K? That’s a good question without a simple answer. Nominally, 4K denotes a moving-image system with 4096 active (image-carrying) picture elements (pixels) per row. At one time, it was considered to have 2048 active rows; now 2160 — twice HDTV’s 1080 — is more common. But, if twice HDTV is appropriate vertically, why not horizontally, too? Sure enough, some call 3840 pixels across the screen 4K (others call it Quad HD, because twice the number horizontally and vertically results in four times the number of pixels of 1080-line HDTV).

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J2K Import QT – JPEG2000 for MXF4mac | Digital Production Buzz - All the news now and in your digital future!

J2K Import QT – JPEG2000 for MXF4mac
Hamburg Pro Media delivers the newest and “state of the art” JPEG2000 decoder and brings JPEG2000 MXF files to Final Cut Pro 7 and X, to Adobe Premiere 6 and nearly any other Quicktime application.

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Friday, July 6, 2012

Encoding.com

Encoding.com:
Encoding.com is the largest online video converter. Stop crunching bits on your computer. Get back to being creative.

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Video Collaboration Showdown: ScreenLight vs. Creative Cloud CS6

Video Collaboration Showdown: ScreenLight vs. Creative Cloud CS6:
Rich has recently written a series of glowing posts on his experience switching from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro, and Marc took a look at the economics of subscribing to Creative Cloud. Not surprisingly, he found that it's a great deal for anyone who uses more than a couple Adobe tools in their workflow.

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Our cross-platform future

Our cross-platform future:
We initially started out as a company developing solutions for Final Cut Studio users on the Mac. Final Cut Pro was a growing application that had made many inroads into professional film and TV production and was bringing lots of new users to the Mac for the first time.

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מערכת ניהול תכנים ניידת למפיק

מערכת ניהול תכנים ניידת למפיק:
חברת TMD השיקה את i-mediaflex Mobile - גרסה ניידת לתוכנת i-mediaflex שמאפשרת גישה לתכנים ולמידע המצורף (metadata) ממכשירי טלפון חכמים וממחשבי לוח.

Some thoughts on Metadata · The present and future of post production business and technology The present and future of post production business and technology

Some thoughts on Metadata · The present and future of post production business and technology
There are many kinds of metadata, and previously I’ve noted six that are important to production. There’s a whole second category of metadata that’s more related to asset management, but they share the common goal of being able to find a specific shot, as quickly as possible. In this post I’m talking about what would be Added Metadata of the six.

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Revenge of The Great Camera Shootout Part One | Zacuto USA

Revenge of The Great Camera Shootout Part One | Zacuto USA:
We’ve got a lot to prove in Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012. Some of it will surprise you, some of it will shock you, and some of it will change the way you work forever. Let’s make this clear: This is not the shootout you’re expecting.

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Vizrt LiberoVision 3D Analyses Live EURO 2012 for Broadcast

Vizrt LiberoVision 3D Analyses Live EURO 2012 for Broadcast:
Vizrt-libero-Highlight-v5-iPad2In time for the kick-off of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship in June, Vizrt LiberoVision launched v5.0 of their 3D sport analysis software Libero Highlight to break down the games’ action.


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Avid Sells Pinnacle Studio HD, Avid Studio, M-Audio, & AIR Software:

Avid Sells Pinnacle Studio HD, Avid Studio, M-Audio, & AIR Software::
Avid has had a garage sale and offloaded Pinnacle Studio HD and Avid Studio to Corel and M-Audio and AIR Software to inMusic. Check the Corel and inMusic Press Releases for full details: Corel Press Release: Corel announced that it has acquired Avid’s consumer video editing product lines, including Pinnacle Studio HD and Avid Studio.

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The Future of Cinema Sound?

The Future of Cinema Sound?:
Dolby Atmos – the sound of the future?
Wired magazine has a great article on the behind the scenes work that has gone into the development and roll out of Dolby’s new sonic cinema experience Dolby Atmos.
With the future of cinema being fully digital with ever increasing frame sizes, sound has yet to really catch up with any great technological leaps. Dolby Atmos may well become that new leap, taking its cues from the world of video game ‘object’ based audio experiences.

