Blackmagic Design offers SDK for Linux Developers

Blackmagic Design has announced an SDK for software creators who want to work with DeckLink Intensity and Multibridge products on the open-source Linux platform. Combining the low-cost of the Linux OS with Blackmagic’s extensive line of hardware ingest and playback solutions should be an attractive combination for developers. Full press release below…

It’s the End of the World as We Know It…

I posted a fun little video about creating a shoulder mount rig for the iPhone 3G S on Friday. You can see it here.

While done in a tongue and cheek way, the most important thing for Pros watching the video is actually the first minute. I was dead serious there. The new iPhone is a game changer… make no mistake about it.

Avid:  Editor or Database?

I’ll admit it, as I have before:  I’m not an Avid guy. Of course, that doesn’t stop my employer from being an Avid house.  We are currently installing an Interplay system, which centralizes all our assets, and allows many different people throughout the plant to preview the video, audio, graphics and such.  As a part of the installation process, all of us who have to edit must get an Interplay tutorial.  I sat through mine this morning, and for four hours I was reminded of a statement I have heard again and again:

“Final Cut and Premiere Pro are great editors with crappy databases.  Avid is a crappy editor in front of a GREAT database.”

Interplay drives that message home - with a sledgehammer.

There are at least three (and maybe more - I’m not sure) ways to tiptoe through the Interplay database.  The one that looks the most useful to me is the Interplay window that lives inside the Media Composer editor.  This window seems to hold the promise of wiping away all of the various bins (except the bin with the sequence in it.) Big step forward, IMHO.  Next is Assist, which is a standalone app that can offer logging on a desktop, which of course requires database access.  And speaking of access, then there is Access (wasn’t Microsoft using that name just a minute ago?), which is the heavy-duty search monster, with Boolean searches that can drill through your pile of video like an Exxon oil rig through the Gulf of Mexico.  Not to mention the several administrator tools, which I will never hold permissions for (and rightfully so.)

And I wonder...three (or more) applications?  Wouldn’t one be enough?

I suppose that an argument can be made for each, but really - how complicated do we have to make our systems?

Of course, I probably wouldn’t mind half as much if I could just graft the Premiere Pro interface onto it.  Is that too much to ask?

WWDC keynote coverage for video pros around the web

The Apple keynote at the World Wide Developers Conference is soon to be a day old. If you are a pro-video user and you’ve been out of the loop today here’s a quick round-up from around the web as to some good blog posts and discussions on what went down today ... or the lack thereof.

SxS Joins P2 in the Dustbin of History?

Here at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference, Apple announced a new lineup of MacBook Pros. The 13” and 15” models drop the Expresscard34 slot, in which we stuck our SxS cards for reading (or our Duel Systems P2 card adapter), replacing it with an SD card slot. The 17” keeps Expresscard34, for now.

Remember when, not so long ago, SxS boosters derided P2 as a reflection of the past, based on an obsolete card format (PCCard, or PCMCIA, which stands for People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms)? Glass houses, meet stones: looks like SxS, which fits in Expresscard34 slots, is also too backward-looking for the new low-end and midrange MBPs.

So what now? SD is the solid-state format of the future (or at least of today)? Should we be looking to Duel Systems to make an SD slot adapter for our SxS cards?

Then, of course, when we need to read P2 cards, we plug the P2 adapter into the SxS adapter into the SD slot… making the new MacBook Pros the turduckens of the data-capture world! 

Cine Gear Expo 2009

The “expo” part of Cine Gear Expo took place on Friday and Saturday last week (there were also Master Classes and film screening starting Thursday and ending Sunday). This year it was at “the Studios at Paramount” in Hollywood at Gower and Melrose. It was a balmy 70ºF (21º C) under cinematically cloudy skies, a far cry from the 100+º F of last year.

Will your AJA IoHD give your DreamColor monitor a free ride?

If you own an IoHD device from AJA which you use as your input/output device for Final Cut Studio, it may give your HP DreamColor monitor a free ride. As explained in my recent article How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!, the DreamColor monitor is quite attractive, yet quite demanding, since in order to allow use of its color engine (and therefore monitor in ITU-R BT.701 color space), the monitor demands that the incoming signal be both RGB (not component) and true progressive (not interlaced or even PsF). Since the HDMI output of your IoHD can be set up to be RGB, the fact that you own the IoHD may be (under certain circumstances) a “free ticket” for the DreamColor.

Will your Matrox i/o interface give your DreamColor a free ride?

If you own an MXO2, MXO2 Rack, or MXO2 Mini which you use as your input/output device for Final Cut Studio, it may give your HP DreamColor monitor a free ride. As explained in my recent article How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!, the DreamColor monitor is quite attractive, yet quite demanding, since in order to allow use of its color engine (and therefore monitor in ITU-R BT.701 color space), the monitor demands that the incoming signal be both RGB (not component) and true progressive (not interlaced or even PsF). Since the HDMI output of your MX02, MXO2 Rack, or MXO2 Mini can be set up to be RGB, the fact that you own one of these interfaces may be (under certain circumstances) a “free ticket” for the DreamColor.

Page 1 of 19 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »