Essential tools: Perian

Perian's icon is a swiss-army knife and that couldn't be a better description. It is a codec pack for QuickTime that allows you to play back a whole host of formats including AVI, DivX and 3ivX. These are PC formats that we editors get given from time to time and it is incredibly useful to have a free Mac component to view them with.

Some people have reported problems with it but I personally have experienced none so far.

The brand new version 1.1 (just came out today) features the following changes:
* Major performance improvements
* TrueAudio, MP1, and DTS audio support
* Slice-based multithreaded decoding for MPEG-1/2/H.264
* Apple H.264 now handles AVCHD/interlaced video
* Compatibility fixes for QuickTime 7.4 and Leopard
* Objective-C GC compatibility
* Fixed a crash in Toast
* Better subtitle rendering
* Subtitles play during MKV loading
* Snow support
* Miscellaneous bug fixes

Perian can be downloaded here for free.

QuickTime 7.4.1

Apple today released an update to QuickTime, to bring it up to version 7.4.1. This update "addresses security issues and improves compatibility with third-party applications".

The big question everyone is asking is: does it fix the dreaded After Effects 10 minute rendering bug? Initial testing would indicate yes.

As always, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And definitely don't install it if you have a Final Cut Pro version lower than 6.0.2.

QuickTime 7.4.1 for Leopard
QuickTime 7.4.1 for Tiger
QuickTime 7.4.1 for Panther

Update: Macworld claims that an Apple spokesperson confirmed to them that this fixes the After Effects issue.

Update 2/7/08: Adobe confirms this.

ProKit 4.5 update

Apple has just updated ProKit to version 4.5.

ProKit, as far as I am aware, contains only UI elements such as button images for professional applications such as Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Logic Studio, etc. There is unlikely to be anything exciting in it I'm afraid.

Apple's release notes are, as always, rather vague:


As always, don't update a working system unless you are experiencing a major problem that this update may fix. And when you do it, make sure to clone your drive with something like Carbon Copy Cloner first.

Update: Some people are reporting that Motion 3 instabilities with the Ozone plugin are a thing of the past with the new ProKit update.

Update 2: Others are reporting that the DVD Studio Pro menu that had disappeared is now back, while others are reporting that it causes their Logic 8 installation to crash.

I know people have been experiencing issues with Compressor windows not opening, so I would advise them to give this patch a go and see if it fixes it for them.

FCS Remover v1.0.1 released

Just a quick patch to fix a couple of issues with the first release.

Changes:
* Added Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 support.
* FCS Remover no longer removes third-party plugins.

FCS Remover v1.0.1 is available here.

About FCS Remover
FCS Remover is a utility for Mac OS X designed to uninstall Apple's Final Cut Studio and its related components. This can be useful for downgrading to a previous version or removing an old installation before upgrading.

FCS Remover is freeware and is designed for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard.

List of video / image formats supporting alpha channels

I had a request for this list, so here it is. It is a list of video and image formats that support alpha (transparency) channels.

(Note: "Unknown" means I couldn't find specific information on the maximum alpha bit depth, but it's commonly the same bit depth as the other channels in the file.)

Codec	Maximum Alpha Bit-Depth
Apple Animation	8-bit
Apple ProRes 4444	16-bit
Apple ProRes 4444 XQ	16-bit
AV1	Unknown
Avid Meridien Compressed	8-bit
Avid Meridien Uncompressed	8-bit
Avid DNxHD (RGB)	Unknown
Avid DNxHR (RGB)	Unknown
AVIF	12-bit
Cineform	12-bit
Cineon	16-bit
DPX	16-bit
GIF	1-bit
H.265/HEVC	Unknown (probably 8-bit)
JPEG XL	32-bit
Maya IFF	32-bit
OpenEXR	32-bit
PNG	16-bit
RLA	32-bit
RPF	32-bit
SGI	16-bit
SGI RAW	16-bit
Targa (TGA)	8-bit
TIFF	32-bit
WebP	8-bit

Sonic drops HD DVD Scenarist support

Video Business is announcing that Sonic Solutions has discontinued support for its HD DVD Scenarist authoring software. This is important because Scenarist is a popular product that is used professionally for disc authoring.

Sonic claims it wants to focus on Blu-ray and add extra functionality to the Blu-ray edition of Scenarist, rather than splitting its time and resources between two formats. Customers of the HD DVD version can exchange it for the Blu-ray edition.

