Preference Manager for Windows Beta 1

Preference Manager for Windows Beta 1:
We're pleased to launch the first public beta of Preference Manager for Windows 7. This is a Windows port of our popular Mac tool for trashing and managing user preferences for your editing application.
The beta can trash, backup and restore preferences and other settings for Avid Media Composer, Symphony, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

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Understanding Apple's Fusion Drive

AnandTech - Understanding Apple's Fusion Drive:
During its iPad mini launch event today Apple updated many members of its Mac lineup. The 13-inch MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini all got updated today. For the iMac and Mac mini, Apple introduced a new feature that I honestly expected it to debut much earlier: Fusion Drive.

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Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X to 10.0.6

Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X to 10.0.6:
On the same day as Apple’s iPad Mini keynote, Apple also released an update for Final Cut Pro X (10.0.6) that includes several new and improved features.

• Multichannel audio editing
• Unified import
• Streamlined share
• Dual viewers
• RED camera support
• MXF Plugin support
• New range selection functions
• Copy and paste attributes
• One-step freeze frames
• Flexible clip connections
• Drop shadow
• XML 1.2 with metadata import/export
• Enhanced Compound Clips
• And more

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JefeCheck 1.5.0 FREE Image Sequence Player and Review System !

JefeCheck 1.5.0 FREE Image Sequence Player and Review System !:
JefeCorp releases new JefeCheck 1.5 now as a free software so you can download and use it in both commercial and non-profit projects. Previously, the program was sold for $220 and is now distributed as donationware. JefeCheck is a powerful high resolution image player and review system available for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. JefeCheck works with almost any image format in low or high resolution, playing up to 4K image sequences at 24 frames per second on consumer hardware. See more details includes a demo video on JefeCorp website, here.

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8 bit or 10 bit? The truth may surprise you

8 bit or 10 bit? The truth may surprise you:

It’s a great pity that in order to enjoy the benefits of digital imaging, we must use pixels that may only be one of a comparatively small selection of colours, as opposed to the effectively infinite subtlety of nature. Phil Rhodes spreads light and understanding about quantization and noise.

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‪Conforming and Finishing A Film in After Effects‬‏

‪Conforming and Finishing A Film in After Effects‬‏ - YouTube:
Behind the scenes look at how the short film "Reasons" was conformed and totally finished in after effects. The whole idea for the film was to build a workflow which was built around conforming my final cut and finishing it in after effects without the use of a smoke, avid ds or assimilate scratch which I use mostly for finishing. The hardest part of it all, you might think, is conforming your edits in AE, but it tends out that it's more easier than you think. Enjoy!

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Learn Media Composer Lesson 18: Migrating FCP7 Project to MC

Learn Media Composer Lesson 18: Migrating FCP7 Project to MC : AVID Tutorial:
In this tutorial, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you, with the help of a free 3rd Party Plug-in, how to take all of your current and legacy FCP7 projects, and convert not only the sequence, but the actual media itself over to use in your new MC or Symphony setup. Once you see how easy it is, you won't need to work in two NLE's, you can just migrate all of your FCP7 projects over, and never look back.

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Sensor Size Described…

Sensor Size Described…:
In the process of writing the First Look on the large-sensor Sony NEX-EA50H camera, I went fishing around the Web for good charts defining actual imaging chip sizes.  And this is the best one I found:

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A Video Workflow for the RED

A Video Workflow for the RED:
When doing looks with r3d files, we light the scene ideally with the subjects in there, create a test clip, put it to the computer and then apply color work on it. You can judge the exposure from there, or use the built in camera tools, then apply your look, get it approved, and then start applying that to the rest of the clips and do match from there.  You can do your looks via Redcine X Pro, third party software like Scratch Lab, Da Vinci Resolve, Colorfront OSD/EXD, etc. Generally, you have access for metadata controls for the RAW to baseline your look, before you apply RGB alterations to it. This can produce cleaner, better results when working with r3d because you aren’t jumping into forcing the values.

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

FFmpeg – the swiss army knife of Internet Streaming – part VI:
[Index]
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 (revised, 19-oct-2012)
PART VI – Filtering (new, 19-oct-2012)
The fabulous world of FFmpeg  filtering

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Conforming in Resolve

Conforming in Resolve:
How to use a Reference Movie in Resolve
Warren Eagles from the ICA has this 10 minute tutorial inside the latest version of Resolve – 9.0.2. Warren talks through the importance of using a reference movie to check your grade and how to go about doing so.

