Summer Blogwad

I'm just dumping some interesting links here to check out.

Digital Rebellion: Recommended QuickTime and Mac OS configurations for Final Cut Pro
A list of recommended combos of FCP, Quicktime, and OS versions. Let's just call this why not to update your systems unless you absolutely need to. On the other hand, it sucks being caught in FCP 5.1.4 world while everyone else has moved on. That's more of a money issue than a technology issue though.

Digital Rebellion: List of QuickTime downloads
A continuation of the theme of don't upgrade if you don't have to. If you have to upgrade but it's not to the latest and (ahem) greatest, then this page will help you find the appropriate upgarde for QuickTime. Similarly, the LAFCUP has a wiki page on Quicktime updates.

Little Frog in High Def: APPLE PRO APPS UPDATE 2008-02
Good advice on downloading all updates to Final Cut Pro even if you don't intend to upgrade. The reason is that Apple doesn't make old updates available for FCP (unlike QuickTime). There are situations where you might want to upgrade but not to the latest version--if you don't have the update then Apple isn't going to help you. You can download updates through Apple's Final Cut Pro page--you don't have to upgrade through the Software Update control panel.

Final Cut User: Using FLVs in Final Cut Pro
Some good tips on using video downloaded from the web from sites like YouTube. I didn't know about using the QuickTime wrapper to help the editing of FLV's--sound like a helpful tip.

"Ten Tips For A Better Final Cut Pro Experience"
This is a good read. An experienced editor wrote down 10 good tips. Good write-up on media management. Also some interesting tips on multicam, amongst a number of other good ideas.

kenstone.net: Color Workflows With Different Types of Sources
By Andrew Balis
Want to work in Color? This seems like a good guide for getting footage in and out for your next go as a colourist.

Overview Video on Sony EX3
I don't think I've talked about the Sony EX3 because I think the MSRP was over $10K and that's my cut-off point for talking about cameras. But it lists for under $10K, and it looks like a good upgrade to the Sony EX1. I've been hearing about and seeing folks use the EX1. Seems like the XDCAM format on SxS memory cards could take off.

ProLost: On Clipping, Part 1
Very tech-y. But interesting to get a theoretical understanding of how video works. Folks interested in Red should read. It helped me understand why there is more grain in dark areas of video than in light areas. Also discusses important differences in how film and video represent light.

ProLost: Go Naked pt. 2
A good example of the guerrilla filmmaking model as described in Stu Maschwitz's "The DV's Rebel Guide." More interesting to me is that Vimeo not only streams HD, but allows downloads too of Quicktime movies (the film shown is downloadable at 1280x720). You can upload up to 500MB per week to Vimeo. An interesting way to share footage encoded in h.264--nice that it allows both streaming and downloading.

stockfootageforfree.com
Not awesome but could help in a pinch. I did about 10 searches on foreign countries, and the only video I got was touristy stuff from Cancun. Some OK shots of D.C., SF, and NYC. [via freshdv.com]

Streaming Video: Quality Comparison and Trends

There's a pair of interesting articles about streaming video at Digital Content Producer:
Encoding Best Practices, Part 1
Encoding Best Practices, Part 2

Part 1 is a report based on samples of what kind of streaming video is out there on the web. It's not a huge sample, but he does look at about 20 sites from broadcast video. So that's a good comparison for Link. Flash and Windows Media far outpace any competitors, like Quicktime and Real. One trend in streaming is growing bandwith and image resolution. Most broadcasters were streaming at a frame size of 460x325 and at a data rate of 500 kbps. Lots of good charts showing trends on this as well as frame rate and audio bit rate.

Part 2 is a quality comparison of h.264, on2 vp6, and VC-1 (Windows codec.) VC-1 gets the lowest marks. Both articles are interesting reads. I found them over at FreshDV.

Fixing QuickTime 7.4

"Dealing with Quicktime 7.4"

I mentioned briefly last week not to install QuickTime 7.4. Its most disastrous after effect is to break After Effects--you can't render for more than 10 minutes. Check out the link above for info on installing an earlier version of QuickTime if you are stuck with QuickTime 7.4.

