July, 2011

• 19 July

  FCPX vs. Premiere Pro CS5.5 for Final Cut Pro 7 Editors

  Though Final Cut Pro X is billed as an upgrade, it’s really a totally new program in most respects. New interface to learn, new plug-ins, new project files, no looking back for Apple. So if you’re a Final Cut Pro 7 editor, you have to choose a new editor. The two most logical choices are FCPX and Adobe CS 5.5, …

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• 13 July

  Converting DVD-based content for Adaptive Streaming

  Just finished a four-part series on converting DVD-based content for H.264-based adaptive streaming, and you can read all four parts on OnlineVideo.net. Technical issues that I covered included: The best technique for ripping the video from the DVDs The best editor for assembling the various VOB files for streaming encoding Pre-encoding filtering and deinterlacing Choosing parameters for adaptive streaming Encoding …

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• 12 July

  Free H.264 Encoders Plus Apple Compressor 4

  I compare four H.264 encoders in this article on OnlineVideo.net. Here’s the gripping introduction: OK, so you’re cheap and in a hurry and you just want the answer to a single question, “What’s the best free H.264 encoder?” Well, you’re in the right place, in this short review; I compare HandBreak, Miro Video Converter, MPEG Streamclip, and Apple Compressor 4. …

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• 12 July

  Creating Queue Points in HTML5 and Ogg Theora

  There’s been lots of sizzle around HTML5, but to my mind, very little steak. Last week I chatted with a developer from the Annenberg Space for Photography, who has created a pretty beefy site that works in Flash and may soon work in HTML5. I guess I’m a sucker for video presentations that foster interactivity, and Annenberg’s is great for …

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• 9 July

  48 kHz Audio Can Cause Loss of Synch with Flash Playback

  Most camcorders capture audio at 48 kHz, so there’s a natural tendency to produce your streaming files at that sample rate. There’s just one problem; it can cause loss of audio/video synch during playback on the Flash Player. Andy Stevenson of the University of Manchester reported this in an interesting thread on the Linked In Streaming Media Professionals group last …

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• 6 July

  A Final Cutter tries Premiere Pro

  Creative Cow just published a thorough and thoughtful story about switching from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro, written by Helmut Kobler, and entitled A Final Cutter Tries Out Premiere Pro. Kobler starts by noting that he had been considering moving from the Apple platform for several years, as he “started to sense that Final Cut, along with all of …

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June, 2011

• 29 June

  Apple Final Cut Pro X Reviewed: Not Ready for Professionals

  OnlineVideo.net published my review of Apple's Final Cut Pro X here. At about 3500 words, it's one of the longest reviews I've written in awhile, with 16 screen shots. My conclusion? While not fully rendered, my project is done, and this review almo

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• 28 June

  Final Cut Pro X – Killed by the Suite

  By now you've probably heard that Final Cut Pro X lacks many features that professionals need, including the ability to load Final Cut Pro 7 projects, multicam support, plug-in support, OML or EDL support and tape output. Judging from the noise on bl

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• 16 June

  Adobe’s Vision for Professional Video

  I thought I would share a video that Adobe just posted on their vision for professional video. The speaker is VP Jim Guerard, a thoughtful, impressive guy that I've met several times. Here are some of the statistics Jim discussed (which I cribbed fro

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• 14 June

  Flash Rocks on Android Handsets

  I have to say that Google's support for Flash on the Android platform always seemed like a case of strange bedfellows to me. After all, Google is the company that paid over $100 million for On2 just to open source the VP8 codec (as WebM), reviving th

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