Blog Archives

Ron Diamond, with EditGroove Software, sent me an email this afternoon. In addition to providing some free raffle prizes for my upcoming seminars, he is also offering a discount on it – more on that in a minute. If you …

My recent thoughts about the relationship between Snow Leopard and the next version of Final Cut Studio generated a lot of comments — especially on other forums. For instance, here’s an example from KenStone.net: http://www.kenstone.net/discussions/read.php?3,13183,13183#msg-13183 Thanks for all your comments …

Having read about my concerns with the latest MacBook Pro versions, Steve sent me a link that we can all use to send feedback to Apple. Feel free to share your thoughts and concerns – more importantly, share this link …

Apple this week announced revisions to their 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro laptop line. Most of the time, when these sorts of things get announced, I just nod my head, acknowledge the new release and move on. I’m not buying …

As we all know, Snow Leopard was formally announced and demoed at the WWDC conference yesterday. So, today, Andreas Schmidt sent me this question: Yesterday Apple announced Snow Leopard and Quicktime X. Do you know or have an idea if …

After months of conversations, petitions, and negotiations, the International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA) has announced on their website that licensing costs for Blu-ray Discs are significantly decreasing. This means it is now much more affordable for independent producers to author …

I just upgraded one of my Final Cut Studio editing systems from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7 using the download from Apple’s website. Since then, I’ve discovered some problems with LiveType. I’m still looking for a work-around, but none of the usual …

During the Digital Production BuZZ coverage of the 2009 NAB Show, we conducted more than 200 interviews and created 37 NAB News Briefs. Here is a list of companies and guests, and the News Brief they appeared in. (Due to …

Just in case you were interested, and because I find this stuff fascinating, I thought I’d share a few numbers with you from our recent work with the Digital Production BuZZ at the 2009 NAB Show. Our NAB News Brief …

As the Official Podcast of the 2009 NAB Show, the Digital Production BuZZ produced 37 live news casts, and 12 hours of live programming and interviews. These were syndicated to more than 25 websites and reached tens of thousands of …

At 9:00 AM this morning, the 2009 NAB Show opened the doors to its trade show, the crowds rushed in, and the Digital Production BuZZ went to work. After two days tuning our systems, we were in full operation today …

Today we discovered just how big a show the 2009 NAB Show really is… Yup – it’s huge. We had reporters covering as much as we could and we still felt that we could have used another 40-50 people. Still, …

Well, even though it looked like I was a few cables short of a complete production studio yesterday, I managed to get everything connected. And the booth looks great — even though the rest of the show floor is covered …

The 2009 NAB Show asked the Digital Production BuZZ to be the Official Podcast of the 2009 NAB Show.  And, after a LONG night of driving, we arrived! Led by producer Cirina Catania, we’ve brought a staff of 15 to …

Gabe, over at CrumplePop sent me the following note today: We’re launching a product today that might be interesting to the Final Cut Pro audience. The product is called CrumplePop, and it’s a suite of FCP Master Templates that make …

My friend, Nate Adams over at Media Distributors tipped to me a new asset management system being introduced by Media Distributors at NAB. Now, I know that the concept of a database for tracking assets can cause many people’s eyes …

Shur Harewood sent me a reminder this morning that April, 2009, is the tenth anniversary of the release of Final Cut Pro. In a 2002 press release Apple wrote: Since its introduction in April 1999, Final Cut Pro has become …

Vendors are finally starting to take the archiving needs of small media professionals seriously. Tom Tomchak has been long-time reader of my newsletters and recently did a review of some new technology that will be premiered at NAB in a …

I’ve had the pleasure, over the last few months, of working with Smartsound to develop a new plug-in for Final Cut Pro that greatly simplifies the process of adding music to your Final Cut projects. But they wouldn’t let me …

I’ve been a fan of Tom Meegan’s work for a long time — especially when he wrote about it for Edit Well. He principally works at the high-end of broadcast television. Anyway, after my review of Telestream’s Pipeline in the …

Brad Hagen sent me the following announcement: This Wednesday, MCAI presents four experts to address the critical needs of high-end HD Production: Do you really need a DITech? How important is on-set color correction? What are the hidden issues of …

Earlier today, I was reading some rumor sites speculating that Apple may be releasing a new version of Final Cut Studio at a media event on March 24. I don’t think these rumors are true and wanted to share my …

The road to a product review is rarely smooth, but a review that I’m currently working on was especially rocky – mostly due to me – but the back-story is interesting, so I thought I’d share it with you here. …

As I was setting up for my Dundee, Scotland, seminar, a photographer and reporter for The Scotsman showed up to cover the event. This is the article that appeared on Feb. 12, 2009. In spite of 4-inches of snow, our …

Would you like to attend FITC – Amsterdam from Feb 22 – 24, 2009 but can’t get in because some of the events are sold out? As their website says: There is no other event quite like it. The combination …

Our sister website – the Digital Production BuZZ – is undergoing a redesign. After listening to a lot of viewer comments, we wanted to make it easier to see what’s on our next show and check out the latest news, …

