Digital Rebellion Blog

Preference Manager now supports Adobe Creative Suite 6

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:21:17 MDT

We've just released a small update to Preference Manager that adds support for Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects CS6.

We've also improved stability when closing applications and using Preference Manager to launch Final Cut Pro projects.

Please note that Preference Manager now requires OS X 10.6 or higher. An older version for OS X 10.5 is available here.

Preference Manager is a free and invaluable tool for video editors and post production professionals. To find out more, see the Preference Manager page, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the software.

Introducing Pro Versioner - backup and versioning for your projects

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:09:07 MDT

We're pleased to introduce our newest product, Pro Versioner for Mac, an extensive backup and versioning tool for your creative projects.

Pro Versioner is a 64-bit upgrade to FCP Versioner that offers a complete UI overhaul. The app automatically takes screenshots of your workspace and allows you to annotate backups to help differentiate between them.

It is now app-agnostic, meaning you can use it with Final Cut Pro 6 and 7, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro - or indeed any host application.

Pro Versioner keeps every version of a project for the current day and then whittles them down over time. This is much better than conventional autosave, where only the most recent 20 or so backups are kept. Backup management is completely customizable and it's much more intelligent than in the previous version. For example, if you choose to keep 3 versions for every day older a week, it will now keep the first backup of the day, the last backup of the day and one right in the middle, instead of just keeping the three latest versions.

It can also now sync your backups to the cloud. This is great for giving you an extra layer of protection in case your backup hard drive fails or you fall victim to fire or theft. We're currently offering Dropbox support and we'd appreciate feedback on which additional services our users wish to sync to.

I've been field-testing it on a large project for the past four months and it's been a lifesaver. It's a Final Cut Pro 7 project and we've had lots of issues with multicam angles switching seemingly at random. Pro Versioner was invaluable because it meant we could easily go back in time and compare versions to see which angles were correct and then remove the multiclips. It's also comforting to know that our project backups are on Dropbox if anything should happen to the facility or our hard drives.

Pro Versioner is an invaluable tool to manage your project versions and prevent disasters. To find out more, see the Pro Versioner site, read the user manual or download the free trial.

Cut Notes and Editmote now Retina compatible

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:57:06 MDT

Earlier this week we released Retina iPad-compatible versions of both Cut Notes and Editmote. Third-generation iPad users will see sharper graphics when using both of the apps. This means that all of our iOS apps are now Retina-compatible.

Other recent changes include the ability to disable the Play / Pause button in Cut Notes when in sync mode. This allows you to hand over the iPad to a client to take notes without giving them control over playback. This option can be set within the Cut Notes section of the iPad's Settings app.

By popular demand, Editmote now prevents your iOS device from going to sleep when in button mode. This prevents the app from having to reconnect but we recommend making sure you have enough battery life to make it through the screening before you begin.

The Editmote preference pane now requires OS X 10.6 or higher, but an older version is available for OS X 10.5 that is compatible with the latest version of the iOS app.

Cut Notes and Editmote are both available on the App Store.

Pro Media Tools 1.1.3 released - QT Edit conform overhaul and more

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:18:17 MDT

Just before NAB we released Pro Media Tools 1.1.3 but forgot to mention it on the blog. Some of the biggest changes were:

QT Edit conform overhaul

The conform function allows you to convert a movie to a different frame rate and is now compatible with over-cranked movies from Canon DSLR cameras.

Batch Renamer performance improvements

Batch Renamer now generates previews significantly faster and uses significantly less memory. This means that it is much better at handling large numbers of files.

New QT Edit Quick Tasks

There are two new Quick Tasks in QT Edit. "Set Square Pixel Aspect Ratio" sets the pixel aspect ratio of the movie to 1:1 and "Strip Adobe XMP Metadata" removes extra metadata that Adobe applications sometimes add to movie files.

FCPX metadata presets

In the Metadata tab of QT Edit you can now add metadata fields such as Scene, Shot, Angle or Reel that will be recognized by the Inspector in Final Cut Pro X.

The full list of changes is available here.

Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for editors, assistants and post production professionals. To find out more, see our overview video, read the features page or download the free 15-day trial.

Introducing Video Space Calculator for Mac

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:30:28 MDT

We're pleased to announce the availability of Video Space Calculator for Mac. This useful tool allows you to work out how much space a particular codec will take up on disk, or alternatively how many hours of a particular codec will fit within a given space.

It supports a wide range of codecs including ARRIRAW, AVCHD, Cineform, DNxHD, Phantom, ProRes and REDCODE. A full list of supported codecs is available in the Mac App Store description.

The app has all of the features of the existing iOS version and is available on the App Store for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.

