Digital Rebellion Blog

What to do if you lose your Pro App serial number

Thu, 03 Jul 08 00:24:11 -0600

Apple have a new AppleCare doc on their site asking a question that comes up quite often - what do you do if you lose your Final Cut Studio (or other Pro App) serial number?

You need to fax or email them proof of purchase giving details of the product purchased, the price paid, when it was purchased and the name and address of the reseller. I am emphasizing reseller here because the purchase must have been made from either Apple or an authorized reseller in order to qualify. If you bought it from eBay or from a friend, you're out of luck, unless they happen to be authorized.

This actually raises one more question - legal purchasers of Final Cut Studio are allowed to transfer their license to one other person as long as they remove all traces of FCS from their system, but most people sell their software and don't bother to fill in the transfer form. The article doesn't state whether the recipient of the transferred license would be eligible for this scheme, although I would imagine the answer is yes. Apple used to provide a way of offering feedback on AppleCare docs but unfortunately they no longer do this.

Hopefully we'll have another doc up soon answer another common question - what do you do if your disc gets lost, stolen or damaged?

[via LAFCPUG]

Third party Mac Pro Blu-ray drives

Tue, 01 Jul 08 23:55:31 -0600

MCE Technologies has announced the availability of an internal 6x Blu-ray drive for the Mac Pro that seamlessly fits into one of the existing bays inside the machine.

The drive alone is $499 but there is also a version bundled with Roxio Toast 9 for $599. An external version is available for $749. It requires OS X 10.5.2 or higher but no device drivers are needed.

Currently the only Mac applications capable of burning Blu-ray movies are Roxio Toast 9 and Adobe Encore CS3, however there are quite a few more available for Windows if you have a Boot Camp partition available.

[via TUAW]

Leopard 10.5.4 update

Tue, 01 Jul 08 23:41:50 -0600

Yesterday Apple released OS X 10.5.4. I'm going to post the full list of changes as it's quite short. I get the impression that this is not the full list of actual changes because Apple asked developers to test more than just these areas in pre-release versions of this patch, unless those additions were taken out for some reason.

General

* Includes recent Apple security updates.
* Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 ï¬�les on a remote server.
* Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
* Addresses an issue that may result in a partially installed X11 application.
* Improves L2TP VPN client reliability.

AirPort

* Addresses AirPort reliability issues with 5GHz networks.
* Addresses AirPort issues that may result in slower performance in Logic Studio or MainStage.

iCal

* Improves overall iCal reliability for meeting requests, cancellation notices, delegation, and syncing with iPhone.
* Resolves an issue that prevents deleting an iCal event without notifying the creator.
* Addresses an issue in which events in all calendars affect availability. A checkbox now enables information-only calendars to be transparent from free/busy lookups.
* Resolves a UI issue preventing delegated calendars from showing up as a separate window.
* Addresses an issue with copying and pasting attendees from one event to another.
* Resolves an issue in which iCal may not delete events after a speciï¬�ed time interval, even when set to do so in iCal preferences.
* Addresses an issue in which To Dos cannot be marked private.

Safari

* Addresses a potential performance issue when loading secure web pages.
* Resolves issues that may be encountered when accessing secure web pages with client certificates that reside on a smart card.

Spaces and ExposÃ©

* Addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.
* Fixes an issue in which dragging an application from the list of application assignments in Spaces System Preferences does not assign the application to the desired space.
* Resolves an ExposÃ© issue that may result in only a subset of windows being shown.

Delta installer (88 MB)
Combo installer (561 MB)

The combo updater is recommended for safety. Usual warnings apply - clone your system before installing, don't update in the middle of a project and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tiger users today received the Security Update 2008-004 patch which was included in the above update for Leopard.

PPC
Intel

This update marks a milestone for me. I always wait until at least version x.x.4 of an operating system before upgrading to it for professional use. This gives Apple time to iron out bugs and improve stability and gives third party developers time to make their software compatible with the new OS. So I will now be thinking about upgrading. It's complicated, however, by the fact that I am still on a G5 PowerMac and have a fair amount of PPC software that cost an arm and a leg to buy, so what I will probably end up doing is buying an Intel Mac Pro and gradually upgrading my software packages one at a time.

Mac Pro and Xserve overclocking tool

Sun, 29 Jun 08 15:07:46 -0600

This has been going around the internet for the past couple of days. The German division of ZDNet has released an overclocking tool for Mac Pro and Xserve machines running Leopard.

Overclocking is the process of artificially increasing the clock speed of your processor and memory in order to make it operate at a faster rate. For example, you could make a 2.8 GHz processor operate at 3.0 GHz without the expense of purchasing a faster CPU. This is very popular in the Windows world, particularly with hardcore video gamers, who have managed to push CPUs beyond 4 GHz.

However, increasing the clock rate also increases the power consumption and heat output of the CPU. Upgrading the power supply and increasing the CPU cooling may be necessary - areas that may be tricky with tightly-designed Apple products.

I wouldn't advise doing this on a machine that you depend upon every day but it might be useful for a render farm machine where speed is important and the task will be taken up by another machine if there are any crashes or failures.

Another final thing to note is that your system performance will only be as fast as the slowest link in the chain. If you overclock your CPU but have a really slow hard disk or not very much RAM, the performance increase will be limited.

All in all though, this is a very useful tool for Mac users as long as they are aware of the dangers and potential issues. It could also encourage more video gamers to switch to the Mac.

Final Cut Server 1.1 update

Fri, 27 Jun 08 01:03:02 -0600

Apple just released Final Cut Server 1.1. Here are the fixes:

QuickTime 7.5 and FCP 6.0.4 support - QT 7.5 is REQUIRED for this update. With Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, FCServer can now access the project file directly. It does not need to create a separate XML file in order to access the data. Remember to keep versions on your network synchronized - if you upgrade one machine to FCP 6.0.4 and FCServer 1.1, it is best to upgrade them all.

Updating Checked Out assets - You can now manually update Checked Out assets when not using Final Cut Pro (i.e. DVD Studio Pro, Motion, etc).

Edit Proxy Files - You must reanalyze your 1.0 proxies after installing 1.1.

Final Cut Pro file preferences - These are now respected when opening FCP projects.

Multi-byte character sets - Multi-byte languages such as Greek and Russian now display correctly.

See the Release Notes for more information.

I probably don't need to say this any more but it's always best to - NEVER update in the middle of a project, don't update if you don't need these fixes and always keep a clone for safety.

Pro Applications Update 2008-02 aka FCP 6.0.4

Fri, 27 Jun 08 00:48:44 -0600

Yesterday Apple released Pro Applications Update 2008-02 which contains Final Cut Pro 6.0.4 and Compressor 3.0.3. It is important to note that this is not a new version of Compressor. It was included in Pro Applications Update 2008-01 earlier this year but I guess it is compulsory for this update so they included it again.

Not a great deal of fixes:
Enhanced Final Cut Server support - If you have Final Cut Server 1.1, you can now access projects directly without converting them to XML first. It would be interesting to see if other applications can use this as well.

XDCAM 422 preset - Changed to include 24-bit audio as default

Capturing HDV clips - With QuickTime 7.5, HDV clips in Capture Now mode can capture beyond the end of the tape. This update now allows you to press Escape to stop it. I'd advise going to Final Cut Pro > System Settings and setting the Capture Now limit to the length of your tape. This stops your disk space being eaten up with blank data.

Usual warnings apply - NEVER update in the middle of the project, don't update if you don't need any of the features provided in this patch and always have a clone of your drive as a backup.

Release Notes

In a future patch I'd really like to see stability fixes for Compressor, Soundtrack Pro and working with Motion clips in an FCP timeline.

Houdini coming to OS X

Tue, 17 Jun 08 00:33:30 -0600

Houdini, the nodal 3D modeling application used on many movies today, is finally coming to OS X. Side Effects has released a beta compatible with OS X (64-bit Leopard), Windows and Linux.

Houdini is unique in that it combines a 3D modeling application with a nodal interface, giving you much greater flexibility and allowing you to use the industry-standard interface used for a large number of visual effects applications. I have not used it myself but I will definitely be checking it out.

