Avid Codec Guide

Avid Codec Guide:
Avid Media Composer and Symphony ship with a wide range of old and modern codecs. They can also be downloaded free of charge for systems without Avid products installed.

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Adobe Encore Reaches End-Of-Life

Adobe Encore Reaches End-Of-Life:
Some potential bad news for DVD and Blu-Ray creators using Adobe products. Adobe has announced that Encore, their DVD / Blu-Ray creation software, has reached End-of-Life status. This means there will be no Encore CC.

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The Adobe Premiere Pro to Autodesk Smoke Guide

The Adobe Premiere Pro to Autodesk Smoke Guide | wolfcrow:
There are few scenarios where one might want to move from Adobe Premiere Pro to Autodesk Smoke, and the strongest reason might be to take advantage of the native editing ability of Premiere Pro and the node-based compositing ability of Smoke.

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HJSplit: free file splitting software for Windows, Linux and other platforms

HJSplit: free file splitting software for Windows, Linux and other platforms:
HJSplit is a popular freeware program to split and recombine files. The program is available on Windows, Linux and a variety of other platforms.

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Adobe Anywhere for Video Now Available

Adobe Anywhere for Video Now Available | Creative Cloud User:
Adobe Anywhere is a powerful collaborative solution for broadcasters and large enterprises that enables users to work together using centralized media and assets across virtually any network. Anywhere allows teams to efficiently shoot, log, edit, share and finish video productions on standard systems without heavy file transfers and duplicate media. Adobe Anywhere supports the latest versions of Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe Prelude CC, available as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe Anywhere support for Adobe After Effects is expected later in 2013.

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Increased support for Open Source software from EBU

EBU Technology & Innovation - News - Increased support for Open Source software from EBU:
The EBU is gearing up to better help its Members learn about Open Source software to use in their operations. That was a key message presented at the Libre Software Meeting 2013, where the EBU organized a media-focused programme.

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Amazing leap in real time motion tracking technology

RedShark News - Amazing leap in real time motion tracking technology:
This is an astonishing technology demonstration: A camera tracking a bouncing ball in real time, keeping it in the centre of the video image.

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Holographic TV might be closer than you think

Holographic TV might be closer than you think | DVICE:
Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab are reporting a new approach to generating holograms that could lead to color holographic-video displays that cost less to produce than existing monochromatic technology. Finally.

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The Autodesk Smoke Crash Course for Beginners (Part Five): Exporting

The Autodesk Smoke Crash Course for Beginners (Part Five): Exporting | wolfcrow:
In Part One and Part Two we looked at how to set up Autodesk Smoke for best results.
In Part Three we looked at the Smoke workspace and a typical workflow.
In Part Four we looked at the various import options in Smoke.
In this final part we’ll cover the export options in Autodesk Smoke, as well as archiving.

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The Autodesk Smoke Crash Course for Beginners (Part Four): Importing | wolfcrow

The Autodesk Smoke Crash Course for Beginners (Part Four): Importing | wolfcrow:
In Part One and Part Two we looked at how to set up Autodesk Smoke for best results.
In Part Three we looked at the Smoke workspace and a typical workflow.
In this part we’ll look at what formats can be imported, and how Smoke deals with them. We’ll also look at how projects from other applications can be brought into Smoke.

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News: eyeon Production Pipeline (EPP) – Open Source Workflow Independence

News: eyeon Production Pipeline (EPP) – Open Source Workflow Independence:
A forerunner in tools that provide a very fast, responsive, and highly-productive experience, eyeon Software introduces EPP. EPP’s benefits can deliver cost savings as the paths now live on global space that is accessible to all products. In contrast to conventions, EPP’s approach is far less error prone, taking care of specifying the paths. Artists are no longer required to learn the internals of the filesystem and can work directly with the shots and assets managed by the pipeline.

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It's AVA, Advanced Video Assistant, the Spanish video ingestion tool

It's AVA, Advanced Video Assistant, the Spanish video ingestion tool - IT Enquirer: audio visual:
IT´S AVA, your Advanced Video Assistant. No, I mean: it’s “IT’S AVA”, the beta software that wants to be the better ingestion tool for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro users. The Spanish connection? It’s a team of Spanish developers who have started IT’S AVA a year or so ago. IT’S AVA — I keep wanting to just type “AVA” as in Ava Gardner — is a productivity tool for video editors and filmmakers. It looks a bit like a mixture of the now defunct Final Cut Server and BulletProof minus the colour capabilities and the transcoding, but IT’S AVA’s developers claim there’s a bit of intelligence thrown in the mix.

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Missing Link between Canon 5D and Avid

Missing Link between Canon 5D and Avid by Steve Hullfish:
So, I’ve had my Canon 5D Mark II for a few years. I’ve used it on a few jobs that I’ve edited on Avid Media Composer or Symphony, but I never really cared whether the TOD timecode and other metadata came across from the .THM files that accompany the .MOV files that come from the 5D. I always either just used AMA to link to the .MOV files or imported them and converted them to DNxHD files (MXF) inside the application, losing all of the metadata of the .THMs.

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Avid Media Composer 7 ships. Here’s 25 new features by Scott Simmons

Avid Media Composer 7 ships. Here’s 25 new features by Scott Simmons:
Avid has officially released Media Composer 7 and it’s ready for download. Sadly I’m right in the middle of a job using once of Avid’s competitors so I haven’t been able to try this new version yet. But never fear, the power of the internet brings us a great list of the top 25 features of MC7. These come courtesy of Wim Van den Broeck. If you’re not following Wim on Twitter then do so now as he’s the Avid guy to follow. And yes anyone can embed a tweet but we are doing it with permission from Wim. Thanks for putting these together.

