Blog Archives

Image Chest is a Mac app that catalogs and finds images. This is a helpful app for managing all the stills associated with a video project. It isn’t perfect, but it is worth a look. Here are the details.

A user-writeup of a custom shooting rig for the Blackmagic Design 6K Pocket Cinema Camera.

An interview with Rory McGregor, CEO of Cospective, developers of cineSync, about their media review and collaboration tool.

A detailed “first look” at FilmoraPro, from Wondershare. This software is a midlevel video editor for Windows or Mac, with an emphasis on ease of use and a wide variety of customizable effects.

Sometimes, all you need is a printer – and the Brother HL-L2370dw laser printer precisely meets that need with great speed and quality.

A quick look at DVD Creator from Wondershare, and a conversation with Wondershare about the specific features in the software for filmmakers.

An illustrated “First Look” at Filmora9 – “Video Editing Simplified” – software designed for the amateur editor who needs simplicity, a wealth of effects and easy access to social media.

A detailed, illustrated look at MediaInfo, from MediaArea. This utility puts all the technical information about audio and video media at your fingertips.

An illustrated review and tutorial on mLUT for Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Avid Media Composer and more.

A detailed, illustrated, review of the LG 27″ UHD 4K Display from the perspective of video editing and still images.

The Vuze+ VR Camera, developed and manufactured by HumanEyes, is an eight-camera, four-mic unit for recording stereoscopic (3D) or monoscopic (2D) 360/VR video images, accompanied by either stereo or surround audio. Here’s a review of my experience using it.

A product review of the new OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD, designed as a replacement SSD for MacBook laptops. This illustrated review looks at the results of installing it into an older 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display.

An illustrated review of Better Rename 10, a utility that renames files, developed by PublicSpace.net.

An illustrated look at new audio repair plugins from Accusonus for Apple Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Audition CC, ProTools and many others called: ERA Bundle.

Kyno is a full-featured, flexible media manager for both Mac and Windows, with powerful transcoding built-in. Here is an overview of the new features in the 1.6.1 release.

A detailed, illustrated look at the different media formats and shooting options with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, along with recommendations for best editing in different NLEs.

An in-depth, illustrated look at Axle.ai, media asset management software for the Mac.

Archiware P5 archives, backs-up and restores data between computers and LTO tape. In this in-depth, illustrated review, Larry Jordan explains what it is, how it works, and whether it’s for you.

An illustrated tutorial and review of the Simon Says workflow extension for Apple Final Cut Pro X. This is a solid product, limited by Final Cut Pro X’s interface.

An in-depth, illustrated product review of mTAPE LTO-8, from mLogic. Also features an interview with CEO Roger Mabon about LTO, LTFS and mLogic.

An illustrated, in-depth review of Edit Ready, from divergent media. This Mac-only utility easily convert audio or video media from one format to another.

An illustrated review of SpeedScriber, by Digital Heaven, showing how it works, what it is best used for and tips to make it work faster and better.

In this brief video overview, discover how Kyno can help you find, label, manage and transcode media for Apple Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Hosted by Larry Jordan.

An illustrated review of Apple Screenshot, included in Mojave, along with a list of what it still needs to do.

An in-depth look at the new Blackmagic Design eGPU for MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ laptops, including a conversation with Blackmagic Design.

HDRinstant is designed to create HDR still images from video footage. However, the current version (v2.2.1) crashes repeatedly, the manual is poorly designed and the software, itself, needs work. Great idea, poor execution.

An in-depth review and tutorial of ff-Works, from OSBytes, for audio and video compression.

A first look at iGlasses from Ecamm – a very useful utility that add visual effects and adjust exposure and color settings in the built-in iSight camera for all Macs.

An in-depth review and speed test of the OWC Envoy Pro EX portable SSD drive, from a media editing perspective.

An introduction to a new web service called “Audioburst,” which allows content creators to index their audio content so that end users can use standard text searches to find information stored in audio files. The service is free – here’s what you need to know.

Smooth Glass Slideshow, from idustrial revolution, creates visually arresting effects that can be especially helpful in social media videos. A key strength is how easy they are to combine to quickly create very complex effects – very easily.

An initial look at AudioFix Pro: For Video; an iOS app that cleans up poorly recorded audio on iPhones and iPads.

FCP X ImageExporter is a useful utility for quickly creating a series of still frames, marred by a lack of help files and an interface that feels rushed and poorly tested.

Arctic Whiteness updates Final Cut Library Manager to version 3.6, adding new features to track and display media stored either inside a Library or outside in its own folder.

Idustrial Revolution continues its XEffects plugin series for Apple Final Cut Pro X with Rips, a series of effects, transitions and titles that make video look like it is ripping like paper.

An illustrated review of the new 3D Sports Graphics templates from idustrial Revolution for Apple Final Cut Pro X.

An illustrated review of the brand-new Random-X from XMiL for Apple Final Cut Pro X.

An illustrated review of the OWC USB-C Travel Dock for Mac and Windows laptop computers.

A “First Look” at YoYottaID. Powerful LTO archiving software hampered by an inscrutable interface; accompanied by an interview with Martin Greenwood, CTO of YoYotta.

An in-depth look at backup and archiving using LTO tape systems, and the mLogic LTO mTape drive in specific. Also features an extended interview with Roger Mabon, CEO of mLogic.

An illustrated review of Luca Visual FX Light Kit 2, which runs in Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and Motion.

A first look at the new 1.4 release of Kyno, from Lesspain Software. Media management, transcoding and workflow software.

An in-depth first look at the new features and operation of Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.4.

An in-depth look at Viral Video Thirds from idustrial Revolution for Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.3 or later.

An in-depth look at Jellyfish – high-performance shared-storage for video editing from LumaForge.

An in-depth look at a new application that allows creating custom keyboard shortcuts on an iPad which can control any application on an attached Mac.

For power, flexibility, and color effects, 3D LUT Creator is unequaled. Now, they need to turn their attention to showing the rest of us how to use it.

Final Cut Library Opener is a new utility that solves a very thorny problem: How to share media and projects in open libraries between editors without screwing anything up.

An illustrated review of the OnePlus Microphone Arm, for holding and positioning audio microphones in a recording studio.

For multicam editing nothing beats an SSD RAID. Here is an in-depth, illustrated look at the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini SSD RAID – a top choice for editors who value maximum performance and/or portability.