June 2007 Archives
MainConcept, the world's leading provider of high quality codec technology, announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with InterQoS, a semiconductor company based in Hong Kong, to jointly develop and market a complete embedded solution capable of addressing the needs of mobile video gadgets. Victorus, InterQoS' DSP Core IP, is now running an embedded version of the MainConcept H.264 decoder.
For those that need to learn more about Microsoft's Silverlight, a new way to deliver interactive rich media experiences on cross-plaforms and cross-browsers, there's a great webcast available. The presentation is titled "Ray Ozzie Keynote at MIX07" from an April 30, 2007 address at the MIX07 Web conference in Las Vegas.
The presentation discusses how to view Silverlight content and what types of experiences can be created plus many more items. The technology is very exciting!
Internap plans to to light up the Web with Microsoft Silverlight. Internap Network Services Corporation, a global provider of fast, reliable end-to-end Internet business solutions, announced adoption of Microsoft Silverlight to enable a new level of connected media experiences for its customers. In tandem with the global expansion of Internap's content delivery network (CDN), the integration of Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Web-based media and applications, will greatly enhance Internap's robust suite of Internet services.
If you plan on exporting your Final Cut Pro sequence as a QuickTime movie, you may want to consider applying a de-interlace filter to your entire sequence. This is especially true for moving elements such as crawling text.
Also, if you do not plan on laying back to tape through the firewire port, you might consider exporting your QuickTime movie using a different codec. This will improve the quality of your graphics. Compressing graphics with the DV codec will cause them to lose quality since DV is compressed 5:1.
Sometimes you need to soften the edge of a selection to make your final project look as though it was meant to go together. You can do this quickly using the Feather command. When you combine two images, touch up an area, or apply a filter, you often want a soft transition. The Feather command softens or blurs the edge of a selection, making changes you apply blend in more naturally with its surroundings. Feathering is centered on the selection edge and blurs both in and out from the boundary. You control the width of the feathering by setting its radius value in pixels.
1. If anything is currently selected, choose Select > Deselect.
2. In the Layers palette, select the desired layer or layer set.
3. Using a selection tool, select an area in the image.
4. Choose Select > Feather.
5. Type a value for Feather Radius, and click OK. For a very subtle softening, you can type a value less than one pixel (for example, .5). The larger the value, the larger the feathered or blurred transition.
Apply a filter, or move, cut, copy, paint, or fill the selection. Photoshop feathers the edge. This is a very useful tool and if you spend time practicing it you will begin to see its many uses.
ViewCast Corporation, a leading global provider of high-quality audio and video communication products, announced that Oklahoma City, Okla.-based LifeChurch.tv is using the Niagara PowerStream Pro video capture and streaming media encoder to encode live Webcasts, including three weekly services for its Internet Campus, and to encode various media presentations for video-on-demand (VOD) programs.
There will be an exciting training session at Flashforward2007 in Boston titled "Integrating with Adobe Media Player". The session takes place on September 21, 2007 at 10:45 PM and the instructor will be Deeje Cooley from Adobe Systems. Attendees will learn all about the new Adobe Media Player, a desktop media player built on Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) that offers useful features for viewers to manage and interact with their favorite content, and features for content publishers to define branding and advertising in and around their content. In this session, learn how content publishers can implement support for the branding extensions and SMIL-based advertising mechanisms provided by Adobe Media Player, and get a deeper understanding of Adobe's vision and roadmap.
Envivio Inc., the leading technology provider of IP video convergence solutions from mobile to HD, announced its 4Caster M2 encoders were selected by Dream Satellite TV, a brand of Philippine Multimedia Systems Incorporated (PMSI), for the first commercial deployment of DVB-H mobile TV services in the Philippines. PMSI is currently on test broadcast with eight live channels of 24 x 7 programming on select Samsung handsets. Delivering the highest picture quality to the most handsets on the market, the flexible M2 encoders also support multiple output profiles and industry leading conditional access systems (CAS) to provide for scalable growth as Dream launches and expands its mobile TV services.