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How to Automate Media Management in Avid with Dynamic Media Folders

How to Automate Media Management in Avid with Dynamic Media Folders:
Although Media Composer’s AMA plug-in architecture allows virtually any file-based source media to be played in real time without first transcoding to Avid’s native DNxHD codec, many times editors will want to transcode anyway to take advantage of the maximum playback performance DNxHD offers. New in Media Composer 7 is the ability to process both transcoding and consolidation operations in the background, freeing you to continue editing both AMA and native Avid media without interruption.

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AMA Plugin Compatibility for Media Composer 7.0 and NewsCutter 11.0

AMA Plugin Compatibility for Media Composer 7.0 and NewsCutter 11.0:
With the release of Media Composer 7 and NewsCutter 11, new versions of AMA plugins will be qualified for use with this release.

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AMA MASTER GUIDE

AMA MASTER GUIDE.pdf:
AMA stands for Avid Media Access. This technology—featured in Media Composer, Symphony, and NewsCutter software—enables you to integrate file-based media into your editing workflow quickly and easily. Unlike tape-based projects, in which you’d capture your video from tape to bring the footage into an NLE, file-based formats don’t require you to capture material to begin editing it.

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Video Editing: Additive vs. Subtractive Color Correction

Video Editing: Additive vs. Subtractive Color Correction | Premiumbeat.com:
Not all 3-way color correctors are created equal. Use a subtractive 3-way color corrector instead of an additive one for better results.

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Adobe After Effects CS6 Render Test Quadro 4000 vs GTX 660 and GTX 660Ti

Adobe After Effects CS6 Render Test Quadro 4000 vs GTX 660 and GTX 660Ti:
In an effort to be more wise with the finances, I sought to do my own digging as to what was better for AE and PPro in terms of render times and performance.  I had just invested nearly $800 in the QUADRO 4000 GPU and owned it for a year prior to running into an excellent article written by David Knarr of Studio 1 Productions here:

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What is a Render Farm?

What is a Render Farm? | wolfcrow:
Rendering is the art of ‘drawing’ an image, which means you’re creating new pixels. If you had one pixel which is red in color, and you applied a filter to make it green, when you export it to a finished pixel, the software will have to recreate a green pixel. This is called rendering.

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Adobe CC Tutorial: Using the Lumetri Color Engine to Apply/Create Custom Looks in Premiere & Speedgrade

Adobe CC Tutorial: Using the Lumetri Color Engine to Apply/Create Custom Looks in Premiere & Speedgrade « nofilmschool:
There are some cool new features in Adobe’s revamped lineup of professional video applications. From the new tools in After Effects, to fantastic new noise reduction plugins in Audition, it’s safe to say that the Creative Suite has never been more powerful or easier to use. One of the new features that’s had me the most excited however, is the integration of Speedgrade’s Lumetri Deep Color Engine directly into Premiere Pro, thus making Premiere one of the most powerful NLE’s on the market in regards to color correction. Hit the jump for a couple of top-notch tutorials that will get you up to speed with the Lumetri Deep Color Engine and how you can use its magical powers to apply various types of looks directly inside of Premiere.

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A Comparison of On-set Ingest, Logging, Dailies, Grading and Backup Software

A Comparison of On-set Ingest, Logging, Dailies, Grading and Backup Software | wolfcrow:
This article compares 15 on-set tools in one big chart, so you can start your investigations (that’s what it is) without pouring over hundreds of pages of features that hide weaknesses. Hopefully, the chart will reduce your workload to only about 50 pages of features and a couple of manuals. No big deal.

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Why video color changes on different monitors and programs

Why video color changes on different monitors and programs:
The world could be sooo simple: I create a pretty video and send it to my client assuming they see the same wonderful colors. But instead I get a panicked call that all the images are green and purple. What happened? Or, in a different scenario, I decide to check my video project in a different program and it looks different there. Why does video look so different between programs and monitors? Well, it has to do with color space.

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Digital Cinema Package - Part 1: Overview & DCI Conversions on Vimeo

Digital Cinema Package - Part 1: Overview & DCI Conversions on Vimeo:
This is part one of our three part instructional video series about creating a Digital Cinema Package, a file format and collection of digital files for storing and conveying Digital Cinema audio, image and data streams for playback on theatrical projector systems. UCF Film Grad Student Max Rousseau provides an overview of the technology and specifications, and begins the process of creating a DCP for his feature length film Pembroke Circle.

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Pro Tools 11 brings great new features for post sound | Pro Tools is Awesome!

Pro Tools 11 brings great new features for post sound | Pro Tools is Awesome!:
Avid’s latest iteration of Pro Tools, version 11, brings some fantastic new features to the world of post production sound.  Some of the best additions include offline bounce, full native 64-bit support, new metering ballistics, gain reduction metering for all tracks, and native support for Avid video codecs like DNxHD.  Let’s look closer at a few of these.

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Can Microsoft’s exFAT file system bridge the gap between OSes? | Ars Technica

Can Microsoft’s exFAT file system bridge the gap between OSes? | Ars Technica:
With Apple's licensing of Microsoft's exFAT file system, it seems like we finally have a good option for OS X and Windows disk swapping. Dave Girard spent some time investigating the appeal, the limitations, and the alternatives to exFAT.

