We've just released Kollaborate 1.0.4 to the cloud - a major update to our cloud workflow system that offers lots of new user-requested features and changes.

Import comments

Comments can now be imported from Final Cut Pro or Avid marker lists. To do this, click the Actions button on the player page, then click Import Comments. Select the type of marker list (FCP or Avid), then browse for the file and click Upload. The markers will be imported into the file at their existing timecode positions and you will be marked as the author of the comments.

View all Shares

You can now see every link you have shared on a project-wide basis without having to visit the Share page for every file individually. To do this click Share from the Actions dropdown on the player page or the arrow to the right of a file on the Files page. Then click All Links for this Project at the right-hand side. If you are an admin you can view links created by everyone in the project.

Admins can view all tasks

Admins can now view and modify tasks they do not own. Tasks by other users will now appear in the Tasks for Others or Completed Tasks sections.

Other changes

• The Add User dialog on the Team page now shows user presets for all projects you own, not just the current one
• Link users are now asked for their name only when they leave a comment
• Your own views of a link you created no longer count towards the view count
• Comments can be disabled on a per-file basis from the Edit Metadata page

A corresponding update to Kollaborate Server will be coming next week.

Kollaborate is a cloud workflow platform for video professionals centered around the Digital Rebellion app ecosystem. To find out more, view the feature list or sign up for the free no obligation 15-day trial.

We've just launched Marker Import 2.0, a significant redesign and rebranding of Cut Notes Marker Import. Marker Import is a free tool for taking notes generated by Cut Notes or Kollaborate and importing them into your editing system. In addition to the existing Final Cut Pro 7 and FCPX project support, we've added the following new features.

Adobe Premiere support

Markers can now be imported into Adobe Premiere projects through FCP XML. Firstly, export your notes to a Final Cut Pro marker list from Cut Notes or Kollaborate, then export your sequence or project to Final Cut Pro XML within Adobe Premiere.

Open the marker list in Marker Import, then browse for the XML file. Select the sequence and adjust the frame offset if necessary, then click Import Markers to write them to the XML file. Reimport the XML file into Adobe Premiere and your sequence will be duplicated with the new markers.

Final Cut Pro X event support

Markers can be imported into a clip within an FCPX event file. Export your notes to a marker list, then export the event to XML from within FCPX.

Open the marker list in Marker Import, then browse for the XML file. Select the clip and adjust the frame offset if necessary, then click Import Markers. A duplicate of the event will automatically open in FCPX.

Other changes in this version include OS X 10.9 Mavericks compatibility and the ability to specify an offset in units other than frames.

Marker Import is a free download available from the right-hand sidebar of the Cut Notes site. You can view detailed guides to importing into different applications in the user manual.

We've just released Pro Media Tools 1.1.12, a minor update to our suite of media management tools.

OS X 10.9 support

Pro Media Tools is now compatible with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, released earlier this week.

QT Edit batch timecode

Starting timecode can now be adjusted for a group of files at once in a batch. If a timecode track is detected it will be modified to the new value, otherwise a new timecode track will be added.

This is in addition to the Quick Tasks that already exist for importing DSLR timecode from a THM file or setting timecode to the current time of day.

The full list of changes is as follows:

• OS X 10.9 compatibility
• Auto Transfer - Improved feedback when erasing a drive
• Auto Transfer - Stability improvements during drive erasing
• Batch Renamer - Stability improvements
• QT Edit - Timecode information can now be specified in a batch
• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where QuickTime movies without file extensions couldn't be opened
• QT Edit - When saving as, a .mov file extension is forced if an extension is not specified
• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where the player could override certain keyboard shortcuts
• Render Watcher - UI improvements
• Various other fixes and tweaks

Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for video professionals, used around the world to enable new media management workflows. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the 15-day trial.

Today Apple aimed to reaffirm their commitment to professional users with more details on the new Mac Pro. While some have correctly pointed out that the starting price for the new version is higher than the old model, this seems entirely reasonable to me given the significant leap in specifications. I was also relieved that it is reasonably upgradeable, minus the graphics card, although Mac users have never had a wide variety of cards to choose from anyway.

However, at the same time Apple took away some professional options. The Retina MacBook Pro was updated with more screen size options and improved specifications, however it has almost entirely replaced the older non-Retina model.

There are very specific reasons why some pros would choose a non-Retina model: matte display, greater availability of ports and upgradeable interior. The only option Apple is offering is a 13" version, which seems strange because I would have assumed that the type of user who chooses the non-Retina model would aim for the largest screen size possible. This would suggest that Apple is not aiming this laptop at spec-sensitive professionals at all, but instead users who are looking for a cheap option. However, it's only slightly cheaper than the 13" Retina so I'm really not sure what their target market is (if you can figure it out, let me know in the comments).

My 2011 MacBook Pro recently got destroyed so I was in the market for a new one. I considered a Retina laptop but in the end I opted for a 15" non-Retina MacBook Pro that was barely faster than my 2011 model. I could grudgingly cope with the glossy display and reduced ports but the lack of upgradeability was the deal-breaker for me. While it is good that Apple has reduced the prices of the Retina model, you'd be a fool not to max it out at the time of purchase. As I've said before on this blog, Apple is charging a premium price for a throwaway computer and they really need to factor that into the initial selling price.