As editors in the NLE world we all must contend with computer problems. Instead of have great knowledge of our application software we must also be computer technicians of software and hardware. I edit in Avid Xpress Pro on an HP 4300 machine and for the most part I run day to day without to many problems. Well not eveyr day is perfect and I came across the dreaded error Exception: DISK_ACCESS_DENIED filename: C:\OMFI media files. This message usually means trouble. In the past this has meant that I had a corrupt hard drive or corrupt files in that hard drive. Well, this happened again to me earlier this week and I this time it appeared to not be a corrupt file but somehow, permission was changed on one of drives. If this happens to you you need to immediately check out this how to change your permissions article and hopefully your problem will be fixed because if you have a corrupt file life will not be easy until it is rooted out.
Mark your calendars there will be a 1-Day Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite Training for Mac at GeniusDV in Orlando, Florida on October 27, 2007. The class covers version 4.5 and includes all the latest features. If you are still using an older version of Sorenson Squeeze, update your application and come and learn how you can speed of your workflows for compression.
In this training students will also learn:
Capturing media is a very important yet time consuming process. As an editor you know that spending time capturing is a part of every editing project. The capture tool in Avid Express Pro displays various information about what you are about to capture. When it comes to media management do not forget to check the Target Drive area of the capture tool. This is key for making sure that you select the preferred drive and make sure you have enough space on that drive to capture the amount that you need. You select the target-drive from the pop-up menu and check your amount of free disk space from the Time-Remaining display. The Time-remaining display is an estimate based on your resolution settings, the number of tracks you have to be stored on the drive, and the free space available on the target drive. Always make sure that if your only need the audio from a 3-track source, that you turn off the video to save space. This also make it very easy to keep track of your work. When you capture paying close attention to detail will help you manage your projects in the long run. Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer have on of the best media capture tools in the business, so make sure you take advantage of it power!
On2 Technologies, Inc., a leader in video-compression software and solutions, and ViewCast Corporation, a global leader in the design and manufacture of the world's most advanced media encoding products, announced that ViewCast has licensed On2's live Flash video encoding technologies for integration with ViewCast's streaming media appliances.
On Friday, September 21 at 4:30 PM at Flashforward2007 in Boston, there will be an exciting training session titled Delivering Engaging eLearning.
Malcolm Johnstone of Learning Objects, LLC will be presenting techniques for developing engaging eLearning for higher education and corporate markets.
The Flash Media Server now makes it easy to deliver innovative, interactive media applications. Techniques demonstrated will include how to imbed streaming video within learning modules. Malcolm will walk attendees through the development of learning objects that incorporate multiple video streams to make the content relevant for today's visual learners.
The tools shown will include Flash 8, Flash Media Server, and Final Cut Pro.
Frame view in Avid is a very fast way to look at your clips visually. Having the correct frame to look at though is the only way to make good use of the frame view. By default, Frame view displays the first frame of each clip in the bin. You can, however, change the displayed frame with a frame that has meaning to you or a frame that actually identifies the clip.
To change the frame identifying the clip:
1. Select the clip that you want to change by single clicking on it. .
2. Do one of the following:
-Press and hold the K key on the keyboard (Pause), and press the L key (Play) to roll the footage within the frame forward at slow speed. To move backward through the footage, press and hold the K key and press the J key (Reverse Play).
-Press the 3 key or the 4 key on the keyboard (Step Forward or Step Backward) to move from frame to frame.
3. When you see the frame that you want use, release the keys.
The Avid application saves the displayed frame as part of the bin configuration. Make sure you don't miss out on the few remaining seats in our next Avid Training bundle, you will be glad you attend one of the most powerful and intense Avid training in the country!
Catch the excitement at the WebVideo Summit 2007 in San Jose, California June 27 - 28. The conference is about video distributed over the Internet, bringing together the pioneers of an exploding industry. They'll explain what you need to know about shooting, editing and encoding, distributing and promoting your work, and claiming your rewards.
WebVideo Summit above all is practical: real choices, working techniques, and field-hardened creators. They've all been asked to throw away the usual powerpoints, and get to the crucial topics the audience needs to understand. Tomorrow we'll provide more details about the various sessions at the conference.
You can learn about Sawmill, Proclaim and Wowza Media Server Pro on the latest installment of the DV Show. Derrick Freeman, Video Streaming and Compression Specialist for GeniusDV recently co-hosted a radio program with Host of the DV Show Brian Alves.