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MXF4mac Player - free download - Hamburg PRO Media

MXF4mac Player - free download - Hamburg PRO Media | Deyson Ortiz:
Recently I had a producer-client that was looking for a way to preview her .MXF files or P2 files without having to open up Final Cut. So while helping her out I discovered this very cool little software that is free.

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How to Transfer a Project from Final Cut Pro to After Effects

How to Transfer a Project from Final Cut Pro to After Effects | wolfcrow:
This article will show how you can transfer a project from both versions of Final Cut Pro to Adobe After Effects.

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Major Update to Adobe Creative Cloud Now Available

News: Major Update to Adobe Creative Cloud Now Available:
(San Jose, California--June 17, 2013) Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that a major update to Adobe® Creative Cloud™, the company’s flagship offering for creatives, is now available. Unveiled at Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference, in early May and packed with new features, this Creative Cloud release reimagines the creative process through a stunning set of “CC” desktop applications and sophisticated cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities. Creative files can be stored and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android; and Behance, the world’s leading online creative community, is now integrated with Creative Cloud, so customers can showcase work, get feedback on projects and gain global exposure.

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Sony RAW Viewer Major Release With Significant New Enhancements & Features:

Sony RAW Viewer Major Release With Significant New Enhancements & Features::
Sony have release a new version of their RAW Viewer. It is considered to be a major release with significant new enhancements.
The Sony RAW Viewer is a dedicated application for viewing and basic colour grading of Sony RAW files shot by F65, PMW-F55 / F5 cameras and the NEX-FS700 camcorder with the optional AXS-R5 RAW recorder.

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News: reTooled.net Launches New Editing Workflow Tool

News: reTooled.net Launches New Editing Workflow Tool:
(New York, New York--June 19, 2013) reTooled.net officially launched its first editing workflow tool, reLink reTooled, today. Designed to efficiently relink and conform timelines, this innovative application minimizes tedium in the workflow and performs tasks found only in high-end finishing software. In seconds, editors now have the ability to relink an offline timeline to clips with different durations, file names and even resolutions.

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Blackmagic Design Releases Support for Adobe Creative Cloud by PVC News Staff

Blackmagic Design Releases Support for Adobe Creative Cloud by PVC News Staff:
The Desktop Video 9.7.5 software update allows users to take advantage of many new features in the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop applications, such as powerful new editing timelines and shortcuts and audio mixing with Adobe Premiere Pro® CC and new creative and visual effects tools with Adobe After Effects® CC. Also included is support for Adobe Mercury Transmit that allows broadcast video monitoring to connect directly into the Adobe Mercury Playback engine which gives an incredible amount of real time effects with any video format or codec.

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Evaluating an Application's Video Color

Evaluating an Application's Video Color
Both AV Foundation and QTKit automatically apply color management to video during playback. See Technical Note TN2227 Video Color Management in AV Foundation and QTKit, which is considered a prerequisite for this document.
As discussed in Technical Note TN2227, ColorSync creates a color transform that provides a perceptual match between a known broadcast video color space (as specified by the 'nclc' tag) and the specific chromaticity and gamma characteristics of your display (as defined by the display's ICC profile). This color transformation is then applied to every pixel of each frame by the GPU in realtime as the video is played back on screen.

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new commands for finding missing footage, missing effects, and missing fonts in After Effects CC (12.0)

new commands for finding missing footage, missing effects, and missing fonts in After Effects CC (12.0) | After Effects region of interest:
When you have isolated a composition that contains references to a missing item, such as missing effects, simply double-click that composition in the Project panel to open the composition in the Timeline panel and automatically execute the search for the missing effects. This filters the layers in the Timeline panel to show only instances of missing effects.

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Smart Rendering in Adobe Premiere Pro

Smart Rendering in Adobe Premiere Pro | Adobe, Video:
This article is from the new website — Creative Cloud User The latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro CC adds some real power under the hood. When it comes to export your final project, you can often take advantage of Smart Rendering. To use this feature is pretty simple.

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How To Build A DIY 4K Raid..!

How To Build A DIY 4K Raid..!
As many of you may already know or should know...4K is here to stay! That's right...each year the past several we've been hearing and seeing more and more 4K buzz at big expos like CES and Nabshow especially. So far we've seen the 4K TV and Professional Monitors hit market each year but at a very high buy in price. Though more recently the hottest screen for the money is the the Seiki 4K going for around $1499(or less...I've seen them sell for as little as $1k on ebay). This has been one big issue with 4K still taking a long time to be embraced outside of the local Movie Theaters like Regal, AMC, or for me locally Cinetopia have all upgraded screens to 4K. This past Nabshow we also got another curve ball. Blackmagic Design introduced a 4K Cinema Camera to follow last years 2.5K for $3k camera. The exciting part is it's only $4K for 4K(you can learn more about it on my Blackmagic Booth vid). The other issue have been how do I play it out. Well more recently various companies are offering you options. Nvidia have several offering that will output 4K, Matrox as well with their 4K Mojito Card(also check out my booth vid for Matrox with Dan discussing their new 4K card), and again Blackmagic with their NewDeckLink 4K Extreme so as you can see you have options!

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Review: Studio Speakers – Samson Resolv A6 vs. M-Audio BX5

Review: Studio Speakers – Samson Resolv A6 vs. M-Audio BX5:

I’ve used quite a few Speakers in the last 12 years (or so) I’ve been working on Audiostuff. I started with some passive Tannoy’s (not so much a fan of those) but over the years i also used:

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Technicolor's Color Certified Program ensures consistency across displays (video)

Technicolor's Color Certified Program ensures consistency across displays (video):
There's THX certification for TVs, ensuring potential buyers that they'll get solid home-theater visuals, so why shouldn't there be an equivalent for your gadgets' displays? Technicolor, along with software company Portrait Displays, is stepping up to the plate with a new standard for guaranteeing hue quality across PC and mobile panels. The Technicolor Color Certified Program will award screens that meet its requirements with a seal -- or logo, as it were -- of approval. What are the qualifications, you ask? Technicolor's spec is based on software from Portrait Displays, which works with OEMs to fine-tune screens for color accuracy. For the end user, the result should be consistent tones across all certified devices either automatically or when the Technicolor color setting is enabled for specific programs or apps. Head past the break for our eyes-on impressions.

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OS X 10.9 Mavericks boost for post production

OS X 10.9 Mavericks boost for post production | Alex4D: Editing organazized:
Once post production work has to be done by more than one person at a time, the speed of the network becomes an important consideration. This is because it is much more efficient if editors, motion graphics artists and colour graders can get access to the same video source files and most up-to-date edits. This is done with shared storage connected to computers by a fast network.

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The Fletcher 2013 Camera Comparison Chart:

The Fletcher 2013 Camera Comparison Chart::
Once again the great people from Fletcher Camera & Lenses who are well known for sales and rental of cine camera gear to big and small productions, have released their updated camera comparison chart.

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2013 Mac Pro expansion: A professional solution?

2013 Mac Pro expansion: A professional solution? | Alex4D: Editing organazized:
The main complaint many people have about the forthcoming Mac Pro is the lack of internal expandability. Post-production professionals have Mac Pros with PCIe cards for important functions, internal storage and disc burners. They’ve invested a lot of money in workflows that require this hardware.

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Adobe DNG Converter 8.1 Now Available - motionVFX Blog

Adobe DNG Converter 8.1 Now Available - motionVFX Blog: "
RAW file format is becoming increasingly popular. However, the issue is that different manufacturers use different RAW formats, and each provides their own software to read it. The solution is the Adobe's DNG converter.  Why use the Adobe's tool? First and foremost, it's free and it's regularly updated. Secondly, it's versatile by reading different manufacturers' RAW files. And thirdly, it has a publicly documented and easyli accessible specification (manufacturers keep their's a secret). Two months after the release of Adobe DNG Converter 7.4 we are given the new version of this tool: the 8.1

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Sony Ci Cloud Collaborative Post Production Tool

Sony Ci Cloud Collaborative Post Production Tool | Podcasts | About Us | Crews Control:
Sony Ci is a cloud software tool for Video Producers, Editors, and other video production professionals to store video, view, make notes, and share information about a project from anywhere in the world. This is a browser based tool so all you need is an internet connection and a username and password.

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Light Illusion Releases Free Display Check Version of LightSpace CMS

Light Illusion Releases Free Display Check Version of LightSpace CMS | Below the Line:
U.K.-based color management specialist Light Illusion announced the release of a Free Display Check version of its LightSpace CMS display color management system. The prime application for the free version of LightSpace CMS is to verify any and all displays throughout a postproduction, broadcast or VFX facility, checking that all displays are accurately set up, without any unwanted color issues, and ensuring all footage is reviewed accurately throughout the image pipeline.

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Cinemartin Cinec 2.0, PRORES, DNG & CinemaDNG, DPX & RAW Converter For PC

News: Cinemartin Cinec 2.0, PRORES, DNG & CinemaDNG, DPX & RAW Converter For PC:
Cinemartin Cinec 2.0 is a brilliant companion for the workflow of camcorders and cinema cameras that are used to produce professional clips, dramas and even movies. This release is focused on cameras that outputs RAW images / files, like Blackmagic cinema camera, Canon Raw & C cameras, Sony F55 and Sony F65, Arri Alexa, and the RED one, Epic & Scarlet.

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Apple confirms new version of Final Cut Pro X coming alongside new Mac Pro later this year

Apple confirms new version of Final Cut Pro X coming alongside new Mac Pro later this year | 9to5Mac:
Yesterday’s unveiling of the all-new Mac Pro at Apple’s WWDC keynote certainly made up for the fact that we didn’t see any updates to Apple’s pro apps like we we’re hoping. However, you might have missed Phil Schiller’s rather quick confirmation that a new version of Final Cut Pro X is indeed coming later this year:

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Apple’s move to FirePro GPUs in the new Mac Pro

Apple’s move to FirePro GPUs in the new Mac Pro - Creative Impatience:
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises during the recent sneak-peek of the new Mac Pro was the inclusion of AMD FirePro GPUs. While at first it might look like Apple again showing the middle finger to all CUDA users, and perhaps to Adobe or BlackMagic, “it ain’t necessarily so”.

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All the New Stuff in OS X 10.9 "Mavericks"

All the New Stuff in OS X 10.9 "Mavericks":
Today Apple announced OS X 10.9 with long-awaited features like Finder tabs and tags, along with a few new ones. Come check out all the cool new stuff in the next version of the Mac operating system.

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New Mac Pros Coming Later This Year

New Mac Pros Coming Later This Year | Premiumbeat.com:
Apple releases a sneak peek of the new Mac Pros. Check out the product specs here!

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Avid Media Composer Export Options

Avid Media Composer Export Options - Final Cut Pro, Avid, and After Effects Training:
This lesson focuses on exporting a sequence from Avid Media Composer.  Learn how to create customized export settings.
This online training is the culmination of over 1000 hours of work, along with 17 years of Avid training experience. Some of the lessons you may have seen on YouTube, and those have been included as ‘bonus’ free lessons for the general public.

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Video Editing Apps: Premiere Pro vs Final Cut Pro X vs Media Composer

Video Editing Apps: Premiere Pro vs Final Cut Pro X vs Media Composer | Premiumbeat.com:

Deciding between Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut Pro X & Avid for pro video editing? Here are a few thoughts and opinions to help you make that call.

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Some best common practice DCP color space workflows part 2

Some best common practice DCP color space workflows part 2 | Knut Erik Evensen - KESE:
in 2011. I tried to find some good sources on DCP color space workflows. In this part 2 I want to go into more detail on these workflows and clarify some things:

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The Basics of HTTP Live Streaming

The Basics of HTTP Live Streaming | Larry's Blog:
The research for this article started when some of my subscription users started complaining that they could only see a few minutes of one of my longer webinars before they needed to reset their browser. At first, I thought this was caused by bad programming on our part. But, further research made me realize that iOS devices only stream about 10 minutes of continuous video content when they are connected to a cellular data network, then they stop.

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NAS or SAN? Part Two: When to use which for Video?

NAS or SAN? Part Two: When to use which for Video? | wolfcrow:
As we saw in Part One, a SAN is built for speed and reliability. To make the SAN behave like your hard drive, you’ll have to eliminate the middle man – the Operating System/File System. A SAN actually lets you reach and take what you want from a hard drive directly. The technical word for this is: having block-level access – the ability to read files directly in blocks (many at a time) to get the fastest data transfer possible.

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Raw is not log, log is not raw. They are very different things.

Raw is not log, log is not raw. They are very different things. | XDCAM-USER.COM:
Having just finished 3 workshops at Cinegear and a full day F5/F55 workshop at AbelCine one thing became apparent. There is a lot of confusion over raw and log recording. I overheard many people talking about shooting raw using S-log2 or people simply interchanging raw and log as though they are the same thing.

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Are video codecs written in JavaScript really the future?

Are video codecs written in JavaScript really the future? | Ars Technica:
Describing it as "the future," Mozilla has been showing off ORBX.js, a video codec roughly comparable to the industry-standard H.264 that can be decoded entirely in JavaScript.

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How To Be A DIT - Part 5 | Jonny Elwyn - Film Editor

How To Be A DIT - Part 5 | Jonny Elwyn - Film Editor:
DIT’s are supposed to be able to bridge the gap between production and post, understanding the entire pipeline that a digital image might flow through right from the sensor to the silver screen. Getting to grips with some of the science that affects those images is a crucial skill. Hopefully these resources will aide you in that endeavour.

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new OpenEXR and DPX importers for After Effects CC (12.0): better performance and additional functionality

new OpenEXR and DPX importers for After Effects CC (12.0): better performance and additional functionality | After Effects region of interest:
After Effects CC (12.0) includes version 1.8 of the OpenEXR importer plug-in from fnordware and version 1.8 of the ProEXR plug-ins, EXtractoR and IDentifier. (For details about how to use the ProEXR plug-ins to use 3D channels and other data in OpenEXR files in After Effects, see this section of After Effects Help.)

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NAS or SAN? Part One: How to tell which is which?

NAS or SAN? Part One: How to tell which is which? | wolfcrow:
If you’re in the video world you might have heard about a NAS (Network Attached Storage) and a SAN (Storage Area Network). This article tries to help you answer the question: SAN or NAS? Which one’s right for you?

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Pro Camcorders Buy Guide

Pro Camcorders Buy Guide | Videomaker.com:
Many of the features associated with a professional production unit start at about $1,500. While many lower-priced models may do the job, there’s usually a significant trade off between feature/functionality and price. Likewise, many cameras are available beyond the prosumer and professional outer range of $10,000 for a product ready-to-shoot right out of the box. For the purposes of our Pro Camcorders Buyer’s Guide we’ll stay inside these margins. You’ll find plenty to pick from.

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Configure File Shares In Windows Server 2012

Configure File Shares In Windows Server 2012 | Krypted.com:
As I mentioned in an earlier article, the File and Storage Role is installed by default in Windows Server 2012. This means you can create a file share with a very minimal amount of work on a brand new server. To get started, as with many things regarding Server 2012, open Server Manager.

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Avid Symphony is Dead

Avid Symphony is Dead; HDhead:
The difference between Avid Media Composer and Symphony editors has been minimal over the years.

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5 things Apple should change in OS X 10.9

5 things Apple should change in OS X 10.9:
OS X is a mature operating system so it's probably largely meeting most people's needs already, however here's a list of five things we'd like to see in OS X 10.9.

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Hamburg Pro Media Releases JPEG2000 Decoder

Hamburg Pro Media Releases JPEG2000 Decoder | Digital Production BuZZ:
The “state of the art” JPEG2000 decoder opens JPEG2000 files in nearly any QuickTime application like e.g Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere or the MXF4mac Player.