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Get FCPX running faster by installing a PC nVidia GeForce GTX570 graphics card in a Mac Pro - fcp.co

Get FCPX running faster by installing a PC nVidia GeForce GTX570 graphics card in a Mac Pro - fcp.co:
Want more horsepower for your Mac Pro to run Final Cut Pro X and other GPU heavy applications faster? This tutorial shows you how to install a beefy PC GeForce GTX570 HD 2560MB graphics card into your Mac. Adobe fans take note, the CUDA drivers will help speed up Premiere and After Effects.

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GoPro Announces Hero3 Black Edition With 4K Resolution.

GoPro Announces Hero3 Black Edition With 4K Resolution.:

GoPro has just announced the new GoPro HD Hero3 Black 4K camera. The specifications are pretty badass with full 4K resolution at 15 fps and 2.7K at 30fps. The new Hero3 Black edition will set you back $399.






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Light Illusion Launches SpaceMatch DCM

Light Illusion Launches SpaceMatch DCM:
U.K. based color management specialist Light Illusion announced the launch of SpaceMatch DCM – a new software application designed to guarantee color matching of PC connected displays, avoiding the problematic issues associated with the use of ICC profiles.

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Creating A Feature Film DCP Using OpenDCP

Creating A Feature Film DCP Using OpenDCP:
A step by step guide to understanding a Digital Cinema Package and creating one with the free, open source, OpenDCP software.

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Discover the benefits of AVC-Ultra

Discover the benefits of AVC-Ultra | Standards content from Broadcast Engineering:
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a rapid evolution of codec design. Traditional codecs, some might call them legacy codecs, are gaining evolutionary improvements. These codecs include HDCAM, AVC-Intra 50 and 100 as well as AVCHD 1.0. This article will, after a brief overview of AVC-Intra and ProRes 422 as well as the new sensors that drive codec evolution, focus on AVC-Ultra. There are five flavors of ProRes 422 in comparison to uncompressed video.

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Linux: Read this first

RedShark News - Linux: Read this first:
I write this article with a degree of trepidation, because if anything is universally accepted about Linux, it's that almost nothing about it is universally accepted, and no matter what I say, someone will argue with me. We'll start by defining what we're talking about which, with any luck, shouldn't be too controversial.

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Exclusive: The truth about OLED monitors

RedShark News - Exclusive: The truth about OLED monitors:
OLED technology outperforms LCDs; it has a smaller and lighter form factor and is beginning to reach parity from a price perspective. In 2011, over 100m OLED displays were shipped into the smartphone, handheld game and digital camera market and in 2012 that number will double, and in addition there will be new applications such as tablets and TVs. Revenues are expected to grow from ~US$4B in 2011 to over US$8B in 2012. Another market being addressed exclusively by Sony is the cinematic monitor, which takes advantage of three OLED attributes.

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Making Metadata Work for you—Creating Custom Columns in Avid Media Composer

Part 1: Making Metadata Work for you—Creating Custom Columns in Avid Media Composer | Premiumbeat.com:
Sometimes, the most important information about your clips is the user data that you define.  In Part 1 of this two-part tutorial series, find out how to create custom columns and save your custom bin views in Avid Media Composer.

More in part 1 and part 2

The New Era of Digital Post-Production

Making Movies: The New Era of Digital Post-Production:
In the movie industry where “time is money”, technology is being developed and deployed rapidly in order to capitalize on creative opportunities, and to shorten time-to-market for these productions. In my last post, I gave an overview of how RED Digital Cinema is innovating with 4K and 5K motion picture technology, including how Windows PCs are playing a strategic role in the end-to-end workflow during post production. In this post I’ll start a “guided tour” highlighting some of the latest post-production hardware and software tools that are used in Hollywood productions.

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Avid Media Authoring

Avid Media Authoring - Media Composer Family:
AMA makes it easy to access and edit file-based media without transcoding. Now you can use AMA to export files back to the media's original source format for archiving or final delivery through Avid Media Authoring, which will be available as our partners update/develop their AMA plug-ins. And with new AMA Volume export support, you can create AS-02, JPEG 2000, DNxHD, AVC-I, and other file-based media volumes for roundtrip workflows, sharing, or archival.