QuickTime 7.4: Downgrade working for many users; remove components for playback issues
MacFixIt also mentions removing third-party QuickTime components. This solved a problem for me recently--an old Divx component was screwing up iMovie '08.

See Timecode in QuickTime

"QuickTime Timecode Display"

A good tip over at kenstone.net about how to view timecode in the QuickTime Player. Frankly, why did it take Apple so long to implement a feature like this? Quicktime has supported timecode since at least 1999, and until QuickTime 7.1.4, we've only been able to see the timecode displayed in Final Cut Pro. Well, now you can see it in the QuickTime Player (that is if you have QuickTime Pro.) Unfortunately, probably 98% of people who have have QuickTime Pro got it free with Final Cut Pro--otherwise it costs $30. But $30 is probably worth if you have to log footage with timecode and you can't get on a system with FCP. Thanks to Stephen Olsson for the tip.

QuickTime Pro has a number of other features, like firewire capture, that are listed here.

Apple TV Take 2

"Take 2" is what Apple is calling the forthcoming updates to their Apple TV product. I consider this an acknowledgment that take 1 didn't cut it, and I think they have gone a long way towards overcoming the problems of Apple TV (and also have made it a more promising distribution format for Link TV while they were at it.)

There are 3 big updates to Apple TV: 1) Movie rentals (before you could only buy movies or load your own through a cumbersome encoding process) 2) HD movie rentals (finally real HD content for a device that was effectively designed only for HD displays) 3) you can add content without using a computer at all. As for one and two, these make the Apple TV a compelling product--movie rentals starting at $3 without leaving your home, or even the couch. Luckily for Apple, the consumer electronics corporations (including Microsoft) have basically wasted the last year with a battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD. It now seems Blu-ray is the winner, but meanwhile Apple has added HD movies to the Apple TV with support from all the movies studios. Currently, Universal and Paramount do not support Blu-ray and are HD DVD exclusive. On the other hand, movies are available on Apple TV 30 days after the discs are released (it's also not clear to me that every movie will be available on Apple TV.) Starting at $239 for a 40GB Apple TV, it is cheaper than any of the Blu-ray players.

In summary, I think Apple TV is now a compelling device for a significant amount of consumers. As I wrote when it first was announced last year in this post, Apple TV gets podcasts, like Mosaic, directly to the TV set. Now with the new update to Apple TV, podcasts can be browsed and watched from the sofa. In the first generation of Apple TV, podcasts had to be downloaded on a computer then synced to the Apple TV. Now we can search and browse through all of the podcasts on the iTunes Store directly on the Apple TV--then start playing a podcast immediately once you find something interesting. I think this will really help bring podcasts to the TV screen.

Visit this page for a simple demonstration on how you can browse and watch podcasts through the Apple TV.

"iTunes and Apple TV rentals and purchases: what you can (and can't) do"
One drawback with the Apple TV is that it's confusing about what kind of content you can watch where--the article gives you the lowdown on what's doable with the new rental and HD content on Apple TV

Apple TV Guided Tour Have no idea what I'm talking about? Watch this movie by Apple to understand what it does.

"The Big Picture: Apple's methodical moves show it takes time to change the world." Apple not only has to negotiate with the studios, face off competition from the consumer electronics companies and Microsoft, but could run into some trouble with the broadband providers and Google. Bob Cringely expresses concerns about Apple's approaches in this article.

P.S., I also think this means no Blu-ray support on Mac's for the foreseeable future, including Blu-ray authoring in DVD Studio Pro. That sucks.

P.P.S. Movie rentals are available in iTunes without Apple TV.

P.P.P.S. However, don't install the new QuickTime, which is required for rentals, on a system with After Effects. QuickTime 7.4 screws up AE rendering. "Thanks Again Apple"

Real video helps with saving videos

Real video seems to have fallen fatally behind in the video streaming arena, now that Flash has emerged as the dominant streaming video format and the powerhouses of Apple and Windows stay strong with their online media presence. But it sounds like Real is putting some interesting features into a new version of their player. They are making it very easy for users to download and save videos in a variety of formats (Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, and, of course, Real.) They are also offering some features to burn video to discs for playback in DVD players. Read about this over at hardmac.com.