People are WEIRD!
You think bringing the price of uncompressed 4:2:2 SDI editing down to the cost of a Sony Playstation would make people happy? Wrong! There's been a lot of hateful bashing in forums regarding the DeckLink cards and Blackmagic price policies. Some folks express anger because they loosed a couple of hundreds when the DeckLinks where lowered even further. Of course; If you've been in the business for a while that's ludicrous. What about the guy that invested hundred of thousands of dollars in the same type of hardware just a few years ago and now he has to sell it at DeckLink prices on eBay? For some reason that guy is not complaining.
People are also bashing DeckLink because it has 8-bit D/A analog monitoring. Phew! Get real people. When did 8-bit stop beeing a professionals choice? Digibeta, DVCAM, D-9, SX, D1...it's ALL 8-bit.
I'll end this post by quoting Niccolo Machiavelli:
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success,
than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Thursday, March 25, 2004
PPro: What's happening in Matrox land?
I've never been really impressed by all these DV RT solutions like the ones coming from Canopus and the other from Matrox. RT effects are highly overrated and they give the word "cheesy" meaning. RT effects are also impossible to integrate into the beautiful AAF workflow. But from what I've seen the Matrox Digisuites are awesome hardware. Why do they still only support Premiere? And why would you use "non Pro" Premiere (version 6.5 and earlier) in the first place? I really hope we'll see some drivers from Matrox this NAB. I'm starting to get the feeling that they have abandoned the Digisuite family. Sure hope not.
PPro: Missing something like Pixars Pixlet (MacOSX) with Premiere Pro?
Pixlet is a brilliant wavelet codec that let's you playback and edit large aspect files with minimum loss. Pixlet let's you playback (and edit) HD on very slow machines with a minimum of visible quality loss. I've been looking for a good wavelet codec for my Premiere Pro setup and I found the very promising PICVideo Wavelet2000 codec from Pegasus Imaging. The Wavelet2000 codec is designed to work within Premiere Pro. However I found a few small glitches (the source window doesn't play back satisfactory) but it can be edited and it's RT in the timeline. And the image quality is excellent. At the highest setting in Standard Definition it has a data rate of 1,8MB sec and I can't tell it apart from uncompressed visually without looking really hard. Keep in mind that DV that's compressed 5:1 produces a rate of 3,5MB/sec so the Wavelet2000 stream is really tiny in comparison.
Pixlet is a brilliant wavelet codec that let's you playback and edit large aspect files with minimum loss. Pixlet let's you playback (and edit) HD on very slow machines with a minimum of visible quality loss. I've been looking for a good wavelet codec for my Premiere Pro setup and I found the very promising PICVideo Wavelet2000 codec from Pegasus Imaging. The Wavelet2000 codec is designed to work within Premiere Pro. However I found a few small glitches (the source window doesn't play back satisfactory) but it can be edited and it's RT in the timeline. And the image quality is excellent. At the highest setting in Standard Definition it has a data rate of 1,8MB sec and I can't tell it apart from uncompressed visually without looking really hard. Keep in mind that DV that's compressed 5:1 produces a rate of 3,5MB/sec so the Wavelet2000 stream is really tiny in comparison.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
PPro: Quiet Case - I like it.
I've just bought two Antec Sonata cases. They produce very low noise levels. I upgraded both with an extra disc fan and I'm not running them in quiet mode since they'll be doing a lot of heat generating video editing and rendering. The Sonatas can be run in silent mode and regular mode. So far highly recommended by me...
Saturday, March 20, 2004
PPro/FCP: Holy Moses. I'm blind!
Blackmagic Designs also introduced new low prices and I must have missed them when I wrote my last DeckLink post. Uncompressed SD via SDI is now $298. My jaw is dropped. This is a dream - don't wake me up. Thank you Monsieur Grant.
Blackmagic Designs also introduced new low prices and I must have missed them when I wrote my last DeckLink post. Uncompressed SD via SDI is now $298. My jaw is dropped. This is a dream - don't wake me up. Thank you Monsieur Grant.
PPro: ScenalyzerLive + PPro = No Go.