Four editions available:
1. Free Apprentice edition with watermarked output
2. Non-watermarked Apprentice HD for $99
3. Houdini Escape for $1995
4. Houdini Master (Escape but with particles, dynamics, cloth, etc) $7995

There is also a Batch edition for render farms for $1495.

Right now, only Apprentice and Apprentice HD are available but the rest will be released on July 15th.

ATI announces Radeon HD 3870 Mac and PC Edition

Sun, 15 Jun 08 15:50:16 -0600

ATI announced the availability of the Radeon HD 3870 Mac and PC Edition a couple of days ago, shipping in late June for a recommended price of $219.

This must be welcome news for Mac Pro owners, as the current alternative, the NVIDIA 8800 GT suffers from underwhelming ProApp performance, despite the recent improvements in the 10.5.3 update.

Here is a specification comparison:

	Radeon HD 3870	8800 GT
Stream processors	320	112
Core clock	775 MHz	600 MHz
Memory	512 MB	512 MB
Memory interface	256-bit	256-bit
Memory bandwidth	70 GB/sec	57.6 GB/sec
Price	$219	$279

ATI also claims a performance boost in Motion of 30-180%. Barefeats found a 21-41% performance increase over the 8800 GT - for $60 less. It is also compatible with ALL Mac Pros and available from most ATI resellers (the 8800 GT Mac Edition is only available from the Apple Store). This looks to be well worth buying.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Intel-only

Thu, 12 Jun 08 13:12:24 -0600

MacNN has listed the minimum specifications of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, due to be released in "about a year". The biggest change is that it is Intel-only - PowerPC users are left out in the cold.

Or to be precise, the Developer Preview is Intel-only but I think this will extend to the final release as well. Why? Because Snow Leopard is about speed and optimization of the operating system and what better way to optimize the OS than to remove code for systems that haven't shipped in 3 years (by the time it is released next year)? There are very few applications out now that aren't Universal Binary or Intel-optimized, and three years is pretty generous I must admit.

However, before you throw out your old PowerBook or PowerMac, remember that Snow Leopard has very little in the way of features and is purely an optimization release. As you're not running cutting-edge hardware anyway, the extra performance probably doesn't make much difference to you. But I'm sure the frantic selling will begin regardless.

Perfect Sport wins MyFestival, screens at SIFF

Tue, 10 Jun 08 15:20:29 -0600

I'm pleased to announce that Perfect Sport has won MyFestival, the online film festival that decides which movie will fill the last available screening slot at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Perfect Sport won the Feature Film category, with the short film Robbie's Withdrawal being screened before it. This takes the movie's total festival wins to two so far, the previous being Best Dramatic Feature at WorldFest.

The screening takes place at the Harvard Exit on Sunday June 15th at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $11 General Admission or $9 for SIFF Supporter. Tickets can be purchased here.

I'd recommend the theatrical screening for the best possible experience but the film is still available for viewing on the MyFestival site until June 15th.

Read the press release here.

QuickTime 7.5 released

Mon, 09 Jun 08 23:54:29 -0600

"QuickTime 7.5 improves application compatibility and addresses security issues."

The timing suggests it is related to the recent iPhone announcements so I doubt this patch does much for ProApp users.

I have heard reports of crashes, choppiness and missing audio although of course your mileage may vary. It is always better to sit on updates for a while to check for problems before installing. I would not advise installing this one though because it probably won't offer ProApp users anything new.

And remember the Golden Rules - never update in the middle of a project and always have a clone.

Edit: This update points directly to the QuickTime site rather than a specific file on the server. This makes me think that Apple will no longer be keeping old versions around so make sure to back this up.

More WWDC 2008 Day 1 news

Mon, 09 Jun 08 23:40:51 -0600

Since my previous post some more things have cropped up:

3G iPhone
* Not 3G but is actually 3.5G
* Thinner at the edges but actually thicker in the middle than its predecessor by 0.7mm and slightly taller (people are making way too big a deal about this)

AT&T
* Apple no longer gets a cut of the subscription fee from AT&T
* No more prescribed service plans - mix and match data and voice
* Starting price: $30 a month for unlimited 3G data plus $39.99 a month for voice. Text messages are no longer included so add $5. This means the price increases from $59.99 a month to $74.99 a month. And that is the base plan.

As someone who was put off more by the monthly price than the initial cost of the phone, this doesn't make me happy. And this is entirely an AT&T thing because Apple no longer receive money from them.

However, if you want to use your phone as an iPod Touch with internet access even when you're not near a WiFi point, this is a good thing. Or if you only use voice, for example.

* In-store activation only, no more activating via iTunes
* GoPhone service no longer available

[via TUAW]

So Apple adds features, AT&T takes features away. Great.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard announced

Mon, 09 Jun 08 23:12:10 -0600

Apple just released a few preliminary details about Mac OS X Snow Leopard (I think they're running out of cat names...). The interesting thing to note is that NOWHERE does it say that this is OS X 10.6. It could be a major point update for 10.5. I think it probably is 10.6 but it's worth bearing that in mind though.

Apple has stated that the focus will not primarily be new features but improving the quality of the OS. I think a lot of people will be disappointed by the lack of features but this is great for people who demand high performance (a lot of people reading this blog I'd imagine).

Here are the improvements:
* Multi-core optimizations with a new technology called Grand Central. This makes it much easier for developers to create multi-core optimized applications (FCP dev team, I'm looking at you...)
* OpenCL support - Enables developers to use the processing power of the GPU to perform tasks. It will be interesting to see how developers take advantage of this but it could use your graphics card as an extra processing core when rendering and encoding for example.
* Theoretical support for 16 TB of RAM. But how much can each application address?
* QuickTime X - "optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback". That's a little vague so I'm wondering if there is some kind of GPU acceleration involved. And the "modern audio and video formats" bit makes me wonder if Windows formats such as WMV are supported out of the box, without requiring something like Flip4Mac.
* Support for Exchange 2007
* Safari speed improvements
* Takes up less space on disk
* Released in "about a year"

There have been rumors that 10.6 will be Intel-only but this report neither confirms nor denies this.

Also, there is no word on price. Consumers might be hard to win over if there are no new features so Apple may adopt lower pricing. I have heard some people say that performance and stability should be in Leopard anyway so the update should be free (which I disagree with). I personally would pay full price for an update that "unlocked" my graphics card for use as an extra core though. To me, that is worth paying for. And it'd probably result in a bigger performance boost than buying $130-worth of hardware.

WWDC 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 08 13:03:06 -0600

It's Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) today and Steve's keynote just finished.

Here are the important announcements:

iPhone firmware update 2.0
* Released in "early July"
* Free for iPhone users, $9.95 for iPod Touch users (it's an accounting thing)
* Enables applications and the iTunes App Store as previously announced
* Enterprise features - Push email, push contacts, push calendar, autodiscovery, global address lookup, remote wipe.
* Positional audio (openAL) and fast graphics with OpenGLES.
* Word, Excel, PowerPoint and iWork document support
* Apps that are 10 MB or less can be downloaded over the cellular network - all others must be downloaded over WiFi or synced from iTunes.
* Enterprise users can set up private storefronts and distribute over their intranet.
* Push notification for applications - Instead of running in the background and wasting battery, the iPhone can receive messages and give you notification (alerts, sounds, badges) without needing to have the application running.

MobileMe
* The new .Mac
* Push email to all devices including iPhones, Macs and Windows PCs
* Online calendar and photo album - syncs with iCal and iPhoto. Drag and drop support.
* $99 per year, 60 day pre-trial available
* Available "early July"
* .Mac users get to keep their existing email addresses which will forward to a MobileMe address

3G iPhone
* Metal back replaced with glossy plastic
* Thinner at the edges
* Solid metal buttons
* 3.5" screen (same as original)
* Flush headphone jack
* "Dramatically improved" audio
* 10 hours of 2G talk time, 5 hours of 3G talk time, 300 hours standby, 5-6 hours web browsing, 7 hours video, 24 hours audio
* Built-in GPS - updates Google Maps live
* A LOT of extra countries - 70 new countries this year
* Price drop - Was: originally $599 for 8 GB. Now: $199 for 8 GB, $299 for 16 GB, $399 for 32 GB. These are the maximum prices for every country.
* Launches on July 11th (22 countries)
* Special edition white version

Steve went through the list of (almost) everything that was bad about the original iPhone and improved upon it dramatically. This is a great update.