Post Haste 2.1 for Mac and Windows released - new Kiosk Mode

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:26:53 MDT

Today we released Post Haste 2.1 simultaneously for both Mac and Windows 7, marking the end of the beta period for the Windows version.

Post Haste is an essential project management tool that makes it easy to create new projects from customizable templates.

It's suitable for photographers, video professionals, audio professionals, graphic designers, web designers and anyone who needs to keep their projects and assets organized.

This version adds a Kiosk Mode available from the View menu. This hides the template editor and preferences to prevent users from adjusting settings. This is great for corporate environments.

Now that the Windows version is up to date with the Mac edition, they will be developed in tandem with releases for both platforms happening at the same time.

Post Haste can be downloaded here. For more of our useful tools, see our Products page.

Adobe announces Creative Suite 6

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:20:08 MDT

Today Adobe announced the full feature set of Creative Suite 6. Here are the features that stood out at me:

Open CL - Mac laptop users do not get a choice as to which brand of graphics card they use so it's great to see GPU acceleration extended for people with ATI graphics cards.
Full-screen playback - Premiere Pro can now play back your sequence in full screen on your primary monitor, which is great if you're on the move.
New trim mode - This one seems to be aimed at Avid users with dynamic trimming via JKL.
Adjustment layers - This is something I've wanted to see in an NLE for a long time. You can add a Photoshop-style adjustment layer and it will affect all clips beneath it. This is great for applying global effects to a sequence.
Combine mono, stereo and multitrack clips into a single audio track - One big point of confusion for Final Cut Pro switchers was the way Premiere Pro CS 5.5 dealt with audio tracks. Instead of having one audio track per channel, Premiere can create mono, stereo or surround tracks, which means that mono clips can only be added to a mono track and stereo clips have to be added to a stereo track. These limitations are now removed in CS 6.
Big thumbnails that can be "hover-scrubbed" - This looks to be almost identical to skimming in Final Cut Pro X. You can even set in and out points from the thumbnails.
Ability to toggle Work Area off - The Work Area was another point of confusion for FCP users. It allows you to set a certain area of the timeline for rendering and exporting which can also be achieved by setting in and out points. If you don't plan to use this feature, it can now be switched off in CS 6.
Markers can now be assigned a color and duration - I've always felt the marker implementation in Premiere was poor so this is great news. There is also a marker window that provides a summary of all markers in the sequence and you can quickly jump to them. No word yet on whether you can import and export marker lists.
Unlimited multiclip angles - I was disappointed with the four-angle multicam in CS 5.5 so this is a big improvement.
Uninterrupted playback - You can now adjust effects on-the-fly without pausing playback.
New apps - Prelude and SpeedGrade
Prelude has an SDK - Adobe's new tool for ingesting file-based media has an SDK to allow production houses to integrate it into their custom workflows.
Ray tracing, extruding and 3D tracker in After Effects - Adobe is really aiming at the higher end of the visual effects market with these features.
Variable mask feathering in AE - I've never been keen on AE's mask tools so this is a big improvement.
Automatic Duck integration - Pro Import AE is now bundled with After Effects and allows you to import Avid projects into AE.

What's clear from this release is that Adobe is aggressively targeting a broad range of users. There are features in the new release that will be familiar to Avid, FCP7 and FCPX users. Since the demise of Final Cut Studio, Creative Suite is the only suite in town and this release fixes many of my complaints with CS 5.5 (although no word on new developer features yet). I don't think it will change my plan to use Avid for long-form and Premiere for short-form but the wide-open nature of the NLE market right now is something that is clearly producing great results for editors.

Using folder breaks to create folder hierarchies in Post Haste

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:19:44 MDT

Post Haste is a Mac and Windows app to organize your projects from customizable templates. You can setup various parameters to include in the folder name such as project name, client, date, etc.

In the recent rewrite of Post Haste we added a new feature called folder breaks. Folder breaks can be set on a per-parameter basis and tell Post Haste to create a new folder at the start of that parameter. This allows you to create folder hierarchies and is best explained through example.

Folder breaks can be added by ticking the relevant checkbox next to a parameter in the preferences window.

Here are some examples of how folder breaks affect the destination path of the project, using the parameter values shown in the screenshot below.

If all folder breaks are switched off, Post Haste will create a single folder with each parameter separated by an underscore (or whatever separator character you have chosen).

If a folder break is added for the Project parameter, Post Haste will create a new folder and all subsequent parameters will be appended to the project name with an underscore.

If a folder break is added for the Project parameter but the parameter value is left blank, Post Haste is smart enough to apply the folder break to the next valid parameter value.

If a folder break is added for Project and Editor, Date is appended to Project and Editor becomes a new folder.

If a folder break is added to all of the parameters, it looks like the following:

Post Haste allows filename conventions and project organization to be largely invisible to the end-user. Folder breaks make it easier to fit the app into existing naming conventions and are very useful for corporate environments.

Post Haste is a free app for Mac and Windows and is available here.

Film Rate Calc and Aspect Ratio Calc updated

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:04:52 MDT

We've just updated Film Rate Calc 1.1 and Aspect Ratio Calc 1.1.1 for compatibility with the new Retina iPad.

As part of the update we also overhauled the interfaces of both applications to bring them more in line with our other iOS apps.

We're working to update our other apps right now. Some have already had Retina updates and others will be coming very soon.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.7 released - Plugin Manager installers and more

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:50:46 MDT

We've just released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.7, a minor update to our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your system.

One important change in this version is that it now requires OS X 10.6 or higher. OS X 10.5 users can obtain an older version from the sidebar here .

We've made many improvements to Plugin Manager, including greater compatibility with FxFactory and various bug fixes.

These new features are in addition to the hundreds that already existed in the suite including the ability to analyze crash logs, locate corrupt clips, repair corrupt projects and movie files, clear caches and much more. A full changelog for this version is available here and an updated list of error messages supported by Crash Analyzer is available here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential suite of utilities for post production. To find out more, visit the features page, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the 15-day trial.

How to create installers for your plugins and effects

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:34:20 MDT

If you are a plugin developer, Plugin Manager in Pro Maintenance Tools can be used to create installers. These provide an easy way for end-users to install plugins quickly and easily with very little setup required from the developer. Installers are completely self-contained so end-users do not need Pro Maintenance Tools installed.

To create an installer:

1. In the main plugin view, select the plugins or groups that you would like to add to the installer. You can have more than one plugin in an installer.

2. Go to Tools > Create Plugin Installer.

3. In the window that appears, specify a name for the plugin or group or plugins, the version number and author.

4. The code signing pane allows you to sign the installer to show that it hasn't been modified by an unscrupulous third party. This is necessary for running the installer on OS X 10.8 or higher.

Signing is optional for users on OS X 10.7 and below but it is recommended if you have access to a valid certificate. Visit Apple's developer site for more details on creating and installing a Developer ID certificate.

Once the certificate is installed, select it from the list in the Code Signing tab.

5. Click Create Installer and you will be prompted for a location.

6. Test the installer by moving the plugins you added to the installer to another location such as the Desktop, running the installer and then checking in Plugin Manager to see if the plugins were installed correctly.

7. Users can choose the Install button to install plugins to their default location or they can click Send to Plugin Manager to import with more options.

Plugin Manager is a comprehensive tool for managing your plugins. It is available as part of Pro Maintenance Tools.

What does that error message mean?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:40:00 MDT

Sometimes your NLE will throw up a cryptic error while you are editing, such as "General Error 41" (Final Cut Pro) or "BAD_MAGIC" (Avid). Such errors are often meaningful to the application's developers but not its users.

Luckily Crash Analyzer in Pro Maintenance Tools has a comprehensive error database. Click the Error Lookup button in the toolbar and you will be presented with a searchable list of all supported errors (over 200 at the current time of writing).

Selecting an error presents an explanation of the cause with suggestions on how to overcome it. This can be a real timesaver when a cryptic message pops up on a deadline.

A full list of supported errors is available here and we add new ones in every software update. If you receive an error message that is not supported by Crash Analyzer, you can submit it for inclusion in a future version from the Actions menu.

Crash Analyzer is available as part of Pro Maintenance Tools. We also have an iOS app called EditCodes that uses the same database.

Improving tapeless media management with Auto Transfer

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:04:14 MDT

Working with tapeless media requires a robust organization and backup policy to ensure your footage remains safe.

One key area of concern is memory cards and readers, as cheaper ones can sometimes behave erratically when they get hot, causing data corruption. Worse still, OS X's Finder will not always show an indication that footage is corrupt when you copy it to your hard drive.

If your camera shoots to QuickTime movies, you should at the very least browse to the copied location and scroll through the directory to spot movie clips without thumbnails, as this may indicate files that are unreadable.

Another potential issue is directory structure. While it may be tempting to copy just the movie clips to your hard drive, some applications and Log and Transfer plugins are expecting the files to exist in a particular place within the directory hierarchy. Not maintaining this structure can lead to files being imported without metadata and timecode or sometimes not importing at all, depending on the application or plugin.

Auto Transfer is a tool for simplifying these problems. It can automatically copy the contents of your memory cards to multiple locations for safety. It also performs checksums on the copied files to ensure they are exactly the same as those on the card.

If a file fails the verification check, Auto Transfer allows you to try copying the file again. The Info pane keeps a record of how many times a failure occurs when copying from a particular card, which is a very useful indicator of a card that's potentially faulty.