Philip Hodgetts has created an amazing utility (I saw it demoed recently at the LA Final Cut Pro User Group) that speeds the entire process of sync’ing double-system sound. It’s called Sync-N-Link, and Philip describes it this way: Sync-N-Link for …

Don Smith sent me the following, which I thought you might like to see as well. – – – I just watched the demo movie from MacWorld by JVC introducing the GY-HM100U camera.. http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101845 JVC licensed the EX3 format from …

Here are some more passing thoughts on random subjects: Looking to up-res SD video to HD, while maintaining the detail? Take a look at Topaz Labs — http://www.topazlabs.com/ Looking for software that will stretch the edges of 4:3 material to …

With recent online reports about the latest release of iLife not even mentioning iDVD, Apple’s continued interest in extending its download business to include both SD and HD movies, and the lack of native support for Blu-ray Discs on the …

I get several hundred emails a day — some I keep for each month’s newsletter, while others don’t need to be kept at all. However, many fall into a gray area of being kind of interesting, but … And I’ve …

Bruce Nazarian, president of the IDMA, and I just completed a one-hour special report on the state of Blu-ray technology. We aired the show live yesterday on The BuZZ and posted it this evening. You can find it here: http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/Archives/ShowNotes.php?date=2009-01-21 …

This afternoon, Apple released the latest version of QuickTime — 7.6 — which includes updates for encoding quality, reliability, compatibility, and security enhancements. Media improvements include better single-pass H.264 encoding quality, better playback of Motion JPEG content, improved AAC encoding …

As you know, I hope, I host a weekly podcast called “Digital Production BuZZ” that focuses on digital video production, post-production, and distribution worldwide. The BuZZ is currently listened to by tens of thousands of people each month! Each week, …

According to Variety magazine, the National Assn. of Broadcasters has teamed with the filmmaking org 48 Hour Film Project to host a movie-making competition at the upcoming NAB confab in Las Vegas. The Washington, D.C.-based 48 Hour Film Project hosts …

The Association of Video Professionals has invited me to speak at their annual conference February 5, 6, and 7 in Kissimmee, Florida. This event offers high-quality training for video professionals taught by some truly outstanding people in our industry: * …

The folks at Peake Professional Systems sent me a notice about their new utility called: Final Cut Pro Assistant. One of the challenges of working with Final Cut is keeping track of all the different files it creates. Most of …

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know when I say that earning a living will be a challenge in 2009. In times like these, folks are saying “No!” first, then thinking about your question later. So, today, while …

Here are two blogs worth reading, as you are waiting for the phones to start ringing again after the holidays. First, Norm Hollyn has an interesting discussion on the power of social networking to help all of us get and …

For those of you going to MacWorld, Mike Horton (Head Cutter of the LA Final Cut Pro User Group) just sent me the following. – – – The agenda has now been set for the 8th Annual FCPUG “SuperMeet” to …

This is in the category of “Things You Might Be Interested In.” Noise Industries, creator of FxFactory, is holding a contest. As they say: “Show off your work. Win cool prizes.” Their website says: “FxFactory Awards 2008 contest entries will …

Janet Swift, in PR over at Telestream, sent me a note this morning reminding me that last week, after two years of work, Telestream released the Windows version of Episode. Janet wrote: “Episode now supports cross-platform environments, PC and Mac. …

My third book has just been released by Peachpit Press entitled: Edit Well – Final Cut Studio Techniques from the Pros. What we did is take the best from over two years of Edit Well newsletter articles and recompile them …

One more thing from Government Video Expo, held Dec 3 – 5 in Washington, DC. Spectra Logic makes equipment for archiving servers and media. More specifically, they make LTO tape drives, which are my current favorite for backing up tapeless …

One of the benefits of attending a trade show is talking to engineers and other product specialists that are hard to meet in any other way. Recently, I took my podcast – the Digital Production BuZZ – to GV Expo …

On February 17, 2009, the FCC has mandated that all broadcasters in the US switch from analog to digital transmission. (As an aside, this does not mean they need to switch to HD, simply that their transmitters originate digital signals.) …

While HD Expo is in LA, I’m heading to Washington, DC, with the Digital Production BuZZ to cover the Government Video Technology Expo. We’ll have highlights of the Expo on this week’s show, as well as additional hours of coverage …

I’ve attended, and spoken at, HDFest the last two times it visited LA. Its a great place to see what’s happening in the Indy world of HD. Marisa, the Festival Coordinator, reminds me that HDFest is returning to LA this …

I’m not telling you anything new to say times are tough. The problem is, we still need to pay the rent. Last week, on the Digital Production BuZZ, I spoke with Steve Cone, author of “Powerlines: Words that Sell Brands, …

John Putch told me about this. Ptarmigan Designs, Inc., a Japanese iPhone developer, has released a file size and codec calculator for the iPhone. Its called “Codec Calc” and is available through the AppsStore, you can learn more about it …