Viewer Graphical Bug

Someone emailed me this image asking if I had seen anything like it before. I said not exactly; but it does look like something that can occur when running FCS on an underpowered video card. I have no real idea but the emailer said it cleared up when they hit the spacebar to resume playback in the Viewer.

Audio Playback Patch Causing FireWire Audio Noise?

Some people are reporting a high pitched noise after the audio fix update.

So the recent Mac Pro audio update 1.0 (applied on 10.6.2) has reduced my CPU temperature with audio playback (Presonus Firebox Firewire audio interface) and that is great. Also haven't had any machine crashes (grey screens) recently which is also great.
The problem is that when the Firebox is plugged into the firewire port of the Mac Pro there is a constant high pitched whistle of slightly oscillating frequency. If I unplug the Firebox the whistle goes away in a few seconds.

After prolonged use in a quiet room (the kind of room you need for audio recording / mixing work!) the noise is enough to drive me crazy.

You can read the thread here.

Apple apparently lays off 40 Final Cut engineers.

Ex-Apple employee Pete Warden has said on Feb 12th 2010 "Apple laid off 40 of my old Final Cut team yesterday, lots of good people, despite high profits. Apple can be pretty evil."

The original post is here. There's some more insight into this here.

Shrink PDFs by a bunch with ShrinkIt

A friend emailed this to me earlier today.

ShrinkIt is a FREE...

simple, small, Panic-internal tool (for Mac OS X Snow Leopard) that will automate the process of stripping needless metadata from PDFs by re-saving them using Apple’s PDF processor. For app resources and icons that aren’t using high-end Illustrator features, this should be lossless — Apple’s PDF code is not compressing anything, just removing cruft. Simply drop a bunch of files (not folders) onto it — such as the contents of your app’s Resources folder — to have it find the PDFs and do its magic. The original files will be renamed with the prefix “_org_” for backup safety. That’s it!

Turning EXIF data into something useful

There's a FREE app called EXIFRenamer which...well...renames files based on their EXIF data. This is handier than you'd think:

The program allows to rename photos by their embedded date+time information in a much more usable way. Most downloaded pictures are named like "pic0001.jpg" or other cryptic names.
ExifRenamer reads the embedded date+time information and renames the picture to for example "2001-11-18_11-16-34.jpg" (YYYY-MM-DD_hh-mm-ss.jpg). This naming style lets you easily create a large photo library with the chance to sort your pictures in chronological order just by displaying it alphabetically sorted in the Finder.

You can check it out and download it here. It also integrates with Image Capture, the scanning, camera downloading multi-tool Apple app everyone seems to forget...

When the Client can't Play the QuickTime File

If you haven't gotten this 3am phone call yet...you will in time. It's inevitable.

A client will one day call you late into a quiet evening saying they can't play the QuickTime files you've sent them. Since they need them in HD and regular DVD's can't (technically unless you mix HD-DVD with some prestidigitation) do HD content you need to send them something they can use...NOW! THE PRESENTATION IS IN 10 HOURS ZOMG!!!1!!1!

You have two options overall:

Send 'em a disc:

1. Send them a Blu-Ray. But, wherever they're playing the thing it won't have Blu-Ray so don't even bother. Seriously. Check this link in a year or seven for updates.

2. Send them a data DVD, wait I should hyphenate that, a data-DVD and tell them to play it on their MacBook Pro hooked up to a projector or whatever using QuickTime or VLC. However, it's likely they won't have a Mac/it won't mount/the file won't play/the projector won't see the laptop... It's possible that not even "marketing" will have a Mac nor will the "creatives" over in advertising. They can edit in After Effects anyway, right?

So you need to send HD content to someone with a PC who is likely still using XP who can't download much at work because the IT guys are scared of those darned h@x0rz who are gonna steal all their creative sekr3tz.

Send 'em a file:

Flash drives are cheap. Macs understand FAT-32 (but not NTFS fully, sorry). I mail flash drives to clients regularly.

I don't allow clients to have .wmv's or .flv's. I don't. I'm like that because I'm not a huge fan of either format, neither is any good and few clients (or the presenters at least) have the cpu to play them smoothly since they're using 48 year old laptops issued by the company that sometimes don't even have CD-ROM drives (but that's for another post/rant).

