Is your Final Cut Pro sequence too dark or washed out?

This seems to be a common question. Sometimes people will create a sequence in Shake (or similar) and export to Final Cut, only to find that the image is much darker in FCP. Others have a different problem - it displays fine in FCP but appears washed out when you export it.

Final Cut Pro tends to make assumptions when it comes to gamma. If you create YUV (e.g. DV PAL, NTSC) footage, it will assume that it was created with a gamma of 2.2, which it would have been if it had been shot in a camera. Final Cut therefore lowers the gamma in order to mimic what it would look like on a broadcast monitor, resulting in a darkening of the image.

Note that the image is only dark in Final Cut Pro and if you export it, it will export with the correct gamma. However, the mistake that some people make is to brighten the image in Final Cut, leading to it being too bright upon exporting.

Applications like Shake do not make any modifications to the display of the gamma so if it looks fine in Shake, it will look fine upon exporting, no matter what Final Cut Pro is showing on the screen. This is assuming your monitor is correctly calibrated, of course.

When you import RGB elements (such as the Apple Animation codec or still images) into a YUV sequence, the opposite problem occurs. Final Cut Pro will assume they were created with a gamma of 1.8. Final Cut will then increase the gamma to 2.2 (the gamma value that FCP assumes all YUV media is created at) to compensate for this.

The image is now considered YUV, so when it plays back, Final Cut will lower the gamma again to compensate, as it does with all YUV footage. The RGB elements will be displayed on the screen at their correct gamma but when you export the sequence, the boosted gamma will be used and the exported sequence will be too bright.

The solution is to convert the files to YUV before adding them to your Final Cut Pro project. For footage, convert to Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 or Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 to ensure that no data will be lost in the conversion process. If the file sizes for this are too large, try a high quality lossy codec such as Apple ProRes.

For images, the easiest method is to convert them to a single-frame QuickTime file with a YUV codec such as DV NTSC. It is better to perform this task with Compressor rather than QuickTime.

Tool updates

We've updated some of our online tools to reflect the feedback we've been receiving from you.

Footage Calc
* Slightly improved loading speed of mobile version.
* Support for Uncompressed 720p and 1080p 4:2:2 at 8-bit and 10-bit
* Improved accuracy of AVID PAL 2:1 Best

Film Rate Calc
* Slightly improved loading speed of mobile version.

Aspect Ratio Calc
* Slightly improved loading speed of mobile version.
* Changes you make in one dialog transfer across to the others. For example, if you type 1280x720 into the Res box in the Aspect Ratio dialog and then switch to Height, the width and aspect ratio in the new dialog will reflect the previous calculation.
* Extra statistics - you can now view the unrounded aspect ratio, and round width and height calculations to the nearest 16th.

Remember that we always appreciate your feedback and are committed to providing a genuinely useful service. Just click the feedback link at the bottom of the page and leave your thoughts.

My Macworld 2008 Predictions

Everyone's doing it so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. We just got some new Mac Pros and some new Xserves so I don't think there will be any further announcements in these departments.

What I think will be announced:
* Steve is sure to show off some features of the new iPhone SDK due in February but these will most likely be non-technical, with more technical info saved for WWDC.
* New MacBook Pros. It's been a long time since the last update and Intel just released some new mobile chips.
* iTunes movie rentals and iTunes 7.6. Based on this article.
* 16 GB iPhone plus the new firmware that was previously leaked.

What I hope will be announced:
* An update to the disappointing Apple TV that will allow you to purchase songs, music and maybe even video from the iTunes store, directly from your couch. It may even combine the Mac Mini (also disappointing sales-wise) and Apple TV into one media center unit.
* New cinema displays with glass displays like the new iMac. Not sure about built-in iSight.

What I don't think will be announced:
* I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think there will be an ultraportable or a PDA. A lot of people think there will be one, but I don't. I think it would be too much of a blur between the MacBook and the iPhone / iPod Touch. Remember that with the SDK, the iPhone and Touch will essentially be PDAs so it is unlikely that there will be a separate PDA unless they can make it vastly different.

I'm writing this post on a MacBook and I can say that they can't make this thing much smaller without taking away some of the keys on the keyboard. The only way to make it really portable would be to make it a touchscreen but you would have to hold a massive screen in your hands the whole time (unless they make a stand) but then it would practically be an iPod Touch in all but size anyway. Also, flash-based storage is still very small.

* No 3G iPhone. Steve has said that 3G battery life is poor, and 3G coverage in the USA is relatively sparse.

Find out how wrong I was on January 15th at 9am.

More companies drop HD DVD

HBO announced yesterday that it will follow its parent company, Warner, in embracing Blu-ray exclusively. Warner has one more subsidiary, BBC Home Video, that has not yet announced its intentions but it is expected to follow suit.

