Digital Rebellion Blog

CinePlay 1.1.2 released with Kollaborate live comments

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:09:22 MDT

We've just released CinePlay 1.1.2, a minor update for our professional iOS video player.

The iPad version of CinePlay now supports live comments in Kollaborate, meaning that comments on the same video from other people instantly show up as markers on your timeline, and any markers you create in CinePlay will appear instantly for other people using CinePlay or viewing the video in their web browser.

This feature had already been rolled out for users of the web version of the site and will be coming to Cut Notes users in the next update.

We've also made several other changes to the app which will result in improved performance on slower devices and fixed a couple of UI glitches on the iPhone. The full changelog is here.

CinePlay is an essential tool for dailies review and client feedback, especially when coupled with our Kollaborate cloud workflow solution. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or watch the overview video.

Testers needed for Kollaborate Server

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:34:06 MDT

One thing we heard loud and clear at NAB this year was the desire for a local version of Kollaborate that companies could run on their in-house servers and storage, so immediately after the show we bumped Kollaborate Server up the priority list. The software is now nearing completion and we are looking for companies to help test it.

Kollaborate is our cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files, gather feedback and manage your team in the cloud. It also integrates tightly with Digital Rebellion apps like Cut Notes, CinePlay and Post Haste, with the eventual plan being to tie it in with every app we make. You can find out more about the feature set at www.kollaborate.tv.

Kollaborate Server is aimed at businesses so we're looking for companies willing to test the software locally within their facility. You will need a dedicated computer running Apache, MySQL and PHP on OS X or Linux. Setup should not be difficult for anyone familiar with setting up a webserver and detailed instructions will be provided.

If you're interested in taking part, please contact us with a little bit of information about your company including which operating system you'll be running it on and approximately how many users will be connecting to it.

My thoughts on Adobe's new rental policy

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:44:24 MDT

You've most likely already heard about Adobe's move to get rid of Creative Suite and offer rental-only software from now on. When the announcement was made my Twitter feed exploded with both love and hate for the new policy.

While some of the negative points people made are purely hypothetical or FUD for its own sake, others are genuine concerns. There has also been a lot of misinformation flying around, in particular with regards to being connected to the internet. You do not need a constant connection - the software will connect once a month and you will have a grace period of 99 days (soon to be 180 - thanks Todd) if the connection is unsuccessful.

Another common misconception is that the apps will run off the cloud or that they will automatically update without your permission. The apps run locally on your system as they did before but the licensing is handled on the cloud, so instead of a product key you now use your email address. Software updates will not occur automatically without your permission and Adobe has said they will periodically create fixed archived copies of the applications so you can revert to a particular version if desired.

The cloud is cheaper for new users too, although it may end up being more expensive for some of Adobe's existing customers, especially if they often skip versions. Actually, that's not strictly accurate. It is cheaper at the currently announced prices, which brings me on to my own primary concern: cloud users are susceptible to future price rises and policy changes. What if the price rises? Tough luck, you have to pay it anyway. What if Adobe releases a new privacy policy that you don't want to agree to (see Facebook, Instagram)? If you ever want to access your projects again, you'll have to agree whether you like it or not. If you are planning on building your workflow around Adobe products, you have to be prepared to essentially pay Adobe every month for life, no matter the cost. Your project files are hostage to future Adobe pricing and policy changes.

I have no issues with the cloud or rental policies as concepts, my only objection is to being forced into them. It is difficult not to interpret this as a power grab.

Another thing Adobe may not have considered is that they have different traction in different markets. Photoshop is clearly the king of print and graphics, but Premiere has only started to gain traction since the demise of FCP 7. I know several people who were looking for FCP 8, thought they'd found it with Premiere CS Next and are now hesitating.

I have been fortunate to have access to pre-release versions of some of the new Adobe apps and the new Premiere is fantastic. The dev team has really listened and I try to use the new version over CS6 whenever I can. It's sad that instead of talking about the great new features, the whole Adobe MAX event was overshadowed by this decision from upper management.

The worst part is that in spite of all this I will still unhappily subscribe and so will many others. I am certain that this will end up being financially beneficial to Adobe, but it erases a certain amount of goodwill.

Weekend Reads - 5-5-13

Sun, 05 May 2013 19:37:33 MDT

4 Things You May Not Know About the After Effects Render Queue

Useful tips for speeding up your AE rendering.

