Blog Archives

Posted on by Larry

The search for that “perfect image” started a long time ago and will continue, I’m sure, far into the future. I was reminded of this when I came across this 1897 lens test chart from Cooke Lenses (now called Cooke …

Apple quietly announced a ground-breaking feature: the ability to refocus video during editing in Final Cut Pro. Coming soon from an iPhone 13 Pro. Learn more.

With the launch of the new “Camera to Cloud” service from Frame.io, the world of production is about to change. Frame has shown us the beginning of a new world of remote work and collaboration. But, like all change driven by technology, there will be fallout.

Posted on by Larry

My wife has a saying: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Nowhere is that more true than in technology; and the pursuit of perfection is driving us all nuts – especially in our search for that “perfect” system. Here are some thoughts that can help, regardless of the software you use.

Posted on by Larry

Here’s a summary of pro video news from Apple’s WWDC 2019 keynote this morning.

Posted on by Larry

Apple thinks Pro laptops are thin, with limited ports. Pros disagree.

Posted on by Larry

Storage Visions 2018 opens soon. Here’s why you should consider attending.

A guest blog from Andy Marken on the current potential and market for VR. It’s real, it’s big and it doesn’t involve stories!

Posted on by Larry

A real-world example from Brown University that illustrates how close we are to losing all our digital assets from the past. This needs to be a wake-up call for all of us to find a better solution for long-term archiving of audio and video media and projects.

Posted on by Larry

Changes in technology are at the heart of major issues in filmmaking today. Larry Jordan shares more thoughts on this subject.

Posted on by Larry

You may have heard of the new support for external Graphics Processing Units (eGPUs) in the 10.13.4 update to the High Sierra version of macOS. What these promise to do is provide much faster image processing by transferring calculations from …

Posted on by Larry

Larry Jordan looks back at the 2018 NAB Show and offers his thoughts on the trends and products that emerged from the event.

Posted on by Larry

A look back at a hard disk from the late 1970’s compared to a brand new SSD drive. How far we have come…

Posted on by Larry

A montage of press releases covering media hardware and services released two weeks before the start of the 2018 NAB Show. This is an excellent illustration of the breadth and diversity of the media industry.

I get lots of emails asking for advice buying “the best” computer. But you’ll need to connect it to a high-performance, high-capacity storage system to make the most of your media. Storage, more than any other component, will determine our success in editing the media of the future.

As we move into larger video formats, VR and HDR, our storage becomes even more critical than our computer. This explains what you need to know to edit video successfully.

Posted on by Larry

A summary of key announcements from Apple at the WWDC 2017 conference today that are of interest to media creators and professionals. Some very exciting stuff!

Posted on by Larry

An overview of what’s involved in having multiple audio or video editors share storage across a network. It is totally do-able, but you need to know what questions to ask and how the system works, as we explain here.

Posted on by Larry

An in-depth reflection on current storage technology: what works, what doesn’t and companies you need to watch; including links. Covers storage, backups, archiving, Cloud, and hybrid technology.

Posted on by Larry

Larry Jordan’s thoughts on the highlights and trends from the 2017 NAB Show.

Posted on by Larry

Apple made the unprecedented step of talking about products in development, its plans for its pro users and expressed regret that the Mac Pro has taken so long to update. Analysis by Larry Jordan.

Posted on by Larry

AMD announces new graphics architecture at CES 2017. Here are the details.

Last week – Sept. 12, 2016 – I asked readers of my newsletter to take a survey on whether and how they were creating optical discs. Here are the results. SUMMARY The survey had 231 respondents, providing 230 valid answers …

Posted on by Larry

A highlights tour of fascinating graphics products and 3D technology displayed at the 2016 SIGGRAPH event in Anaheim, California.

Posted on by Larry

A “good news” support story concerning Electro-Voice microphones.

Posted on by Larry

Thoughts on problems monitoring HDR video, future rumors and general media industry guesswork.

Highlights and thoughts from BVE 2016 – London. (Includes more on the developing HDR standard.)