Variety is now reporting that the two remaining studios in the HD DVD camp, Universal and Paramount, could switch sides soon as well.

They say that they can confirm that "Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended" and that Paramount has an escape clause in its contract that will allow it to release films on Blu-ray after Warner embraced it exclusively. The two companies are not dropping support for the format but it is less attractive for them to remain exclusive to it.

I am certain that HD DVD will not go down without a fight, as Microsoft and Toshiba have invested a considerable amount of money into the format. Toshiba says it will remain faithful to the format but as a consumer, I would not be rushing out to buy an HD DVD player right now. If the remaining HD DVD-supporting studios choose to release their titles on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, the battle is already over. Why would you buy an HD DVD player that can play two studios' titles when you can buy a Blu-ray player that will play every company's discs? It's a no-brainer.

Update: Universal has issued a statement: "Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format". Note that they did not use the word "exclusively" or say anything about not releasing titles on Blu-ray.

New Xserves

When Apple released the new Mac Pros, they also updated their Xserve server line as well.

	New High-End Model (Early 2008)	Previous High-End Model (Late 2006)
Processor	2x Xeon 5400 quad core (8 cores) at 3 GHz	2x Xeon 5100 dual core (4 cores) at 3 GHz
Cache	12 MB per processor (24 MB total)	4 MB per processor (8 MB total)
SSE extensions	128-bit SSE4	128-bit SSE3
Frontside Bus	1.6 GHz	1.33 GHz
Memory	800 MHz DDR2	667MHz DDR2
Max hard drive space	3 TB	2.25 TB
PCI Express	2.0	1.0
Power supply	750W	650W

I can't believe that they managed to get an 8 core machine inside a 1U server. Even more amazing is that you are essentially getting double the machine with only a 100W power supply increase. This is a major improvement in performance-per-watt. The Xserve also houses an array of sensors that intelligently monitor temperature and idleness, and adjust processor and fan speeds accordingly. The Xserve power supplies also exceed 80% efficiency guidelines.

I'm not going to go into the processor improvements here, as I already did that in my Mac Pro post, but the power of having 8 cores in a server can be seen on Apple's benchmark page. It's been a while since there was an Xserve update so this new model beats its predecessor by huge amounts. On average, this machine is about 90% faster than its predecessor.

If you have ever used an Xserve, you will also welcome the news that the new model features a USB port on the front so no more delving around behind it to plug in a keyboard and mouse.

This is a great machine.

New Mac Pros

Yesterday, Apple released several updates to their Mac Pro line of professional desktop computers.

	New 8 Core High-End Model	Previous 8 Core High-End Model
Processor	2x Quad core Xeon 5400 at 3.2 GHz	2x Quad core Xeon 5300 at 3.0 GHz
Cache	12 MB per processor (24 MB total)	8 MB per processor (16 MB total)
SSE extensions	128-bit SSE4	128-bit SSE3
Frontside Bus	1.6 GHz	1.33 GHz
Memory	800 MHz DDR2	667MHz DDR2
Max. memory	32 GB	16 GB
PCI Express	2.0	1.0
Bluetooth 2.0	As standard	Extra charge
Keyboard USB hub	USB 2.0	USB 1.1

This is a big improvement over the previous 8 core model. I must admit that I wasn't a fan of the previous one because I felt that the other components were slowing down the processor. The reason for this is that the quad core model had a front side bus (FSB) speed of 1.33 GHz which means a speed of ~333 MHz per core. When the 8 core model was introduced, it kept the same FSB, meaning it only had access to ~166 MHz per core. This bottleneck caused the 8 core model to be rather underwhelming in certain situations, in some cases being outperformed by the quad core version. Overall it was a faster machine, but not as fast as it could have been.

This new version increases the processor clock speed, the FSB, there is more cache available and the memory bandwidth has increased too. If you increase one element, it will eventually bottleneck unless you increase the others, so Apple is doing the right thing by increasing them all at the same time. This thing will scream.

It's worth talking a bit about the new processor too. It is a Xeon 5400 (codename "Harpertown") with SSE4 instructions instead of SSE3 with the old model. What does this mean? Instruction sets are a list of commands that a processor can perform. They are stored in a native form which means it is much faster for the processor to execute one of these instructions to perform a task than it is to convert it from a programming language to its native form. SSE4 has several mathematical instructions that will greatly speed up video encoding and decoding, particularly when using high definition formats.