When you open your capture tool in Avid Express Pro you may have a power scheme warning pop-up. This will more than likely pop-up if you are editing on a laptop. If you do not remedy this problem your capturing may be interrupted either by your screen saver or your hard disks shutting down. This can be very aggravating if you are interrupted during a very long batch capture. To fix this on a Windows System, open your control panel and navigate to power options. Click the power schemes tab and choose Always On in the Power Schemes drop-down menu. As you can see all the boxes now say Never. The other tab you need to check is the Hibernation tab. Make sure that this is unchecked so that your computer will not go into Hibernation. Learn this and other valuable inside tips from one of our great up and coming Avid classes and get started in becoming the top in your profession.
Understanding how to add closed captions for Flash video will probably be a popular challenge for many in the near future. At Flashforward2007 there will be a session on Wednesday, September 19 at 4:30 PM that covers the topic.
The Flash Media Server is not the only way to stream your Flash content. The Wowza Media Server Pro is available for Flash streaming. The Wowza Media Server Pro is a Flash streaming platform for a wide range of interactive and multimedia applications, including video on demand, live video distribution, video recording and chat. It is an infrastructure grade server that lets you easily and cost-effectively scale up with the exploding demand for streaming content.
A new key feature in Final Cut Pro 6.0 is the ability to make subclips 'indepedent'. This may not sound like a big deal, but it's a fantastic feature when it comes to managing and archiving your media within Final Cut Pro.
Here's how it works using a typical example:
As we promote this years Flashforward conference Septemeber 19- 21 in Boston we want to mention another interesting session related to streaming video. On Friday, September 21st at 1:30pm there is a session titled "Fun with Flash Media Server". In this session, developers of all levels will gain an understanding of the powerful tools offered by Flash Media Server to work with video, audio, and data. With the developer license now being free, Flash Media Server is an even more attractive solution for small-scale commercial applications. Lisa Larson of go:toGroup will walk through how Flash Media Server works, and show attendees how to set up a development environment and dive into the server-side and client-side communication classes. Alternative RTMP servers will also be discussed.
This session will demystify Flash Media Server - exploring its basic structure, what it can and can't do, and why you'd want to use it in your applications. You can use Flash Media Server for simply streaming video or audio...but your head will likely be filled with ideas for much richer applications by the end of this training session.
How movies are made is more interesting to me than the actual movie itself. Once again Avid has pulled through with a new big blockbuster, Ocean's Thirteen. North Hollywood-based Pivotal Post provided four Macintosh-based Media Composer Adrenaline systems to Academy Award winning editor Stephen Mirrione , Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh , and a team of editorial assistants for editing the film. Soderbergh also used his own Intel-based Macintosh laptop with Media Composer software on the project to choose selects and review edits. The filmmakers chose an HD workflow to enable editing with visually rich data, while streamlining the creation of as many as a half dozen large-format screenings. The film, which was shot on 35mm film, was telecined to HDCAM for editing and screening and to SD tape for backup and syncing of audio dailies. This was a great test for Media Composer (software version) and Avid came through with flying colors! Kick start your movie editing career by signing up for the latest Avid Bundle Training course!
If your a seasoned Final Cut Pro user, you may have figured out that managing how clips are named is a crucial step to managing your media.
In previous versions of Final Cut Pro, renaming a clip in the Browser window meant that it's referenced media no longer had a matching name. This could be disastrous if you attempted to manage your media (archive your media) for a later time.
New to Final Cut Pro 6.0 there is a function in the Browser will automatically match your clip names to their refernced media file names.
If you need to get video files off an authored DVD free of copyrights for the purpose of editing the videos in Final Cut Pro, there are two multimedia tools that can help you do this. They are Mac the Ripper and MPEG Streamclip.
Mac the Ripper
Mac the Ripper is available for download and can be used to extract video (VOB) files off an authored DVD free of copyrights. The process is quite simple using this tool.
MPEG Streamclip
Once you get the VOB files extracted from your DVD you can import the files into MPEG Streamclip and then convert the files into DV/DVCPro, DVCPro50, or any other QuickTime video codec you choose.