Posted on by Larry

Of all the recent decisions by Apple and Adobe, ending sales for DVD Studio Pro and Encore has caused more complaints and hardship than just about anything else they’ve done, as Tony Fleming explains in this commentary.

Posted on by Larry

A look at the trends and highlights from CES 2016, with a strong focus on the future – whether that future is real or not.

Posted on by Larry

An update on the latest storage trends – NVDIMM, object-storage, PCIe m.2 and encryption from Storage Visions 2016.

It is a forlorn hope that the technology industry will slow down simply to allow us to preserve the past. Read why here.

Posted on by Larry

Thoughts on recent storage and connectivity announcements from Western Digital and ATTO Technologies.

Posted on by Larry

A caution that LTO-7 marketing highlights storage and speed specs that media creators won’t be able to access.

The things we purchased used to last forever. Today, they don’t. In bygone years, we could judge for ourselves whether something was good quality by looking at it, touching it and watching it work. Today, we can’t. Products are too complex, change too quickly, disappear. An essay on the impermanence in our life.

Posted on by Larry

Thoughts on whether it makes sense to upgrade older GPU technology in iMacs or MacBook Pros.

Posted on by Sudd

I’m in London this week attending BVE 2015 – an industry trade show that draws about 15,000 attendees looking to get their hands on the latest technology. There are about 270 exhibitors here with a good amount of traffic at …

Posted on by Larry

Though masquerading as a humble 27-inch iMac, Apple unleashed a monster this week: a new 5K iMac. Named the “iMac with Retina 5K Display,” it delivers 67% more pixels than a 4K display: 5,120 pixels across and 2,880 pixels high; …

A detailed explanation of how to configure your Mac or Windows system for audio or video editing.

Posted on by Larry

[ Updated July 29, 2014, to reflect additional comments from Promise Technology. ] A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) collects a group of hard disks into a single enclosure to provide great speed, storage capacity, and/or security than is …

Posted on by Larry

A series of highlights on what’s happening in the media industry two days before the start of the 2014 NAB Show.

An in-depth look at configuration, setup and use of the new Mac Pro for video editing.

Posted on by Larry

First, let’s be clear: The new MacPro is not yet shipping. So, like a group of blind folks describing an elephant, we are getting a lot of different opinions on what this new animal is. Second, the instant Apple revealed …

Posted on by Larry

I got an email from Tiziano this morning with an increasingly common question: I’m looking forward [to] buying the new Mac Pro later this year! My question is about the external disk to use for editing all formats from DV …

[ Please read this for my disclosure statement on product reviews. ] In today’s world, the speed and capacity of our storage is far more important to the performance of our editing system than the speed of our computer. Virtually …

[ Please read this for my disclosure statement on product reviews.] It’s been a while since I wrote about the Shuttle Pro from Contour Design – www.contourdesign.com. So, when Matt Ouellette, Account Manager for the Shuttle, asked if I wanted …

Posted on by Larry

[ This article generated a lot of technical comments. Be sure to view the comments in this blog to learn more. ] Updated: June 15, to reflect a variety of technical comments from readers. On Monday, Apple gladdened the hearts …

Posted on by Larry

I love live production, always have. It’s how I got started in this industry. There’s nothing like saying “Fade Up” with millions of people watching to truly focus your attention. My love of live production is one of the two …

Posted on by Larry

Any NAB Show is too massive to be summarized in a single blog post. This show represents the current state of a multi-billion dollar industry composed of thousands of wildly different companies. I enjoy walking the halls just to learn about …

Posted on by Larry

My first blog – A Whole Lot of Unrelated Stuff – was extremely popular. So, here’s the next edition. TABLE OF CONTENTS FCP X: Export a Batch of Projects FCP X: A Faster Way to Delete FCP X: Revised Alert …

Posted on by Larry

OK. I’m impressed! Last November, the day they went on sale, I ordered a 27″ iMac to replace my main editing system. (Click here to read about the system I ordered.) It arrived the end of December and, as these …

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