As always, Engadget has the scoop + pictures.

P.S. I've disabled comments because whenever I post anything about the iPhone I get a TON of spam comments.

Last chance to catch Perfect Sport

Thu, 05 Jun 08 14:53:47 -0600

Only a few days left to catch the award-winning feature Perfect Sport online for free. It is competing in MyFestival, a collaboration with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). 10 features and 10 shorts compete for votes, with the winner in each category going on to screen at SIFF on June 15th. The movie will only be online until June 8th (this Sunday) so time is running out!

Here's what some people had to say so far:

Digg:

Just got done watching the movie on MyFestival- "socially-challenging while delightfully entertaining" sums it all up. Its a movie I won't soon forget.

IMDb:

Building on a very creative script with an unexpected plot and believable, fully human characters, the actors make unusual choices that bring even more life to their roles. Your typical sports movie this ain't. Perfect Sport is also set against a beautiful score. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see something original and gripping. It's so nice to see a movie where you don't know everything that's going to happen in advance. Loved it! Hope it comes out in wider release soon.

http://myfestival.indieflix.com/FilmDetail.aspx?filmid=12

Definitely not a movie to be missed. Also don't forget to post your thoughts on the movie into the comment box on the MyFestival site as feedback is really helpful for filmmakers.

P.S. I'm going to have limited internet access over the next few days so apologies if I can't answer your emails quickly.

Using Frame Controls in Compressor

Wed, 04 Jun 08 15:44:33 -0600

Compressor has some very sophisticated technologies in the Frame Controls tab of the Inspector to enable it to perform high-quality resizing, retiming and deinterlacing of footage.

These are incredibly useful but it is very tempting to set everything to "best" when it is not at all necessary and causes a significant impact upon the processing time. So what this post aims to do is outline what each function does and when it should be used.

Firstly, if you are not resizing, retiming or deinterlacing footage, do not switch Frame Controls on at all.

Resizing controls
When an image is resized, new pixels need to be calculated. If you downsize an image, an area that was once 10 pixels could now be 2 pixels and vice versa if you are upsizing. Compressor goes through the resulting image and calculates what each pixel value should be based on the value at that point in the original image. These are not always integers. For example, a pixel at point (3,3) in the resulting image might correspond to point (2.8, 2.8) on the original. As there is no pixel at (2.8, 2.8), Compressor has to calculate a suitable value. The following options are different ways of calculating these pixel colors.

Fast (nearest pixel) - Compressor takes the value from the closest whole pixel in the original image. This is very fast but can result in significant visual artifacts and inaccuracies, particularly when resizing by a significant amount.

Suitable for: Minor size changes, situations where a fast encode is more important than a high quality one.

Better (linear filter) - This improves on the nearest pixel method by taking the values of four surrounding pixels and weighting them, increasing accuracy.

Suitable for: Most downconversions (e.g. 720p to NTSC).

Best (statistical prediction) - This uses more complex algorithms to maintain edge sharpness, at the expense of processing time.

Suitable for: Upconversions (e.g. NTSC to 1080p HD)

Anti-aliasing slider - This smooths rough edges but don't set it too high or you will visibly soften the image.

Suitable for: Smoothing jagged edges when upconverting footage (e.g. PAL to 720p HD)

Detail Level slider - This sharpens edges, increasing our perception of detail in the image. Use sparingly to avoid adding noticeable noise or jagged edges to the image.

Suitable for: Sharpening soft edges when upconverting footage.

Deinterlacing controls
To deinterlace, first select Progressive from the Output Fields drop-down menu. Use this instead of the Deinterlace filter in the Filters tab as it will provide greater output quality. Choose one of the following from the Deinterlace menu:

Fast (line averaging) - The two fields are blended into one frame. This, however, can result in strange motion artifacts because you are playing two fields at the same time that were originally offset in time.

Suitable for: Situations with very little motion.

Better (motion adaptive) - This method analyzes the fields and only deinterlaces areas that require deinterlacing.

Suitable for: Most situations except those with extremes of motion. In most cases you will not get any benefits from choosing higher settings than this if you are working in Standard Definition (e.g. NTSC, PAL).

Best (motion-compensated) - This uses optical flow technologies to track the motion of objects and analyzes multiple frames at once. This is incredibly processor intensive.

Suitable for: Situations with extremes of motion (e.g. sports).

Retiming controls

Fast (nearest frame) - If you slow down footage, Compressor will need to add extra frames. This option just duplicates the nearest existing frame. It is very speedy but it can result in very choppy / juddery motion. If you are speeding up footage however, the choppiness will probably not be noticeable.

Suitable for: Minor speed adjustments, fast motion

Good (frame blending) - This blends frames together to create "in-between" frames and is a lot smoother than the nearest frame method, at the cost of processing time. This is suitable for most applications unless you are performing extreme slow motion.

Suitable for: Most speed changes with the exception of extreme slow motion

Better (motion-compensated) - This uses complex algorithms to analyze a range of frames and interpolate (predict) what the in-between frames should look like based on their surrounding frames. It then creates these new frames from scratch. Obviously this is very processor-intensive.

Suitable for: Extreme speed changes or footage with large amounts of motion (sports for example)

Best (high quality motion-compensated) - Apple's documentation is a little unclear on what makes this particular option higher quality than the one below it. It could be that it analyzes more frames to produce the final result, it blends using a higher bit depth for greater accuracy, or it recreates every single frame instead of just the in-between ones for greater smoothness. Or maybe all of them.

Either way, this is incredibly processor intensive and should only be used if you cannot get good results with lower settings.

Suitable for: Extreme speed changes or significant frame rate increases (e.g. 23.98 to 59.94 fps)

Conclusion

So what does this tell us? It tells us that "Good" or "Better" should be adequate for most situations and it is not worth choosing "Best" unless your footage actually needs it. The best way of finding a happy medium is to start with everything on "Fast" and perform small test renders (10 seconds or so) for multiple areas of your movie. If you are not happy with the quality, go up to the next level and keep going until you reach a level of quality you are happy with.

Rough cuts

Mon, 02 Jun 08 23:41:42 -0600

Shane Ross has a great post about "rough" rough cuts and how frustrating it is when producers cannot see past a lack of audio or sound effects, or a dodgy transition. What is worse is when the producer gets it into his or her head that you are trying to pass that off as the end product, despite your protestations to the contrary. That has happened to me and is a nasty situation for all involved.

I think the key is to make the producer comfortable with you. Normally these kind of problems go away on the second or third project as the producer realizes that you can do the job and are not a cowboy, and they get familiar with the way that you work. I also find that a comfortable producer will give you a lot more creative freedom (I prefer to see scripts as a guide rather than a rulebook for example) and in return you will take advantage of that freedom to return a better product, so it is mutually beneficial.

How to change default preferences for our online tools

Sat, 31 May 08 02:19:27 -0600

I recently had a question about this. We have several useful online tools in the resources section of the site, many of which are used by people on a regular basis.

However, if you consistently work with a particular format (e.g. HDV) or work in meters instead of feet, it can be annoying to have to change the settings each time you want to use it. Here's how to get around that.

1. Delete your old bookmark for the page.
2. Go to the page and select the settings you would like to be the new defaults.
3. Click "Link to this calculation".
4. Bookmark the page.

For bonus points, you could create separate bookmarks for different settings - e.g. one for HD projects and one for SD for example.

8800GT performance improvements with 10.5.3

Sat, 31 May 08 01:12:59 -0600

With the recent OS X Leopard 10.5.3 upgrade, several users are reporting performance improvements with the Nvidia 8800GT, which has received bad publicity over its poor ProApp performance.

As always, Barefeats have benchmarks comparing the card with and without 10.5.3 and against the stock Radeon graphics card. At Apple Discussions, users have also posted their comparisons.

