Blog Archives

High-performance, high-capacity storage is at the heart of everything we do as media editors. Clearly, performance improves with each generation of gear. Equally clearly, none of us have unlimited budgets. These tests compare the benefits of migrating from Thunderbolt 2 storage to Thunderbolt 3.

For many years, I’ve written that the fuller a spinning hard disk drive (HDD) is, the slower it goes. But, while I’ve “known” this for years, I never really bothered to test it. Until this week, as part of a detailed review of a Thunderbay 4 HDD RAID. Here’s the answer.

I’ve often wondered just how much better an SSD is for multicam editing than an HDD (spinning hard disk drive). Recently, as part of detailed review of the OWC Thunderbay 4 HDD RAID, I decided to find out.

I’ve always “known” that HFS+ is better for formatting spinning hard drives for the Mac  than APFS. But, I wondered, is that just hearsay or is there some truth to it? So, I put them both to the test. The results are surprising.

Backups are basic to protecting your media. But what should you use for hardware, or software, and how many backups are “enough.” Larry Jordan explains the basics.

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Gary asks: “I recall you said that mixed frame rates cannot exist on a DaVinci Resolve timeline. Often my media is submitted in a myriad of forms/rates. How do I deal with that?” Actually, Resolve handles mixed frame rates easily – with one BIG!! gotcha. Here are the details.

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Geoff is experiencing consistent jerkiness during pans of any speed on multiple cameras when shooting PAL video. Take a look and see if you can solve the problem.

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Recently, I made a mistake that destroyed all my existing projects. Here’s what I did, and here’s what I learned: how to archive projects, how to restore from backups and where to set the initial Resolve Project Library.

In this short video, Larry Jordan demonstrates how to import timelines from Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro for color grading, then export them back out again.

Over the last week, I tested Apple Final Cut Pro 11, Adobe Premiere Pro 25 and DaVinci Resolve 19.1 using a variety of computers from 2018 to the new M4 Pro Mac mini. This article summarizes what I’ve learned with an emphasis on the M4 Pro Mac mini and M2 Max Mac Studio.

This review looks at the performance differences in video editing running DaVinci Resolve 19.1 on a variety of Macs from the 2018 Mac mini to the new 2024 Apple M4 Pro Mac mini.

“How fast is fast enough?” is a question I’ve been pondering this last week. I decided to compare the speeds of two popular SSD drives: the T9 and T5 from Samsung. Partly, to see how fast they were, and partly to see if they were “fast enough” for video editing.

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Audio normalization makes one or more selected audio clips louder, without creating distortion, by raising the gain (audio level) of each clip such that the loudest portion of each clip does not exceed the level that you specify. This tutorial explains when to use it and when you should not.

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Over the weekend, I bought a newly-announced M4 Pro Mac Mini. This article explains what I bought and why. (Updated based on my recent performance tests.)

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Paul is creating a compilation video and asks: What happens when I copy clips from one Final Cut Pro library to another? And how can I keep my library sizes small? The answer? It all depends upon how you initially import your media.

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One of the questions I asked my interview guests at the NAB Show New York, was, in spite of all the stress in media today, what made them optimistic? Twelve interviews from the 2024 NAB Show in New York City.

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In this interview, Larry Jordan and Megan Fasy discuss the relationship between marketing, advertising and PR; mistakes companies make when dealing with a PR agency; the current state of the market; and reasons for optimism in media.

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In this interview, Larry Jordan and Sadie Groom discuss how to effectively create PR, mistakes companies make when dealing with the press, when to work with a PR agency, the current state of the market, and the importance of personal connections.

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In this interview, Larry Jordan and Victor Ha discuss when is the time to step up to a camera from a mobile device, FujiFilm’s emphasis on color and film emulation, and how the process of creating images has evolved over the last few years.

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In this interview, Larry Jordan and Tara Montford discuss the 20-year history of Editshare, the stresses in the industry today, and emerging new markets.

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In this interview, Larry and Ray discuss Avid’s recent acquisition of WolfTech for newsroom operations, improved support for sharing projects between Media Composer and ProTools, and new trends in automation and “digital first,” meaning files for social media take priority.

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In this interview, Larry and Marc discuss the differences between backups and archives, the current state of archiving using LTO tape and trends toward integrating archiving with cloud services.

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In this interview, Larry and Andy discuss Appear’s products for the transport of digital media files – including compression, IP encapsulation, transport, manipulation, and processing – that are all part of the live production process.

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In this interview, Larry and Sam discuss Axle’s media management software, optimized for social media, the benefits of using AI without using the Cloud and the key decentralization trend that’s upending media production.

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In this brief introduction to his interviews at the NAB Show New York 2024, Larry Jordan summarizes what he learned, and what we can expect in his upcoming interviews.