Six Questions Apple Needs to Answer in 2013

Six questions for the post-Jobs Apple (#7 should be the future of the Mac and whether Apple has a long-term strategy for courting video pros).

Steven Soderbergh’s State Of Cinema Talk

Steven Soderbergh on the state of cinema.

Danny Boyle Claims 'Pixarification' of Movies is Killing 'Adult Movies'

In a similar vein, Danny Boyle laments the departure of sophisticated writing from cinema to TV.

My biggest concern. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Interesting discussion on the pros and cons of buying vs renting Adobe Creative Suite.

Offline Bounce or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Native Processing

Detailed overview of the new offline bounce function in Pro Tools 11.

Linear Workflow in Cinema4D and After Effects

Brush up on linear processing now that After Effects CS Next integrates with Cinema 4D.

Autodesk Smoke 2013

Extremely detailed review of Smoke 2013.

Bugs of the Week - 5-4-13

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:54:44 MDT

Another installment of our weekly list of serious, useful and unusual bugs in your NLE.

Kollaborate updated with custom permission controls

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:49:21 MDT

We've just released another major update to our cloud workflow platform Kollaborate with some much-requested features.

Custom user permissions

You now have more control over the individual actions of users in the project. You can override the permissions set by the user's department position to assign or deny admin status, and can control whether the user can upload, view or delete files.

Custom file permissions

As well as department-level sandboxing, you can now set permissions on a file-by-file basis. You can approve or deny access to individuals, departments or everyone. You can combine permissions to deny access to everyone except certain people, or deny access to a department except for certain people in that department.

Kollaborate continues to advance at a rapid pace (we make daily updates) and we're about 75% through our list of tasks to complete before the beta status can be removed. We are working on integrating the cloud with all of our applications (we currently support Cut Notes, CinePlay and Post Haste) and are actively working on a local server edition that will be released in a few weeks.

There are many digital asset management and workflow tools nowadays but we've taken a different path and roadmap to everyone else and the response so far has been extremely positive. Try it out today at kollaborate.tv.

Post Haste 2.5 Beta 1 released with Kollaborate integration

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:54:55 MDT

We've just released a beta of Post Haste 2.5 for Mac.

This version has basic Kollaborate integration. To set it up, go to the Kollaborate tab in preferences, enter your login information and click Authorize.

Now whenever you create a new project on your local hard drive, a copy will be created in the cloud. You can choose to recreate the entire folder structure or just create an empty project. Note: you must be logged into a Kollaborate trial or subscriber account for this to work.

We're keen to hear feedback on the best ways to integrate Kollaborate functionality into your existing Post Haste workflows so contact us with your requests.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.14 released - plugin printing and more

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:56:10 MDT

Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.14, a minor update to our flagship suite for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

As well as the usual bug fixes and updated Crash Analyzer definitions, we've also introduced a new feature to Plugin Manager. It is now possible to print a list of plugins to refer to when reinstalling your operating system. You could also use it to compare plugins between computers, but it is much easier to do that with Pro Admin.

You can see the entire list of changes here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for post production professionals that is used worldwide by freelancers and studios alike. To find out more view the full feature list, watch the video overview, read the user manual or download the free trial.

Bugs of the Week - 4-26-13

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:15:50 MDT

Here's another installment of our weekly list of critical, useful and bizarre bugs in your editing system.

Avid

Some of the test patterns with ship with Media Composer are wrong

The "ignoreqtrate" command is broken in 6.5.2 but fixed in 6.5.2.1

Workspaces may not save on dual-monitor systems

Some users may be having problems downloading from the My Products page

Premiere

CUDA operates in linear color space so you can get gamma shifts with media imported from After Effects and other applications

Switching third-party plugins to CPU rendering can in some cases boost rendering performance

Resetting a custom keyboard layout can sometimes fix the "LinkContainer" error

FCPX

Lots of reports of export failures in 10.0.8

Major Kollaborate update plus Cut Notes 2.0.1 and CinePlay 1.1.1

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:36:37 MDT

Today we released a major update to our Kollaborate cloud workflow tool. As well as bug fixes and tweaks, we also introduced some important new features and changes.

Aliases

Aliases are shortcuts to a file, much like symbolic links in OS X. Aliases are a useful tool in managing user permissions because they behave like self-contained files, allowing you to to separate comments and other metadata between departments.