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Affordable Colour Grading Monitors

Affordable Colour Grading Monitors:
Which color grading monitor should I use?
In this 2 hour MacBreak studio Alexis Van Hurkman talks through almost everything you could want to know about setting up a colour grading system for smaller budget sizes. Skip to 58 minutes in for color grading for the web and 1 hour and 3 minutes for Alexis’ take on affordable colour grading monitors. Grab a pen and paper if you want to make a note of all the models and brands he mentions!

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HP DreamColor Mac connectivity & functionality: update 2012.1

HP DreamColor Mac connectivity & functionality: update 2012.1: After a period of non-disclosure from HP, I finally have lots of information to report about news regarding DreamColor connectivity and functionality with Mac. In this article, you’ll find out about new DreamColor software for Mac (you no longer need temporary access to Microsoft Windows to calibrate the DreamColor in a pro video environment with...

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Apple and a Complete RED Based Post Production Workflow:

Apple and a Complete RED Based Post Production Workflow:: Apple have embraced the RED family of cameras; the RED way of life and have outlined a Final Cut Pro X workflow for editors using REDCODE RAW files. The Apple RED workflow white paper outlines just how professional production companies are achieving smooth results when recording with RED cameras, then editing in Final Cut Pro...

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My Post Production Workflow Pt 1

My Post Production Workflow Pt 1:
Late last year I wrote a post titled Editing Workflow: Before you begin detailing in the post production process that I used when working with DVCHD PRO, since acquiring a Canon 7D at the end of last year as well as the release of Final Cut Pro X, my workflow has slightly changed and I’d just like to show my updated workflow.

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

FFmpeg – the swiss army knife of Internet Streaming – part V

FFmpeg – the swiss army knife of Internet Streaming
PART I – Introduction (revised 02-jul-2012)
PART II – Parameters and recipes (revised 02-jul-2012)
PART III – Encoding in H.264 (revised 02-jul-2012)
PART IV – FFmpeg for streaming (revised 02-jul-2012)
PART V – Advanced usage (new, 02-jul-2012)


Introduction
After almost one year from the starting post of this series dedicated to FFmpeg I have found some time to catch-up with this topic and revise/refresh the series. In this year a lot of things happened on the FFmpeg side (and not only), so I have corrected a lot of small errors and changes in syntax of commonly used commands. So this is also a good opportunity for you to refresh your knowledge about FFmpeg and the current state-of-the-art. Above you find the Index of the articles.

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Shooting with Digital Latitude: S-Log, Log-C & LUTs

Shooting with Digital Latitude: S-Log, Log-C & LUTs:
A look into the digital cinema camera menu may give you the “Cinema Quality” look desired. S-Log, or Sony Log, is an option in Sony CineAlta cameras like the PMW-F3, F23, F35 and F65. The Arri Alexa allows you to shoot in S-Log or Log-C mode to capture a cinema quality image and accomplish negative film quality latitude. S-Log and Log-C mode captures an image with the greatest amount of range in tonal reproduction and the lowest noise floor and highest ceiling.

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The Best Compressor Feature You Don’t Use

The Best Compressor Feature You Don’t Use:
The greatest thing I’ve ever stumbled across: job-chaining in Compressor. It’s perhaps the least known about yet useful thing in any Pro App. I’ve posted twice about job-chaining on my blog, but after some confirmations at NAB, I wanted to make one last revision on my thoughts.So if you’re one of the dozen people who might have stumbled across those posts, I apologize for the re-hashing. If you just want the steps without my backstory, skip to the bold text.


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Monday, July 2, 2012

Premiere Pro CS6 render & export times

Premiere Pro CS6 render & export times:
A lot of numbers flying around in the interwebs regarding the power of CUDA in Premiere Pro. Mostly they are about how much layers of blur or how many “tracks” of HD video can be played in realtime without dropped frames without rendering and stuff like that. All that is very nice and indeed the combination CUDA & Premiere Pro  is very powerful. In Fact its the most impressive native codec / footage performance I have seen and experienced so far – if you have a powerful machine.

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July: Color Correction

July: Color Correction:
Every month, a daily progression of facts on a post-production topic.
Our ‘Workflow Whisperer’ for July is Patrick Inhofer of the Tao of Color. He will explain color correction fundamentals from theory to application. As a working colorists at fini.tv, and as someone who has interviewed many of the top colorists in the world, Inhofer’s perspective is one of a kind.
We’ll be tweeting links to these tips out daily, so make sure to follow us if you don’t already.

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