I've read so many positive comments in different forums the last couple of month regarding Scenalyzer - a very smart capture tool that let's you capture with scene detection using both the typical date/time information available in PPro's own capture function and optical detection. Since most of what I've done is shot on 35mm and 16mm film I have no date/time codes on my tapes and PPro can't capture my material using scene detection. So I tried the trial on for size and it works great. It recognizes the cuts and turns every cut on a tape into a separately captured clips with all the log information. This of course saves a lot of manual log/capture labor. But as I investigated further it turns out that Scenelyzer has no built in function to save itself as a "project" so you can never recreate a capture batch. All you can do is export an EDL. But PPro can't import EDL's so the two can't be used together unfortunately. Let's hope that there will be a change in the future because Scenalyzer is really awesome.
I've read so many positive comments in different forums the last couple of month regarding Scenalyzer - a very smart capture tool that let's you capture with scene detection using both the typical date/time information available in PPro's own capture function and optical detection. Since most of what I've done is shot on 35mm and 16mm film I have no date/time codes on my tapes and PPro can't capture my material using scene detection. So I tried the trial on for size and it works great. It recognizes the cuts and turns every cut on a tape into a separately captured clips with all the log information. This of course saves a lot of manual log/capture labor. But as I investigated further it turns out that Scenelyzer has no built in function to save itself as a "project" so you can never recreate a capture batch. All you can do is export an EDL. But PPro can't import EDL's so the two can't be used together unfortunately. Let's hope that there will be a change in the future because Scenalyzer is really awesome.
PPro/FCP: AAF (Advanced Authoring Format)
When I started using PPro I found the lack of EDL export frustrating and limiting. I didn't realize that AAF is supposed to replace both EDL's and OMF. There's a lot of interresting stuff at the official AAF Association website. It's nice to see that Adobe is one of the key companies behind it.
After all; EDL's where created to be used in digibeta tape-to-tape suites. We're past that and AAF is a much more flexible format that can hold a lot more information then just in and out points and dupe reel/dissolves.
Friday, March 19, 2004
PPro/FCP: Adobes Primers.
I hope you've all had a chance to take a look at Adobes Primers. They are neat little .pdf documents that goes through the basics of digital video, audio and streaming. Great resource. You can download them here.
I hope you've all had a chance to take a look at Adobes Primers. They are neat little .pdf documents that goes through the basics of digital video, audio and streaming. Great resource. You can download them here.
PPro/FCP: Blackmagic Design introduces DeckLink Extreme
This is a new SD card (NTSC/PAL) that does Uncompressed. Nothing really fancy is added compared to the other SD cards but the price is amazing. You get SDI and Component 10-bit and 8-bit for $895. Listen up all you other hardware developers; resistance is futile... Grant Pettys in town and he's kickin' some serious butt.
DeckLink supports Premiere Pro and all major QuickTime applications.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
PPro and FCP related in a way...
Sony is releasing a new camcorder to the market. Their first HDV model. It's got three CCD:s. JVC was the first to introduce HDV camcorders but the fact that Sony does it will change a lot of things. Sony rules the post production market and them supporting HDV will bring us almost the same impact as the introduction of DV25 to the market. HDV means we can edit 720 and 1080 HD on regular desktops and laptops through FireWire setups. I hope Adobe will introduce a good integration path for HDV. Read more.
Sony is releasing a new camcorder to the market. Their first HDV model. It's got three CCD:s. JVC was the first to introduce HDV camcorders but the fact that Sony does it will change a lot of things. Sony rules the post production market and them supporting HDV will bring us almost the same impact as the introduction of DV25 to the market. HDV means we can edit 720 and 1080 HD on regular desktops and laptops through FireWire setups. I hope Adobe will introduce a good integration path for HDV. Read more.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
PPro: 2D3 and Premiere Pro - the great SteadyMove plugin.
2D3 - the makers of the worlds best camera tracker Boujou - collaborates with Adobe and bundles the "lite" version of SteadyMove with PPro. The full version is a masterpiece in motion stabilization technology. This one is going to save a lot of shots in a documentary I'm working on. Take a look at the official website and learn more.