The Mac Pro now features PCI Express 2.0 which offers 500 MB/s per lane over the previous 250 MB/s. This means that the 16 lane slot for the graphics card can now transfer data at 8 GB/s over the previous 4 GB/s. Brand new graphics cards are available, including the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600, with 1.5 GB of memory (!) and a price tag to match. The other cards are the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256 MB (the standard card) and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB. This is great news for Motion and Color users.

Apple is now offering 1 TB hard drives with 32 MB of cache for use with the Mac Pro. This allows you to have up to 4 TB of storage inside the machine, up from the previous 3 TB.

This is a really great machine. Apple has a lot of benchmarks here. The new machine seems to be a consistent 10-20% faster than the previous 8 core model. And this is just the two base models with 4 GB RAM. Upgrading to a better graphics card and more memory for example would probably widen the gap even further in Final Cut Pro 6. It's also interesting to look back nostalgically upon the Quad Power Mac G5. In its time, this machine was a speed demon but the new Mac Pro is about 100-200% faster in most tests.

The fact that Apple is releasing these models now means that there will be no significant Mac Pro announcements at Macworld next week.

RED CES news - 4K delivery and Scarlet

I know I'm late to the party but there were some important announcements at CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) by the creators of the RED camera.

Jim Jannard (head honcho) yesterday announced a 4K delivery system in response to the 4K displays announced at the show by Panasonic and Sony. He was not specific about what this delivery system would be comprised of but he has stated in the past a desire to create 4K projectors and it was interesting to note that he said "in the home as well as on the big screen".

I'm wondering what sized screen (and what sized house!) you would need to get the full benefit of 4K in your home (Panasonic's one is 150"), but I guess all will be revealed at NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters conference) in April.

Earlier in the week, Jim also revealed that there is a "pocket professional camera" in development called Scarlet. Further details will be given at NAB, but Jim did imply that it was intended to compliment, not replace the RED One.

That Jim loves to tempt us. It's a great way of getting people to talk and speculate about his products though. Apple adopts a similar strategy.

High Def DVD News

I've been a bit busy over the past few days and haven't had much time to post unfortunately, but there have been some very interesting developments in the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Late last week, Warner Brothers announced that it would be dropping support for the HD DVD format in May and supporting Blu-ray exclusively.

This had a knock-on effect, causing the HD DVD Promo Group to cancel their press conference at CES, citing the "timing of Warner Brothers' announcement" as the reason. This in turn prompted Paramount to clarify its position that "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format", but they have canceled any HD DVD title announcements at CES. This doesn't sound to me like Paramount is 100% confident in the success of the HD DVD format.

There was some initial confusion as to whether Warner's subsidiaries would follow suit. New Line clarified its position but said that unlike its parent which was waiting until May 2008 to shelve HD DVD, its switch to Blu-ray would take place immediately. This would make Pan's Labyrinth the only New Line movie to have been released on HD DVD.

It would appear that the studios are getting tired of the confusion caused by the format war and the fact that most people are waiting for it to end before making a purchasing decision. In my opinion, Blu-ray is a superior format so I am glad it is achieving market penetration. HD DVDs have the advantage of being cheaper to produce but if Blu-ray becomes a standard, this issue will diminish with time.

Tool update: Aspect Ratio Calc

We've just updated our online Aspect Ratio Calc tool based on your feedback. The tool now features a list of preset formats to choose from such as DV NTSC, HD 1080, 2K Academy, etc. Clicking on one of these will populate the text boxes with common image sizes for these formats.

Other additions include the ability to specify custom aspect ratios rather than just those contained in the list, plus several bug fixes.

We have a standard and an iPhone version available.

Keep up the feedback. We're always interested to hear how our products are helping you and, conversely, what isn't quite working. To leave feedback about a page, use the link at the very bottom.

Interesting Apple patents

Apple was recently granted several interesting patents.

The first one offers a method of analyzing video frames and working out their attributes such as if the footage is interlaced or progressive, and if pulldown has been applied or not. This would allow software such as Final Cut Pro to change project settings to match these attributes automatically without any user intervention. It would also allow software like Compressor to work out which fields in interlaced footage are duplicates and only rendering them once, thereby speeding up rendering times and reducing file sizes. I would imagine this is geared at ProRes, Apple's professional codec.

The second patent is for a DVD web system that provides a method of controlling - and being controlled by - internet content. Web content is currently available via next generation HD DVD and Blu-ray players but this patent specifically caters for two-way communication and control.

Their final patent covers color correction using an accelerated graphics card rather than the processor. My first thought was that it was a patent for the technology in Apple Color but further reading revealed that Apple proposes a playback system (such as QuickTime) where the original color space of the video (such as NTSC) could be converted to the current color space of the monitor to ensure accurate color reproduction.

It must be noted that Apple ultimately may not choose to implement these technologies into their products.

[via AppleInsider]