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The QuickTime Gamma Bug

The QuickTime Gamma Bug | vitrolite:
The QuickTime player causes H.264 and MPEG-4 encoded video to look washed-out. It’s commonly referred to as the “QuickTime gamma bug,” but it’s really a reduction in contrast, which converts the full range of pixel values (0-255) to the more limited pixel value range defined in in rec.601.

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The issue of where you put your stuff

RedShark News - The issue of where you put your stuff:
The relatively short lifetime of digital imaging has been a fascinating time indeed. Digital images have now become the standard - despite the better quality potential of film-based imaging. Digital media handling is certainly more attractive in the short term - footage can be reviewed immediately after shooting and no film processing steps are required. Digital footage can be acquired, ingested into an editing suite and output to BluRay in an end-to-end digital workflow - and all done quickly. The same media can be easily converted into any number of formats, for use from broadcast television to web publication. Plus there are no noxious chemicals being used in a darkroom. It is clear that digital imaging has many advantages. Image quality however has not been one of them.

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What is Bit Depth?

What is Bit Depth?:

Besides resolution (the number of pixels) and color mode (the way colors are processed), one other variable affects image quality. Bit depth measures how much color is available for display or printing of each pixel. A greater bit depth means each pixel contains more information for describing the color.

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An Introduction to LTFS for Digital Media

An Introduction to LTFS for Digital Media:
LTO tape is already firmly established in the media production environment. For production, LTFS efficiently supports several important requirements such as camera media resuse, backup, transport, direct access to data and archiving.

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The DNG format evolves to support HDR, more

The DNG format evolves to support HDR, more:
The Digital Negative format lets you convert your proprietary-format raw files (NEF, CR2, etc.) into a format that’s fully publicly documented (more future-proof). Now the standard has been extended to support 32-bit floating point data (capable of representing hundreds of f-stops of dynamic range), plus optional lossy compression (JPEG-like sizes with the flexibility of raw), and more. Check out the DNG 1.4 specification notes on the Lightroom Journal for more info.

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Post workflow for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Post workflow for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera:
Having tested the BMC since quite a while now, I’m musing about the different options of post workflow.  There are different ways to skin the cat in the moment, and – as usual – all of them have their pros and cons.

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FCPX vs Premiere Pro Full 45 minute presentation

FCPX vs Premiere Pro Full 45 minute presentation:
This is a comparison between Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to help The Pacific Northwest College of Art decide which solution will be best to replace our current install of Final Cut Studio 2 with the transition to Mountain Lion in the 2013 -2014 school year.

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2012 Camera Comparison Chart for High-End Commercial HD Video Production

2012 Camera Comparison Chart for High-End Commercial HD Video Production:
Are you in the market for a new imaging device? Are you focused on upgrading to a new model or manufacturer but are unsure of how compatible it will be with the digital production technologies you use? Are you concerned that the info you’ve found to compare cameras is unreliably biased? Well, you just hit the broadcast camera information jackpot because Fletcher Camera & Lenses has done all the work for you!


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Recovering “Lost” Media

Recovering “Lost” Media:
Ever find yourself with a media card that was “accidentally” formatted? How about a card that had an error caused by the camera overheating or running out of battery? Don’t pull out your hair thinking all your hard work is lost. There’s a chance your footage or stills can be saved, at least the ones that haven’t been overwritten.

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Working With Canon Log

Working With Canon Log:

Recently I have been getting a number of questions about Log mode in the Canon C300, which is great because that means that many of us are using this mode. However, there are some really important things to know before jumping in. Canon has recently published a white paper on Canon Log that is full of great info. It’s not exactly light reading, however, so I’ll try to outline some of the important information about Canon’s Log curve in this blog.

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How to Build a Hackintosh

How to Build a Hackintosh - NoFilmSchool:
Build a Hackintosh with better performance than a Mac Pro — for half the price. A comprehensive, free, step-by-step guide.

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What Do All of the Adobe Programs Do?

What Do All of the Adobe Programs Do? | groovyPost:
Adobe creates a lot of programs, many of which I found myself unfamiliar with until recently. Most people know about Flash, Photoshop and Adobe Reader. But those aren’t the the only programs Adobe develops. Here’s a quick guide to understand each of Adobe’s software programs.