It's for the client's own good really and I tell them as much. See, your job as editor/shooter/writer/person-who-knows-stuff is to not just deliver what the client wants, but let them know what they want because 99.9854% of the time they have no idea. Dale Carnegie said people are just waiting to be told what to do, and with corporate clients it's thricely true. They need guidance because without it they'll suggest their son or nephew or daughter or someone can do it. They play with neckties and Lotus Notes all day in between bouts of blackberry gazing, lunch an "officeing", they don't know. And honestly, they don't care, they just want it to work. NOW!!!!!...

That's for corporate things; for broadcast or features hand them exactly what they ask for. That way, when it goes ka-bleewy, they can only blame themselves.

So, a real option is to export the HD project as one of the following files:

Animation. Huge files.
Motion JPEG. I've had PC people complain that the video "stutters."
Apple Video. Should work, people seem reluctant.
ProRes. They'll have to download the free codec from Apple.

I'd go with Animation or ProRes for the project. These are easily transcoded to something else. Others work, sure but these are the most reliable I've found. If they're going to play it from a laptop these are good options except for maybe Animation which likes lots of CPU. If they want a standard DVD, tell them that it won't be HD. If they demand HD and their computer/laptop situation is lacking then...

Here's a secret:

The client needs to show an HD video at some convention/presentation/meeting/agency/sub-clientle lunch/what-ever-it-is... tell them to buy one of these:

WD TV Live Media Player. Get them to buy a big 32Gig or larger flash drive (the WD TV Live Media Player understands HFS+ [not journaled]). Encode the HD content to a nice H.264 file then hand them a flash drive with the file, or upload it to them and tell them to transfer it to the flash drive and you'll be done. (Test the set-up though, always test set-ups)

It's small, has a remote, plays tons of formats, shows pictures, plays music, hooks up to the net to stream stuff and has two USB ports. They'll look like a hero because you'll be a hero. And when the next project rolls around you just need to send it to them as an H.264 or even a .mkv and you're done.

There are some codecs you can install or have them install here and try your luck with if they insist on a laptop. Up to you.

QuickTime 7.6 supports these formats.

Just keep repeating this bit from Apple over and over to yourself:

We strive to ensure backward compatibility with content created with older versions of QuickTime. In fact, movies created with QuickTime 1 still play today in QuickTime 7.

Then FedEx them at least two copies or upload it to someplace like Filedropper.com or filemail.com (because they won't have an FTP server or it'll be down or they won't know the password) or send a FAT-32 formatted flashdrive and unplug your phone. Do not send them the codecs that come with Final Cut Studio. Seriously. Charge them for transcoding instead, silly.

Burning VIDEO_TS folders from Disk Utility

I haven't had a problem that I recall using this method but "Dewshi" over at Macosxhints.com commented that sometimes the files are in the wrong order which explains why burning a VIDEO_TS folder in Disk Utility will result in a DVD that will play on a computer but not on a standard stand-alone DVD player.

I'm curious to test it out though and see if this does happen depending on thy way a VIDEO_TS folder is burned.

The reason a DVD player is unable to recognise the disk is that it requires the files in the VIDEO_TS to be physically in the correct order, in particular the VIDEO_TS.IFO file should come first. When you insert a disk into a DVD player it scans the first few sectors looking for this file which contains a list of sector offsets to find the title sets on the DVD. If the DVD player can’t find the IFO file or finds another file first it generally gives up.

Unfortunately, alphabetically the file “VIDEO_TS.BUP” comes first and the mac writes this file first when burning a plain data disk. A computer DVD player, on the other hand, understands the file system on the disk and can therefore find any file it wants with out having to know the offset values. That’s why the mac can play the disk OK, but not a DVD player.

It is also important that the VOB files are in the correct order as a DVD player just plays the data it finds, ignoring file boundaries, until it reaches the end. In fact a DVD player doesn’t even understand files and only uses sector offsets to find data.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF A CORRECT VIDEO_TS FOLDER:

VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_0.VOB
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_02_0.IFO
VTS_02_0.VOB
VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_02_0.BUP

So the problem is to structure the files in the required order on the written disk, and not just alphabetically. I’ve experimented with various disc images & software tools (e.g Burn), with no success. How do you burn a disk with files in a certain order?

Western Digital's My Book Studio External HD SUCKS.

