Blog Archives

Sometimes you need more than QuickTime to meet the needs of a client. In this brief article, we present a variety of solutions you can use to create WMV files of your Final Cut Pro projects on a Mac.

Apple now supports creating Blu-ray Discs in Final Cut Studio 3. This support involves using templates to create your discs. However, making changes to these templates is easy to do, but hard to find. This article explains what you need to do to create your own customized Blu-ray Disc templates.

Data rates measure the speed of all things digital – hard disks, the internet, the internal components of your computer. This short article explains what data rates are, how they are measured, and the differences between “bits per second” and “bytes per second.”

Most of the time the default settings in Compressor are not too bad. But, sometimes, problems arise when down-converting high-def material to standard-def (HD to SD). In this case, if you are getting images that look worse than you expect, try this two-step process (called “pre-compression”) and see if your image quality improves.

In the past we obsessed about the rotational speed of a hard disk, how much cache it had, or even the controller chip it used. While these are important, they pale in significance when compared to the impact of how you connect your drive to your computer.

Have you ever wondered why a 1 TB drive never has 1 TB of free space? Or why a 500 GB drive stores much less than 500 GB? Well, it isn’t your imagination, it’s that engineers and marketers use two different numbers – but the same words – to measure the storage capacity of a hard drive.

Data Robotics is aggressively going after the audio and video market with a series of devices marketed using the Drobo brand. We’ve already reviewed the Drobo. Here we review its big brother – the DroboPro. The speed and flexibility of this device make it very attractive. This article gives you much more detail.

Are dropped frames driving you nuts. Here’s a checklist of tips you can use to resolve your dropped frames problem — before you drop your computer out a second-story window.

Barring a hardware problem, dropped frames are almost always caused by a hard disk that’s too slow. But what if the problem is with your render files? In this article we provide some ideas to try as well as references to more detailed articles that can walk you through almost any problem.

A common complaint about matching audio between DSLR cameras and digital audio recorders is that the audio sync drifts. This article provides three references you can use to resolve this problem.

If you’ve ever compared the quality of your DV movies in Final Cut to what they look like in QuickTime, you can very quickly become suicidal. Why does QuickTime make your images look so bad? This quick article explains.

I’ve never seen this happen, but the workaround maybe a life-saver if you need it. Here’s how to reconnect DVD Studio Pro’s palettes with the files stored on your hard disk.

One confusing issue new editors need to deal with is getting Final Cut Pro to recognize 16:9 (also called “widescreen,” or “anamorphic”) video. As well, if the editor is a new Mac user, they may also have problems with exported file sizes. This article addresses both these issues.

In the category of “you don’t know what you don’t know,” here’s an interesting piece of trivia. Ever wonder what that checkbox called “Little Endian” means when you are saving audio? This article tell you so you can now impress your friends.

What do you do when you have locked yourself out of your own computer? Well, besides screaming and yelling… This short article shows you the backdoor you can use to get access to a computer you are locked out of.

Without a doubt, the question I get asked the most is “what should I buy?” This article explains all the different gear you may need for your editing sytem along with links to companies and products to consider. This isn’t a commercial, rather it’s a tutorial on what you need to know to make some good investments.

I am getting periodic reports of missing render files inside Final Cut Pro. This short article may give you a hand in tracking down the problem.

As we move away from tape and into tapeless video, questions about how to best archive our projects take on a new importance. For many, the issue revolves around the hardware we use to archive. But there is a second question: what video format do we want to use to store our files for the long-term. In this dialog with Philip Hodgetts, we examine this very complex issue and provide some guidance.

When capturing from tape, Capture Now should always be your last choice, not your first. Sometimes, when using Capture Now, your audio may drift. If that happens, read this article.

There are two questions I get asked a lot: what’s the best camera, and what’s the best hardware. This article explains why answering the hardware question is so difficult. It isn’t that there’s no answer, its that the answer is TOTALLY dependent on what YOU need. Take a look here at why.

In this article I want to give you some suggestions on proper selection of compression bit-rates; as well as how to improve the compatibility of the CDs and DVDs that you burn.

A brief, but important, reminder on the subject of FireWire cable limits.

I am not a testing organization, but, recently, Jon Schilling over at CalDigit (www.caldigit.com) sent me a 500 GB SATA RAID to examine (Model #S2VR Duo).

Are you having problems getting Final Cut to render? It may not be a software problem. Eric Solstein sent us this cautionary tale on the problems of heat. If your system is acting up, read this article.

Here’s a short article that explains what you need to know about 64-bit memory support, along with some software you can use to toggle between 32-bit and 64-bit modes.

64-bit memory addressing is new with OS X 10.6. But what does this really mean? And what does it mean for Final Cut Studio (3)? In this short, moderately technical, article, we take a look a this new term and what it means for the future of video editing.

Need to find some new fonts — or looking for a way to add them to your system? Here’s how.

With the camera industry’s head-long rush into tapeless image acquisition, having a soild backup and archiving strategy is critical because video tape masters no longer exist. In this commentary, I discuss the sad state of today’s options and provide suggestions to keep you out of trouble.

How to carry a preference Custom Keyboard Layout file and place it in a new Final Cut Pro system. Very useful for freelance editing!

The good folks at AccuSys contacted me recently about reviewing their new A08S-PS. This is an 8-bay Tower RAID designed for media professionals. I told them I’d be delighted to look at it, so a few weeks ago, it showed up on my doorstop.

As part of my recent research for the Tapeless and DSLR Media webinar, I sent a note to a variety of editors asking for their thoughts on working with tapeless media. Specifically, I wanted to learn what problems they were running into. I was fascinated by the results.