While Apple recently instituted a policy of offering older versions of an app to users on older versions of iOS, it does not have the same policy on the Mac App Store and has so far given no indication that it will make older versions of OS X available upon the release of Mavericks. Consequently, the moment OS X 10.9 is released (possibly tomorrow), OS X 10.8 is likely to cease to be available for purchase.

Sometimes it can be difficult to juggle the OS compatibility of multiple third-party applications, particularly if you are still using deprecated apps in your workflows (e.g. FCP 7). So even if you have no plans to install it any time soon, we'd recommend buying OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on the App Store today so that you have it tied to your account for future use.

Update: While 10.7 and 10.8 are no longer available for direct purchase from the Mac App Store, Apple is now offering redemption codes for OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.8 on its main online store.

Do you really need to buy Compressor when you can export from Final Cut Pro X?

FCP 7's export functions were traditionally poor and FCPX's are much better, but here's why you still need Compressor.

Prepare a Mac for OS X Mavericks the Right Way

Mavericks will be out soon. Here's how to prepare for it, although you probably don't want to upgrade your production machines on day one.

RED editing? Dedicated controllers? Could this be a tablet that professionals can use?

The Microsoft Surface 2 tablet looks interesting as a potential post production tool.

Some Power Titling Tips in Premiere Pro

Very useful tips for dealing with titles in Premiere Pro CC.

5 QuickTime Player Secrets

Power tips for playing video in QuickTime Player X.

Where did the light go in the waveform monitor?

FCP 7's waveform brightness function may help you to see hot spots that don't show up under the default settings.

Here's another installment of bugs in your NLE you should know about.

Premiere

Premiere will crash if you adjust the border on a wipe transition

Contiguous clips in an EDL will be imported without cuts (Avid has this behavior too but FCP 7 doesn't)

Media files corrupted by "Write XMP ID to Files on Import" feature (I always switch this off - it's damaged too many files to risk it)

Durations are wrong, nests must be pre-rendered

Crash when importing multichannel AVI files created by Blackmagic Media Express

TickTime error can occur on media where Interpret Footage is activated

It's better to license CS6 and CC on different Adobe IDs

Avid

Bins in subfolders move about as you navigate the project

Media creation setting not sticking for NTSC projects

Splitting stereo audio to dual mono may result in two A1 tracks

Background processing may not work if your DNS setup is incorrect

Perian can cause files to fail transcoding

Yesterday we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.17, a minor update to our suite of tools to maintain, optimize and troubleshoot your editing system.

The changes in this version are as follows:

• OS X 10.9 compatibility
• Housekeeper - Support for trashing FCPX share cache
• MC Repair - Fixed an issue that could cause it to erroneously say there more than 5000 media files in a folder
• Plugin Manager - Fixed an issue where FCPX plugins with version numbers in the title may not appear
• Plugin Manager - New icons for Motion Template plugins
• Plugin Manager - Stability improvements
• Preference Manager - Logic Pro X supportUpdated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and polish

We've also updated the error message database in Crash Analyzer and you can view a list of all supported NLE error messages here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential maintenance and troubleshooting toolkit for every editor. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free trial.

As of today, Post Haste will no longer be available from the Mac App Store. Due to Apple's App Store sandboxing restrictions, it can be difficult to deliver a good user experience from file management apps like Post Haste that need to read from and write to a variety of locations on your hard drive.

In addition, we've known for a while that features on our future roadmap (e.g. scripting) would put us in direct conflict with Apple's App Store policies, despite being highly requested by our userbase. We knew that at some point in the future we'd need to make a decision about Post Haste on the store but hadn't expected it to happen quite so quickly.

We are unable to provide future updates to the current version nor offer a cut-down version without making what we consider to be unacceptable user experience changes, so we have made the decision to remove Post Haste from the store completely.

To be clear, development of Post Haste is alive and well for both Mac and PC, and the software will continue to be available for free download from our site. Most customers won't be affected by this because the majority have downloaded directly from us, but we apologize to those affected and encourage them to download a more up-to-date version of the app from our site.

It's common nowadays for videos to be processed through one or more applications prior to editorial. Unfortunately that can result in camera metadata being stripped from the processed files. This can cause lots of problems later on if you need to relink back to the original files for grading.

QT Edit solves this by letting you import metadata from another QuickTime movie. Here's how to do it:

1. Open up the destination movie.

2. Go to File > Import > Metadata. Browse for the camera original source file.

3. Select the metadata items you'd like to import or just import all metadata from the source file.

4. Save the destination file.

Being able to choose the metadata that is imported allows you to copy metadata fields between files even if the source file isn't the camera original version. Metadata can be added, removed or edited after import.

Pro Media Tools helps studios, production companies and freelancers alike forge new workflows every day. To find out more view the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free trial.