A couple of interesting events I thought I'd share with others.
SFCutters is doing an event on Thursday the 28th with a some focus on compression. The author of 'Real World Video Compression' Andy Beach is speaking. I was recently checking out a blog post from him that compares Compressor with some other competing encoding apps that was worth a read. Article points out some weakensses in Compressor, like the poor default deinterlacing and its slowness. Also there will be some training on the oft-neglected LiveType, and there will a presentation by Adobe on Flash CS3, which we have a couple of licenses for at Link. $10 to go and you have to pay online before you go at the link.
There's also a conference October 17 & 18 at the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley called The Conversation. It's subtitled "The Future of Cinema, Games & Online Video: New Tools/New Distribution/New Rules". Looks like a lot of interesting panels. Only problem is I think it's a bit pricey--$150. How about some non-profit discounts? I guess I could call them and ask.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
How I Download Flash Videos
Here's how I download Flash video. I'll use YouTube as an example, but I've found that the method works on other flash video, but not by any means all online video.
1. Start playing the movie in Safari.
2. Open the Activity Window in Safari. It's under the Window menu.
3. Find the movie in the Activity window. The Activity window lists a lot of things, like all the graphics on the webpage (and for all open pages.) But I usually find movies because they are the largest--in the MB's not KB's. Also the movies size is usually changing--as long as the movie is downloading.
In the image below, the movie is the file 3rd item from the bottom whose name starts with v6.cache.googlevideo.
4. Select the movie file in the activity window and copy it. This will copy the location of the video.
5. Open a new browser window and paste the movie's location in the address field.
6. Safari starts downloading the video. Download window should automatically open.
7. Wait for the video to finish downloading. Then find the video file. The magnifying glass next to the file in the Download window will take you to it. In OS.10.4 it's probably on the desktop. In OS 10.5, it's probably in the Downloads folder.
8. Rename the file to add the .flv suffix if it doesn't already have the .flv suffix, e.g., get_video.flv. You might as well add a descriptive title too while you are at it.
Now to work with flash video on the Mac, I use the free Perian plug-in. It lets QuickTime recognize the file, so that you can use it in Final Cut Pro or any app that uses QuickTime.
YouTube now has better quality video available on some videos. Check to see if the video you want is in better quality before downloading. If there is higher quality video, then you'll see the link below the movie "watch in high quality."
Click on that link and then follow the instructions above to get a much better looking video from YouTube.
Earlier this summer I posted a link to a post from Final Cut User that recommends transcoding the flash to something that FCP is used to working with, like the DV codec. I haven't had any problems working with Flash video, but it could speed up your workflow if you don't have to render the movies in the timeline.
1. Start playing the movie in Safari.
2. Open the Activity Window in Safari. It's under the Window menu.
3. Find the movie in the Activity window. The Activity window lists a lot of things, like all the graphics on the webpage (and for all open pages.) But I usually find movies because they are the largest--in the MB's not KB's. Also the movies size is usually changing--as long as the movie is downloading.
In the image below, the movie is the file 3rd item from the bottom whose name starts with v6.cache.googlevideo.
4. Select the movie file in the activity window and copy it. This will copy the location of the video.
5. Open a new browser window and paste the movie's location in the address field.
6. Safari starts downloading the video. Download window should automatically open.
7. Wait for the video to finish downloading. Then find the video file. The magnifying glass next to the file in the Download window will take you to it. In OS.10.4 it's probably on the desktop. In OS 10.5, it's probably in the Downloads folder.
8. Rename the file to add the .flv suffix if it doesn't already have the .flv suffix, e.g., get_video.flv. You might as well add a descriptive title too while you are at it.
Now to work with flash video on the Mac, I use the free Perian plug-in. It lets QuickTime recognize the file, so that you can use it in Final Cut Pro or any app that uses QuickTime.
YouTube now has better quality video available on some videos. Check to see if the video you want is in better quality before downloading. If there is higher quality video, then you'll see the link below the movie "watch in high quality."
Click on that link and then follow the instructions above to get a much better looking video from YouTube.
Earlier this summer I posted a link to a post from Final Cut User that recommends transcoding the flash to something that FCP is used to working with, like the DV codec. I haven't had any problems working with Flash video, but it could speed up your workflow if you don't have to render the movies in the timeline.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Blu-ray Burning 101
Not sure if everyone really knows about the Blu-ray burner that we have. We bought the OWC Mercury Pro 2x Blu-ray Panasonic SW-5582. It's an external burner that burns 25GB and 50GB over firewire. Right now it's hooked up to the G4 that interns have been working with.We got it to back up data mostly. Blu-ray is more reliable than a hard-drive and 25GB is decent capacity for backing up video files. We are hoping to use it to free up some of our hard drives that are sitting around not getting used because of old projects that no one wants to delete.
The discs aren't cheap, around $10, but it's reasonable, especialy when you consider that it's a robust, easy-to-use archiving solution.
So how do you use it? I'm not going to into all of the setup here (if you are interested ask me), but there's a video that covers burning discs in the Mac's Finder and with Toast. This video shows Toast 9, but we use Toast 8, and it works pretty much the same (I think the main difference is that they tweaked the interface.)