For example, an editor uploads a new cut to the Post Production department. The producer views the cut and gives his/her notes. The editor then wishes to give the client access to the file but without them seeing the producer's notes, so he creates an alias to the file, moves it to the Clients department and the client makes their notes effectively in a sandbox away from everyone else.

To add an alias, click the arrow at the right of a file and choose Create Alias, then click the arrow next to the new file, click Move and choose the department or folder.

Sharing overhaul

We've overhauled the Sharing pane to make it easier to share links with people who are not directly part of the project.

You can now email the link to people directly from the web interface and they can leave comments on the file without needing to be part of the project.

Storage statistics

Clicking the colored storage indicator in the bottom right corner now takes you to the Storage page, allowing you to see exactly how much space you're using and what the largest files in each project are.

Misc

Other minor changes include frame-by-frame navigation in the player using the left/right arrow keys, the ability to create a task from any comment, the ability to export all tasks as a calendar, UI tweaks and much more.

Apps

Kollaborate Transfer, our batch encoding and uploading tool, has been updated to allow uploads to private storage areas, folders and departments, among other changes and tweaks.

CinePlay has been updated to 1.1.1 to allow video playback from private storage areas and departments. We've also improved compatibility with iOS 5.

Cut Notes has been updated to 2.0.1 to allow note taking from video files stored in departments or subfolders, alongside various Kollaborate sync improvements. We've also made it so that it will stay in manual note-taking mode until you specifically exit it, as well as making the Export dialog clearer for new users.

These are just a few features on our ambitious Kollaborate roadmap. To find out more, visit www.kollaborate.tv and sign up for the free trial.

Weekend Reads - 4-19-13

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:23:44 MDT

Why Apple's secrecy is frustrating Mac Pro customers

This fits in with my own belief that uncertainty about future Mac hardware is a much bigger issue for video pros than FCPX and the demise of FCP 7.

Interesting job posting

Hints of future improvements to audio mixing in FCPX.

Service, Replacement Parts and Support for Active Storage Installations

Vicom Systems is offering service and support for Active Storage customers now that the company has gone out of business.

PREMIERE PRO NEXT - ( Unlike FCPX ...I like it )

Mike Nichols goes through his checklist of CS 6 problems to see what's been improved in CS Next.

Avid announces Avid Media Composer 7 at NAB 2013

Quick overview of the new features in Avid Media Composer 7.

Sorenson Squeeze 9 updates the old encoding standby

Summary of the new features in Squeeze 9.

Bugs of the Week - 4-19-13

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:12:41 MDT

After a long NAB-related hiatus, Bugs of the Week is back with a listing of serious, useful or bizarre bugs you should know about.

Premiere

Explanation / workaround for "TickTime" error

Text rendering differences in software / hardware modes

How to batch export to Adobe Media Encoder

Avid

Workspaces not saving

FCP 7

Ghost exports

OS X

OS X 10.8.3 breaks CUDA and OpenCL

Introducing our new white-label service

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:32:23 MDT

We're pleased to introduce our new white-label service for business customers. This allows you to customize our applications with your logo and branding for use with your clients.

It will be especially useful with the upcoming local server feature of Kollaborate, allowing you to completely customize the end-user experience for clients and keep them coming back.

The service is available on an annual subscription basis and we can do basic branding or feature customization depending on your needs and requirements. Contact us for more details.

NAB 2013 Roundup

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:33:05 MDT

Another NAB has been and gone, however this year was different because it was our first year as exhibitors (or indeed my first year even attending a trade show).

We had a great show, our booth traffic exceeded expectations and Kollaborate was very popular, in particular the Cut Notes sync and integration.

If you didn't make it down to NAB, you can download the product brochure we were handing out here (note: it's big).

Cut Notes sync with Kollaborate is very tight and tricky to show off in a video, however FCP.co and FreshDV did a good job of showing it off in the following videos:

Now that NAB is over we'll be back to our regular schedule so expect the usual quantity of blog posts and software updates soon.

Introducing Cut Notes 2.0 with redesigned UI and full cloud support

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:12:33 MDT

We're excited to announce the release of Cut Notes 2.0 today. This is a major overhaul of the app based on user feedback.

We've redesigned the UI with a darker skin and you no longer need to change orientation to perform certain tasks.

Notes are now organized into sets. Use different sets to separate different contexts, such as grading and mixing. You can color code buttons for visual separation and the colors will be respected in any marker list you export (depending on application support for that color).

To edit a button you no longer tap and hold on it but instead tap the center of the segment button in the bottom left. This takes you to a dialog that allows you to modify sets, buttons and colors.

Manual text entry is significantly improved in this version too. The text box is always available at the top of the screen so you don't need to scroll or switch between pages to get to it.

Note editing has been significantly simplified. Tap on a note to display it in the text box and tap on the timecode to edit it. You can swipe down on the text box to edit the last entered note.

Tap two buttons in quick succession or make two notes at the same timecode position and Cut Notes will compound the notes together. You can switch this off in the Cut Notes section of the iOS Settings app if you want to revert to the old behavior.

Cut Notes now syncs with Adobe Audition, Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro X. FCPX needs a separate plugin available here. The user manual contains guides on how to setup sync for each application.

The export dialog has been overhauled and simplified. Choose the application you want to export to (or None if you want a human-readable version) and then choose the method - Email, Copy to Pasteboard, Print (human-readable text only), upload to Dropbox or upload to Kollaborate.

However, where Cut Notes 2.0 really shines is in its cloud integration with Kollaborate. View your cloud projects in the project browser, take notes on playable videos, sync timecode directly to your web browser (Chrome and Safari right now), full remote playback control from the iPad and comments even appear live in your web browser as you create them. Colleagues will be notified of your comments through email and Dashboard alerts.

The Kollaborate sync is very tight. Tap a note to jump to that position in the timeline and all note additions, changes and deletions are displayed live in the browser. This is much tighter integration than we are able to offer with any other application and it gives an example of the new things we're able to do when we don't rely on third parties. This is how we've always wanted sync to work and we're very excited to finally deliver it.

It's a little difficult to show it in action in the video, but we'll be running demos at booth SL15408 at NAB next week. This is just the beginning of what we have planned for Cut Notes and Kollaborate, so stay tuned.

Introducing Kollaborate - the cloud platform for media professionals

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:27:46 MDT

We're proud to announce our latest product - Kollaborate, the cloud workflow platform for media professionals. Launching today in public beta, Kollaborate provides storage space and collaboration capabilities for you and your team.

Individual, department and project-level messaging helps you communicate efficiently with your team.

The Dashboard area allows you to see the most recent updates by your colleagues at a glance.

Kollaborate provides private and project storage space for sharing files with colleagues. Share files with everyone or group your team into departments and limit access on a per-department level. Non-department heads cannot see files in other departments so this is useful for limiting client access.

Type in the comment box and Kollaborate is smart enough to insert the comment at the timecode position you first started typing. It can automatically pause and resume playback while making a comment if you so wish. Submitting a comment notifies project collaborators via email and Dashboard alerts.

You can share a file with someone not involved in the project by creating a private password-protected link for them. Each link is provided with a view count, so we recommend creating one link per person with the person's name as the title so that you can easily keep track.

Revisions allow you to easily follow the progress of a file. Make notes on individual revisions and quickly switch between them for comparison.

Kollaborate has extensive task management capabilities. You can delegate tasks to others (or leave them unassigned and wait for a user to assign themselves) and be notified as to the progress of the task through Dashboard and email alerts. The task's creator can upload related files to help the assignee complete the task (this could be a diagram or mockup for example) and the assignee can respond by uploading task deliverables.

One great feature is the ability to turn a comment into a task as you create it, so that colleagues are instantly notified and can begin work on the task before you've even finished watching the video.

It is not just for video - you can upload any type of file and Kollaborate will host it for you, but only H.264s will be playable. The site does not automatically re-encode video when you upload it, so to make it easier we've provided custom encoding presets for common applications and created a tool called Kollaborate Transfer for batch encoding and uploading to the site. These are all available on the Resources page. Kollaborate Transfer is our recommended way of uploading to the site. It is currently in beta for Mac and a Windows version will be coming soon.

There are lots of video sharing sites out there so what makes Kollaborate different? The key point is that it is not just a site, it is a platform. We are building all our products around it, starting today with CinePlay 1.1 for iPad. CinePlay will allow you to play your Kollaborate videos on the move and make synchronized comments in the cloud.

We will eventually integrate Kollaborate into every product we make and we have an exciting and ambitious roadmap for it. Don't worry - our products will continue to function very well in offline mode, but they will be better with Kollaborate. The nice thing about creating our own cloud solution rather than relying on third-parties is that we can really focus on the experience. We've been relying on third parties for lots of things and that often leads to frustration and technical limitations. For this reason we really recommend Kollaborate over Dropbox for playing videos in CinePlay. You get thumbnails, synchronized timecode and comment syncing - none of which we can achieve with the limitations of the Dropbox SDK.