Performance improved significantly with the update but unfortunately not by enough to warrant purchasing it over the stock card. In some cases it was still slightly behind the stock Radeon. But progress is a good thing I suppose.

One poster says:

...looks like for any real performance - it's going to take another video card entirely.

It looks like that could be the case. I hope that if it comes to that, Apple will do the decent thing and offer an exchange program.

Update: Some users are reporting graphical anomalies and Adobe CS3 suite problems with this patch

Mac OS X 10.5.3 released

Wed, 28 May 08 16:50:15 -0600

Apple just released Leopard 10.5.3 via Software Update.

Apple's change list page is quite sparse while other sites have posted a much larger list of fixes based on beta versions of the patch. What is unclear is whether or not these changes made it to the final patch release or not (although the answer is probably yes as the final patch is 536 MB).

As always, NEVER upgrade in the middle of the project and if your system ain't broke, don't fix it. However, if you are suffering from a major issue fixed by this patch, wait several days to see if there are any major problems with it (I have heard of Airport issues already) and then only install it after performing a full system clone.

If you are considering upgrading, you are advised to download the full combo updater rather than relying on Software Update:
Mac OS X 10.5.3 Combo Updater

256 GB Samsung SSD announced

Tue, 27 May 08 14:48:34 -0600

Yesterday Samsung announced a 2.5in 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD) that will begin shipping in September (1.8 inch version shipping towards the end of the year).

Not only does it offer an unprecedented amount of storage space for an SSD but it also offers twice the performance of the 64 GB SSD that ships with the MacBook Air (Samsung's current high-end offering) with 200 MB/s read and 160 MB/s write. Also, the power consumption has dropped to 0.9 watts from 1 watt.

According to a Q1 2008 report by the semiconductor market research firm iSuppli, the SSD market will grow at an annualized average of 124 percent during the four-year period from 2008 until 2012. iSuppli now projects SSD sales to increase by an additional 35 percent in 2009 over what it projected last year, 51 percent more in 2010, and 89 percent more in 2011, and continue to show dramatic increases in subsequent years.

The 64 GB SSD in the MacBook Air costs an extra $999. This is too much in my opinion but a 256 GB drive with twice the performance and lower power consumption for a similar price would definitely make me think twice.

It is amazing how quickly these advancements are occurring.

[via TUAW]

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

Mon, 26 May 08 22:55:30 -0600

Didn't expect to read this... Sydney Pollack just died of cancer, aged 73.

Read more...

"Codec overrun" error when installing our applications

Mon, 26 May 08 01:17:14 -0600

A couple of people have emailed me to say that they are getting "codec overrun" errors when trying to mount disk images of our applications.

This error means that the file got corrupted during the download process. The most probable reason for this is that they are using download manager software such as Speed Download that breaks up the file into chunks and downloads each one separately before piecing them back together.

Some people have reported that they receive this error when sharing their internet connection via Airport (for some bizarre reason).

The solution to this problem is to either disable such software or download the zipped alternatives that I have now made available on every product page.

FCS Remover
Preference Manager

If you need an editor in the Southern California area...

Sat, 24 May 08 17:20:23 -0600

My buddy Robby is currently looking for work. He is a very talented editor and edited the feature film Perfect Sport, that just won Best Dramatic Feature at the Worldfest Houston film festival and is now competing in MyFestival for a place in the Seattle International Film Festival (and appears to be winning at the present time). He's also a great guy who's very easy to get along with.

He doesn't have a reel at the moment but you can see the movie he edited online for free:
Perfect Sport at MyFestival (requires signup)

So if you're looking for an excellent editor for a future project, look no further. He's had experience with short-form, long-form, dramas, comedies, etc, and tells me that he's open to anything sent his way.

Here is his resume and if you would like to hire him or speak to him further, please contact him directly.

Robby Stambler Resume (DOC)

Perfect Sport now online for free

Sat, 24 May 08 01:47:36 -0600

Want to see the winner of Best Dramatic Feature at Worldfest Houston online for free? Read on.

Perfect Sport, the awesome sports / coming-of-age movie, has been entered into MyFestival. MyFestival is an online film festival in which members of the public watch and vote for their favorite film out of the 10 features and 10 shorts available. The festival lasts until June 8th, at which point the votes will be tallied and one short and one feature will go on to screen at the Seattle International Film Festival.

And, because I am really bad at describing things, here are some quotes from people who are much better:

I loved this movie! Caught it at Houston Worldfest where it won for Best Drama. For those of you who haven't seen it yet (don't worry, no spoilers here) here's a mini-review:

Building on a very creative script with an unexpected plot and believable, fully human characters, the actors make unusual choices that bring even more life to their roles. Your typical sports movie this ain't. Perfect Sport is also set against a beautiful score. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see something original and gripping. It's so nice to see a movie where you don't know everything that's going to happen in advance. Loved it! Hope it comes out in wider release soon.

[from IMDb]

I too saw the film in Houston and it is incredible! Rose does a fantastic job in it, but she truly perils in comparison to the lead, Anthony O'Brien. He directed, co-wrote and starred in the thing and delivered. The film won a Gold Remi at the Houston Film Festival. This clip doesn't do either of their acting justice. It's a smart well done feature and these kids are awesome!

[from LA Times blog]

Here is the link:
Perfect Sport at MyFestival

(note: you need to sign up (free) and they use Windows Media Player so Mac users will need Flip4Mac)

New tool: Power Load Calculator

Sat, 24 May 08 01:16:19 -0600

We've just released a new online tool to the resources section of our site - Power Load Calculator.

Power Load Calculator allows you to calculate the load on a particular circuit when certain devices are plugged in. For example, you can calculate whether or not the circuit breakers in a location can handle the lights you want to use and if not, the size of the generator that needs to be hired. This sort of thing is better discovered during pre-production and not on the day of shooting, so this calculator is very useful in that regard.

You can also calculate the minimum circuit breaker size for a given power load which is very useful if you are upgrading a building's power supply in order to accommodate your needs.

As usual, there is also an iPhone edition available.

Check out our resources section for more tools.

PhotoJojo Final Cut Pro keyboard sleeves

Sat, 24 May 08 00:50:55 -0600

PhotoJojo is offering desktop and laptop keyboard sleeves for professional apps including Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

Applications
* Photoshop
* Aperture (1.5)
* Final Cut Pro/Express
* Pro Tools
* After Effects
* Logic Pro

Keyboards
* MacBook Pro
* Macbook (Black and White)
* Macbook Air
* Apple Thin Keyboard
* Apple Thin Wireless Keyboard
* Apple Classic Keyboard

They're rubber and are great at protecting your keyboard as well as being useful. Laptop sleeves are $30 and desktop sleeves are $40 and then $6 for shipping on top of that.

"The filter failed to render" error fix

Thu, 22 May 08 23:26:48 -0600

Just saw an interesting fix for the big red "The filter ____________ failed to render" message some people have been getting in Final Cut Pro.

I have 2 graphics cards: GeForce 7300 GT and ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (in MacPro) running 3 displays. The 2600 runs my 2 main displays and the 7300 runs a the smaller one.

So I just unplugged the display on the 7300 and rebooted. My FCP project spans the 2 remaining displays.

Boom, the render error message is gone and the effect (Prism) renders fine.

I seem to get it randomly every now and again but this is a useful fix for those who were experiencing it on a permanent basis. Pity you need to lose a monitor though.

Final Cut Pro: Copying Filters

Thu, 22 May 08 13:10:55 -0600

I never realized until today just how many methods there were for copying filters from one clip to another in Final Cut Pro.

1. In the Filters tab for the clip, Ctrl-Click on the name of the filter and select Copy or press Cmd-C. Select the other clip, switch to its Filter tab and press Cmd-V.

2. In the Filters tab, drag the filter name and drop it onto the other clip(s).

3. Some tools like the 3-way Color Corrector give you a little "grab" icon within its interface that you can drag onto other clips.