Do you have your Avid interface setup just the way you want but do not know how to save it so that you can return to it at any time? Or you may want to have multiple workspaces, for example, one for capturing, one for color correction, one for audio editing, etc. I have four separate workspaces that I use almost everyday. These workspaces not only make my interface easier to use but it also allows me to be more efficient at my job. Now isn’t that what we all want? Here is quick breakdown of how to save your favorite workspace:
Frameline 47 Version 2.0 is now available. Version 2.0 is a major upgrade, & provides a complete Video Asset Management Solution, with revised 'Video Finder' File Window, a new 'Purpose Mode' that enables you to search for Video Segments across every file on your system, Avid support, & a host of other features. You can download a trial of Frameline 47 2.0 to take it for a test drive.
There is a free media management tool for Avid Xpress / Media Composer that allows you to easily identify OMF or MXF files on your hard-drives. This software is only available for Windows users.
The current release is (build 19 pre-beta 0.3). I've tested it with media recorded from Avid Xpress 5.7, and Media Composer 2.5 It seems to work perfectly fine.
A media management tool is an absolutely necessity for anyone who uses Avid Xpress or Media Composer software.
If you are looking for a commercial Media Management Tool, you can always check out 'Media Mover 3.0' which is available for OS X and Windows. A free working evaluation version is available.
Media Mover has long been the stable Media Management software for Avid users, and has been recently upgraded,
New features in MediaMover 3.0:
-- Compatible with all Avid media formats - MXF, OMF, AIF, SDII, WAV
-- Works with local storage, Avid Unity or any other SAN storage system
-- Supports all Avid editing systems
-- OS X and Windows versions available
-- Dynamic storage space monitoring
-- Generates detailed reports on each project's media
-- Integrated backup function makes archiving projects easy
Final Cut Pro 6.0 now includes several new generators that can be accessed under the 'Generators menu' within the Final Cut Pro Viewer window.
These generator's can be keyframed within the Control's tab to create animated textures.
Envivio Inc., the leading technology provider of IP video convergence solutions from mobile to HD, introduced an entry level encoder for 3G network operators. The quad-channel 4Caster M4 mobile TV encoder supports multiple bit rates, resolutions and standards within a space saving one rack unit (RU). Capable of encoding in both H.263 and H.264, and compliant with international mobile video standards including 3GPP and 3GPP2, the telco-grade M4 allows operators to optimally distribute high quality audio and video to mobile phone and mobile television subscribers.
Once you have spent time building many different projects and have a few hard drives on your system it may become hard to find where your project bins live. You can easily find where your media is located using the reveal file feature located in each bin’s fast menu. What if you need to find where the bin is located on your hard drive? There is also a reveal file for your bin but it is located in the project window. You need to highlight the bin you want to locate in the project window and the right-on it and choose reveal file. The system searches all available drives, opens the Windows Explorer, and highlights a related media file. This is a great way to stay organized and find the location of your bin file for transfer or back-up purposes. Our up and coming Avid classes are filling up fast, sign up now and reserve one of the last seats available.
Make sure you make plans to attend the Flashforward2007 conference in Boston. There will be a session on Interactive Flash Video at the conference.
The session covers the following:
Giving your text that extra look is a very important part of taking your work to the professional level. I frequently use some form of glowing title. You can add a glow very easily in the new Avid Marquee Title Tool which is now bundled with Express Pro HD. To simulate a glow follow these few steps.
1. Highlight the object you want to glow and choose windows then properties and shadow.
2. Adjust your shadow properties to match these.
-Show shadow need to be selected
-Type: Drop
-X offset: 0
-Y offset: 0
-Opacity: 50 or higher
-Softness: 50 or higher
-Shadow color: glow color
You can adjust your opacity and softness to your application. The opacity is really depending on the color you choose and the background color in which the graphic will live. Try this the next time you want to spice up your text and discover the power and ease of Avid Marquee. Marquee is now part of our very popular Avid Training Bundle, sign up now!
Would you like to be able to quickly export a QuickTime movie from your timeline or from a sub-clip? Well, look no further Avid Express Pro makes this task simple. There are a few simple steps to accomplishing this task so here is the quickest way to export a QuickTime file:
1. Mark an in and out around the area you want to make your movie from. Either in the source or record monitor.
2. Now right click on the desired monitor and select export. An export as dialogue box will open and you will need to select options in the lower right hand corner.
3. An export settings box will now open and you will have many choices for exporting your movie. For this example we will choose QuickTime movie.