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GoPro and Adobe Raw Now Supports Canon 5D Mk. III

GoPro and Adobe Raw Now Supports Canon 5D Mk. III:
One of the chief complaints that some have had over the Magic Lantern hack is its inability to bring a solid workflow to video editing.  Users to to hack together an open source converter to move Raw files to DNG, but how likely are pros to use it?  Now, both GoPro Cineform Raw and Adobe Cinema DNG will that gap. With CineForm Raw, users have direct editing through Adobe Premiere and can color correct straight into DaVinci Resolve 9. And Adobe Cinema DNG offers their own workflow solutions as well.

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Cinemaslides

Cinemaslides:
Cinemaslides is a commandline tool to build slideshows and pack them up as digital cinema packages (DCPs). It has preview modes to check how transitions (fades, crossfades, cuts) and timings play out. If you must you can tell Cinemaslides to go 24fps-carousel-berserk and pack up your motion picture1, too. It can sign packages, build encrypted DCPs and has a KDM mode to create key delivery messages. It allows to generate a CompositionMetadataAsset (see ISDCF’s draft) and a Theater Key Retrieval item (see ISDCF’s draft).

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A Comparison of 10 Thunderbolt RAID Storage Solutions

A Comparison of 10 Thunderbolt RAID Storage Solutions | wolfcrow:
The way things are going, you could safely bet that you’ll always need more storage, never less. Nobody wants to transfer data every few months once their drives run out, and it is not always a good idea to put everything in internal drives because then it is totally dependent on your computer.

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Archiware

Archiware:
Archiware’s P5 software allows users to synchronize, backup and archive data on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris.

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Using FFMPEG to convert DCPs to other formats

Using FFMPEG to convert DCPs to other formats | Knut Erik Evensen - KESE:
Ffmpeg can read the MXF files used in DCPs and automatically apply a XYZ-RGB color transform when converting them. With FFMPEG you can convert a DCP to a Prores file or a TS file that you can play on your PS3 to get some idea of how it looks and sound. You can even watch it in real time.

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Quick Tip: Fixing (Some) FCP to Premiere Problems

Quick Tip: Fixing (Some) FCP to Premiere Problems
Here’s a quick tip I encountered a few hours ago: I was moving an old FCP7 project to Premiere Pro CS6 through XML, and the import kept freezing/crashing Premiere. It was a large project with 500+ clip of P2 DVCPro HD footage transcoded to .mov in FCP. I did a little research and found this post.

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10 Reliable HTML5 Video Players for Your Website

10 Reliable HTML5 Video Players for Your Website
HTML5 will probably be the new standard to show videos on the web. Recently Flash players were extremely popular, but now they are going with the times. More often users choose HTML5 solutions. It happens because new players are flexible, compatible with major browsers (their older and newer versions) and well displayed on mobile devices. If you want to know more about your browser and HTML5/CSS3 compatibility then view this comparison table.

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Premiere Pro gets Lumetri Deep Color Engine and a boost from Speedgrade

Premiere Pro gets Lumetri Deep Color Engine and a boost from Speedgrade
Adobe introduces Lumetri Deep Color Engine, a new tool to help editors get GPU optimized color control right inside Premiere. You can apply one of the existing presets, LUTs, or saved Looks from Speedgrade.

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Color Correction

Color Correction
This short article began with the rather dry title, "Tracking CDL Through Post." As I began to write, my thoughts started to meander into the obvious and maybe not so obvious ancillary aspects of this topic. I now feel the more gestalt title, "Color Correction", actually seems appropriate. And please forgive me if this post comes off as very "101".

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MAXON CINEMA 4D Integration in After Effects CC by Chris and Trish Meyer

MAXON CINEMA 4D Integration in After Effects CC by Chris and Trish Meyer:
As we noted in the preview referenced above, with After Effects CC you will be able to import a .C4D project file directly into After Effects, which will treat it as a footage item. Once you add this .C4D footage item to a composition, a new CINEWARE plug-in will automatically be added to that layer, which will render requested frames from the .C4D project on demand inside After Effects, without the need to render the whole project ahead of time in CINEMA. This process is laid out in the following movie:

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Delivering on the promise of HTML5 video

Delivering on the promise of HTML5 video | Videonet:
While ideal for basic video playback, HTML5 has a way to go before it becomes a fully-fledged solution for the most demanding use cases of online video delivery. In the interim, workaround tools, and online video platforms have emerged to help content producers and developers deliver on the multi-platform promise.

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More Handy Free Apps for Creatives

More Handy Free Apps for Creatives | GLJ Media Group:
I find these days that most of us do more than one thing. That is, as creatives we have to be multi-hyphenates: we write, we direct, we shoot, we edit, we blog, we launch web sites… and with few exceptions, most of these creative pursuits are aided by software. While I’m usually working in Adobe or Apple’s pro applications, there are always some free applications in the toolkit as well. So I thought I’d share some free cross-platform applications that I’ve found handy, in case any of them are new to you. Here are several free programs useful for creatives:

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Canon 5D RAW vs BMCC vs Bolex vs Ikonoskop vs Scarlet vs Kinefinity

Canon 5D RAW vs BMCC vs Bolex vs Ikonoskop vs Scarlet vs Kinefinity | wolfcrow:
This article will compare cameras that cost less than $10,000 that claim to shoot RAW video. The goal is to compare features to price, to estimate true value for money. This will give us a better understanding of what we’re getting into before we make that decisive purchase.

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Importing a Final Cut Pro Project to Adobe Premiere Pro

Importing a Final Cut Pro Project to Adobe Premiere Pro: 

Video editing is often a collaborative process. You may need to work with someone else’s editing project that was started using Final Cut Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro is a very flexible editing solution. You can easily import projects and media started on other edit systems. For example, moving a project over from Apple Final Cut Pro is a snap.