4. Copy the entire clip, ctrl-click the second clip and select Paste Attributes. Deselect everything except Filters.

5. Use the copying commands in the Modify > Copy Filters menu or use the shortcut keys: Ctrl+Alt+2 = Copy from 2nd clip back, Ctrl+Alt+3 = Copy from 1st clip back, Ctrl+Alt+4 = Copy to 1st clip forwards and Ctrl+Alt+5 = Copy to 2nd clip forwards

6. Select all of the clips you want to apply the filter to (Edit > Find is useful for this) and drag them up to a higher track. With the items still selected, go to Sequence > Nest Items and make sure the settings in the dialog match your current timeline settings. Click Ok and then apply the filter to the nested sequence.

7. Go to Effects > Make Favorite Effect. You can then select the other clips and go to Effects > Favorites (under the Video heading) and select your filter to apply those settings to other effects. Alternatively, you can drag the filter (using one of the methods of grabbing it described above) to the Favorites bin in the Effects tab in the Browser (you can also give it a more descriptive name here).

That's 7 ways I can think of... can anyone think of any more?

Activity Monitor 101: System memory

Thu, 15 May 08 00:21:08 -0600

Activity Monitor (located in Applications/Utilities) is a great tool for monitoring system resource usage, and is a great way of locating rendering bottlenecks in your system.

In particular, the Memory tab shows you a great deal of information (note: this is from Leopard; Tiger's Activity Monitor looks a little different).

But what does this information mean? What exactly is wired memory? Here is a breakdown of what each item in the Memory tab refers to.

(For clarification, a swap file is a file on disk used to store currently inactive memory in order to make room in the system memory for active applications. For example, if you have Firefox running and you minimize it and then open iTunes, there is a good chance that a lot of Firefox's memory will be written to disk and the space freed will be assigned to iTunes. When you restore the Firefox window, it will copy the data from the disk back into memory again. Your hard disk is much slower than your memory chips so it is best to keep swap file usage to a minimum. This can be achieved by adding more memory to your system.)

Free: Unused memory that is available for any application to use.

Wired: Memory used by the operating system that cannot be touched by other applications. This memory cannot be written to a swap file.

Active: Memory currently used by applications. Note that this might not represent all of the memory used, as some may be stored in swap files.

Inactive: Memory stored from an application that is no longer running. OS X stores application data in a cache so that you can quickly relaunch applications a second time. If you start running out of free memory, the operating system will automatically start using inactive memory.

To clear inactive memory manually, go to Applications/Utilities/Terminal. When it launches, type purge and press enter. Note: it takes several seconds to process.

Used: Memory currently in use that cannot be immediately written to a swap file or allocated elsewhere.

VM size: The size of the swap file.

Page Ins / Page Outs: How often OS X is reading data from and writing to the swap file.

When deciding if you need an upgrade, consider the following:

Are your page ins/outs approximately equal to one another? Are they increasing rapidly?
Is the majority of your memory wired?
Do you have 10% or less of your memory free?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, consider more memory.

How to fully remove Final Cut Server

Wed, 07 May 08 23:40:40 -0600

Apple has just released an Applecare document listing the files installed by Final Cut Server and detailing how to remove them. This follows on from the difficulties a lot of people had with removing it due to the large number of files it places in hidden system folders. This was further complicated by Apple not wanting fixes made public until they had a chance to address the issue themselves.

I will use this information to add support within FCS Remover shortly.

Autodesk acquires Realviz

Wed, 07 May 08 14:49:01 -0600

This is very interesting. Autodesk (Maya, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, flint, flame, Lustre.... the list goes on) has just acquired the assets of Realviz. Realviz Stitcher (for combining multiple images into panoramas) and ImageModeler (creating 3D models from still images) are very popular in the visual effects industry and have been used on several high-profile features such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

A quick visit to Realviz's site reveals that its products have already been Autodesk-branded. I see this acquisition as a good thing because it is clear that the purchase is not a defensive move and that Autodesk does genuinely want to develop the products further. I would particularly like to see Movimento, ImageModeler and MatchMover incorporated into Maya in one form or another.

Autodesk also announced today that it had completed the acquisition of Kynogon, makers of Kynapse artificial intelligence software.

Update: VFXWorld has an exclusive interview with Marc Petit, Autodesk's SVP about the acquisitions. He confirms that the products will be integrated into existing product offerings such as Maya but will also be available separately.

"We are seeing some fundamental changes in the way movies, television programs and games are produced. Being able to gather 3D data from 2D material can help at many stages of the production process. We see it in pre-visualization, where it's easy to build 3D environments or virtual sets by stitching pictures together or derive 3D models very quickly from set photos using image-based modeling. Games now require a lot of facial animation. Animators can rough out facial animations using a webcam and optical motion capture. Adding assist cameras on location to capture scenes from multiple points of view is a good insurance policy for post-production. Of course, you can extract camera moves to enrich the post-production process but you can also rebuild sets in 3D from these multiple points of view. Multiple cameras enable optical motion capture of actors in non-intrusive ways without the need for suits or dedicated stages. The performance of an actor can then be modified or augmented during the post-production process using regular 3D tools such as Maya or Flame. Moreover, combining all of these technologies with spatial image-based lighting allows for highly realistic integration of CG elements with live action. We believe that weaving these technologies and products more tightly into our existing portfolio should lead to some interesting new capabilities and will provide for a more efficient production environment."

ATI Radeon 3870 due next month for Mac Pro?

Wed, 30 Apr 08 15:50:47 -0600

AppleInsider is reporting that the ATI Radeon HD 3870 will be due "next month" for both current and legacy Mac Pros.

Details are scarce (and possibly fictional) but the card is said to include 512 MB of DDR4 memory and support for CrossFire mode (linking two cards up to boost graphics performance, usually in video games) within Windows.

More importantly for professional users, it provides a mid-range alternative to NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT which has ProApp performance issues.

Color users are particularly advised to invest in an ATI card because they support rendering in 10-, 12- and 16-bit modes in addition to NVIDIA's 8- and 32-bit offerings. The NVIDIA card gives you a choice between best and worst, with no in-between values. This can cause problems for people wanting something higher than 8-bit without the massive performance hit when working in 32-bit mode.

At present, the only way to get a mid-range ATI card in your new Mac Pro is to buy one of the ones from the old Mac Pros and update the firmware, although this has the caveat that you have to install it in an older Mac Pro first in order to update it. This news would appear to be the answer to many professional users' prayers, although I hope that Apple introduce a driver update for those that have already upgraded to the 8800 GT.

Digital Rebellion 1 year old today

Wed, 30 Apr 08 02:32:16 -0600

Digital Rebellion is exactly a year old today! And unlike a lot of start-ups, we're still here and going strong (amazingly).

It's been a year of great things for us. Perfect Sport is now complete and is doing very well at festivals, and our free online resources are proving popular. Looking forward, we have some more projects in the pipeline and I hope I can make an announcement towards the end of the year regarding these.

We've always encouraged comments and feedback and I feel this has been important to our success so I encourage that further. Either use our contact form or use the feedback link at the bottom of every page.

I'm not going out to celebrate or anything, but if you are planning on going to a bar, you are more than welcome to use this as an excuse for the wife :p

Baz Luhrmann offers free filmmaking course on iTunes

Wed, 30 Apr 08 01:57:10 -0600

Baz Luhrmann (director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and the infamous Chanel commercial with Nicole Kidman) is now offering a free filmmaking course entitled Set to Screen in video podcast form on the iTunes store.

It lasts until October and each podcast features a specific aspect of the filmmaking process (e.g. set design, cinematography, etc) on Baz's new feature film, Australia, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. The first one, On Set Photography, is available now. Peter Jackson did something similar on King Kong which ended up being very successful.

If you're a high school or college student, five of the podcasts come with a challenge at the end. Complete the challenge, post it to the Apple Student Gallery and you could be in for the chance of winning an iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod touch, or a MacBook Pro. A trip for two to Australia is also up for grabs, and the top prize in the final challenge is a trip to Australia with a chance to meet Baz and travel with him on the movie's promotional tour. Your project will also be featured on the movie's DVD release.

For those who aren't students, I think the podcasts are still very interesting regardless. I have a lot of respect for Baz and his work so I will be subscribing to this for sure and no doubt hanging on his every word.