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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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Adobe Anywhere: A Game Changer for Cloud Editing

Adobe Anywhere: A Game Changer for Cloud Editing | ScreenLight:
The platform will enable Prelude, Premiere Pro, and After Effects users to work together from anywhere by accessing a centralized media server. It promises to erase the boundary between facilities based and remote editing. As details of the announcement have been covered elsewhere, I'll focus on the benefits of Adobe's approach and how it differs from other cloud editing services. I'll also add my thoughts on who it's going to be targeted at initially, how it will be priced, and the hardware requirements. Before we begin, we'll need to cover some of the basics.


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Will hybrid drive technology help speed up video editing?

Will hybrid drive technology help speed up video editing? Toshiba launch two HDD + NAND drives - fcp.co:
We all love SSDs, but they are expensive and are not up to the capacities we require for serious editing. So could a combined hard disk with built in quick response flash memory be the answer? Toshiba think so.

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Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol?

Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol? - Streaming Media Magazine:
Those who have had a little experience will probably have heard of TCP (transmission control protocol) and UDP (user datagram protocol). They are transport protocols that run over IP links, and they define two different ways to send data from one point to another over an IP network path. TCP running over IP is written TCP/IP; UDP in the same format is UDP/IP.

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10Gb is Coming

10Gb is Coming:
You've all read that 10GbaseT is on the way. It's true. Very soon, you will be able to plug standard RJ45 connectors (just like on your Mac Book Pro) into your 10Gb Ethernet cards and switches. You'll be able to run CAT6A cable 100m (assuming the runs are clean runs) and have tons and tons of bandwidth between servers and clients. Who needs Fibre Channel anymore?!

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Nikon D4 and Nikon D800 - the first DSLR cameras to pass the BBC broadcast test!

Nikon D4 and Nikon D800 - the first DSLR cameras to pass the BBC broadcast test!: The BBC Broadcast Test can confirm if a camera is good enough for broadcast and so Nikon can be proud as its two models,  the D4 and D800 have become the first DSLR cameras to pass the very elaborate European Broadcasting Union (EBU) test (this is how commonly the BBC Test is called).

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New NVIDIA Drivers for Mac

New NVIDIA Drivers for Mac:
NVIDIA recently release an updated driver (version 304.00.05f02, available here) for Mac users with Quadro or GeForce cards running Mac OS X 10.8.2 . If you have experienced crashes in Premiere Pro CS6 or later when using a qualified NVIDIA GPU, we strongly recommend you update to this new driver version, which should improve stability. The crashes were mostly seen when switching from OpenCL to CUDA or when tabbing from other applications back to Premiere Pro (most notably Safari).

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Resolve and Premiere Pro With Unsupported Media Files

Resolve and Premiere Pro With Unsupported Media Files
This is an introduction to working with unsupported media when sending a project to Resolve from Premiere Pro CS6. This video just shows you what happens when you try to import unsupported media into Resolve and is an illustration as to why it is important to manage your media before you send it to Resolve for color correction.

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Tips for Using the Adobe Premiere Pro Project Manager

Tips for Using the Adobe Premiere Pro Project Manager | Premiumbeat.com:
Use Premiere Pro’s Project Manager to move/archive your projects without breaking connections and getting offline error messages.  It’s not a sexy topic, but it is important!

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What Video Pros Look for in Monitors

TVTechnology: What Video Pros Look for in Monitors:
TV Technology asked professionals from three different areas in the film and video industry about important features in their reference monitors. Our pros—a director of photography, multicamera production technical director, and a pair of colorists, all were in agreement that a top-of-the-list feature in their reference monitors is consistency.

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Lightworks for Linux: The Developer's Story

RedShark News - Lightworks for Linux: The Developer's Story:
Lightworks for Linux is approaching its public testing phase. Lead Developer Rob Fearnside answers our questions about how it got to this stage

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Build a Mountain Lion Hackintosh w/ Thunderbolt That’s Faster Than a Mac Pro

Build a Mountain Lion Hackintosh w/ Thunderbolt That’s Faster Than a Mac Pro — for Half the Price - NoFilmSchool:
Apple OS X Mountain Lion came out this summer and it supports the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors — which means it’s time to update our guide to building a Mac out of high-performance, inexpensive PC components.

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PremierePro & Cuda on MacOS 10.8.2 on a MacPro

PremierePro & Cuda on MacOS 10.8.2 on a MacPro:

I now can confirm with the updated drivers for the nvidia card (GT120+GTX480) that PProCS6 works perfectly smooth even with a lot of  MagicBulletLook use (h246 and ProRes clips / 1080p25)
here are some links you might want to check:

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