Auto Transfer copies the full directory structure from a card, which ensures that it will be able to be read correctly by your NLE and companion apps. It can copy multiple cards simultaneously.

You can also specify additional metadata which can be used to create a custom directory structure, similar to our project management app Post Haste. For example, you could instruct Auto Transfer to create a new folder for each shooting day and put the relevant day's card contents in that folder. Alternatively you could create a directory structure based on the reel, project name and date. It's very customizable and is great for businesses that wish to have a consistent naming convention.

The metadata can also be added to a spreadsheet. There is one spreadsheet per project and each card is added to a new row at the end of the sheet. This allows you to have a printable record of any data you wish to track such as the reel number, scene information, description and more. The columns are customizable.

Various actions are available upon a successful transfer including Growl notifications (see our tutorial for sending Growl notifications to an iOS device), playing a sound effect, ejecting the drive, showing the files in Finder and much more.

Auto Transfer is an essential tool for DITs and anyone who deals with tapeless media. It is available as part of Pro Media Tools and there is a 15-day trial available here.

Post Haste for Windows Beta 3 released

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:12:52 MDT

We've just released the third public beta of Post Haste for Windows. Post Haste is a free app for keeping project folders organized. It's targeted at video editors, musicians, photographers, designers and anyone who needs to organize project assets consistently and reliably.

This version features drag and drop reordering within the template editor, reorderable parameters in preferences, and folder icons in the filename preview field. There is also the option to set a template as the default, meaning it will be selected every time you launch the app.

You can also now drag Post Haste templates into the template list to automatically import them, which is an easy way of importing your templates from the Mac version. We've also improved stability and fixed several bugs.

Post Haste 1.0 B3 is a free download and requires Windows 7 and .NET Framework. You can either download it from the site or use the software updater built into Beta 2. We're expecting bugs in this beta so please use the links within the Help menu to report any issues you find in this build.

Developer features I will miss from Final Cut Pro 7

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:57:04 MDT

I'm currently working on a feature film that will be my last Final Cut Pro 7 project. I'd just finished implementing a custom solution to automatically log and sort clips as they are brought in, when it suddenly occurred to me that a lot of what I was doing would not be possible in the future with a competing NLE (at least not on the Mac; Sony Vegas has great scripting capabilities).

Here is a summary of things we can do with FCP 7 that is impossible or less smooth with its replacements:

(Note: we don't develop effects plugins so this post does not delve into plugin-related differences between the apps. But it's a post I'd be glad to link to if someone else writes it.)

Controlling the NLE

Developers can use Apple Events to perform such tasks as programmatically saving and loading projects, highlighting items in a bin and searching. None of the competing apps are able to do this.

We can also communicate with Final Cut Pro over MIDI, which we put to good use in Cut Notes, but Premiere and FCPX unfortunately lack this feature.

XML Interchange

It is important to be able to easily get data in and out of the editing application. There is mixed support for this among competing apps. Avid has XML output via FilmScribe but this is not as fully-featured as FCP XML and I have found the FilmScribe app to be unreliable. FCPX XML exports do not include all of the information within the project or event. Premiere gets full marks for including FCP 7 XML interchange support.

Avid does get some bonus points for being able to import and export marker lists though, which none of the others can (it's even better than FCP 7 which was limited to export only). Some people would say this feature is unnecessary if you have XML input, however it's very useful for applications that don't need or cannot access the underlying project, such as our own Cut Notes app.

Manipulation of project data

Probably the most useful feature is the ability to change data within the project. You can add new clips, batch modify metadata and sort clips into bins. It's very powerful and you can specify various options when importing a clip or bin such as only adding clips that do not currently exist or making copies of existing clips.

More importantly, it can be done on the fly without needing to close the project or modify any files on disk. Quick Bins, FCP Versioner and several of our other apps make use of this feature.

Avid doesn't support this at all and Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere only support this via manual XML import / export.

Premiere wins extra marks for basing its project file format on XML but it then loses most of them by not documenting the project file format nor encouraging development of it.

These are all great features that we're putting to good use in our apps and it's a shame to lose them. We've developed workarounds for most of them but these often require additional manual work by the user, which we're keen to avoid.

Apple created third-party developer ecosystems with FCP 7 and FCPX that simply don't exist with other NLEs (and FCPX's developer features still need some more work, as noted above). We're putting this post out to encourage NLE manufacturers to increase their focus on third party developer-friendly features. Fostering third-party development helps end users, developers and the manufacturers themselves. Everyone wins.

Post Haste for Windows Beta 2 released

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:17:08 MDT

We've just released the second public beta of Post Haste for Windows. Post Haste is a free app for keeping project folders organized. It's targeted at video editors, musicians, photographers, designers and anyone who needs to organize project assets consistently and reliably.