[via CamcorderInfo]

Perfect Sport wins Best Drama at WorldFest

Sat, 26 Apr 08 15:03:49 -0600

I previously mentioned that Perfect Sport had been entered into the WorldFest Houston film festival. I'm happy to announce that the movie fought off some tough competition to win Best Dramatic Feature at the festival. Congratulations to all those involved, in particular Tony O'Brien, the writer-director-actor behind it.

I saw a great review on IMDb from someone who saw it at WorldFest that summarizes the movie far better than I ever could:

And finally, LA Times has a sneak preview.

The movie will be entered into other film festivals and I will let you know more about that when information becomes available. When it comes to your town, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Why FCS Remover misses out the Final Cut Server database

Thu, 24 Apr 08 15:57:16 -0600

I've been getting this question a lot lately. FCS Remover removes all of the files on the disk but it does not remove the Final Cut Server database. This can cause problems when reinstalling because the installer does not ask you for information such as the profile (e.g. Video Production) and Media / Proxy Media locations again, as these are stored in the database and not in a preference file on the disk like most of its other applications. This database is hidden away in the depths of the filesystem and this thread on Apple's discussion boards suggests Apple's thoughts on the subject of removing it:

Apple and myself worked on this issue for the past two hours. We found the solution and I got mine fixed in about 30 seconds. However, Apple has respectfully asked me not to post the solution here for a variety of reasons. This IS new software and they are working very hard on providing resolutions in their support area and in FCS updates.

While I would love to help all of you... please wait for Apple to offer their solutions. It will def. be better than the quick fix that we found tonight.

It sounds like Apple is aware of the problem and wants to be given the opportunity to fix it in their own time. I will respectfully grant them that opportunity, although I am prepared to add support in FCS Remover should Apple choose not to fix the problem.

CalDigit SAN announced at NAB

Wed, 23 Apr 08 16:13:42 -0600

I just got this in my inbox courtesy of the LAFCPUG mailing list.

Right now at Digital Rebellion we're running Xserve RAIDs on Xsan 1.4. I love these things but they're loud, they kick out a lot of heat and they're no longer being made. They're still pretty good and they're not out of date yet but I have been looking at alternatives with the future in mind.

CalDigit, famous for their hardware RAID cards, demonstrated such an alternative at NAB. One major departure from the Xserve RAIDs and their replacement, the Promise VTrak E-Class, is the fact that it does not use 2 or 4 Gb Fibre Channel cables (which cost around $80 per cable) to transmit data. It uses ePCIe which allows it to transmit data at speeds of up to 20 Gbps and allows for very long cable lengths of up to 300m.

With the recent announcement of the entry-level Scarlet camera, the demand for real-time access to extremely high resolution streams looks set to increase dramatically and, luckily, the CalDigit SAN has the bandwidth to transfer multiple 2K streams in real-time.

Uniquely, there is also an ePCIe ExpressCard device to allow laptop users (MacBook Pro only) to access the SAN. This is not currently available for fibre-based networks.

There's nothing on their site as of yet but they have a press release out and it looks like more details will be announced nearer the shipping date, which is currently unknown. This is definitely something I'm keeping my eye on.

Toshiba plans 512 GB SSDs for 2009

Wed, 23 Apr 08 14:34:10 -0600

Toshiba has announced that production improvements will allow it to ship 512 GB solid-state drives (SSDs) by 2009. This is a four-fold increase over its 128 GB drives that will start shipping in June.

The Japanese company estimates that it can reduce the price of making SSDs by as much as 40 to 50 percent every year, resulting in far less expensive drives at greater storage levels. While a 1.8-inch SSD costs 2.9 times as much as its rotating hard disk equivalent, a reliable price drop could reduce the cost to a comparatively reasonable 40 percent premium within the near future. When this will occur is uncertain.

This is important because SSDs are small, light, sturdy, less prone to physical failure, more power and heat efficient, and above all - FAST. This surprising rate of growth would mean that by the end of 2009, SSDs will be able to compete with conventional hard disks on space and, not long afterwards, price as well. Current models have some writing problems - namely, a lower maximum number of writes and slower write speeds than conventional hard disks. However, this is increasing all the time and will probably not be an issue in the next couple of years.

This is an exciting technology for the film industry for both acquisition, post production and, potentially, distribution that I will be keeping my eye on.

New tool: Lens Angle Calc

Tue, 22 Apr 08 15:07:52 -0600

We've just released a new online tool: Lens Angle Calc. This allows you to calculate the horizontal or vertical lens angle from a given frame width / height and lens focal length.

This is very useful because it allows you to plan your shoot on paper and work out exactly where the camera should be placed before you even arrive on set - saving valuable time and avoiding awkward situations in small locations where you can't see the subject on your widest lens with your back against the wall. It is invaluable for effects work, where everything must be planned out in meticulous detail.

It can also work out the focal length of the lens from a given lens angle and frame width or height - very useful for working out which lens should be used in a certain situation.

Lens Angle Calc
Lens Angle Calc (iPhone version)

See our other web applications here.

NAB 2008 Summary

Sat, 19 Apr 08 09:59:01 -0600

If, like me, you couldn't possibly keep up with all of the goings-on at NAB and decided to wait it out until the end, here is a short summary of the biggest announcements (or the ones most interesting to me anyway) in bitesize form.

RED
New low-end portable camera Scarlet

3K
Around $3000
Early 2009 release
New Mysterium X Sensor
1-120 fps (180 fps burst)
100MB/sec Redcode RAW and RGB recording via dual Compact Flash
4.8 inch LCD
Fixed 8x T2.8 lens
Auto and manual shooting modes
Wi-Fi control - this one opens up many possibilities

PVC Scarlet write-up

New high-end camera Epic

5K (up from 4K)
I have heard both $30,000 and $40,000 quoted (up from $17,500)
Early 2009 release
New Full-Frame S35 Mysterium X Sensor
1-100 fps (up from 1-60 fps)
100MB/sec (up from 36 MB/sec) Redcode and HDMI recording
6 lb body (down from 10 lbs)
RAW and RGB recording to Red Flash
Wi-Fi control
Fully upgradeable
You can get a full $17,500 credit for your Red One if you upgrade

PVC Epic write-up

New playback device RED Ray

Early 2009
4K in
4K, 2K, 1080p, 720p, SD playback
Can play back content from a regular red laser disc
Plays native R3D files from Compact Flash
4 HD SDI and 4
HDMI connections for 4K
2 HD SDI and 2 HDMI connections for 2K
2 hrs of 4K with 5.1 audio on a regular DVD
FireWire 800 for connecting external hard disks or cameras
Under $1000

PVC RED Ray write-up
Scott Simmons at the Editblog has several photographs of the various RED products.

Sony
PMW-EX3

Around $13,000
Uses SxS cards (similar to P2)
Removable lens
1080i / 720p switchable
Genlock and timecode inputs
Shoulder-mounted
Available late 2008

F35

S35-sized sensor
Extensive depth of field controls
Greater dynamic range than the F23 (800% more)
PL lens mount allows regular 35mm film lenses to be used

Panasonic
P2 Varicams (AJ-HPX3700 and AJ-HPX2700)

Now uses P2 cards exclusively. 5x P2 slots available on each camera
2/3" CCDs
Full-res 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC Intra-100 recording
Variable frame rates in 1-frame increments
Available fall 2008

AG-HPX170 solid-state camcorder

Improves on the successful HVX200
1/3" premium-quality CCDs offering increased sensitivity and lower noise
13x lens with 28mm wide-angle setting (widest in its class)
12-60 fps in 720p-mode
P2-only; no tape deck
Much smaller and lighter than the HVX200
Available fall 2008

Here is a great summary from DVXUser.com.

AJ-HVX200A camcorder

Successor to the hugely popular HVX-200
Incorporates the same lens and CCDs as the new HPX170 but with a tape deck for transitioning from a MiniDV workflow

Here is a great review from DVXUser.com.

