Blog Archives

Confused when comparing Intel to Apple silicon systems? Jerry Thompson was, too. Here are the answers to your questions on what the differences are between Apple silicon and Intel, along with suggestions on how to spec a system.

Picking a high-quality computer monitor for video editing is surprisingly confusing. Here is Larry Jordan’s explanation of what specs you need to look for, which you can ignore, and what criteria he uses for picking computer and video monitors.

No monitor is perfect, but if images are your life, you should make the effort to check out the ViewSonic VP2776. When I look at the same image on all three monitor connected to my Mac, the ViewSonic looks the best. Here’s a detailed review.

Which combination of hard disk or SSD storage provides the fastest speed or highest capacity for video editing? This illustrated tutorial will answer these questions, plus provide a spreadsheet you can use to test your own numbers. This works for Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Apple Final Cut Pro editors.

Here are two very clever workarounds to create short extracts of much larger media files to save storage space when importing video into Apple Final Cut Pro.

Even the largest RAIDs fill up. If you own an OWC RAID, you can safely and easily archive RAID sets for archiving and storage. Loren Miller explains the process in this highly-illustrated, step-by-step tutorial.

Thunderbolt is an amazing protocol and essential to many video workflows. However, it isn’t a magic box. Once you understand what affects the speeds it can transfer data, you can better plan for how to use it. This tutorial explains what impacts the speed of a Thunderbolt device.

August is vacation time. Still, over these five weeks, we published 19 tutorials and product reviews. Here’s a summary of everything we released this month. Something to look through during the holiday weekend.

Axle.ai is a fast, powerful and customizable media asset management system that is designed for the needs of a small to medium sized workgroup. This is an in-depth product review, along with an interview with Axle.ai CEO Sam Bogoch.

Last week, I asked video editors to share how they organize and manage their media for video editing. Here’s what they told me.

[ Updated Aug. 22, 2022, with comments from Ed Cilley. ] Kristen Flynn asks: “How do people keep track of stock music? Where do they keep it? How do they access it for an edit? I feel like I have …

One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry has a conversation about computer performance in the real-world, specifically for video editing.

One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry answers Simone’s question about scanning photographs for digital video.

This built-in Mac utility is fast, easy-to-use and always available. When you need to rename files in a hurry, this is a good trick to know.

Audio Design Desk is an amazing program. It creates sound environments faster and easier than anything I’ve ever seen. Now they’ve extended it with Media Bridge connecting ADD with sound effects libraries across the web. Learn more!

MediaInfo, published by MediaArea, is a convenient unified display of the most relevant technical data for video and audio files. It is free, available through the MacApp store. Here’s a detailed look at this useful utility.

Apple Compressor can analyze the technical settings of a media clip and, in some cases, allow you to change them. This illustrated tutorial shows you how.

Adobe added new features to their proxy workflow. However, you need to make sure permissions are set correctly, and, even then, they are hard to see. Here’s how this new feature works.

Relinking media in Final Cut has become increasing powerful and flexible. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how it works, along with advice on where to store media for different Final Cut Pro projects.

Video bit depth makes a difference when you are creating effects, color grading or working with HDR material. Here’s an explanation of what bit depth is and when to care about it.

In the 22.3.1 update to Premiere Pro, Adobe added two features that significantly speed exports: Smart Render and the Export Preset Manager. This illustrated tutorial shows how they work.

Based on a reader’s comment, this compares image quality between three different source codecs (ProRes, MPEG-2 and H.264) compressed into H.264 using Apple Compressor. This also illustrates how many CPU and GPU cores were active.

This tutorial compares the export speed on an Apple silicon MacBook Pro of Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve; along with how effectively they used CPU and GPU systems.The results surprised me – none of them maxed out the system!

How many CPU cores do you need for video editing? This illustrated tutorial looks at how many CPU cores Apple Final Cut Pro uses during import, edit, render, export and multicam. The answer is surprising!