We've been in private beta for 3-4 months and we're now launching into a public beta. We consider Kollaborate stable enough to be used in a production environment. The reasons for the beta tag are less to do with bugs and more to do with load balancing, optimization, the fact that it requires a relatively recent web browser and an acknowledgement that there are one or two minor limitations that will be addressed in the coming weeks (e.g. Kollaborate Transfer can currently only upload to the root directory. The workaround is to move the file to the desired location in the web interface.).

We're planning for the public beta to last 2-3 months. Since it's a beta, we're offering a great deal - sign up for the Freelance or Basic package during the beta process and get an entire year at half price.

We've always believed in integration between our products and Kollaborate is integration on steroids. It's a game-changer for us and we're very excited about the future. We'll be at NAB this year so stop by booth SL15408 to see Kollaborate in action.

P.S. This isn't our only NAB announcement. We'll have something else to announce shortly.

Digital Rebellion at NAB 2013

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:48:49 MST

We're excited to announce that we will be exhibiting at NAB for the first time this year. We'll be at booth SL15408, right near the Post Pit in the lower South Hall.

The booth will be fairly interactive and we will be encouraging people to experiment hands-on with our products, so it's worth coming along if you want to try out the products or ask a question before you buy.

We will be making a major product announcement and most of our products will be receiving major or minor updates in time for the show, so we promise our booth will be well worth a visit.

Bugs of the Week - 3-2-13

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:23:03 MST

Here's another rundown of critical, strange and useful bugs in your NLE.

Premiere

Blu-ray presets incompatible with Scenarist

Workspace completely disappeared

Workarounds for seeing live scopes during playback

Premiere cannot accept broadcast waves larger than 4 GB

Premiere does not currently support the XAVC codec

Gain adjustments are not included in OMFs

Avid

The latest Mac Minis are now qualified for 6.5.2

Workflow for dealing with Davinci Resolve's new clip naming system in version 9

More tips on dealing with clip names in Resolve 9

Changing sequence timecode start modifies the timecode of imported clips

Button configuration can reset after relaunching the app

Trimming in audio mode can switch you back to edit mode

Changing dissolve duration causes dissolve to occur past the edit point

Certain flavors of H.264 can produce green frames when brought in via AMA

FCPX

Only the first channel of a multichannel audio interface is recorded

FCP 7

Audio issues after Flip4Mac upgrade

Weekend Reads - 2-15-13

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:35:59 MST

Why is the VFX business failing at its moment of greatest success?

Great points from Mark Christiansen on how VFX seems to be a more prominent part of the movie industry than ever, yet several of the major VFX houses are having financial problems.

Premiere Pro CS6 and Mbox 2 Recording

How to setup Premiere CS6 with an Mbox2 for recording audio.

Anyone Fooling Around with Sparse Disc Bundles?

Pros and cons of using Sparse Disk Bundles in Media Composer.

Is there a way to import old User settings in a new user?

Useful tip for importing specific settings from another Avid user profile.

Review: Blu-ray player software for Mac

Reviews of several Mac Blu-ray players. I'm using MacGo and it's working well for me.

Opinions on what NLE to teach on a new BA in Film & Screen Media Production

Long discussion thread about which NLEs to teach to students.

Dear Mr. Hernandez

Open letter to the new Avid CEO. I would also add a more open developer program to encourage plugin development and much better support for tapeless workflows.

New Content Creators Report Results Announced

The most curious part of this is how well FCP 7 fared 18 months after EOL.

Bugs of the Week - 2-15-13

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:12:09 MST

Here's another installment of our weekly selection of serious, useful and bizarre bugs in your NLE.

Avid

Playback issues with non-standard variable GOP AVCHD media

How to temporarily disable your Blackmagic card

How to prevent adjacent clips from being merged in EDL Manager

Premiere

Audio corruption with Denoiser filter
(I too have experienced issues with this filter and have stopped using it)

Cannot export a frame from the program monitor if an audio-only sequence is open on another monitor

Hold shift to snap to an edit point when dragging the playhead

FCPX

Performance comparison between different apps playing an H.264 file
(the strange part is that QuickTime Player and FCPX both use AV Foundation)

OS X

You cannot hold down Option at startup to boot from a recovery partition on a Fusion drive

Pro Media Tools 1.1.9 released - significant flash frame improvements and more

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:53:16 MST

Last week we release Pro Media Tools 1.1.9, a minor update to our suite of media management and workflow tools.