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Tips for Workflow & Encoding AVCHD Video

Tips for Workflow & Encoding AVCHD Video:
In this post, we've rounded up the bestFREE apps and workflow tips for transcoding your AVCHD (.mts) files for video editing.

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The Adobe Prelude Workflow (Part Two): Ingest and Logging

The Adobe Prelude Workflow (Part Two): Ingest and Logging:
Here are some limitations:

Prelude doesn’t do stills/images or pure audio codecs.

There is no support for logging RAW formats on set, including CinemaDNG.

There is no OnLocation (but it supports opening OnLocation projects)!

There is no support for logging raw MTS streams.

Some of these limitations are quite serious, and in my opinion, undermine its utility. The positives:

Prelude can playback all formats supported by Premiere Pro*, so you’re not totally left in the dark.

Support for AVCHD and H.264.

Support for Canon XF (MXF) and XDCAM (MXF and MP4).

Support for P2 media.

Support for DPX, TIFF and JPEG.

Support for AVI and MOV wrappers.

Support for ingesting R3D only*.

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Adobe Premiere Pro CC tutorial - Lumetri Deep Color Engine and SpeedGrade!

Adobe Premiere Pro CC tutorial - Lumetri Deep Color Engine and SpeedGrade!:
Adobe Premiere Pro CC has a lot of new tasty features and the Lumetri Deep Color Engine is one of them. It allows you to apply color grades and sophisticated looks within Adobe Premiere Pro, thanks to the new Lumetri Deep Color Engine integration. Of course its not as extended as many 3rd party plugins or SpeedGrade, but it can be more than enough for many filmmakers and editors. In Premiere Pro CC you can use the new Lumetri Looks folder in the Effects panel to apply preset color grading effects, so it works exactly like any other effect in the previous versions of Adobe's product. You can also use the Lumetri effect to locate exported .looks from SpeedGrade or LUTs from other systems. Andrew Devis of Creative Cow did a very nice video tutorial in which he shows the new option and how it may be used with SpeedGrade CS_Next to create, save and apply your own custom looks.

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Clipping Magic Removes Image Backgrounds in Seconds

Clipping Magic Removes Image Backgrounds in Seconds:
Cropping an object out of an photo in an image editor can be a tricky task, but Clipping Magic is a new webapp that does it for you in seconds. All you have to do is paint the foreground object one color, the background object another, and the app does the work for you.

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The Smoke 2013 Extension brings support for Blackmagic video IO devices!

The Smoke 2013 Extension brings support for Blackmagic video IO devices! - motionVFX Blog:
At NAB 2013 Autodesk and Blackmagic Design announced an electrifying news - that both company will begin a technology collaboration, and many were wondering what to expect from it. Now we know a little bit more as only a few weeks later, the first result of this collaboration is here - The Smoke 2013 Extension 1 release will introduce support for Blackmagic video IO devices: DeckLink (PCIe video boards); UltraStudio (Thunderbolt boxes) and the Intensity product line. According to Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president at Autodesk, the feedback of the community was tremendous, and with this new extension Smoke will now include two highly requested features – Blackmagic video card support and a powerful new set of trim tools.

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High Frame Rate White Paper

High Frame Rate White Paper | 3Droundabout:
This white paper reveals reports on the aesthetic experiments conducted by the S3D team at Emilly Carr with a focus on High Frame Rate (HFR) and Variable High Frame Rate (VFR) to provide a basis for discussing best practices in Stereoscopic 3D production with High Frame Rate technology.

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Simple post processing of 5D Mark III RAW footage in OSX

Workflow video: Simple post processing of 5D Mark III RAW footage in OSX « cinema5D:
You have probably seen our extensive written guide on how to get Magic Lantern’s 24p working on the 5D Mark III, which also includes a step-by-step instruction on how to end up with usable ProRes 4444 files.

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Rec.ommendations for Display Gamma

Rec.ommendations for Display Gamma - NegativeSpaces - Ben Cain:
Old news really as this white paper from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standardizing gamma for reference monitors in HDTV was released in March 2011! But the topic of Gamma Correction as it pertains to Display Gamma is one that comes up constantly in conversation with colleagues in both post and acquisition. So much so that as I was combing through old NegativeSpaces articles detailing monitor calibration, I felt that a post on Gamma for broadcast monitors is one well warranted.

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DuctTake: Spatiotemporal Video Compositing

DuctTake: Spatiotemporal Video Compositing
DuctTake is a system designed to enable practical compositing of multiple takes of a scene into a single video. Current industry solutions are based around object segmentation, a hard problem that requires extensive manual input and cleanup, making compositing an expensive part of the film-making process. Our method instead compos- ites shots together by finding optimal spatiotemporal seams using motion-compensated 3D graph cuts through the video volume. We describe in detail the required components, decisions, and new techniques that together make a usable, interactive tool for compositing HD video, paying special attention to running time and performance of each section. We validate our approach by presenting a wide variety of examples and by comparing result quality and creation time to composites made by professional artists using current state-of-the-art tools.

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Handbrake 0.9.9 Supports OpenCL Offloading

[Phoronix] Handbrake 0.9.9 Supports OpenCL Offloading:
The Handbrake open-source video transcoder program now supports using OpenCL for accelerating certain operations along with introducing other new features to its brand new 0.9.9 release.