MacVideo: Step into Blu-ray - for less than £200
I looked for that drive mentioned in the video and couldn't find it. This guy is British, and I couldn't find anything as comparably cheap or anything with the same model number in the States. Remember folks, the dollar is a currency on the wane, eventually our greenbacks aren't going to go as far when buying all those imported, electronics.
Now, you can't watch any blu-ray movies on Macs. Apple needs to add support for that both in hardware and the operating system, and as I've written before Apple has made no announcement indicating that they will support Blu-ray movie playback at all. However, you can author Blu-ray movies using Adobe's Encore software on an Intel Mac. Right now we have that up and running on the new Octo-core Intel Mac Pro that Hiawatha uses. But until Link gets a Blu-ray player or a Playstation 3, then we don't have any way to playback those Blu-ray movies. (I'm all for getting a PS3--how about some Rock Band jamming at the office?)
Here's an article from Adobe discussing workflow for encoding high-def video using Compressor to burn onto Blu-ray using Encore:
Apple's Compressor & Encore Blu-Ray
Friday, July 25, 2008
Compressor and Conversions
Compressor 2 and 3 have very powerful tools for converting and upscaling video, as well as doing slo-mo. The optical flow technology, which Apple acquired when they bought the powerful compositing application Shake (only later to kill it), is the key to the results that you can get from Compressor. The key to getting the best results is the Frame Controls settings in Compressor.
Compressor is very good at standards conversion or converting video to a different frame rate. People often call this PAL and NTSC conversion although this isn't really accurate, but it will handle the same tasks that systems that do this do--namely the scaling and frame rate conversions. Frame rate conversions in particular are difficult to do really well. There are some standalone products from Teranex that just do this for around $2500 Well Compressor does this really well, but Teranex does it in real-time and Compressor is really slow.
Optical flow can also help in up-conversion of interlaced footage. Interlacing makes it really hard to do upconversion because your vertical resolution is basically split in two. For an example of how to scale things up badly look at what Final Cut Pro does in the timeline. FCP basically throws away half of your vertical resolution as soon as you scale a video clip. So the difference between 100% scale and 99% or 101% scale is crisp video and a blurry messy. When scaled up like this over 200%, not unusual when putting in standard-def footage into a high-def project, fine detail like type also starts shaking up and down from the interlacing--it looks ugly.
Compressor is an improvement on how FCP works in a number of ways. First, it can analyze the image and decide to selectively keep detail from both fields when the video isn't moving--if visuals in a part of a frame is moving, then only that part of the frame will lose resolution. With the optical flow technology, Compressor guesses how a part of the frame is moving and intelligently creates an image with more resolution than other results. These two approaches are handled in the deinterlacing settings in Compressor--the first approach is described as Better while Best uses optical flow.
The Retiming controls are where Compressor handles different frame rates. For example going from 25 fps video from Europe to 30fps video over in North America, usually handled as 60i (interlaced) especially in standard-def. The Better and Best settings in Compressor use optical flow. Like with deinterlacing, optical flow analyzes your video and recognizes object and how they are moving--the optical flow then intelligently creates new frames that move objects smoothly without losing detail. By the way, going from 24fps, which is a progressive format, is not a problem for us folks working in 60i. You can do this right in FCP without any fancy conversion (assuming you want to keep the 24fps filmic look.)
As an example, here's what I recommended to someone doing PAL to NTSC conversion:
Resizing: Better
Deinterlacing: Better (motion adaptive)
Retiming: Better
In this case, the scaling is going down (PAL has more resolution than NTSC, so you should get good results without jumping through a lot of hoops.) I reserved the optical flow use to only retiming at the Better setting. I didn't recommend optical flow on deinterlacing to save time. But if time isn't an issue then using Best for deinterlacing should improve results.
Unfortunately, all this intelligent analysis by optical flow is very processor and time-intensive. So for example using optical flow for retiming and and deinterlacing makes my quad-core G5 slow to a crawl--I'd give a ballpark estimate of 1 minute to process 1 second of video. But if quality is important, then the results can be excellent.
There are some plug-ins that specialize in upconversion, namely InstantHD. Check here for my post on upconversion.
Here are two good articles on using Compressor. Macworld discusses standards conversions here that walks you through the whole process:
Send video abroad
This post at Digital Rebellion gives detailed info on all the settings in Frame Controls.
Using Frame Controls in Compressor
The Macworld article also recommends an interesting workflow using Cinema Tools to convert PAL to NTSC by conforming the PAL to 24fps, scaling and deinterlacing in Compressor, then adding pulldown in FCP. Interesting workflow that I've never seen used.
The Retiming controls in Compressor can also give you some very good slo-mo results. Here are some cool tests done that compares Final Cut Pro versus Compressor at various speeds on two shots.
"Final Cut Studio slow motion demo"
"Final Cut slow motion at various speeds"
The author brings up a good point--if you are shooting a shot to be slo-mo, then shoot at as high a frame rate as you can--60p, 60i, 50p, 50i are good, where 24 fps is bad for slo-mo. The more samples per second of the image you can acquire, the better the slo-mo will work.
Compressor is very good at standards conversion or converting video to a different frame rate. People often call this PAL and NTSC conversion although this isn't really accurate, but it will handle the same tasks that systems that do this do--namely the scaling and frame rate conversions. Frame rate conversions in particular are difficult to do really well. There are some standalone products from Teranex that just do this for around $2500 Well Compressor does this really well, but Teranex does it in real-time and Compressor is really slow.
