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Staff BlogsSoftware Category
11-16-08 - New AppleCare articles Final Cut Pro / Express Final Cut Pro: Choosing a Hard Disk - The disk that contains your computer’s operating system is called the startup disk or boot disk. In addition to the operating system, the startup disk also stores your applications (such as Final Cut Pro), your application preferences, system settings, and documents. Because the files on the startup disk are your most critical data, maintaining the startup disk is vital. Because digital media (especially high data rate video) makes your disks work harder, you should use dedicated disks for capturing and playing back your digital video and other media files. Consider your media disks as storage units that work long, hard hours, while your startup disk keeps your system properly organized. If a disk is going to malfunction, it’s better if your critical data is separate from your replaceable media files. Depending on what kind of computer you are using, you may be able to use internal and external hard disks to store your media files. Each has benefits and drawbacks. This is a very detailed article with a lot of useful technical information about the required minimum seek times, spindle speeds, etc for Final Cut Pro. Well worth checking out. Final Cut Express 2: How to Delete the Preference Files - Learn how to resolve issues caused by unusable preference files in Final Cut Express 2. Final Cut Express HD 3.0: Configuration error when using with iMac G5 (iSight) and Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) - If you open Final Cut Express HD 3.0 on certain computers, you'll get a "Configuration Error" message that indicates that your computer is missing certain hardware or software, or possibly an AGP graphics card. Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express: Convert MP3 and AAC audio files for compatibility before importing - This document explains how to import MP3 and AAC-encoded audio files into Final Cut Pro 3, Final Cut Pro 4, and Final Cut Express. Final Cut Express HD requires a Quartz Extreme AGP graphics card - To use Final Cut Express HD, you need a computer with an AGP graphics card that is capable of handling Quartz Extreme. Final Cut Server Final Cut Server: Unable to launch the specified application - In some cases the Final Cut Server client application may not open when you double-click the Final Cut Server.jnlp icon or Final Cut Server.app icon. This may happen after switching user accounts or restarting your computer from a volume other than the one you used to download the Java Web Start Final Cut Server client. Soundtrack Pro Soundtrack: How to Configure Digidesign Audio Devices - Learn how to use Digidesign audio devices with Apple's Soundtrack music application. I guess they're talking about Soundtrack Pro here, not Soundtrack, as the original Soundtrack was discontinued 5 years ago. Qmaster Apple Qmaster: Optimizing cluster storage capacity - By default, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system saves temporary process files in the /var/spool/qmaster directory on the cluster controller's startup disk. Computers in the cluster will access this location as needed. If you are processing large source media files that exceed the available storage space on the startup disk, you may run out of storage space on that disk. Logic Pro / Express Logic 8: How overlapping recordings are assigned to take folders - The Takes feature in Logic Pro/Express 8 is a powerful way to organize multiple recordings of a part in your projects. Here are some tips and explanations of what it will do in various situations. Logic Express 8: Troubleshooting Basics - If Logic Express 8 isn't starting up properly or performing normally, try these basic troubleshooting steps to remedy the situation. Please note that these steps aren't exhaustive, and are not intended to cover any specific issue. They are fundamental, basic steps that are most effective in getting Logic Express 8 into good working order, and are the steps most often suggested by AppleCare Technical Support. Categories: Apple, Software, Final Cut Pro Using Compressor with multiple cores Welcome to the world of Final Cut Studio 2, which is completely unaware of multiple cores in your system. Hopefully this will change in FCS 3 but in the meantime, here is a trick to using those cores in Compressor. 1. Go to System Preferences and open the Apple Qmaster section.  2. In the Setup tab, click Stop Sharing if Qmaster is already activated.  2. Select QuickCluster if it is not already selected. 3. Under Services, select the service marked Compressor and select the checkboxes for Share and Managed. 3. Then click Options for Selected Service. 4. Select half of the number of cores in your machine i.e. 2 for a 4-core and 4 for an 8-core (this particular machine has only 2) and click Ok.  5. If you are using Shake. Maya or have any other command-line renderer set up with Qmaster, select the Rendering item in the list and click Options for Selected Service. 6. Click the + button and add half as many Local machines as you have cores i.e. 2 for a 4-core and 4 for an 8-core, then click Ok.  7. Under the QuickCluster section, type a name for your new virtual cluster. 7. Click Start Sharing and close System Preferences. 8. In Final Cut Pro, export your sequence as a QuickTime movie. This is important. Do not choose File > Export > Compressor, as this will fail. 9. In Compressor, import the movie, set up your batch and click Submit. 