4. You now need to decide the other elements you want to go along with your movie, for example Audio only, Video only or Video and Audio.
5. Make sure that Use Enabled tracks is selected in the upper right hand corner.
6. Depending on which color levels you are using RGB or 601/701 just make sure if you are going to import this into another program that the settings are the same.
7. I leave everything else the same unless you know specifically you need to change them. The same as source with Avid codec should be left on and the aspect ratio set at native dimensions.
8. If you will be using these settings over and over you can now save these settings at the bottom by selecting Save As. You can now give this a name that is relevant to the settings and access it any time from the Export dialogue box.
This should get you on you way to exporting a QuickTime movie and you can use this same technique for other exports.
Telestream, the leading global provider of media encoding workflow solutions, announced release of Episode 4.3.1 software which enables direct integration of its Episode desktop media encoding applications with Compressor 3, Apple's industrial strength encoding tool included with Final Cut Studio 2. The integration expands encoding capabilities for Final Cut Studio users to an extensive array of video and audio formats and encoding settings, including Flash 8, Windows Media, VC-1 and mobile formats. It also enables access to broadcast specific formats such as GXF, IMX, MPEG-2 4:2:2 and high profile H.264.
One of the new features in the Final Cut Studio 2.0 suite of programs is the ability to integrate motion templates directly within a Final Cut Pro sequence.
This new feature really ehances the integration between Apple Motion 2.0 and Final Cut Pro 6.0.
Final Cut Pro 6.0 also provides a better real-time engine with the ability to play Motion templates in real-time directly witin the Final Cut Pro timeline.
When you are working with multiple layers in Adobe Photoshop there will come a time that you will want to link those layers together so that you transform, crop, move or many other tasks at the same time. Unlike multiple layers selected at the same time, linked layers retain their relationship until you unlink them. You can move, apply transformations, and create clipping masks from linked layers.
To do this all you need to do is use the link layer button. The great thing about linking the layers together is that you can very quickly and easily unlink them at anytime. Here is the rundown on how to quickly link your layers together.
1. Select the layers or groups in the Layers palette.
2. Do one of the following:
3. Click the link icon at the bottom of the Layers palette
4. To unlink layers do one of the following:
-Select a linked layer and click the link icon.
-To temporarily disable the linked layer, Shift-click the Link icon for the linked layer. A red X appears. Shift-click the link icon to enable the link again.
-Select the linked layers and click the Link icon. To select all linked layers, select one of the layers and then choose Layer > Select Linked Layers.
Sign up for our next Photoshop training class and learn the tricks of the trade!
When you already have one effect applied to a transition in a sequence, you can apply an effect to multiple transitions at the same time.
How to apply an effect to multiple transitions in the Timeline:
1. If there is not already an effect on one of the transitions, add a transition effect.
2. Enter Effect mode, for example, by selecting Toolset > Effects Editing.
3. Click the existing transition effect to select it.
4. Click above the Timeline and begin dragging to activate a selection box. Continue to drag down and either to the left or right to include additional transitions in the selection.
5. Release the mouse button when you have lassoed all the transitions you want.
6. If the transitions where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click any transition to deselect it.
7. In the Effect Palette, double-click the icon for the effect that you want to apply to the transitions.
Do not forget to sign up for one of up and coming Avid classes!
When you first open LiveType, you will see within the Canvas Window a blue line representing an empty track. Type something into the Text Entry box located to the upper right of the Canavas In the Inspector Window.
Making a Curved Track
1 While pressing the control key or right clicking if you have a two button mouse, click anywhere on the blue line and choose Add Control Point from the menu that appears.
2 You can now drag the control point and the end points to create a new angle.
3 Control click or right click the new control point that you have just created and choose Curve In from the menu.
4 Drag the new point (Bezier Handle) to create a curve.
5 Right click or control click the original control point you created again and choose Curve In.
6 Adjust the new Bezier Handle.
Once again I have found a great story about Avid equipment in use and utilizing HD.