This version features a software updater that will automatically notify you when future betas are released. Other changes include the ability to clear history, a function to restore the default templates that ship with the app, and the ability to reset a field back to its default value by using the Backspace key. We've also improved stability and fixed several bugs.

Post Haste 1.0 B2 is a free download and requires Windows 7 and .NET Framework. We're expecting bugs in this beta so please use the links within the Help menu to report any issues you find in this build.

Cut Notes Marker Import 1.1 released with Final Cut Pro X support

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:00:38 MDT

Earlier this week we released Cut Notes Marker Import 1.1, which now offers the ability to import marker lists created by Cut Notes into Final Cut Pro X.

Here's how to do it:

1. Click the Action button in Cut Notes and tap Email FCP Marker List.

2. Email the marker list text file to yourself.

3. Download the file on to your Final Cut Pro X system.

4. With the project selected in the Project Browser of FCPX, go to File > Export XML and save an XML copy of your sequence.

5. Launch Cut Notes Marker Import and open the marker list text file exported from Cut Notes.

6. Click Open Project and browse for the exported XML copy of the FCPX project.

7. Click Send to Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro X will automatically open a duplicate of the existing project with the new markers added.

Cut Notes Marker Import 1.1 is a free companion app for Cut Notes and can be downloaded from the Cut Notes section of the site.

Video Space Calculator 1.0.1 released - audio support, H.264, Phantom and more

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:52:25 MST

Earlier this week we released Video Space Calculator 1.0.1, which offers several new features based on user feedback.

Audio support

You can now calculate audio sizes as well as video. Swipe to the left to set the number of audio channels and bit-depth. Currently it assumes you are dealing with 48 KHz PCM audio but it is likely that we will add further customization in future versions.

New formats

We now support H.264 at various bitrates and also several Phantom high speed cameras.

Calculate time from disk space

You can now enter a MB or GB total and find out the maximum length of the specified codec that will fit into that space.

Video Space supports over 75 different codec variations and is available on the App Store. We appreciate your suggestions so please use the Leave Feedback link within the app to let us know what you think.

Introducing Post Haste for Windows Beta 1

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:17:18 MST

Post Haste is a free app for keeping project folders organized. It's targeted at video editors, musicians, photographers, designers and anyone who needs to organize project assets consistently and reliably.

Simply create a template for the project directory structure using the built-in template editor (or import the structure from an existing project) and Post Haste will copy that folder structure when you create a new project, ensuring that subsequent projects are named and organized consistently.

You can enter parameters such as project name, client and date that will be added to the directory name and template project. These parameters are customizable and can be used to enforce common naming conventions in a corporate environment.

We've had a lot of requests for a Windows version of Post Haste and we're proud to introduce the first public beta of Post Haste for Windows.

This version is a beta and is not recommended for production use. It requires Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4.0. You can download it from the link in the yellow box here.

It's worth noting that the template format is identical to that of the Mac version, meaning that you can easily import your Mac templates into the Windows version.

We're expecting bugs and other problems to crop up so please use the Bug Report link within the Help menu to report all issues to us. This version doesn't yet have an built-in updater so please keep an eye on this blog to be alerted to future updates.

How to restore a trimmed QuickTime movie

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:07:43 MST

QuickTime Player 7 can be very useful for quickly trimming a clip or outputting different sections of a movie to separate files. This can be accomplished by setting the in and out points, going to Edit > Trim to Selection and then exporting the file or doing a Save As.

However, if you accidentally hit Save instead of Save As and then close the movie (this happens more often than you'd think), the movie will be permanently trimmed.

Luckily QT Repair in Pro Maintenance Tools can fix this. The repair assumes that the trimmed data still exists in the file and that the movie is capable of being opened in QuickTime Player and played back, albeit at a shorter length.

1. First of all, check that the trimmed data is still in the file. Open the file in QuickTime Player and press Cmd+I to view the Info window. Compare the Data Size section to the size listed by the Finder - if the size on disk is significantly larger, that means the data is still within the file.

(Note that the size listed in the Info window will never exactly match that of the Finder because it does not include extra data like the QuickTime structure and Finder is using a slightly different method to calculate file sizes as of OS X 10.6.)

2. Launch QT Repair and open the movie clip.

3. In the Quick Start dialog, choose the option to restore trimmed edits.

4. QT Repair will now create a copy so that the original file is safe. This can take a while depending on how big the file is. You can disable this in preferences if you already have a backup of the file elsewhere.

Once the backup is complete, processing should be very quick.

5. When QT Repair says it has finished processing, click OK and it will launch the restored movie in QuickTime Player. The movie should now be its full length. Look at the Data Size field in the Info window and scrub the playhead to check that everything has been restored correctly.