Optical flow can also help in up-conversion of interlaced footage. Interlacing makes it really hard to do upconversion because your vertical resolution is basically split in two. For an example of how to scale things up badly look at what Final Cut Pro does in the timeline. FCP basically throws away half of your vertical resolution as soon as you scale a video clip. So the difference between 100% scale and 99% or 101% scale is crisp video and a blurry messy. When scaled up like this over 200%, not unusual when putting in standard-def footage into a high-def project, fine detail like type also starts shaking up and down from the interlacing--it looks ugly.
Compressor is an improvement on how FCP works in a number of ways. First, it can analyze the image and decide to selectively keep detail from both fields when the video isn't moving--if visuals in a part of a frame is moving, then only that part of the frame will lose resolution. With the optical flow technology, Compressor guesses how a part of the frame is moving and intelligently creates an image with more resolution than other results. These two approaches are handled in the deinterlacing settings in Compressor--the first approach is described as Better while Best uses optical flow.
The Retiming controls are where Compressor handles different frame rates. For example going from 25 fps video from Europe to 30fps video over in North America, usually handled as 60i (interlaced) especially in standard-def. The Better and Best settings in Compressor use optical flow. Like with deinterlacing, optical flow analyzes your video and recognizes object and how they are moving--the optical flow then intelligently creates new frames that move objects smoothly without losing detail. By the way, going from 24fps, which is a progressive format, is not a problem for us folks working in 60i. You can do this right in FCP without any fancy conversion (assuming you want to keep the 24fps filmic look.)
As an example, here's what I recommended to someone doing PAL to NTSC conversion:
Resizing: Better
Deinterlacing: Better (motion adaptive)
Retiming: Better
In this case, the scaling is going down (PAL has more resolution than NTSC, so you should get good results without jumping through a lot of hoops.) I reserved the optical flow use to only retiming at the Better setting. I didn't recommend optical flow on deinterlacing to save time. But if time isn't an issue then using Best for deinterlacing should improve results.
Unfortunately, all this intelligent analysis by optical flow is very processor and time-intensive. So for example using optical flow for retiming and and deinterlacing makes my quad-core G5 slow to a crawl--I'd give a ballpark estimate of 1 minute to process 1 second of video. But if quality is important, then the results can be excellent.
There are some plug-ins that specialize in upconversion, namely InstantHD. Check here for my post on upconversion.
Here are two good articles on using Compressor. Macworld discusses standards conversions here that walks you through the whole process:
Send video abroad
This post at Digital Rebellion gives detailed info on all the settings in Frame Controls.
Using Frame Controls in Compressor
The Macworld article also recommends an interesting workflow using Cinema Tools to convert PAL to NTSC by conforming the PAL to 24fps, scaling and deinterlacing in Compressor, then adding pulldown in FCP. Interesting workflow that I've never seen used.
The Retiming controls in Compressor can also give you some very good slo-mo results. Here are some cool tests done that compares Final Cut Pro versus Compressor at various speeds on two shots.
"Final Cut Studio slow motion demo"
"Final Cut slow motion at various speeds"
The author brings up a good point--if you are shooting a shot to be slo-mo, then shoot at as high a frame rate as you can--60p, 60i, 50p, 50i are good, where 24 fps is bad for slo-mo. The more samples per second of the image you can acquire, the better the slo-mo will work.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
$500 Shopping Spree
So what would you spend $500 on? I'm soliciting opinions. In another interesting variation, on budgetary outlays, I've been offered $500 to spend on anything I want. The reasoning is that we are charging someone around $500 to make some dubs, and the money can go towards equipment.Well, after figuring that I couldn't slip a receipt for a Playstation or a 32GB iPod Touch past accounting, I've turned my mind towards more practical purchases.
My number one idea is to replace the tube of the Sony monitor on the A system in Edit 2. Am I the only one noticing that the image is looking greenish? $500 should cover the cost of replacing the tube in that monitor. I'd rather do it now when we have the money--otherwise I'll have to wait around until it is so obvious that the folks holding the purse strings can perceive the bad color on the monitor. That could take a while.
However, I've been thinking about other things too. A few months ago, I was making a big fuss about better production equipment. In particular, I was recommending a new tripod, an LCD field montior and a telephoto lens adapter for the Z1. An LCD field monitor is not out of the question for $500. I wanted to get a high-def one for closer to $1K, but there's a kit for a widescreen one with a resolution of 1440x234 for about $500. Check out the Varizoon kit at B&H. I don't know if this is much better resolution than the Z1's LCD viewfinder, but at 7" it is much larger--ergo easier to see. I've been griping about out of focus shots on the Z1. This should help.
Another idea for production gear is a wireless mic. Anyone recommend a wireless mic for about $500? I doubt $500 is enough for a good tripod but I'd be glad to be proved wrong.