2D3 - the makers of the worlds best camera tracker Boujou - collaborates with Adobe and bundles the "lite" version of SteadyMove with PPro. The full version is a masterpiece in motion stabilization technology. This one is going to save a lot of shots in a documentary I'm working on. Take a look at the official website and learn more.
HDTV anyone?
This is a "got to have". The Dell 23" LCD W2300 is HDTV ready. A great alternative to a broadcast monitor in a budget HD editing setup. It's native 720p.
This is a "got to have". The Dell 23" LCD W2300 is HDTV ready. A great alternative to a broadcast monitor in a budget HD editing setup. It's native 720p.
PPro/FCP: The ProMax ProMedia Converter.
There has been a lot of talk regarding this product over att the Creative Cow forums. It's basically a FireWire outbord box for uncompressed SD editing. It's based around regular FireWire400 technology. I'm a big fan of laptop editing and this could be a cool solution. ProMax says it's going to support PPro (among others). The ProMedia Converter is a 2U rack mount unit and it connects to everything you need (SDI, Component, Y/C, Composite). It's got four channels of on board AES/EBU (aaargh, 2 channels too few for surround editing). The product has not been released. Lets hope it's not vaporware.
PPro: AJA SD and HD for PPro in the future?
In-Sync is offering a SpeedRazor solution with two cards from Aja. One is the uncompressed SD card called Loki. The other is Thor and it does uncompressed HD. Both in 4:2:2. There is nothing about these cards on the Aja website. Will these cards be offered to the PPro crowd? Let's wait and see if NAB will bring more light on the subject.
In-Sync is offering a SpeedRazor solution with two cards from Aja. One is the uncompressed SD card called Loki. The other is Thor and it does uncompressed HD. Both in 4:2:2. There is nothing about these cards on the Aja website. Will these cards be offered to the PPro crowd? Let's wait and see if NAB will bring more light on the subject.
PPro: BOXX DV, SD and HD.
BoxxTech builds very solid workstations from what I hear. Unfortunately they are not sold in my part of the world. They have three custom configurations for DV, SD and HD based on PPro.
BoxxTech builds very solid workstations from what I hear. Unfortunately they are not sold in my part of the world. They have three custom configurations for DV, SD and HD based on PPro.
MicroSoft and HighDef
Like everyone else in the world I'm not the biggest fan. But I have to admit that WMVHD (and WMV 9) is soooo cool. There are still only one option for HD with PPro and that's the Bluefish444 solution.
When DeckLink releases the same hardware at a fraction of the cost HD will be a viable alternative and WMVHD is the greatest distribution option ever. Period. WMVHD has just bean announced as a part of future dvdspecs by DVDforum and that means WMVHD is going to playback in future HD-DVD set top players and a lot of other home entertainment products.
Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/create.aspx
Exporting WMVHD from the timeline in PPro is actually a dream come true. The presets produces stunning results.
Like everyone else in the world I'm not the biggest fan. But I have to admit that WMVHD (and WMV 9) is soooo cool. There are still only one option for HD with PPro and that's the Bluefish444 solution.
When DeckLink releases the same hardware at a fraction of the cost HD will be a viable alternative and WMVHD is the greatest distribution option ever. Period. WMVHD has just bean announced as a part of future dvdspecs by DVDforum and that means WMVHD is going to playback in future HD-DVD set top players and a lot of other home entertainment products.
Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/create.aspx
Exporting WMVHD from the timeline in PPro is actually a dream come true. The presets produces stunning results.
PPro/FCP: Canopus ACEDvio
I bought the Canopus ACEDvio just to discover it has an NEC chip set. That means it is not as compatible with periferals as the OHCI cards with chip sets from Texas Instruments. The first rejected gear in my setup is MOTU. MOTU drivers (I have the classic Motu 828 for 8 channel monitoring on laptops). I have no idea why Canopus chose NEC. Perhaps they just wanted to save some money to afford the development of the strangest NLE this side of Pluto -- Edius.