The major new changes are:

Improved flash frame detection

Video Check's flash frame detection has been significantly improved and can more reliably detect corrupt frames in a movie.

QT Edit Auto Flatten

QT Edit will no longer prompt you to flatten a movie when performing an action that needs it. This means that by default, QT Edit will only create self-contained movies.

If you would prefer to be prompted to create a reference or self-contained movie, you can switch off auto flatten in preferences.

In addition to multiple bug fixes we've also made several other changes to the way QT Edit works, which you can read about in the full changelog.

Pro Media Tools is a suite of essential applications for improving your workflows. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the 15-day free trial.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.13 released - improved Adobe Premiere project repairing

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:19:49 MST

We've just released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.13 - a minor update to our flagship suite for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

We have significantly improved the repairing of corrupt Adobe Premiere Pro projects in this update. Premiere is one of the few applications to use an XML project format instead of binary, making Premiere projects much easier to repair.

In addition to its previous capabilities, Project Repair 2.0.13 can now strip Warp Stabilizer data (a common cause of corruption), reset scratch disks and strip workspace information. These new capabilities have enabled the application to successfully repair corrupt projects in our test suite that were previously unrepairable.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.13 is a free update for all existing customers. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.

Introducing the Digital Rebellion app for iOS

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:33:04 MST

We've just launched the Digital Rebellion app for iOS.

This is a free app that allows you to get news and support about Digital Rebellion products on the go.

The main page lists our applications and allows you to easily view product information, documentation and support. You can filter it to only show apps currently installed on the device and it can even act as a launcher for installed apps.

You can download the app free of charge from the iOS App Store.

Bugs of the Week - 2-10-13

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:51:56 MST

We're back with more serious and unusual bugs in your NLE.

Avid

Workaround for Avid bins opening off screen

Cannot change bin capitalization

New iMacs qualified for MC 6.5.2

Premiere

Premiere has no continuous rasterization function so scaling of vectors may not be high quality

Walking away from the computer without saving the project will eventually fill up your Autosave Vault with identical copies
(this is where Pro Versioner can help)

Video playback may not work with the Blackmagic 9.7 driver

Mono tracks may be quieter than stereo tracks

FCPX

Performance issues with the new 27" iMac

Workaround for flash frames in FCPX 10.0.6+

Encore

Embedded Premiere chapter markers can sometimes cause an Encore burn to fail

Compressor

Certain frame sizes with a watermark make jobs fail

Misc

Typing a specific text string can crash almost any app on OS X 10.8

Introducing CinePlay - the professional video player for iOS

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:46:55 MST

We're proud to introduce our latest product - CinePlay for iOS. CinePlay is a professional video player for iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 5.0 or higher. It is ideal for dailies, portfolios, client feedback and mobile note taking.

CinePlay can play back H.264 movies you've shot with your camera, synced from iTunes, stored in Dropbox or located at a direct web URL (e.g. http://www.example.com/mymovie.mp4). Remote web files can very easily be downloaded directly to the device, which is something that's always been difficult on iOS.

All timings are specified in timecode notation and you can frame-accurately step through the movie or jump to a specific timecode position. CinePlay will read the timecode stored in a file or otherwise default to 00:00:00:00.

You can show a draggable timecode overlay on top of the movie and add 4:3 and 16:9 safe areas. You can also mask and crop to common aspect ratios, making it very useful for previewing full-frame dailies that will be masked at a later date, or to hide burnt-in timecode and other distracting information.

If you have an iPad, you can also add markers and jump between them. The iPad version will also recognize any chapters in the file and display them as markers. You can then export them to a range of common marker / locator / chapter list formats. (Many of the formats require the free Cut Notes Marker Import tool to import into your NLE.)

We've also integrated it well into our existing apps. You can remotely control playback with Editmote (including gestures) and output timecode to Cut Notes for easy note-taking. Because we develop these applications, the integration is far more seamless with CinePlay than with third-party apps.

CinePlay is a useful tool for filmmakers, post production professionals and clients, and we have an exciting roadmap in place for the future. If you have any questions, we have an extensive FAQ and a comprehensive user manual and we're also keen to hear feedback on how well it integrates into your workflows.

Weekend Reads - 1-27-13

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:18:23 MST

Start your project with post so we don't have to fix it later

I'm a big advocate of planning in advance and Post Haste is a great free tool to help with this.