As you can see from the screenshot, QT Repair successfully restored the length of the video and the Data Size field is much closer to the value in the Finder now.

Pro Media Tools 1.1.2 released - new QT Edit Quick Tasks, Video Check printing and more

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:52:24 MST

Last week we released Pro Media Tools 1.1.2, a minor update to our suite of tools for managing and optimizing media workflows.

New QT Edit Quick Task to create timecode tracks from timecode metadata

This Quick Task will add a new timecode track from timecode metadata stored in the user data section of a movie file. This can help solve issues where timecode from Adobe Media Encoder is incorrect.

Improved metadata support in QT Edit

QT Edit now supports additional metadata types and several issues with updating modified metadata have been fixed.

Edit Detector range selection

By popular demand you can now select a range of edit points and delete them or export them to a marker list.

Video Check printing

You can now print the results from Video Check, which is useful for creating QC reports.

The full changelog is available here.

Pro Media Tools is an indispensable suite of applications for editors, assistant editors and post production professionals. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video or download the free trial.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.6 released - repairs Motion projects, better FCPX plugin support, QT Repair improvements and more

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:50:38 MST

Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.6, a minor update to our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

Significant QT Repair improvements

We made significant improvements to QT Repair, particularly when removing edits from trimmed QuickTime movies. It's now considerably faster at repairing edits, performs better on large files and we fixed an issue that could cause out of sync audio on larger files.

We also added an option in preferences to not backup the file before starting a repair. We don't recommend this as a general rule but it's useful to avoid lengthy copying times if you already have the file backed up.

Improved FCPX support in Plugin Manager

Plugin Manager has had significantly improved FCPX support. It now displays the proper plugin names for FxFactory plugins and installs Motion templates and plugins you drag in to the correct directories based on their file type.

Motion projects can now be repaired

Project Repair now has the ability to repair corrupt Motion projects.

We also added an option to strip keyframes from Adobe Premiere projects when repairing them. This is useful when a project fails to load at startup and mentions keyframes as the cause.

The full changelog is available here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an indispensable suite of applications for video editors. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video or download the free trial.

Editmote 1.1 released - major new update with iPad support, customizable buttons and more

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:44:03 MST

Yesterday we released Editmote 1.1 - a major update to our iOS app for remotely controlling your editing system on a Mac.

We've listened to your feedback and are now offering the ability to customize the buttons. Editing the buttons is simple - just go to the Actions menu and tap Edit Button Layout. Tapping a button presents a list of potential actions to assign to that button. To hide a button, set its action to (none). When finished, tap the Done button to finish customization.

We've added several more button types including marker navigation, but we've also added 10 custom user-defined buttons that you can set to whatever keyboard shortcut you like in the Editmote preference pane.

Another major new feature is native iPad support. This has been a long time coming because we felt that simply having the same fixed layout with bigger buttons wasn't particularly useful, so we wanted to wait for button customization before implementing native iPad support. The iPad has significantly more buttons slots than the iPhone version so you can have a lot of controls at your fingertips.

Editmote is available on the App Store and 1.1 is a free update for existing users. Please note that you will be unable to connect to the new version until you have upgraded your Editmote Preference Pane to version 1.1.

Post Haste is not just for video pros

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:33:15 MST

Post Haste is our popular application for organizing projects. It creates project folder structures from customizable templates and has been very useful at keeping freelancers and small production houses organized while enforcing naming and organization conventions for larger companies.

However, we are video guys and so is Paul Conigliaro, the original creator, so Post Haste has been video-centric. The app itself is very versatile and can be used by anyone in any industry, but we realized that it was very daunting for people who are not in the video industry to launch the app and see default presets that didn't apply to them. This gave the false impression that Post Haste would not be able to serve their needs.

Earlier today we released Post Haste 2.0.6 and with it we added new presets for Photography and Web Design, as well as changing the wording on our site to be more general-purpose. We will be adding more default presets over time and you can of course create as many custom presets as you like.

We are not changing the Post Haste application at all, we are just changing the marketing and will still be serving the needs of video professionals as always. We're excited about the future of Post Haste so stay tuned for more announcements.

Planned deprecation of OS X 10.5 Leopard

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:45:19 MST

This month marked the first time that OS X 10.7 Lion users of our products have been the majority. In total, 91% of our users are running OS X 10.6 or 10.7. OS X 10.5 users make up less than 7% and this number is falling steadily.

With the changes Apple is making to its developer tools, it's getting harder and harder to provide features to users on the latest operating systems while maintaining backwards-compatibility with Leopard and PowerPC users.

We are therefore announcing that we will be withdrawing support for OS X 10.5 Leopard within the coming months. This also means that we are withdrawing support for PowerPC computers, as 10.5 is the latest OS they are capable of running.