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תהליך העבודה עם קובצי 5D שעברה שינוי חומרה

תהליך העבודה עם קובצי 5D שעברה שינוי חומרה:
ברשת מדברים בשבוע האחרון רבות על שינוי החומרה של מצלמות 5D (גרסה 2 או 3) שמאפשרות היום הקלטה של 1080p, 24 ביט ב-RAW. הבעייה היא שלא ניתן להעביר את הקבצים ישירות למערכות עריכה, אלא יש קודם להמירם מ-RAW ל-DNG. הוויידאו המצורף מתאר בצורה מהירה את תהליך ההמרה.

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Will the Google-Supported WebM Open-Source V9 Video Codec Surpass H.265?

Will the Google-Supported WebM Open-Source V9 Video Codec Surpass H.265? « nofilmschool:
Let the next-gen online video compression wars begin. H.265, the codec that was approved earlier this year as an ITU-T standard and claims to be 50% more efficient than its predecessor H.264, now looks to have some competition in the Google-partnered WebM open-source V9 format, a step up from the highly adopted V8. Read on to watch some side by side comparisons and find out what this codec might do for you.

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The Production Costs of 4K: From Acquisition to Archiving

The Production Costs of 4K: From Acquisition to Archiving | CineTechnica:
4K was the definitive buzzword at NAB this year, as well as CES, with a number of manufacturers releasing 4K televisions, 4K game systems, and 4K cameras. With the consumer demand for 4K content just around the corner, one of the most often asked questions is “How much is this gonna cost us?!” After polling a number of industry sources, I decided to try and break down the production costs of shooting, data management, dailies creation and archiving in 4K to show that it isn’t as intimidating as you might think.

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ButtleOFX | an Open Source Compositing software

ButtleOFX | an Open Source Compositing software:
During the past months, we have been working on the communication of ButtleOFX. Today, we are revealing the video presentation of our project. It explains how compositing works with ButtleOFX. Thanks to a few animations and a demonstration we want to get people to know the user interface. You can watch it on vimeo.

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WebM and OGG QuickTime export

I was recently asked to create HTML5 video content for a client to upload to their fancy new website. They asked for a WebM and an OGG version, alongside the usual MP4 file.
I played around with a bunch of free software but they all lacked professional settings to fine tune the output.
I've found that the encoding can be done using QuickTime Pro on a Mac machine using this WebM and this OGG QuickTime components.
The WebM is a regular Mac installer. The OGG component need to be copied to your local (machine and/or user) Library/Component folder.
Now I have an OGG and a WebM setting dialog when I hit Command E in QuickTime and in any QuickTime supported application.

Additionally, There's a great free and open source software for Mac called Media Converter which allows a very quick and simple export to WebM, OGG, DNxHD, ProRes and pretty much whatever FFMPEG supports. The software is also extensible with many presets.

A Quick Guide to the 5 Best Open-Source Video Editing Software

A Quick Guide to the 5 Best Open-Source Video Editing Software | wolfcrow:
This article introduces the concept of open-source video editing, gives you a head’s up on what to expect down that road, and lists 5 open source video editing software that can be used for professional applications.

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An Overview of Video Backup and Checksum Verification Software (Part Two): Software

An Overview of Video Backup and Checksum Verification Software (Part Two): Software | wolfcrow:
This part will cover a typical on-set data wrangling workflow. Then, we’ll look at the software available today that performs these functions. By the end, you should be in a strong position to decide on the right tools for your workflow.

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An Overview of Video Backup and Checksum Verification Software (Part One): The Basics

An Overview of Video Backup and Checksum Verification Software (Part One): The Basics | wolfcrow:
If you’ve read the Chapter on Data Management in the Comprehensive Rigging Guide you’ll know that a Data Management Technician (DMT) or Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) – choose your title – is responsible for some or all of these tasks:

• Inspecting footage
• Create backups
• Inspect, change and/or input metadata
• Create dailies, transcode
• On-set color grading
• Asset management
• Assuring data integrity

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Film & Video Fundamentals: Understanding Color Temperature

Film & Video Fundamentals: Understanding Color Temperature | Premiumbeat.com:
Use color deliberately to reinforce the overall mood or feeling of your film or video. In this video tutorial you’ll learn the basics of color temperature, including lighting sources and white balance.

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Starting a Project in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

Starting a Project in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 - Production Apprentice:
FCP 7 is starting to show it’s age. You’re boss/company/client is making you change to something else. Which NLE will it be? Final Cut X? Avid? Perhaps, Adobe Premiere Pro? Well, I’m not here to tell you which one I think is best. Instead, I’m going to show you how all of them work and I’ll let you make the decision. This week, we’ll start with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.

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Free Plugins and Stuff for Final Cut Pro

Free Plugins and Stuff for Final Cut Pro! | GLJ Media Group:
Below some little utilities by spherico.com which make use of Final Cut Pro’s XML features. They all are big time savers, or allow you to get access to data of your Final Cut Pro project that normally are hard to get or to change.

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Color grading

Color grading | Animation & Graphics content from Broadcast Engineering:
There are two things that are at the core of doing good color grading for video:

• Ensuring that the image on the screen looks great and is graded to best tell the story; and 
• Making sure that the image can be properly reproduced and delivered to a variety of media and screens. 

This article will focus on the latter. Understanding the importance of legal and valid gamut and determining the color balance are critical to maintaining proper color reproduction across a variety of media and broadcast methods. Before we examine the concepts of color balance, let’s quickly review the concepts of color space.

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