In short, if there's some gear or software that you think would really help our work at Link for $500, please let me know. Please leave your suggestions in the comments sections--that'll let other see your suggestions and allow them to rag on them. Oh, and it's got to be near $500 or under $500--no $500 towards a new computer or something. No saving for a rainy day here--when you've got it, you spend it.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
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]
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]
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Troubleshooting with Activity Monitor
Recently Activity Monitor has been instrumental in troubleshooting problems for me. Activity Monitor is part of the Mac OS and lives in the Utilities folder, which is in the Apps folder. It gives you read-outs on things going on with the computer, including what the CPU and RAM are doing.Here are a couple of good descriptions of the RAM display in Activity Monitor:
Final Cut Studio - System Memory Usage--Larry Jordan's Tip of the Day
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor--Apple Support
The two pages actually give somewhat contradictory advice. Larry Jordan says that if your wired and active memory is regularly half of total memory then you could benefit from a RAM upgrade. While Apple says that even if you only have 10MB of free memory you don't necessarily need more RAM.
I've been noticing some bad examples of slow FCP that I blame on memory issues. So I think it's important to keep track of your RAM issues. Here some tips to keep your RAM usage streamlined and efficient:
- If you don't plan to switch back to an app, quit it and don't leave it open
- Avoid running multiple apps at once, especially programs that can suck up memory, like FCP, DVD Studio Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop
- Only keep open FCP projects open that you need, same things with sequences
- Restart your computer at least once a day and if your system seems really slow then restart it
- Web browser and webpages can use a surprising amount of RAM--avoid browsing with lots of windows/tabs
Now all of these RAM saving tips can reduce your efficiency in working. So it's a tradeoff. If your system zips along fine, then don't worry about it. But if you notice that your system starts the day zippy and ends up later trudging along, then try to follow some of or all of these tips.
I also uncovered a problem recently with Mosaic where the Mosaic project file had become huge even though there didn't seem to be that many clips or edits in the project. The size of the project file can give you an idea about how much memory an FCP project will take up in your RAM and how many resources the computer will use to work with the project. I'm not really sure why the Mosaic project file got so large--over 300MB. But I think it hurt that the editors were just adding stuff into the same project file day after day--even if they were deleting old clips and sequences regularly. I think the Mosaic project seems to have retained data from old clips and/or timelines that had been deleted and didn't appear in the project view. So I created a new project and just copied the timeline and clips that were visible in the project window--the new project was something-like one-tenth of the size, and the system got much quicker. I also read recently that clips that are really long are more taxing on the computer than more shorter clips that have the same amount of media.
Another things that Activity Monitor does is measure CPU usage. This was helpful recently when I was having problems with the single processor G5 computer. An intern was having problems capturing DV footage from a DV deck. I had set up an unusual firewire cabling setup, so first I tried changing that--no luck. Then I brought in a different deck. No matter what I did, I was still getting dropped frames and funky audio dropouts. I noticed that the intern had Firefox running, which I didn't think was I big deal--she was checking her Gmail. Then I opened up the Activity Monitor and I saw that Firefox was quite active. It's CPU usage was hopping all around, peaking at up to 15% of the computer's CPU usage. And it wasn't even like she was actively browsing--that's was up to 15% of the CPU just to keep up with Gmail. Well I quit Firefox and the computer started capturing fine and did about 5 hours of capture with no problems.
Now I'm lucky to have a four-core G5, and I regularly have multiple webpages, email client, and even iTunes running all while I capture from DV. But for a single-processor G5 the demands of running FCP, capturing DV, and having Gmail open were too much. So it is important to know your computer. Also remember that laying off is at least as demanding on your system as capture and almost always much more. You are almost always playing back multiple clips at once (remember all your audio tracks) and your system is probably trying to apply some real-time effects to the video and/or audio. So be even more conservative about what your computer is doing when you lay off to tape.
BTW, I recommend Larry Jordan's Tip of the Day. I don't want to visit his website everyday, so I subscribed to the RSS feed and check out the tips when I have time.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript
I got inspired by this article to write my first Applescript:
"Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript" - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
The article talks about setting up hotkeys to control Quicktime Player. A hotkey is when you assign a command to a keystroke. That way you can transcribe or log in a Microsoft Word or some other word processor and still control the movie playing back without switching applications. The article describes how to create hotkeys by using a freeware app Spark to create hotkeys that run an Applescript.
Well, at Link we tend to have stuff logged from DVD with timecode burned-in to the video. So I set up some simple, one-line Applescripts to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward DVD's.
Play
tell application "DVD Player" to play dvd
Pause
tell application "DVD Player" to pause dvd
Rewind
tell application "DVD Player" to rewind dvd
Fast Foward
tell application "DVD Player" to fast forward dvd
I checked it out with Word, and assigning the scripts to option+J, option+K, option+L, and option+space bar seemed to work fine.
If you do log/transcribe from a Quicktime movie then I blogged about a free app last year that combines logging and playback in one app, QT Movie Notetaker. The program makes time notations based on how far into the movie you are but doesn't read timecode. If you want to spend $99, InqScribe has a unified playback and logging interface and has timecode support for Quicktime movies. That's sort of the complete package for handy transcribing and logging.
"Simplify media transcription with hotkeys and AppleScript" - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
The article talks about setting up hotkeys to control Quicktime Player. A hotkey is when you assign a command to a keystroke. That way you can transcribe or log in a Microsoft Word or some other word processor and still control the movie playing back without switching applications. The article describes how to create hotkeys by using a freeware app Spark to create hotkeys that run an Applescript.
Well, at Link we tend to have stuff logged from DVD with timecode burned-in to the video. So I set up some simple, one-line Applescripts to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward DVD's.