PPro: HDV and PPro
I have to tell you I am e x t r e m e l y sceptic of all of the third party HDV editing solutions out there. Mpeg2 editing is a whole different ball game and the NLE really have to be written for it to handle the Mpeg2 stream correctly (AND with FireWire preview as you edit). There's one from CineForm called AspectHD. I suspect all of these third party solutions will go out of business by the next major PPro update. HDV is here to stay -- no question about that. NAB 2004 will have a lot of neat surprises in store for HDV. JVC just announced a really cool desktop player/recorder with a flip out screen.
I have to tell you I am e x t r e m e l y sceptic of all of the third party HDV editing solutions out there. Mpeg2 editing is a whole different ball game and the NLE really have to be written for it to handle the Mpeg2 stream correctly (AND with FireWire preview as you edit). There's one from CineForm called AspectHD. I suspect all of these third party solutions will go out of business by the next major PPro update. HDV is here to stay -- no question about that. NAB 2004 will have a lot of neat surprises in store for HDV. JVC just announced a really cool desktop player/recorder with a flip out screen.
PPro: Mpeg2 encoders for PPro
If you like me don't like the MainConcept Mpeg2 encoder that came with the PPro installation I suggest you check out the Cinema Craft SP encoder from Cinema Craft. It's expensive but it's a quality encoder. The mainConcept encoder is fast and good for making previews and things like that but it can not be used as a master encoder.
If you like me don't like the MainConcept Mpeg2 encoder that came with the PPro installation I suggest you check out the Cinema Craft SP encoder from Cinema Craft. It's expensive but it's a quality encoder. The mainConcept encoder is fast and good for making previews and things like that but it can not be used as a master encoder.
PPro: Pulling out the feet from under Bluefish444's feet?
Black Magic Design announces PPro support for the DeckLink SD cards. That means the first really competitive option for uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit editing. There is a lot of talk of the limitations of PPro beeing only an 8-bit app. That's true but if you only do straight cuts you will not affect the compression and video stays 10-bit all the way. I do everything but editing in After Effects where I get 16bpc handling of the footage. It would be good to have 10-bit or even floating point timeline in PPro but it's not as limiting as some people may suggest.
Black Magic Design announces PPro support for the DeckLink SD cards. That means the first really competitive option for uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit editing. There is a lot of talk of the limitations of PPro beeing only an 8-bit app. That's true but if you only do straight cuts you will not affect the compression and video stays 10-bit all the way. I do everything but editing in After Effects where I get 16bpc handling of the footage. It would be good to have 10-bit or even floating point timeline in PPro but it's not as limiting as some people may suggest.
About this blog
In 1999 Apple introduced Final Cut Pro - a software they aquired from Macromedia developed by the team behind the original Premiere. In 2003 Adobe introduced Premiere Pro as a new competitor on the mid range pro market. I decided to publish this blog to keep track of everything that happens to the two competitors. I'll be keeping my eye out for updates, third party software and everything hardware related.
So who am I? I'm a 33 year old Swede that has been working in the broadcast and feature film industry for fourteen years. I've been running my own production company for ten years and I mainly work as an editor, director of photography and director. I've done lots and lots of music videos and I'm currently working on my third feature film. I jumped onboard the desktop DV revolution back in '97. I've been on Macs since I was a teen and Digital Origin's EditDV was my first FireWire NLE. I started on Avids back in '92. When the original Premiere developer moved to Macromedia I kept my eyes open for the new super cool tool (Premiere Mark II) called Final Cut that would hit the market soon. Apple aquired Final Cut and released it as Final Cut Pro and I was with it from day one. I soon bought one of the FCP hardware tools for uncompressed editing - Aurora Video Systems Igniter. I've loved FCP (and still do) but the introduction of OSX and version 4 of the software simply leaves a lot to be desired so when Adobe announced a completely rewritten Premiere version I just had to download the trial and try it out. And it did everything I expected - frankly I didn't have very high hopes after a few encounters with the earlier versions of Premiere - and a lot more! On the other hand Apple has always pushed things forward. Desktop Video would not have been where it is today without Apple.
I also feel there is a lack of good websites covering whats happening to Premiere Pro. There are an infinite number covering Final Cut Pro. That's part of the reason I'm posting this blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)