All new products will require OS X 10.6 or higher and existing products will be gradually transitioned. Leopard users will always be able to download the latest 10.5-compatible version of a product but they will need to upgrade to OS X 10.6 or higher to access newer versions.

We'd been planning this announcement for a while but with the unveiling of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion today it seemed to be the right time. Overall we think the new OS is a positive thing that provides many useful tools under the hood and we're keen to take advantage of its features.

How to get render notifications on your iPhone

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:46:58 MST

Editors spend a lot of time rendering and exporting, and it's very useful to know when a render is complete if you are not currently at your computer.

Render Watcher in Pro Media Tools can watch for renders and then perform various tasks when a render is complete. It supports Final Cut Pro 7, Compressor 3 and 4, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder.

Render notifications are not supported for Final Cut Pro X because it has background rendering and the alerts would be going off constantly, however you can get export notifications via Compressor or by adding your export folder to the Watch Folder pane. This also works for other apps not natively supported by Render Watcher.

There are three ways to get render notifications from Render Watcher on your iOS device - text message, email and push alert. (Compressor has email support already, however it is impractical for most users because it requires you to run an SMTP server on your computer.)

Push alerts are the most flexible option because you can customize them independently to make sure render notifications don't get lost in your regular email and SMS alerts.

Here's how to setup render and export notifications on your iPhone / iPad:

1. Download and install Pro Media Tools.

2. Launch the Render Watcher application and tick the boxes for all of the render notifications you wish to watch. If desired, add watch folders for applications not natively supported.

3. Go to the Actions tab and select all of the actions you wish to perform when a render is detected. There are lots of options here including playing a sound effect and showing the exported file in the Finder.

4. If you want to send an email or text message, tick the relevant checkbox and enter the destination email address or phone number (selected carriers only).

If you want to only setup push alerts, skip to step 5.

4a. Go to Preferences and enter the details for the account you wish to send email from. Presets have been included for common email providers but you will be able to get the relevant SMTP server information from your email provider's website. In most cases you should leave the Port field blank.

Note: Your email address and password are not sent to our servers and are stored on your computer in encrypted form.

4b. Click Send Test Email and if your settings are correct you should receive an email from Render Watcher in your inbox.

If you don't wish to setup push alerts, skip to Step 13.

5. To setup push alerts, make sure Display Growl notification is ticked in preferences and then download Growl from the Mac App Store for $1.99. If you don't want to pay for it or are running OS X 10.6 or lower, older versions are available here free of charge.

6. Download Boxcar for iOS. We favor Boxcar because it is free (with ads) but this feature should work with any push notification service that supports Growl, such as Prowl.

7. Sign up for a Boxcar account here.

8. In the Boxcar iOS app, sign in and tap the icon in the top left corner that looks like a grid of nine squares. Then tap Add Service.

9. Scroll down the list (it's not alphabetically-ordered) and tap the entry marked Growl. Setup the notification settings as desired and then click Save.

10. Download the Boxcar plugin for Growl. Unzip the .growlView file and double-click it to install. When prompted, select Yes to open the Growl preference pane or alternatively launch System Preferences and open it manually. If you are running the Mac App Store version of Growl on Lion, the preferences dialog is accessed via the menu bar icon.

11. Go the the Display Options tab in the Growl preference pane (called Displays in the Mac App Store version) and set Default Style to Boxcar. This will send all Growl alerts to your iOS device.

Alternatively, if you only want Render Watcher notifications sent to your device, go to the Applications tab, select RenderWatcherHelper, click the Configure button and then set Application's Display Style to Boxcar. RenderWatcherHelper will only appear in the list when it has displayed a Growl alert at least once.

12. In the Display Options tab, select Boxcar in the Display Styles list on the left and select the option to display notifications using Smoke (or whichever theme you prefer).

13. Enter your Boxcar login information below this and click Verify Login. If your login is accepted, click Preview and you should see a Growl alert on your desktop and iOS device.

14. Start a short render and wait for it to finish. If everything is setup correctly, you should see a Render Watcher alert on your computer and then your iOS device. If you don't see this, double-check that you followed the above steps correctly and that the name of the application is ticked in the Applications tab in Render Watcher or that you are exporting to a directory listed in the Watch Folders tab.

Render Watcher is just one of ten useful tools for editors, assistant editors and post production professionals in the Pro Media Tools suite. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video or download the free trial.

How to export chapter markers from Final Cut Pro X

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:26:19 MST

Much has been written about the missing features in Final Cut Pro X when compared with FCP 7. One particular missing feature that has been causing workflow problems for some people is the inability to add chapter markers to an exported QuickTime movie for displaying on an iOS device or Apple TV.