Play
tell application "DVD Player" to play dvd
Pause
tell application "DVD Player" to pause dvd
Rewind
tell application "DVD Player" to rewind dvd
Fast Foward
tell application "DVD Player" to fast forward dvd
I checked it out with Word, and assigning the scripts to option+J, option+K, option+L, and option+space bar seemed to work fine.
If you do log/transcribe from a Quicktime movie then I blogged about a free app last year that combines logging and playback in one app, QT Movie Notetaker. The program makes time notations based on how far into the movie you are but doesn't read timecode. If you want to spend $99, InqScribe has a unified playback and logging interface and has timecode support for Quicktime movies. That's sort of the complete package for handy transcribing and logging.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Guides on Audio EQ and Compression
Here are some good guides to the concepts and practice for EQ and compression:"Basic Guide to Understanding EQ"
"Taming Your Audio Signal with Compression"
I've always thought of myself as a visually-attuned person, but much less sensitive to sound. So while I think I have a natural proclivity to catching things with my eye, I think I have to work much harder for sound--I think I learned much quicker what looked right and how to make it that way than I was to learn when something sounded right and how to make it so.
After level changes, the next basic tool in your audio kit is EQ. Back in the day, when someone told you that she or he wanted to make something sound better in the edit room, you were going to turn to the EQ. I've done a fair amount of linear editing, and that meant using the EQ knobs on your mixer. I still turn to the mixer from time to time. It's a quick way to check out how adjusting different frequencies will affect your audio. The Mackie VLZ mixer, which most of our editors have, has low-end, mid-range, and high-end adjustments. If may not really improve the track, but it's a quick way to check if you can make something sound better by raising or lowering the level of particular frequencies (just remember to turn those pots back to unity when you're done testing--so you don't screw up someone else's audio.) Then once I've found a setting that I like, I'll recreate it with an EQ filter in Final Cut. The B&H article Basic Guide to Understanding EQ describes different kinds of EQ beyond what you'll find on your basic mixer. Shelving and cutting are also available in Final Cut Pro as filters.
Nowadays I usually find myself turning to compression first when I want to help an audio track--especially a clean track, like one recorded in a VO booth or a quiet studio. I'm pretty conservative on compression. I think it's overused on a lot of TV and radio, especially when annoying white guys are yelling to be the loudest person in the world. But even in milder forms, it can give a voice some punch. So for example, this article Taming Your Audio Signal with Compression recommends compression ratios of 2 to 4, whereas I usually keep my ratio at below 2. BTW, a ratio of 1 does nothing. Of course, this is the default setting, so if you're not familiar with compression then the first time you use it, you might think it does nothing.
Final Cut Pro does compression, but Soundtrack Pro's multipressor effect is even more powerful. I use multipressor to have a little noise gate in the effect, and I like the graph display so I can the audio levels where the noise gate is working and where the compressor is working. If I have the time then I'll often take a track to Soundtrack Pro. If it's shot in our studio, then I'll want to do some noise reduction first, then I'll do a multipressor, and then I'll apply the limiter in Soundtrack Pro. Soundtrack Pro's limiter works much better than FCP's. I like how you can see how much the limiter is working in the filter settings window. The limiter works similarly, but more crudely, than the compressor in that it can be used to give your track more punch.
I found these articles over at FreshDV. These articles are part of the B&H Pro Audio Newsletter, which you can subscribe to on their homepage. Most of what I have learned about audio I learned from the writings of a guy called Jay Rose . I keep a copy of his "Audio for Post Production" around the office, which I recommend for both beginners and experienced editors who want to dig deep into sound issues.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Maintenance Tips for Your Mac
MacWorld: "Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines"
This a good article at MacWorld.com. A bunch of tips on how to get your Mac in good condition for the long run. I highly recommend the article.
One useful tip I liked was using SMART tests to regularly check on the health of your hard drives. Apparently these tests can give you a heads-up on ailing hard drives (before you lose data.) It's not bullet-proof, but it's supposed to protect against some of the more common types of hard drive failures. Michael Kinimoto says he has had good luck with doing regular SMART tests. The article recommends installing some freeware that regularly checks your hard drive's SMART status: Smart Reporter. Unfortunately, SMART tests don't work over firewire. It may work on an external hard drive hooked up through SATA, but that depends on what kind of hardware connection you have for your external SATA drive. The Firmtek Seritek PCI and PCI-E cards I've used pass along SMART data. But at the very least, you can be checking your internal drives on your Mac.
This a good article at MacWorld.com. A bunch of tips on how to get your Mac in good condition for the long run. I highly recommend the article.
One useful tip I liked was using SMART tests to regularly check on the health of your hard drives. Apparently these tests can give you a heads-up on ailing hard drives (before you lose data.) It's not bullet-proof, but it's supposed to protect against some of the more common types of hard drive failures. Michael Kinimoto says he has had good luck with doing regular SMART tests. The article recommends installing some freeware that regularly checks your hard drive's SMART status: Smart Reporter. Unfortunately, SMART tests don't work over firewire. It may work on an external hard drive hooked up through SATA, but that depends on what kind of hardware connection you have for your external SATA drive. The Firmtek Seritek PCI and PCI-E cards I've used pass along SMART data. But at the very least, you can be checking your internal drives on your Mac.