Almost all digital video cameras shoot video levels with excessive levels for any project destined for broadcast, cable, streaming or digital cinema. The highlights are too bright and the shadows are too dark. Here are two ways to control them.

Why does Apple Final Cut Pro only use Apple silicon efficiency cores when exporting? And which cores do Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve use? Here’s a comparison between the three.

Recently, Adobe updated Premiere Pro to version 22.3.1. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new Quick Export and Export Preset Manager to quickly convert your Premiere sequence into finished media.

Recently, Adobe updated Premiere Pro to version 22.3.1. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new Import panel to create a new project and import media clips into Premiere.

Recently, Apple updated Final Cut Pro to version 10.6.2. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new duplicate media detection feature to indicate where you are using the same media in the timeline more than once.

If you are a relatively new user of Final Cut, you may not know that there is a powerful organizational tool in the Browser. Why? Because its hidden… in plain sight. It’s called “Favorites” and here’s how it works.

There seems to be a problem between Time Machine, Final Cut Pro and external RAIDs. Learn more.

Recently, the folks at ViewSonic contacted me about what they see as the top trends in 2022 for visual displays and monitors. I was intrigued by their list and emailed Jeff Volpe, President of ViewSonic Americas, to learn more. Larry: Jeff, …

Adobe changed the Premier Pro export interface — cleaning it up without removing any of the power or flexibility. Here’s a tutorial with a look at the new changes.

With the 22.3 release of Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe created a faster and easier way to create a new project and import media into it. Here’s how it works.

Displaying duplicate media in the same timeline is a new feature in Final Cut Pro 10.6.2. Here’s how it works.

This option doesn’t appear in the File > Share menu. Nor in the the Share icon (link). But it does in Preferences > Destinations: a Share Bundle. What is it? This illustrated tutorial provides the answers.

Hidden in the top right corner of the Apple Final Cut Pro interface is a small icon with a lot of big features behind it. The Share icon. Here’s what it does.

If you have a crashed hard disk and need to recover images, Stellar Photo Recovery may be worth considering. But if you have specific images that used to open, but don’t open now, Stellar Photo Recovery didn’t work for me. It may work for you.

This is an excerpt of a recent PowerUP webinar called “Ask Larry Anything.” In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to change where Final Cut Pro stores library elements, how to change that location, then how consolidate media into a single new location.

This is an excerpt of a recent PowerUP webinar called “Ask Larry Anything.” In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates what video interlacing is, why deinterlacing is necessary and why deinterlacing always degrades video image quality.

This is an excerpt of a recent PowerUP webinar called “Ask Larry Anything.” In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what makes video frame rate conversions so difficult.

Here’s some fun text effects including video-in-text, text animation and a limitless ability to customize; all using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Step-by-step illustrated instructions on how to encode image sequences using Adobe Media Encoder.

Here’s a great tip that saves wear-and-tear on your storage system when editing multicam clips using Apple Final Cut Pro.

One of the newer features added to Premiere Pro is the ability to gang, or connect, the Program Monitor to one of two different monitor panels. This allows you to see two moving images at once. Here’s how this works.

The New Mac Studio computer is stunning. But, is it for you? Here’s what you need to know to configure it for video editing – yet save money at the same time.

Like many, I get confused about the differences between HDR, RAW, HDR, Log, LUT, and 10-bit media. All too often, the explanations are deeply technical – and confusing. So, here’s an overview of what these are and how to use them.

Here’s a very effective technique to manage your storage called “Optimize Storage.” It’s free and built into every Mac. Let me show you how this works.

evrExpanse, a media metadata and transcoding tool, was updated to 2.1.6. The new version provides support for more codecs and faster performance. Here’s a first look.

If you’ve been wondering what the color tools in Final Cut do, or how to make them work better, this session is for you. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use high dynamic range media, called “HDR,” in a standard dynamic range (SDR) project, like HD, in Final Cut.