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In this interview, Larry and Michael discuss shared storage, and why it is important for NexSan to design, build, test and support their system within their company. As well, Michael explains what storage may be a commodity, but support is not.

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In this interview, Larry and Matt discuss remote media access for collaborative editing, the performance issues of accessing media remotely, when to use local cacheing, and announcing LucidLink 3.0 for mobile devices.

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In this interview, Larry and Chris discuss the latest products from Vizrt, how their products integrate throughout the entire production chain, the differences between NDI and ST2120, and how remote production is changing the face of production for both large and small companies.

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In this interview, Larry and Chris discuss what Panasonic Connect is, the difference between mobile phones and Panasonic’s cameras, and the features required for a camera geared for live events.

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In this interview, Larry and Mike discuss the current challenges facing the media industry including a shrinking workforce, the impact of AI, and the advent of new career opportunities with companies that exist solely online.

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There are several reasons why you might want to send a project from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve: For example, to create more complex effects in Fusion or more detailed color correction on the Color page. If you do, you also need to know how to get those files there and back.

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There are several reasons why you might want to send a project from Final Cut Pro to DaVinci Resolve: For example, to mix the audio in Fairlight or do more detailed color correction on the Color page. If you do, you also need to know how to get those files there and back.

I was thinking about multicams this morning. I had just finished editing my DaVinci Resolve Multicam webinar, so multicam editing was on my mind. I was pondering the differences between multicam in the three NLEs I know the best – Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. It probably won’t surprise you that the answer is: “It depends…”

Your project is complete – except you need to burn captions into your video. This process is surprisingly easy in Apple Final Cut Pro – but darn hard to find. Here’s how to do it.

So, just how well does Resolve handle multicam clips? In this tutorial, Larry Jordan decided to see how many 4K video clips Resolve could play in real-time, while still streaming a live webinar, recording that webinar and processing all this media. The answer is pretty surprising.

Sometimes, creating a custom effect can save you a lot of time – especially if you need to use it over and over. So, here’s an example of how to create a template in Motion, using a variety of useful Motion effects, that you can use directly in Apple Final Cut Pro. (I included both the movie and the Motion project.)

Thunderbolt 5 devices are announced. In this interview with Larry O’Connor, CEO of OWC, Larry Jordan explores what Thunderbolt 5 provides, how it works and when we should consider buying into it.

OWC just opened the doors to the latest high-speed storage technology: Thunderbolt 5 announcing two groundbreaking products at IBC 2024: the new Jellyfish Studio for editorial collaboration and the OWC Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD.

Axle AI today announced Searchr – a new software/hardware bundle providing media asset management for small workgroups, NVMe RAID storage and extremely fast networking for media editors or DITs that fits in a backpack. Here are the details.

Guest post: Dr. Imed Bouchrika, PhD and BSc, is a Computer Science professor from the University of Southampton, UK, who specializes in eLearning, image processing, and biometrics. (Here are Larry’s rules for guest posts.) Implementing efficient export workflows can save …

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Droplets are great stand-alone mini-apps. Watch folders are fast Compressor automations. Both can speed your work by automating the process of doing the same thing over and over Here’s how they work and which to pick for your work.

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Earlier this week, I wrote an article on how to move media stored in a Library out of that library. But, since writing it, I discovered a much faster way to do this – and one that works both ways. Here’s what you need to know.

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There is a LOT you can do to customize the Viewer in Final Cut Pro. And it all starts with discovering what the View menu can do.

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In this video tutorial, discover how to make the most of Browser settings, including better ways to organize files, create custom metadata, and create projects faster and more easily.

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In this tutorial, see how to convert a Final Cut Pro library from one where all the media is stored in the Library to one where all the media is stored external to the library.

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Artificial intelligence is causing seismic tremors of fear and loathing throughout the entire creative community. So this week I decided to find out what’s real, what’s hype, and what we can do about it by interviewing Sam Bogoch, Founder/CEO of Axle AI.

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A question I get all the time is: “How do I import just a section of a clip? The original is really long and I don’t want to waste disk space.”
Regardless of the video editing software (NLE) you use, the answer is not initially encouraging: “You can’t. Here’s why.

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Adobe continues making video proxies easier to create and more useful. In this short video, Larry Jordan explains how to create proxies and the new custom watermark feature.

Roles can now display different colors in an Apple Final Cut Pro 10.8 timeline. This new technique also provides a super-powerful, secret selection trick that can help organize complex projects, and apply effects. This is a trick worth knowing.

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HDR is quickly transforming from the video format of the future into the video format of today. In fact, every iPhone 12 or later can shoot HDR. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to setup and edit HDR media in two Final Cut Pro projects, one is HDR and the other is SDR.

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