10. Instead of "This machine", select the name of your new cluster in the Cluster list and click Submit. The movie clip will be processed by multiple cores in your machine.  This is called Virtual Clustering, and it is achieved by launching a new version of Compressor for every core. This is much easier from the perspective of Compressor's programmers but it takes up more memory and is less efficient than if they were to implement true multi-core capabilities into the application. So be aware that using this method will require considerably more memory than rendering on a single core. Apple recommends in most cases one process for every two cores, although it all depends on the type of media you are working with and how much memory you have. If you set too many cores and don't have enough memory, your machine would slow down (or worse, crash) thus undoing the whole point of setting up the virtual clusters in the first place. Apple recommends 1 GB RAM per service but again, this depends on the media you are transcoding to. Categories: Apple, Software, Final Cut Pro How to reinstall Compressor and Qmaster 1. Download FCS Remover and run it. 2. Select "Compressor and Qmaster Only" as the preset.  3. Click Remove and enter your admin password.  4. Restart your machine, and when it boots up again, empty your Trash. 5. Insert your Final Cut Pro or Logic DVD (I'm using Logic here), ctrl-click on "Install Logic Studio" or "Install Final Cut Studio" and select Show Original.  6. Go into the Packages folder and run Compressor.mpkg (that's .mpkg, not .pkg).  7. When that finishes, run Qmaster.mpkg (again note the "m").  That's it! (Note: I've seen other people recommend Pacifist as a way of installing the files again once they've been removed. Pacifist is a great piece of software but if you make a mistake, it's possible to seriously screw things up unless you know what you're doing. I think this method is a lot safer and less susceptible to user error). Categories: Apple, Software, Final Cut Pro Vue 7 xStream and Infinite shipping now The best feature in my opinion is the Ecosystem technology. This allows you to change a few parameters and automatically create a forest or some grassland or a desert, complete with random plants and rocks. Each object is varied slightly to give the impression that each rock and tree is completely unique. This makes it very realistic. It can also be used for other tasks, such as the vast robot army in the Vue 7 trailer. Vue 7 takes this even further with Ecosystem III, which intelligently places objects according to the shape of the terrain. For example, it places fewer trees on a slope than on a flat area, as they would grow in reality. You can also create dynamic Ecosystems that stretch into the horizon without slowing your machine to a crawl. The Ecosystem Painter gives you precise control over your Ecosystem. What's great about Vue is just how much you get "for free". If you add an Ecosystem to your terrain and then create some global wind, the plants will animate realistically with no input from you. Animating the sun and clouds creates realistic shadows on the terrain below. There's also Solid Growth IV which minimizes flicker on far-off vegetation, the ability to render 360 degree panoramas (I love this), and something I've been waiting for - a water editor. Water was always pretty realistic but now you have a lot more control. You can now import camera tracking information from Boujou, MatchMover and SynthEyes (but not PFTrack it would seem) which is a big bonus. Finally, it incorporates a new OpenGL engine that can render up to 4 times faster and the application has been optimized to take full advantage of multi-core systems. e-on has released a cool trailer showing what Vue 7 can do. Well worth checking out. Categories: Software, Visual Effects Upcoming Snow Leopard features you should know about * No PowerPC support - This operating system will be Intel-only I'm afraid. * Full 64-bit support - This was somewhat rudimentary in previous versions and consequently developers didn't really take advantage of it. * New default display gamma - This one is very important for editors. With previous versions of Mac OS X, the default gamma was 1.8 which was great for print work. The default display gamma in Snow Leopard is now 2.2, which brings it closer to most TVs and Windows computers. * Cocoa rewrites for all applications - "Almost all" of the visible applications (including Finder) have been rewritten in Cocoa. Cocoa and Carbon are two different application programming interfaces (APIs). Basically, Apple has decided that it wants to transition developers away from Carbon (which is more convenient if you are also developing for Windows) and towards Cocoa instead. Consequently, Cocoa tends to get all of the new features (such as 64-bit support) while Carbon gets left behind. Ars Technica speculates that Carbon applications in Snow Leopard could be "wrapped" in Cocoa. I imagine this would affect performance and it should be noted that Final Cut Pro is currently written in Carbon. A Cocoa rewrite of FCP is inevitable (and much appreciated) but of course, no-one knows when that will occur. * And then of course, all the features mentioned in the original press release - Grand Central for more efficient multi-core processing, OpenCL for using the GPU as another processor (must be why the new MacBook Pros have two GPUs) and QuickTime X which offers "optimized support for modern codecs and more efficient media playback" which would imply some kind of acceleration. So all in all, this looks to be a promising update for people in the film and TV industries. Categories: Apple, Software, Analysis Solving Logic Studio installation issues 1. Install all the other components and let the installer skip Compressor for the time being. 2. On the main Logic installer disc, ctrl-click on Install Logic Studio and select Show Original.  3. Click on the Packages folder.  4. Double-click Compressor.mpkg and complete the installation process.  5. If you also got the same error as me about the missing ProFX framework when launching Soundtrack Pro, double-click the file PluginManager.pkg and follow the installer.  6. I was then able to launch Compressor but upon performing a test render, I noticed that Batch Monitor was missing (why, I don't know). So if you get that problem too, install Qmaster.mpkg.  This finally solved all of my problems and I was able to operate the Studio fully. P.S. In case you were wondering, the difference between .pkg and .mpkg is that .mpkg (meta-packages) are containers for sub-packages (.pkg). The .pkg files only install one set of files whereas the .mpkg files can install a group of related packages. Categories: Apple, Software, Sound iPhone SDK NDA dropped And so it was great to read today that Apple has dropped the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) from its iPhone SDK. The NDA was something that was introduced with the first pre-release of the SDK, which was totally acceptable as it was pre-release software. However, it was also carried on into the final release and developers were not allowed to help other developers with problems or give details on App Store rejections. It led to a lot of confusion and general dissatisfaction among the developer community, especially as the app review process seemed somewhat inconsistent and developers were not allowed to bring these inconsistencies forward publicly. Apple said: We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others. However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released. This is a great day for iPhone developers and it is good to see that Apple is looking for ways to improve the development process. If they reduce waiting times and the number of steps required to submit an app, I will be very happy indeed. [via TUAW] Categories: Apple, Industry, Software Perian 1.1.1 released Changes: * H.264 in AVI fixed * Some anamorphic AVI files are now supported * Performance problems due to PIC fixed with Xcode 3.1 * Incorrect frame skipping on H.264 intra frames fixed * Better character set detection * The update checker is now much more polite * Several parsing and rendering bugs with subtitles fixed * Player freezing while loading subtitles with embedded fonts fixed * Audio fixed for some older MKV files with AAC/FLAC * Strange values in MKV chapters or video sizes are handled better * Initial support for SAMI subtitles added * Worked around a QuickTime bug (#5770288) causing frames to be lost during export * New codecs: DosBox ZMBV, VP6+Alpha, Nellymoser ASAO * FFmpeg: Crashing on PPC G3 fixed * Fraps decoding artifacts fixed Perian can be downloaded for free from Perian.org. [via TUAW] Categories: Software, Utilities, QuickTime Pro Applications Update 2008-03 Only one fix is included in the release notes but it's a big one: Missing Clusters and Services Issue Resolved Compressor 3.0.4 and Apple Qmaster 3.0.4, together with the Mac OS X v10.5.5 update, resolve an issue in which clusters were not visible in Compressor and Batch Monitor, and Compressor services did not appear in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences. I'm sure you know the drill by now - don't update in the middle of a project, only update if it's entirely necessary and make sure everything is backed up before you do. This update is concerning to me for two reasons. Firstly, it requires OS X 10.5.5, completely locking Tiger users out. Presumably 2008-04 will require 2008-03 so will all patches require 10.5.5 from now on? Was 2008-02 the last Tiger-compatible patch for Final Cut Studio? There has been no official word from Apple on this. Secondly, when you go to the download page it only lists 2008-03 as an option, with 2008-02 nowhere to be seen. How are you supposed to download Final Cut Pro 6.0.4? There's always Software Update but that's not really practical if you have a lot of machines. Apple seriously needs to rethink the way it offer patches to FCS users. Categories: Apple, Software, Final Cut Pro Mac OS X 10.5.5 released * Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air * Includes extensive graphics enhancements [not sure what this means really] * Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule. * Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress Time Machine backups. * Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a Time Machine backup volume does not have enough free space. * Time Machine can now back up items in ~/Library/Application Support. Usual disclaimer applies - don't update in the middle of a project, don't update unless it's absolutely essential and always have a backup or clone of your system handy in case things go awry. Categories: Apple, Software
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