4K in the Home

The uphill battle TV manufacturers will face to convince people 4K TV is worthwhile.

Shot on What

Useful database of technical details for popular movies.

Welcoming the New Year

Essential online security tips.

Editors choose Dell over Apple Mac Pro

One of the advantages of owning a PC is that you can mix and match components, so I would encourage people considering a Windows machine to build and design their own where possible to fully fit their needs, instead of buying off the shelf.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is still available for purchase from Apple

You can still purchase Lion from Apple but it's complicated.

Where to place sound absorbing panels in a studio

Tips for sound-proofing your studio.

Bugs of the Week - 1-27-13

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 13:54:43 MST

Another installment of serious, useful and bizarre bugs in your NLE.

Avid

QuickTime movies with timecode tracks do not work correctly with Fast Start

DISK_TOO_MANY_OPEN error on ISIS could be caused by invisible OS X system files

Select Project window cannot be resized to show long filenames

Users still experiencing lag with third party I/O cards

Unable to rename template items in Marquee

Premiere

The timeline doesn't play back (CS Repair can fix this)

Blend effect does not work well with retimed clips

Error 213:11 if permissions are incorrect (Windows)

No way to customize the autosave location (Pro Versioner helps with this)

Keyboard timeline navigation sometimes stops working

DNxHD clips exported from Avid in 601/709 space will need a level adjustment before they will display correctly in Premiere

Several Blackmagic users reporting playback issues

Premiere does not allow Firewire output when hardware MPE is active

FCPX

Final Cut Pro X hangs when loading a project

Tips for color correcting with dual viewers

Misc

I suddenly feel better about Avid's cryptic errors

Final Cut Pro X hangs when loading a project

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:17:54 MST

Some of you may have experienced the beachball of death when FCPX tries to load a project and eventually resorted to force-quitting the app.

In most cases, the app hasn't hung at all but is just taking a really long time to open the project. If you leave it long enough (8-12 hours) it should eventually open. We recommend running our Project Repair tool to optimize the project file before doing this, as the optimization process lowers the file size and can shave off some loading time.

The reason it is taking so long is that the project has become too complex. A common cause of this is over-use of compound clips, especially compound clips inside multiclips. I have seen this lead to multi-gigabyte project files, even though the timeline was only a few minutes long.

Once the project opens successfully, begin the process of removing the compound clips. FCPX will hang for a short while whenever you try to do anything, but as you reduce the number of compound clips it will become more and more responsive.

Weekend Reads - 1-19-13

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:49:43 MST

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Masterclass in Why HFR fails, and a reaffirmation of what makes cinema magical

This is the most detailed analysis I've read on why high frame rate (HFR) doesn't work for The Hobbit.

Why do we blink more than we need to?

Scientific evidence for Walter Murch's theory about using blinking to mentally separate thoughts.

Trick I Found By Accident

Great trick to make high-speed audio understandable in Premiere Pro.

When to Scale to Frame Size in Premiere Pro CS6

Interesting comparison of Scale to Frame Size in FCP7 and Premiere Pro CS6 and when using it can sometimes degrade the image.

Tip: Multichannel Audio Sequences

Tip for taking the tedium out of mapping audio channels to tracks in FCP 7.

Font Folders

Proposal for better display and organization of fonts in Adobe applications.

Looking ahead to 2013 in post production

Amusing and slightly cynical take on some of the trends in post production.

Bugs of the Week - 1-19-13

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:32:50 MST

After a little hiatus, Bugs of the Week is back with more serious, interesting or unusual bugs for your NLE.

Premiere

Premiere doesn't have a disk-based thumbnail cache so all thumbnails need to be regenerated upon opening a project

Premiere has a 99 track limit which limits the number of possible layers in a PSD file

You cannot move a clip by typing in numbers if your keyboard doesn't have a numpad

Dip to White start value is ignored with CUDA acceleration enabled

Speech recognition modifies the script

If Premiere crashes and won't relaunch, check that the process is no still running (Windows)

Trick for match-framing to a sequence in a nest

Avid

Summary of some of the changes in Media Composer 6.5.2 (improved trimming performance is huge if true)

Surround channels can be incorrectly assigned when imported from Pro Tools

Blue color shift with Avid FX

Misc

Thunderbolt devices can be disrupted by mobile phone signals (apparently this can also affect FireWire)