Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Aperture 2.1.1 Won’t Preview Raw Photos

Adam Wilt | 08/26- 11:49 PM

If you shoot raw stills, and use Aperture, don’t update to 2.1.1.

I use Apple’s Aperture to import, organize, and do simple processing on digital pix. I just updated to 2.1.1, and now the image import window won’t show raw images—only dashed rectangles (JPEGS still show up properly). The raw images’ metadata is shown correctly, except for the consistently goofball pixel size of 128x128. If I select raw pix blindly and import them, they show up properly once imported, but importing them blindly ain’t fun.

Aperture 2.1 didn’t have this bug; my Nikon D200 and D300 images showed up fine in the image import window. And I’m not the only one with the problem; Apple’s discussion lists are filled with similarly unhappy upgraders, mostly those using Nikons, but I saw Ricohs mentioned as well.

I can confirm that the bug afflicts Aperture 2.1.1 on both 10.4.11 and 10.5.4.

Solutions? I haven’t seen any evidence of a solution, but several workarounds have been suggested:

• stick with 2.1,
• roll back to 2.1 using Time Machine,
• use Image Capture (or Finder drag ‘n’ drop) to read in photos,
• shoot JPEGs.

Fortunately for me, I usually shoot JPEGs, otherwise I’d be hosed! Read my tale of woe, and maybe you won’t get hosed the same way.

Monday, August 25, 2008

QuickTime Quickies

Jay Rose | 08/25- 08:02 AM

A couple of non-intuitive hacks for QuickTime audio

I’m a soundie. So I frequently have to send music samples, progressive mixes, and other pieces of track to directors or clients for approval. Since I’m also a lazy soundie, I’ve discovered a couple of ways to speed up the process… and save my clients a lot of download time.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Secret of P2 Slating

Art Adams | 08/24- 01:09 PM

Do this to see your editor weep with joy

Yesterday I shot a political spot with Simon Sommerfeld, a friend who saved the day after I pitched the concept for this no-budget spot to an agency that then said, “We’ll take it--make it as fast as you can for no money.”

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Magic of Conform in Soundtrack Pro 2

Kevin P. McAuliffe | 08/23- 05:39 PM

This feature allows editors to make as many changes as they want, with little or no impact on the mix.

One problem that audio engineers run into all the time is sneaky editors who make changes to their “locked” offline while the engineer is doing their mix. Then, a major “patch” job ends up happening where the mix that is currently being working on, needs to be married with the new, revised audio that the editor has just output. Needless to say, it’s a major headache. Well, not anymore. With the awsome new Conform feature in Soundtrack Pro 2, editors can make as many changes to their edit as they want, with little or no impact on the mix that is being done in Soundtrack Pro. Let’s take a look at how this works.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

AJA Io HD drivers updated

Adam Wilt | 08/20- 07:24 PM

Important fixes and enhancements in the version 6.0 driver

AJA has released version 6.0 drivers for the Io HD, AJA’s external video I/O box and format converter connected using FireWire800.

Version 6.0 adds a bunch of new features:

• Support for true progressive (in addition to PsF) 1080p capture and playback.
• Support for 720p/23.98 and 525i/23.98.
• Stand-alone mode for format conversion with no Mac attached.
• “Plug and Play” on FireWire without needing to reboot the computer.
• Simultaneous component and composite outputs.
• Audio delay controls for better A/V sync.
• Io HD’s LCD can be set to show timecode instead of secondary format.
• Better active output format listings in Io-using applications.

It also fixes a long-standing bug with frame-level metadata in ProRes422 captures: Io HD-captured ProRes now shows up as 10-bit video in Shake (and other apps that look at frame-level metadata), whereas before Shake saw the video as only being 8-bit. (The Io HD’s ProRes has always been 10-bit, but it didn’t look that way to Shake without an intermediate render in FCP.)

I had discovered the 8/10-bit issue back before NAB, and bothered the daylights out of AJA’s long-suffering support folks about it (with a tip of the hat to the unfailingly responsive and polite Rudy Van Kol), so the first thing I did when I saw the V6 driver was download it and test it. I can’t yet vouch for everything on the feature list, but I was able to install the software and upgrade the Io HD’s firmware just now without any problems, and I have verified the 10-bit metadata fix in Shake.

Huzzah, therefore, for AJA and version 6.0 Io HD drivers!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Vacuum Packed

Jay Rose | 08/19- 05:13 PM

Compress audio files without losing quality? You can, if you measure them the right way.

My last two blog tutorials discussed neural masking, and how an mp3 or AAC can be good enough for broadcast or film sound when you do it right. (If you followed the link to my website, you even got proof.) But sometimes, even AAC’s tiny losses can be too much: you might be sending elements that will be processed or compressed more, or be saving an archive. While most non-audio files can be successfully squeezed with Winzip or Stuffit, those processes behave strangely with audio.

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