Cheap Tip for Matching Cameras
Pro Video Coaltion: "Perfect Color Balance for Less than $7"This sounds like a good tip for shooting, QP Card. Cheap cards with black, grey, and white swatches. Shoot these, and the in FCP use the 3-way Color Corrector to quickly color balance.
Seems like it would be particularly good for matching cameras. Under the light that you will shoot in, have all cameras record a couple of seconds of this. Then the cameras should match very well (assuming the cameras are the same models using the same settings.)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Link TV's Next Camera
"Review: Sony HVR-Z7 & HVR-S270 1/3” 3-CMOS HDV camcorders" by Adam Wilt
I don't make many predictions on my blogs, but if I had to guess I think the Sony HVR-Z7 will be Link TV's next camera. Why you ask? First, it's Sony, and folks at Link in SF seem to like Sony. Second the price is right for us--well below the $10,000 mark, now about $5700 street price. Second it's a significant improvement on the Z1 camera that we have now. The Z1 has been out for over 3 years and Sony has finally released a true successor to the Z1. It's supposed to be faster than the Z1. It's all supposed to have a good LCD and viewfinder (areas where the Z1 is seriously lacking)
I'm basing this on Adam Wilt's excellent review of the Z7 and its bigger sibling the S270. It seems like there are some other good cameras out there, namely the Sony EX1, which records only onto flash memory. But for Link the lack of tape recording is sort of a deal breaker. At least as a post guy I don't want to have to deal with the headache of worrying about all of that media on hard drives with no other backup. Plus the EX1' s SxS Pro recording cards are still pretty pricey. For big shoots, that leaves options like a hard drive recorder, lugging around a laptop to shoots, or renting more storage. So much easier to pack a bunch of cheap tapes for a shoot.
If you want tapeless storage, the Z7 can even record to Compact Flash using the included HVR-MRC1 unit, which attaches at the back of the camera. That's a nice feature if you want the quick turnaround of material, which is a big benefit with tapeless workflows. Compact Flash is much cheaper than Panasonic's P2 and Sony's SxS Pro too.
The EX1 has 1/2" chips--the only sub-$10K HD camera with that. And it's supposed to have the sharpest picture in this price range. Too bad they couldn't match 1/2" chips along with the HDV format. The S270, which is reviewed in the same article, has one big feature that I'd like to see on the Z7--it can take large cassettes. That means 4.5 hours of HDV on a tape. But that camera is over the 10K point. But all things considered, the Z7 looks like a good camera, and from what Adam Wilt says, the champ of the sub-$10K HDV cameras.
Here's Adam's summary of the pros and cons of both the Z7 and the S270:
Pros
- Interchangeable lenses with standard 1/3” mounts.
- ISO 400 sensitivity.
- 800+ TVl/ph resolution with smooth, natural detail.
- DV, DVCAM, and 1080-line HDV recording.
- Interlaced and true progressive modes.
- Killer EVF and very good LCD; good peaking control.
- Best-in-the-business viewfinder data displays.
- Unique in-viewfinder tilt indicator.
- Z7: well balanced and easy to handhold.
- S270: no-nonsense, full-sized shoulder-mount camcorder; 4 channels of audio; 4.5 hour record times.
- Sensible ergonomics on both cameras: controls are where they should be.
- Sony Steadyshot.
- HVR-MRC1 CF card recorder included.
- Comprehensive Picture Profile tweaks, most with 15 steps of adjustment.
- Very good shotgun mike included.
Cons
- Stock lenses have only average chromatic aberration performance.
- Resolution drops with increased gain.
- Smooth Slow Motion clips have low resolution, many compression artifacts.
- Lens iris ring isn’t labeled or calibrated.
- Fastest power zoom isn’t very fast.
- MRC1: buttons lack a “hold” switch and are subject to inadvertent activation.
- MRC1: no single-frame mode in interval recording.
Good Info on Mac Backup Software
"The Evolving World of Backup"
A few years back I bought my first online book "Taking Control of Mac OS X Backups." I basically just copied my plans for backing up at Link TV from this book. A good $10 purchase.
A new version isn't out yet, but the guy who wrote the book has posted some thoughts about trends in the Mac backup realm. I would have thought that Time Machine would have thinned out the available software (you can't beat free.) But apparently, backup software is proliferating and there are lots of new features coming out.
For example he mentions some workable online backup options, namely involving Amazon's S3. Sounds interesting.
Backup is still very confusing, and it takes a real strategy to handle it thoroughly and efficiently. Until the next version of "Taking Control of Mac OS X Backups" comes out, this article has some of the best backup info that I've seen.
A few years back I bought my first online book "Taking Control of Mac OS X Backups." I basically just copied my plans for backing up at Link TV from this book. A good $10 purchase.
A new version isn't out yet, but the guy who wrote the book has posted some thoughts about trends in the Mac backup realm. I would have thought that Time Machine would have thinned out the available software (you can't beat free.) But apparently, backup software is proliferating and there are lots of new features coming out.
For example he mentions some workable online backup options, namely involving Amazon's S3. Sounds interesting.
Backup is still very confusing, and it takes a real strategy to handle it thoroughly and efficiently. Until the next version of "Taking Control of Mac OS X Backups" comes out, this article has some of the best backup info that I've seen.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Final Cut Server--Extra Credit
I did a big post on Final Cut Server last month. If you have not read it, please do. It covers what FC Server is and also lays out how we could use it at Link. This article is extra credit for folks who are really interested in the software.
I went to a presentation on Final Cut Server. It was hosted by Advanced Systems Group. They had a guy from Apple there to talk about the software. Then another guy gave a spiel about how you really want an expert to set up and customize FC Server. They gave some examples where you'll want an expert--setting up a web interface to videos, interacting with automation/playout servers.
One thing I realized at the presentation is that our metadata situation with our Final Cut projects is poor to useless. I know I rarely label clips with helpful info. I try to name projects accurately with the title of a project, but sometimes I don't get it right or the project name changes. Even tape numbers are not always entered or done so accurately. What's the point of having a giant database if you can't search with confidence that you'll actually find what you are looking for? Not to mention an ideal functionality like having files indexed with useful metadata so you could do keyword searches, say "insurgent attacks" and get some dramatic footage from Mosaic.
At our office editors usually haven't collaborated. I usually took an attitude of "if I can find it/figure it out, that's all that matters." But that kind of attitude is the opposite of what's needed for asset management. Extra work needs to go into getting good metadata with your media. Since we don't have the option of hiring a librarian to organize things, that means more work for the editors probably who have to have bought into the process. If they haven't then things will slack off and the metadata won't get entered.
While Final Cut Server does everything that I wrote about in my last post on it, the Apple guy and the ASG folks were really pushing that you have to have an expert to set it up. I think I could get it to do everything that I discussed in my last post with the caveat about searching through poor metadata.
We've talked about hosting media from Mosaic on the web. Again, FC Server won't do this on its own. But it seems like it would be a good spot to organize that media. Then with automation scripting in FC Server, you could hand off the media to a website that handles the front-end, movie hosting, etc. FC Server would be where staff would import media and attach metadata to make it useful for users. FC Server could automatically hand it off to a system to handle the web part with scripting done by somebody knowledgeable.
Below are the notes that I took at the session:
Once a project is imported into FC Server you need to check in and check out. If you keep a copy locally and work with it again after import, then FC Server will think it's a new file when you try to put it back into FC Server. So basically it adds an extra step to opening a project--you have to check it out of FC Server first. Then you have to check it back in to get it to FC Server to update the media for it. Looks like more work for the editor, who has to have bought into the process--otherwise, he or she will just keep everything locally.
Showed a cool video about Radical Media
Translation done in China and FC Server handled ftp for cutting in New York. Complex workflow with steps and notification automated. Required scripting to make FC Server work with ftp server. Process also described in this white paper called "Final Cut Server in Depth" (PDF download.) Translation was added as subtitles using the title tool in Final Cut Pro. BTW, that's extra work for the translator. For Latin Pulse we do subtitles and it takes a lot of time. Translation is done first by someone with good Spanish and English, then spotting and creation of titles is done afterwards by someone who doesn't need language skills that are that strong. (Another step is me reviewing all of the subtitles, suggesting rewrites, adjusting the layout of the titles, and editing if the translation is too long to get read in real time.)
Check out Final Cut Pro projects from Server
Options to handle media when you check out a project
-Edit in place (doesn't do anything really)
-Edit proxies (good for taking a project home for the weekend or on the road)
-Disconnected use (makes a copy of the project and its media, like media manager)
Can't use project until it is checked back in. That is folks can't work on the same FCP project at the same time.
Media manager only recommended if you are creating a whole new version of a project. Again you have to play by FC Server's rule if you want it to track your stuff well.
Demo'd a web interface to log and annotate clips. But this was only a demo version and is not part of the softare. This was a "what you could do" if you are web developer or could afford to hire one. Hmm, well I'm not and we can't for what I do.
FC Server Strategy Meeting--topics for discussion
-Storage plan (for proxy files)
-Type of proxies
-Workflow strategy (what do you do with your media, where does it go, how does it get there, who does what with the media, aka Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How)
-Users
-Advanced automation
-email notifications
-Compression & distribution
-Web review (again not part of the product)
-"Customer" access to FCS
Automated backup can be done--setup rules for when to backup
For example: if file hasn't been touched in a certain amount of time, move to backup storage
Don't have to do an initial scan that sucks in all of your media, it may be better to add project by project. That way, you can be more thorough with metadata.
Annotate is where you can tag in and out markers and comments on clips. Apple guy said that this is supposed to be for transfer of this info back to FCP, but he didn't know how to do it/if it could be done now. Originally, there was going to be similar functionality to make simple edited sequences--I think those would have been transfered back through XML files. But Apple guy said no editing functionality but he "hoped" that they would add that feature because they touted it last year. Annotate is where producers could check out clips for editing and mark ins and outs for editors. It would be great if that could get into FCP. It would still be great for the producers to mark ins and outs on media directly on the clips as opposed to making notes on paper based on time code from a Beta or DV or timer from DVD. But without sending that info back to FCP, editor has to manually transfer in and out points.
Does it work with stills? Sure. FC Server is based on the Artbox software, which was originally written for still images. Also useful for getting producers to sign off on graphics. No need to drag Wendy into the editing room for her to look at something, which (I hope) she will just say OK to anyway. Yeah, for real collaboration you have to be in the same room but for quick and dirty this would be really nice to speed things up.