From its modest roots as regional entertainment in the Southern U.S., NASCAR (the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) has grown to become the second most popular televised professional sport, ranking only behind the National Football League in U.S. ratings. As NASCAR has evolved, so has the technology behind the scenes. For the past six years, senior editor Jeffrey Cline and editor Barry Bennett have cut all of NBC’s NASCAR race coverage on the road, following races across the U.S. in their 53-foot NEP Supershooters mobile production truck. Inside the truck are two Media Composer Adrenaline systems with Avid DNxcel cards for editing projects in HD. Both systems are connected to an Avid Unity MediaNetwork shared-storage solution with 5 TB of shared storage. This reliable and flexible Avid editing and shared-storage setup with the Avid DNxcel card - which utilizes the Avid DNxHD codec for easier HD media exchange and reduced storage size - is essential for creating as many as 10 pieces per week, for 20 straight weeks on the road. Check out the full story!
Equipment used:
Camera: Panasonic Varicam HD cameras 720p, 24fps
Telecine: Converted to 1080i for input via HD-SDI
Offline: HD, using Avid DNxHD 145 codec
Mastering: HD, 1080p
RealNetworks has unveiled the new RealPlayer, the first media player to make it one-click simple to download online videos from thousands of Web sites. The new RealPlayer makes it easy for consumers to watch videos whenever and wherever they want, burn them to DVD and CD, and share video links with friends. Most major formats are supported, including Real, Windows Media, Flash, and QuickTime. The new RealPlayer will be available for free beginning June 2007 at RealPlayer.com.
StreamingMedia.com has for a long time been the location that video editors, multimedia specialists, producers, IT personnel, CEOs and other technical and non-technical staff can visit on-line to watch streaming video of presentations related to streaming and compression. These presentations have generally been from the many conferences hosted by the organization. The website has also provided great how-to-tutorials as well.
Imagine that you have been working on a magazine style segment for a local news station that debuts some of the less traveled areas of your state, for a light news segment called 'On The Backroads.' You have built a beautiful segment complete with interviews, eye-catching cut-aways and some nice atmospheric music. Now, how do you end this masterpiece without it feeling like your piece just abruptly cuts off at the end. How about backtiming an audio clip to give a soft, natural ending to your piece?
Backtiming A Clip:
- Set the area where you want the music to start in the timeline by creating an in point and place your out point at the end of your sequence where the action stops.
- Load your audio clip into the viewer and set an out point at the end of your music clip.
- Make sure your tracks are patched properly so that you will only be editing into the audio track, then make your edit. Your music will end at the out point that you specified in the timeline and backtrack to the in point, giving you a natural ending.
In today’s world of HD, the price drop in hard drives, and large the hard drives required to store all your media, more than likely you will need drives in excess of 200 gigs. I work on a system that has 4 terabytes which includes several hard drives in the 250-300 gig range. This amount of storage is very necessary for my workflow and you may have a need for even more storage. I discovered the one flaw in having drives over 200 gigs. I opened a project to find some of my media offline. The media was on the hard drive and after banging my head against my desk I found a recommendation from the Avid support center and fixed my issue. Avid systems have a hard time keeping track of media over 200 gigs. You may see this error:: HP_Domain_Failed // Frequent media corruption // not rebuilding Media Databases // over-all performance slowdown // media management. If you have any drive over 200 gigs simply partition them down to 200 gigs or smaller and this will eliminate any errors in the future. As far as which brand you should choose to start archiving all of your media, take a close look at G-Tech. They are fast and have great capacities!
In terms of understanding Field Order/Field Dominance in Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, you really need to understand your source. You can use other tools to find out the Field Order of your source before bring it into Squeeze. Since Sorenson Squeeze is designed to be a simple compression tool to use, most deinterlacing that is done will work fine by using Auto Remove Interlacing. If you ever notice problems with a source not deinterlacing properly and having interlaced frames or the "comb effect", then determine the Field Order of your video file and if the field order is Lower Field remove the opposite field. For example if your have a DV source which is Lower Field first under Squeeze's Deinterlace Filter Choose Remove Interlacing Odd. If the source is Upper Field First then choose Remove Interlacing Even.
Accordent Technologies, a provider of enterprise rich media communications solutions, announced that it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program, with a competency in ISV/Software. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Accordent has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven its ability to meet customers' needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including advance access to the latest Microsoft platforms and development environments. In conjunction with dedicated Microsoft training and support, these benefits reinforce Accordent's ability to provide first-to-market Microsoft compatibility for rich media creation and management solutions.