There are several workarounds, such as adding chapter markers in Compressor, but these can be quite tedious as you need to create them manually. Luckily QT Edit in Pro Media Tools can automatically create chapter markers directly from the markers in your Final Cut Pro X timeline.

Here's how to do it:

1. Add markers to your FCPX timeline where you would like the chapters to occur.

2. Share your timeline to Compressor and use one of the Apple Device presets to create an m4v file.

3. Click on the filmstrip icon in FCPX to go back to the Project Browser and then highlight the project name in the list.

4. Go to File > Export XML to create an XML copy of your timeline.

5. Open up the exported movie with QT Edit.

6. Go to File > Import > Chapters.

7. Select "Final Cut Pro X XML (.fcpxml)" in the file type dropdown and browse for the XML file you created earlier. Click Open.

8. The markers will be imported and automatically added as chapters which can be viewed in the Chapters tab. You can edit the chapter positions and modify their names in this tab. Click on a chapter in the list to jump to that point in the movie.

Important: You must have a chapter on frame 1 in order for iOS to detect the chapter list. If your imported markers do not already have a chapter marker on this frame, set the playhead to the start in QT Edit and click the + button in the Chapters tab.

9. Save the movie in QT Edit and sync it to your device.

You can now play the movie on an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple TV and the markers will be recognized. QT Edit can also import Final Cut Pro 7 marker lists, Avid locator lists, DVD Studio Pro chapter lists, CSV files, text files and chapters from other QuickTime movies.

Thoughts on Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:32:53 MST

Today Apple released Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 which offers several new features such as multicam and broadcast monitoring (beta) that were previously missing.

Looking through the details, it's hard to find anything that would appeal to consumers and it is clear that this is an attempt by Apple to appease at least some of the pros. My first reaction (and the reaction of a lot of people on Twitter) was that this was the version Apple should have released back in June.

Here are some of the features I found interesting:

Multicam - 64 angles are supported and lots of options for syncing, including PluralEyes-style analysis of the audio waveforms. In comparison, Adobe Premiere Pro supports 4 angles and Final Cut Pro 7 supports 128.
Media Relink - You can now reconnect to files, which is useful if you need to swap out VFX shots or FCPX for some reason loses the link. This really should have been a 1.0 feature.
XML 1.1 - As mentioned earlier on this blog, the previous version of FCPXML didn't support audio levels so you'd lose your levels if you transferred the project elsewhere. This is now supported in FCPXML 1.1, although it's worth noting that Apple's developer documentation still says XML is not a perfect copy and does not contain everything that a project file does.
Broadcast monitoring - Apple's description is vague about which devices are supported but today AJA released new drivers that support FCPX output from SDI. There is no word yet from Black Magic Design or Matrox but I would assume new drivers are coming soon. It's worth noting that broadcast monitoring is only supported on Lion.

That doesn't make it a perfect tool for the professional broadcast / film industries of course. I really can't see EDL support ever being added, nor support for broadcast tape capture. But over time I think this will matter less and less. Case in point: I'm working on a feature right now and was very surprised when the post house asked me to deliver the Final Cut Pro 7 project for grading / mixing instead of EDLs and OMF.

I think Apple is very much gambling on the future here and I am definitely considering looking into it for short form work.

Update: Larry Jordan offers more info on the differences between FCP7 and FCPX's multicam implementation. Thanks Larry!

FCP 7 would LINK up to 128 cameras in a multicam clip, however you could only view 16 of them. FCP X links and allows you to view up to 64 clips at once, by switching between up to four banks of 16 cameras each. Also, edits can be made in real-time or by positioning the playhead.

Changes to email support

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:23:53 MST

Due to excessive spam levels, we have shut down our mail@digitalrebellion.com email address and now encourage customers to contact us using the contact form on our site.

This won't impact the majority of our customers, but anyone who has registration difficulties with an old license should ignore what it says on the registration email and use the contact form instead (after first looking at our support page on common registration problems).

We apologize if these changes inconvenience anyone.

Update: There was a little bit of confusion so just to clarify - the only account that has been taken down is mail@digitalrebellion.com. All others remain active.

Introducing Video Space for iOS

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:25:59 MST

We've just released our latest iPhone / iPad app, Video Space. Video Space allows you to calculate the disk space taken up by various codecs at different resolutions and frame rates.

It supports a wide range of codecs including ARRIRAW, AVCHD, Cineform, DNxHD, DPX, ProRes, REDCODE and XDCAM.

The interface is very simple - enter the total duration of the video, then select a codec, frame size and frame rate at the bottom and the total space will be reported at the top.

Video Space works natively on iPhones, iPods and iPads running iOS 4.2 or higher and can be downloaded directly from the App Store. We also have several other iOS post production tools available here.

We're always keen to hear feedback on our products so feel free to use the feedback link within the app or contact us directly.