64 GB P2 card

More than 4 hours of DVCPRO footage
More than 2 hours of DVCPRO50 or AVC-Intra 50
More than 64 minutes of AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD
Available fall 2008

AJ-PCD35 ExpressCard P2 drive

Allows P2 cards to be used in machines with ExpressCard ports
Can transfer from up to 5 cards at once
Available late 2008

Imagineer Systems
High-end finishing system mogul

Monthly subscription includes hardware, software and maintenance. Annual hardware upgrades
Open platform allows content sharing and management between multiple applications
Editing, compositing and grading integrated to allow you to switch from one to the other without rendering
Software "plugs in" to the architecture to perform certain tasks such as mogul/roto and mogul/comp with similar interfaces
mogul/serve shipping at NAB, other products to be determined

Studio Daily mogul interview

Matrox
MXO 2

Inputs: Component HD/SD, SDI HD/SD, Embedded SDI audio, Y/C, Composite, XLR audio, RCA audio, AES/EBU, HDMI, Embedded HDMI audio
Outputs: Component HD/SD, SDI HD/SD, Embedded SDI audio, Y/C, Composite, RCA audio, XLR audio, AES/EBU, HDMI, Embedded HDMI audio, Direct 5.1 surround monitoring
This does not have a DVI output like the MXO so it cannot output to a Cinema Display
Dynamic RT acceleration and hardware up/downscaling
Designed for HDMI monitoring with calibration and 1:1 pixel mapping
Black burst and tri-sync for HD
$1600
Released July 2008

Differences between the MXO and MXO 2 (PDF)
Shane Ross's write-up

FCS Remover 1.0.7 released

Fri, 18 Apr 08 13:14:03 -0600

We've just released FCS Remover 1.0.7.

The biggest new feature is Final Cut Server support (thanks to Morten Schmidt for helping with this). Clicking "Remove Final Cut Server" will remove the Final Cut Server software but not Compressor or Qmaster. To remove these as well, you will have to click "Remove Final Cut Studio" as unfortunately these two applications overlap into both pieces of software.

It also removes some Final Cut Studio support files that were missed out in previous versions.

FCS Remover allows you to remove Final Cut Studio 1 and 2, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Server at the press of a button.

Bug report
Feature request

Apple releases 8800 GT for old Mac Pros

Wed, 16 Apr 08 23:54:30 -0600

Early Mac Pro users can now use Apple's NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Upgrade Kit to add the latest graphics card to their machine.

However, before you rush off to find your credit card, I would advise holding off for a while until Apple fixes the performance issues with an updated driver (these are normally included in operating system updates but sometimes are offered separately).

And if you're planning to use it with Color, you're better off with the original ATI Radeon X1900 XT as the NVIDIA card supports fewer working bit-depths.

But if you're a gamer, you're grand.

My Compressor issues solved

Wed, 16 Apr 08 14:29:19 -0600

I recently experienced the dreaded "Unable to submit to queue. Please restart your computer or verify your Compressor installation is correct" error message when submitting batches with Compressor. I noticed that it listed "No Value" under Cluster instead of "This Machine".

Going to Qmaster Preferences and clicking Start Sharing gave me a message saying that "qmasterd" was not running. This was the cause of the problem.

The first thing I did was look on Apple's support boards where I found many posts on the subject. Unfortunately most users found that they managed to solve their issues by removing and reinstalling Compressor or the entire Final Cut Studio. This is something I did not want to do.

I used the terminal command sudo qmasterprefs -reset (this seems to be equivalent to trashing prefs as far as I can gather) and then sudo qmasterprefs -restart to relaunch qmasterd. I then relaunched Compressor and everything worked as it should.

Except when I restarted my machine, at which point I was back to the same error messages again. I knew that a fix must be possible without a reinstall, and it was probably something simple. So I did some digging around and I discovered that the folder /Library/StartupItems/Qmaster had the wrong permissions. It was set to No Access for some bizarre reason, preventing OS X from seeing any files inside it. Note that this was not picked up by Disk Utility when doing a permission repair. So I set the owner back to system and clicked Apply to enclosed items to be 100% sure that the permissions would be correct for all files.

I restarted my machine and everything worked. Two restarts later and it still works.

I can't say it will work for everyone but try it if you are experiencing these symptoms.

Why does QuickTime report a different resolution?

Sun, 13 Apr 08 03:02:01 -0600

Ever wondered why QuickTime reports a completely different resolution to the one you exported at?

Welcome to the world of non-square pixels. NTSC and PAL use rectangular pixels to fill up space on the screen and save transmission bandwidth, which was more of an issue when the standards were invented. Computer monitors use square pixels and so QuickTime has to squeeze one side of the image in order to prevent it looking stretched. This is purely for display and the file is not modified.

The pixel aspect ratio of NTSC footage is 0.889 meaning 720 x 0.889 = 640 so it is displayed at 640x480. For PAL it is 1.067 so 576 / 1.067 = 540 and it is displayed at 720x540.

QuickTime also has some options for controlling how the movie is displayed. Open up your movie, go to Window > Show Movie Properties and click on the Presentation tab.

You will see an option marked "Conform aperture to:" with the following options:

Classic - Classic is identical to having the conform aperture setting switched off.

Clean - Scales the image to compensate for the pixel aspect ratio and crops it to mimic the overscan on a broadcast monitor.

Production - Scales the image to compensate for the pixel aspect ratio but does not crop the image.

Encoded Pixels - No modification is made to the footage. Note the stretching caused by non-square pixels.

This is one of the many reasons why a broadcast monitor is essential.

Preference Manager 1.0.4 released

Sat, 12 Apr 08 12:04:35 -0600

We've just released Preference Manager 1.0.4. There's only one new feature but it's a big one.

We've completely overhauled the backup system so that backups are now stored in one compressed file instead of several folders. A lot of users want to synchronize settings between, say a work machine and a home machine. This new feature makes it much easier - just keep a copy of the file and Preference Manager on an external disk, install Preference Manager on the second machine and double-click the file. Easy.

However, these changes have caused old backups to be completely incompatible with the new version. They won't even appear in the Restore list. Don't worry though - I added a function to convert old backups to the new format. Just go to File > Convert Backups to New Format. Browse to your backup folder (default is ~/Library/Application Support/Digital Rebellion/Preference Manager/Backups), select all of your old backup folders and click the Open button to convert them to the new format. The old folders will remain on the disk in case you need them but if not, they can be safely deleted.

Preference Manager is a utility for trashing, backing up and restoring Final Cut Studio preference files, button bars, keyboard layouts, window layouts, user plugins, column layouts, track layouts and custom settings. This allows you to repair problems and copy useful settings to a second machine.

Thanks to everyone who put in feature requests and bug reports. Keep them coming.

To be notified of future updates, subscribe to our appcast or this blog.

Preference Manager 1.0.3 released

Fri, 11 Apr 08 12:26:37 -0600

We just released Preference Manager 1.0.3. This is a quick bug fix version that repairs a rather annoying bug some of you were getting - the dreaded "The volume 'Digital Rebellion' does not exist" message.

I was aware of it and had fixed it a couple of days ago. I was planning to delay the release until early next week, as I had several features I wanted to implement over the weekend but unfortunately the number of reports I received about this bug prompted me to release this fix early.

Lots of people have been contacting me with suggestions for future versions, some of which excited me a lot because they were such great ideas. Keep it up, I appreciate it a lot.

Submit bug report
Submit feature request
Subscribe to our appcast

Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 released

Fri, 11 Apr 08 00:39:02 -0600

Can you see an update in Software Update called "Pro Applications Update 2008-01"? Well, confusingly, that's actually Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 and Compressor 3.0.3. It also includes Apple HDV Codec 1.4 and Plugin Manager 1.7.3.

Release Notes

Final Cut Pro 6.0.3

This update contains the following:

XDCAM HD422 support
"Project is too new or unreadable" error fixed (yay)
Still images are now exported using their native aspect ratios
FCP now uses the aspect ratio of the clip when stacking multiple filters in a mixed-format timeline
When using XML import, FCP can now reconnect files that contain slashes (/) in their filenames
You can now place generator clips in FXScript filter clip wells, although read the release notes for the caveats

If this update is not appearing for you, you must have OS X 10.4.11 or OS X 10.5.2 installed.