Akamai Introduces a Real-time View of Internet Activity. Twenty percent of the world's Internet traffic is delivered over the Akamai platform. They've combined this global scope with constant data collection to construct an accurate and comprehensive picture of what's happening on the Internet. This is one of the coolest references for streaming and internet that I've seen on the web today. You should bookmark this page to check the world's online behavior at any given moment. You can see how fast data is moving, where the most congestion is and what events are causing spikes in Web activity. There's even a real-time view of streaming content hosted by Akamai. Previously, only Akamai and their customers had access to this information. Now they've opened the information up to the online universe. Many should be excited.
ViewCast Corporation, a global leader in the design and manufacture of the world's most advanced media encoding products, announced that it has partnered with Adobe Systems Incorporated. This partnership paves the way for ViewCast to add live web video streaming via Adobe Flash Player to the broad range of streaming formats supported by its GoStream Plus and Niagara Pro streaming media appliances.
Democracy Player version 0.9.6 has been released. It is a big update, with lots of new features, bug fixes, and improvements. It's also the last version ever of Democracy Player. The next release will be under the new name, Miro.
There aren't too many free products that come across the internet that I get excited about. If you have not already downloaded Mozilla's Firefox then you need to take a close look at it now. I was having countless issues with Internet Explorer and I was thought the problems were with my computer. I was told, by John Lynn, to download Firefox and see if that fixed my problems and amazingly it did! Not only did it fix my problems it sped up my internet experience! Some of the great features of Firefox include: Improved Tabbed Browsing, Spell-checking (it is checking my spelling as I am typing this blog, very cool), the very useful Session Restore
Losing your place while you’re doing things on the Web is a pain. Now, with Session Restore, if Firefox has to restart or closes when it comes back you’ll pick up exactly where you left off. The windows and tabs you were using, the text you typed into forms, and the in-progress downloads you had running will all be restored. You can even set Firefox 2 to always restore your previous session instead of loading a home page, so you’ll never lose your place again.and many more features that you need to check out. Download the latest version of Firefox now and learn to love the internet all over again!
If you've ever editing a long-format program, I am sure you have come across a situation where you can't seem to find a certain clip that you have edited to the Avid Xpress timeline. Or worse yet, you have having problems with trying to figure out whether a certain clip has been used somehwere else in the timeline.
Did you know you can turn on clip colors in your bin and display those colors for clips in the timeline?
You will need to do 2 things. First, you'll need to display the (color) heading in your bin, and assign some colors to your clips.
Next, you need to navigate to your timeline menu and select Clip Colors - Source Colors. Save the insanity! Don't lose track of clips again.
There are two types of text that you can utilize in LiveType, system fonts and live fonts. System fonts are plane text that you can later modify by keyframing or adding an assortment of presets and live fonts are a library of fonts that are already fully animated. In this example we will take a system font and add a preset to bring it to life.
1 Go to the Textures Tab and click on it to choose a background so that we can see our text better. Simply click on a texture selection, then click the button at the bottom of the pane marked Apply To New Track.
2 Go to the Font Tab and choose the Apple Chancery font from the list, then click Apply To New Track and type something into the Text Entry field in the Inspector Window. You will have to click into the text entry field before you start typing in order to get a cursor.
3 Find the Effects tab and choose Celebrate from the list, then click Apply at the bottom. Keep in my that the text track is still selected when you are applying the effect. Always make sure that the appropriate track is active before applying an effect preset. Press the spacebar to preview your animated text.
Be sure to check out LiveTypeCentral
In this second part to our write-up about understanding field order in Compressor, Episode Pro and Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, we'll look at how Episode Pro labels field order. To find the options for Field order in Episode Pro you need to navigate to the Video Tab of your compression preset.
At times, you may find it useful to enlarge the tracks that you are working in for a better view. Simply select the track or tracks that you wish to enlarge
and press Control L, for PC, or Command L, for a Mac, to enlarge the selected tracks. Press CTRL K or Command K to decrease the size of the tracks.
This multipart write-up will give you a better understanding of Field Order in Compressor, Episode Pro and Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite. First of all, video uses two fields and when you are encoding interlaced sources you need to be able to recognize how the field order is labeled so you can remove a field if necessary. Field Order is also known as Field Dominance. When you see references such Even, Lower, Lower Field First and Bottom, this refers to the Second field. Odd, Upper, Upper Field and Top refers to the First field.
With that said lets look first at how Compressor displays field order in the Deinterlace filter. Notice under Algorithm there are 4 options but I want to focus on three, Blur, Even and Odd. Selecting the Blur algorithm inside the Deinterlace filter during encoding actually blurs the Odd and Even fields. Choosing Even for the algorithm will deinterlace the video source during encoding keeping the Even field and getting rid of the Odd field. Choosing Odd for the algorithm deinterlaces the video during encoding keeping the Odd field and removing the Even field.
A great way to learn LiveType or even Motion is to open up one of the pre-made templates and examine it carefully. When you open a template in LiveType, you have the benefit of being able to view every element, effect and the relationships used to forge that particular piece. Pick it apart, change and replace elements, try to recreate it in another project. You're not confined to a world made of presets! Since their is very little literature out there for LiveType, here is how to get to the presets:
1 Go to File > Open Template and peruse through the categories.
2 Select the format you will be working in (NTSC, PAL, HD) then choose a template and click the OK button.
By selecting a title clip in the timeline, the text opens up in the Text Entry Box for manipulation. The same goes for the other elements of the template.
In continuing in our discussion of deinterlacing video sources with Sorenson Squeeze, let's apply a deinterlace filter to your interlaced video source. I'll assume you know how to import your video source into Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite.
To apply a deinterlace filter select the Generic Web filter under the Filter settings and click the plus symbol to create a copy of the filter preset. Once the Filter Window opens you can name the filter whatever you want.
This is an image of the Preview Window in Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite which shows an interlaced video source. You'll notice that the right side of the image above shows interlacing. When you see interlacing in a video source it looks like a "comb effect". The right side of the image looks smooth and shows the result of applying a deinterlace filter. What deinterlacing does is removes one of the fields from the video source and instead of two fields the final output file will only have one field. So basically the Lower or Upper field is removed during Deinterlacing. Understanding deinterlacing and how to properly deinterlace sources is key to understanding the many video compression applications that are out today and getting the results you want. In part two of this series I'll walk you through the steps of appying a deinterlace filter in Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite.
For many users that work with Final Cut Pro, many times it will be helpful to encode your video from DV/DVCPro, Animation, Uncompressed or other Quicktime formats to DVCPro50. For this purpose Compressor is a great tool to use.
You can easily drag all the source files you desire to convert to the Batch Window. Then select all the files you want to convert to DVCPro50 and apply the DVCPro50 preset from the Advanced Format Conversion presets. This will designate all of your files for conversion to DVCPro50. Click Submit to begin your encoding.
When you click on the Clip Overlays button at the bottom left corner of the Final Cut Pro timeline,
you are then able to view the keyframe parameters that you have set for both video and audio clips. The graph is broken down into four parts: the Motion Bar, Filter Bar, Keyframe Editor, and the Speed Indicator Area. A handy function to be aware of is that you can choose to either hide or display these parameters depending on which you are currently working in.
Control click the clip overlays button. Your choices in the pop-up menu are to either view the keyframe parameters for Video, Audio, Display (Select) all parameters or Display (Select) none.
In this particular example, I placed a Sepia Filter on my clip, represented by the green bar, and I made an opacity adjustment which is represented by the blue bar. If I only wanted to see the filter parameter I could choose to hide all of the others by unchecking them in the video sub menu.
If you wanted to make an adjustment to the filter in the Keyframe Editor, you would control-click or right click in the Keyframe Editor area and choose the name of the filter that was applied from the list. A thin green rubberband will appear, giving you the chance to use the pen tool to set keyframes and make adjustements.
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In terms of easy workflow for getting videos to a Web server, FTP Server or a Streaming Server, there's no better compression tool to do the job than Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Compression Suite. The tool is simply amazing. If you have a scenario where you want to compression 15-20 videos or more you can set-up a Watch Folder using Squeeze 4.5 where all the videos that are copied to the Watch Folder can be encoded with a specific set of compression settings. What's unique about Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Compression Suite is you can make the output of the Watch Folder automatically FTP to a Web Server, FTP Server or Streaming Server saving editors, producers, web designers and compressionists precious time and headache uploading videos files.