Suggestions from presenters that FC Serve can read After Effects files to get the links to the media that the project uses. That would be cool.
I went to a presentation on Final Cut Server. It was hosted by Advanced Systems Group. They had a guy from Apple there to talk about the software. Then another guy gave a spiel about how you really want an expert to set up and customize FC Server. They gave some examples where you'll want an expert--setting up a web interface to videos, interacting with automation/playout servers.
One thing I realized at the presentation is that our metadata situation with our Final Cut projects is poor to useless. I know I rarely label clips with helpful info. I try to name projects accurately with the title of a project, but sometimes I don't get it right or the project name changes. Even tape numbers are not always entered or done so accurately. What's the point of having a giant database if you can't search with confidence that you'll actually find what you are looking for? Not to mention an ideal functionality like having files indexed with useful metadata so you could do keyword searches, say "insurgent attacks" and get some dramatic footage from Mosaic.
At our office editors usually haven't collaborated. I usually took an attitude of "if I can find it/figure it out, that's all that matters." But that kind of attitude is the opposite of what's needed for asset management. Extra work needs to go into getting good metadata with your media. Since we don't have the option of hiring a librarian to organize things, that means more work for the editors probably who have to have bought into the process. If they haven't then things will slack off and the metadata won't get entered.
While Final Cut Server does everything that I wrote about in my last post on it, the Apple guy and the ASG folks were really pushing that you have to have an expert to set it up. I think I could get it to do everything that I discussed in my last post with the caveat about searching through poor metadata.
We've talked about hosting media from Mosaic on the web. Again, FC Server won't do this on its own. But it seems like it would be a good spot to organize that media. Then with automation scripting in FC Server, you could hand off the media to a website that handles the front-end, movie hosting, etc. FC Server would be where staff would import media and attach metadata to make it useful for users. FC Server could automatically hand it off to a system to handle the web part with scripting done by somebody knowledgeable.
Below are the notes that I took at the session:
Once a project is imported into FC Server you need to check in and check out. If you keep a copy locally and work with it again after import, then FC Server will think it's a new file when you try to put it back into FC Server. So basically it adds an extra step to opening a project--you have to check it out of FC Server first. Then you have to check it back in to get it to FC Server to update the media for it. Looks like more work for the editor, who has to have bought into the process--otherwise, he or she will just keep everything locally.
Showed a cool video about Radical Media
Translation done in China and FC Server handled ftp for cutting in New York. Complex workflow with steps and notification automated. Required scripting to make FC Server work with ftp server. Process also described in this white paper called "Final Cut Server in Depth" (PDF download.) Translation was added as subtitles using the title tool in Final Cut Pro. BTW, that's extra work for the translator. For Latin Pulse we do subtitles and it takes a lot of time. Translation is done first by someone with good Spanish and English, then spotting and creation of titles is done afterwards by someone who doesn't need language skills that are that strong. (Another step is me reviewing all of the subtitles, suggesting rewrites, adjusting the layout of the titles, and editing if the translation is too long to get read in real time.)
Check out Final Cut Pro projects from Server
Options to handle media when you check out a project
-Edit in place (doesn't do anything really)
-Edit proxies (good for taking a project home for the weekend or on the road)
-Disconnected use (makes a copy of the project and its media, like media manager)
Can't use project until it is checked back in. That is folks can't work on the same FCP project at the same time.
Media manager only recommended if you are creating a whole new version of a project. Again you have to play by FC Server's rule if you want it to track your stuff well.
Demo'd a web interface to log and annotate clips. But this was only a demo version and is not part of the softare. This was a "what you could do" if you are web developer or could afford to hire one. Hmm, well I'm not and we can't for what I do.
FC Server Strategy Meeting--topics for discussion
-Storage plan (for proxy files)
-Type of proxies
-Workflow strategy (what do you do with your media, where does it go, how does it get there, who does what with the media, aka Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How)
-Users
-Advanced automation
-email notifications
-Compression & distribution
-Web review (again not part of the product)
-"Customer" access to FCS
Automated backup can be done--setup rules for when to backup
For example: if file hasn't been touched in a certain amount of time, move to backup storage
Don't have to do an initial scan that sucks in all of your media, it may be better to add project by project. That way, you can be more thorough with metadata.
Annotate is where you can tag in and out markers and comments on clips. Apple guy said that this is supposed to be for transfer of this info back to FCP, but he didn't know how to do it/if it could be done now. Originally, there was going to be similar functionality to make simple edited sequences--I think those would have been transfered back through XML files. But Apple guy said no editing functionality but he "hoped" that they would add that feature because they touted it last year. Annotate is where producers could check out clips for editing and mark ins and outs for editors. It would be great if that could get into FCP. It would still be great for the producers to mark ins and outs on media directly on the clips as opposed to making notes on paper based on time code from a Beta or DV or timer from DVD. But without sending that info back to FCP, editor has to manually transfer in and out points.
Does it work with stills? Sure. FC Server is based on the Artbox software, which was originally written for still images. Also useful for getting producers to sign off on graphics. No need to drag Wendy into the editing room for her to look at something, which (I hope) she will just say OK to anyway. Yeah, for real collaboration you have to be in the same room but for quick and dirty this would be really nice to speed things up.
Suggestions from presenters that FC Serve can read After Effects files to get the links to the media that the project uses. That would be cool.
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