Compressor 3.0.3

This update contains the following:

You can now create Apple TV movies with non-square pixel aspect ratios and there is now a Dolby AC-3 output for it as well

I was very disappointed that it did not fix any of the bugs with Compressor on Leopard.

Apple HDV Codec 1.4

This update contains the following:

4:2:2 support

Plugin Manager 1.7.3

This update contains the following:

This fixes FxPlug plugins on FCP 5.1.4 that were broken my previous Plugin Manager updates

As always, never update a system mid-project. Don't update if you are not affected by the changes listed above - if it ain't broke, definitely don't fix it in the world of FCP. If you do update, make sure to make a clone of your system first.

You can get the update here as well, but you will need to have your Final Cut Studio serial number handy.

How to run Color below its minimum requirements

Thu, 10 Apr 08 01:17:47 -0600

Color has some pretty stringent requirements. This tip will tell you how to run Color when you do not meet the minimum system requirements. Why would you want to do this? Well, maybe you have a slow machine and just want to grade a couple of simple shots or perhaps you would like to learn how to use the software before buying a new machine. Whatever the reason, here's how to do it.

Note that Apple doesn't set minimum requirements for the sake of it, and you may experience strange behavior from this tip. I wouldn't advise this for production use.

When you launch Color, it will tell you specifically what is wrong with your configuration. In this case, it is less than 128 MB of VRAM (graphics card memory).

1. Go to Applications, ctrl-click on Color and select Show Package Contents.

2. Browse to Contents/Resources.

3. Double-click minsys.plist to open it up in Property List Editor. Alternatively, you can open it in TextEdit. You might want to save a backup of this file before you change anything.

4. You will see several self-explanatory options here such as minimum QuickTime version and minimum system memory. Go to AELMinimumVRAM and change it from 128 to something lower. As I am running it on a system with 64 MB of VRAM, I will change it to 64. Just set it to something lower-than or equal-to what you currently have.

5. Save the file and open Color.

If your screen resolution is set too low, the Color interface will be tiny and unfortunately this is a side-effect of hacking the system requirements. Obviously they are there for a reason.

This tip applies to all programs in Final Cut Studio, not just Color.

Final Cut Server released

Tue, 08 Apr 08 09:45:20 -0600

It's Tuesday, which means more goodies from Apple. Apple today released their long-awaited and much-delayed Final Cut Server software, based on the Artbox software they bought from Proximity.

Final Cut Server is an asset management system that allows you to keep track of your media. It is especially useful for facilities with a large stock footage library or companies dealing with large amounts of footage, such as news rooms.

It is also useful for smaller facilities as well. I particularly like the versioning system which tracks changes made to a file, showing you who made the change and when, and offering you a way of reverting the changes if necessary.

One of my favorite features is the event system. You can ask Final Cut Server to watch a specific attribute such as a metadata field and perform an action when that is changed, such as uploading files to a server.

The server software is Mac-only but the client software is for both PC and Mac (this probably had something to do with the delays). Here are the system requirements:

Server software
* A Mac computer with a 1.8GHz or faster PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor (Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor recommended)
* 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)
* AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Server is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)
* Mac OS X v10.5 or later
* QuickTime 7.4.1 or later
* A CD drive for installation
* 500MB of available disk space

Client software for Mac computers
* A Mac computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
* 1GB of RAM
* AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Server is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)
* A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
* Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later
* QuickTime 7.4.1 or later
* Java for Mac OS X v10.4 Release 6 or later
* Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 or later for Final Cut Pro integration
* 20MB of available disk space

Client software for Windows-based computers
* A PC with Windows XP (SP2) or Vista
* 1GB of RAM
* AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Server is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)
* A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
* QuickTime 7.4.1 or later
* Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 4 or later
* 20MB of available disk space

Important areas to note:
* The server software is Leopard-only.
* You must fit a separate graphics card to the machine as the on-board graphics will not suffice. Also note that the G5 servers do not even have on-board graphics. This also affects any machine that you connect to it as well, which rules out MacBooks and low-end PCs.

Final Cut Server is now available for $999 (10-client version) and $1999 (Unlimited version). Interestingly, the upgrade for the 10-client version is $999 which makes it cheaper by a dollar to upgrade the 10-client version than it is to buy the unlimited version outright.

Exporting chapter markers to DVD Studio Pro

Fri, 04 Apr 08 01:35:36 -0600

I am constantly seeing posts on Apple's support boards by people who can't get this to work. This seems to be a common problem so I'm going to give a step-by-step workflow followed by troubleshooting tips at the end.

1. In the Final Cut Pro timeline, navigate to the point you wish to place the marker, press M once to place a regular marker and then press M again to open up the Edit Marker dialog.

Make sure that you are adding the markers to the sequence itself and not to an individual clip. There are some rules though - Don't place one within 1 second of the beginning, don't place one within 1 second of the end and don't place them less than 1 second apart.

2. Click the button marked Add Chapter Marker and it will automatically insert some text into the box. Do not change this text; just click Ok.

Repeat for every marker.

3. Go to File > Export > QuickTime Movie. Do not export as QuickTime Conversion. Under the Markers drop-down, select DVD Studio Pro Markers.

Or Go to File > Export > Using Compressor. This will not display a dialog box but you will be able to see markers on the timeline in the Preview window.

4. Export the file.

5. Open up DVD Studio Pro and drag the exported file onto a track.

In the timeline, drag the edge of the horizontal scroll bar to decrease the size of the timeline and see everything at once. You should be able to see all of your chapter markers.

6. Go to Simulate and double-check that they work.

Troubleshooting

I think most problems are caused by not knowing the restrictions on chapter markers. This is from the FCP 6 manual:
* No chapter marker should appear closer than 1 second to the beginning or end of
your edited sequence.
* A chapter marker should be at least 1 second away from any other chapter marker.
* A maximum of 99 chapter markers can be placed within a single program.
* When you export from a sequence, only sequence markers are exported; markers in
clips are ignored.
* When you export a clip from the Browser, the clip's markers are exported.

Markers within nested sequences will not be exported.

You must select DVD Studio Pro Marker and not Chapter Marker under the QuickTime export options.

Don't put chapter and compression markers in the same marker!

I have had better luck with DVD Studio Pro Marker rather than All Markers in the QT export dialog.

Be aware that if you export a QT movie with markers and then import it into Compressor, you will lose your chapter markers if you do not have Compressor 3 (included with Final Cut Studio 2).

I have heard of people having success by trashing their preferences. We have a free utility that will automate it for you - Preference Manager.

Let me know if you can think of any more troubleshooting tips.

QuickTime 7.4.5 released

Thu, 03 Apr 08 00:17:01 -0600

Apple just released QuickTime 7.4.5 to coincide with the release of iTunes 7.6.2 and Front Row 2.1.3. The coincidence of these releases suggests that the QT update specifically affects those applications and offers no specific benefits to Final Cut Studio. If you have a working system, DON'T install it!

On the other hand, if your system is not working, you have nothing to lose. I'd advise cloning your system beforehand though, as a non-working system could potentially be made even worse by this update.

Here are the links... use at your peril!
QuickTime 7.4.5 for Panther
QuickTime 7.4.5 for Tiger
QuickTime 7.4.5 for Leopard

I have also updated our list of QuickTime downloads.

Preference Manager 1.0.2 released

Wed, 02 Apr 08 12:38:51 -0600

Sorry for the lack of blog updates recently; I have been working in Italy with intermittent internet access. But I'm now back and we've just released Preference Manager 1.0.2. It offers the following changes:

Bug fix: A check is now performed for unmounted external volumes. If you set your backup location to an external disk and unmount it, the app will copy files to the default location until you plug it back in.
Feature: Added New Folder button to Browse dialog.
Feature: A lot of you requested it and here it is: you can now back up FCP button bars, keyboard layouts, column layouts, window layouts, track layouts, custom settings and user plugins.

("User plugins" refers to plugins residing in your ~/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Plugins directory)

For those not yet aware, Preference Manager is an application that allows you to trash, backup and restore your Final Cut Studio preference files. This allows you to create a "working configuration" backup and restore to that when things go wrong. It also allows you to copy across your settings, window layouts, button bars etc, when you switch to another machine.

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