As Toshiba seems unwilling to kill off HD DVD, many companies have chosen to pounce on it now that a possible winner has emerged. I think this is good for the industry, and the sooner Toshiba realizes this, the better.

Tool updates: Web clip icons now available

With the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware, Apple added the ability to bookmark web pages ("web clips") onto your iPhone home screen. This is a great new addition that allows you quick and easy access to favorite web sites. Unfortunately, the default icon for the web clip is a tiny shrunk-down version of the page, which looks very unsightly, not to mention confusing for similar-looking pages.

We have now updated our online tools to replace these shrunk-down images with the relevant application's icon, as has been requested by several people recently.

View the updated iPhone applications here:
Footage Calc (iPhone version)
Film Rate Calc (iPhone version)
Aspect Ratio Calc (iPhone version)
Depth of Field Calc (iPhone version)

As always, we appreciate feedback on these applications. Just use the link at the bottom of every page.

New online tool: Depth of Field Calculator

This tool will calculate the depth of field for a given sensor or film type, aperture, focal length, and subject distance (the distance from the camera to the person or object you are focusing on). A lower number means that a large proportion of the background will remain in sharp focus and a higher number means that a smaller proportion (if any) will be in focus.

It also includes presets for popular video cameras. Selecting a preset will automatically change the sensor type to fit your camera.

We have two versions:
Depth of Field Calc (standard)
Depth of Field Calc (iPhone)

This tool was created as a result of feedback by users of our other other tools. We always appreciate feedback so we can create the best possible experience for you. Just use the feedback link at the bottom of every page to send your comments anonymously.

Gartner: HD DVD dead by the end of the year

PCWorld is reporting that Gartner Research has predicted the death of HD DVD by the end of the year. It dubs Toshiba's massive HD DVD player price cuts as "useless resistance".

While I have no idea how long it will take before Toshiba gives up, I am in agreement that it is incredibly difficult for HD DVD to make a comeback. It is too costly for the studios to output to three different formats (standard-def DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray). More importantly, HD DVD is already dead in the eyes of several consumers I have spoken to, and I am sure the recent negative publicity cemented this belief in many more people.

Lack of studio support and constant predictions of HD DVD's demise are denting consumer confidence and increasing Blu-ray's lead. If Toshiba is planning a comeback, it needs to be now.

As an update to my previous post, the "Save HD DVD" petition now stands at over 30,000 signatures and the "Let HD DVD Die" petition stands at over 10,000. I cannot see Warner or the others doing a U-turn on this policy, however, no matter how many votes it gets.

Update 1/30/08:
Video Business is reporting that HD DVD player sales rose significantly over the past week. This is likely to be due to the massive (half-price in some cases) price cuts that took place. Last week's player sales put Blu-ray at 63%, HD DVD at 33% and dual-format players at 4%. The week before it was 90% for Blu-ray and 7% for HD DVD.

This shows that consumers are more susceptible to pricing strategies in this war than previously thought. HD DVD is the cheaper format, in terms of both disc and player costs but if Blu-ray does become the dominant format, production costs (and presumably prices) will fall with time.

Recommended QuickTime and Mac OS configurations for Final Cut Pro

As the recent QuickTime 7.3 and 7.4 updates show, it is important to choose your Mac OS and QuickTime configurations carefully to match your Final Cut Pro version.

I have been developing this list of optimal configurations for a while now. It is based on my own experiences and the recommendations of others. As such, it is somewhat subjective. If your own experiences differ, feel free to let me know and I will update the page.

Note: This page is designed to give the most compatible configurations for old versions of Final Cut Pro. If you have the latest version of FCP, you should simply use the latest OS X and QuickTime versions. But don't upgrade in the middle of a project.

Final Cut Pro Version	Mac OS Version	QuickTime Version
6.0.6	10.5.8	7.6.6
6.0.5	10.5.6	7.5.5
6.0.4	10.5.5	7.5.5
6.0.3	10.4.11 / 10.5.2	7.4.5
6.0.2	10.4.11 / 10.5.1	7.3.1
5.1.4	10.4.11	7.1.6
5.0.4	10.4.11	7.1.6
4.5	10.3.9	6.5
3.0.4	10.2.8 Update 2	6.2
3.0	10.2.8 Update 2	5.0.6
2.0.2	9.2.2	5.0.1
1.2.5	9.2.2	4.1.3
1.2.1	8.6	4.1.1
1.0.1	8.6	4.0.3
1.0	8.6	4b16