I hate these things. These 2TB HD's are becoming more and more the choice of clients it seems since there's a dearth of External FireWire hard drives. At a store today I looked out of curiosity and all I saw for 2TB FireWire Externals was this thing and a Seagate (I think).

The model number is WDBAAJ0020HSL-NESN. Don't buy these.

The My Book Studio has a "Virtual CD" which is persistent. It contains software Western Digital thinks you think you need and when you eject this little non-writable volume it just remounts itself. It's not even shown in the partition of the drive.



What's the Virtual CD?

From their site:

A small portion of drive space on your new My Passport or My Book hard drive has been used to create a Virtual CD (VCD). The VCD contains the WD SmartWare installation software, the encryption and password protection application, User Manuals, and other resource files. The VCD looks like an actual CD volume and appears on the screen each time you connect your WD drive to the computer.

The VCD is necessary if you wish to install WD SmartWare or if you want to use the encryption and password protection features on the drive.

If you don't wish to run WD SmartWare or use the security features, you can disable the VCD following the steps below. The VCD can be re-enabled by running the VCD manager.

WD does provide a simple two step way to remove the Virtual CD (or at least hide it, it's still there lurking) from your sidebar and desktop:

Failure to perform these precautions may cause data corruption/loss and/or drive failure.

That's encouraging. Onto the simple two step process:

STEP 1: Firmware Update: Release 1.032 (11/19/09)

Disconnect all other external drives from the computer except for the My Book or My Passport hard drive you want to update.

Ensure that the My Book or My Passport drive is connected to a USB port on your computer.
Download Firmware Updater for Mac.
Unzip the Firmware Updater and double click WD Essential and Elite Firmware Updater for Mac.
Verify the attached drive's serial number located on the back of the drive.
Select the drive displayed.
Click Update Firmware.
Drag both My Book Drive and WD SmartWare Virtual CD icons to Trash bin.
Click OK.
Click Accept the End User's License Agreement (EULA).
Click Yes.
Once the updater is finished, click Exit.
Turn off the drive - For My Passport, disconnect the USB cable. For My Book disconnect both USB and power cables.
Wait 10 seconds. Reconnect the USB/power cables.
STEP 2: Download and run the VCD Manager

Download VCD Manager VirtualCDManager_v1003.zip for Mac to your desktop.
Unzip the utility and double click to open.
Click Continue to disable the VCD.
Click Accept the End User's License Agreement (EULA).
Click Drive to configure and select your drive.
Verify desired Virtual CD setting.
Once the utility has found your drive, click Configure Drive.
Once the Virtual CD setting is finished, click Exit.
Power cycle the drive - For My Passport, disconnect the USB cable. For My Book disconnect both USB and power cables.
Wait 10 seconds. Reconnect the USB/power cables.
Verify that the VCD no longer appears.

See? Simple. Only Two steps.

If you want to change the VCD from mounting and auto-mounting and re-mounting you have to install their software AND update the firmware on the drive. Ridiculous. If you want to change the eInk display from reading "VIDEOS 09" and display any capacity info you must install their software. If you want to adjust just about ANYTHING on these things you must install their software.

Oh yeah, did I mention that as of this post the firmware updater to remove (hide) the Virtual CD only works with the "Essential" and "Elite" drives and NOT the "Studio" ones?

I hate these things.

Here's what you see when you first mount it:



Oh yeah, did I mention that the one a client handed me appears to have been dropped......BEFORE it was packaged? There's a dent in the plastic on the rear top right (as you face the front) of the drive and the plastic was knocked out of it's snapped-into position. It clicked back audibly when I was looking the case over. The HD was sealed in a bag, the whole mess was still shrink wrapped inside the box. The cardboard box is undamaged as best I can tell.

For more reviews just look these things up on Amazon.

After installing the WD software just to change the text on the label of the drive (which I did on a media server Mac that has nothing mission critical on it and is easy to restore) it brought me to the "WD SmartWare" app and shows this deeply helpful information:



That's 114.3 GBs of run-of-the-mill Final Cut project files, saves, images, music, exports, footage...

Helpful.

The one handy thing?



Too bad not all of WD's drives can do this.

Google's "Buzz" Privacy Concerns

Lots...LOTS of my clients use Gmail so this is kinda related to working with FCS since clients and I tend to email one another often during the course of a project. And sometimes clients are exactly friendly towards one another, especially when they're from competing agencies.

Google's Buzz has a huge potential privacy hole.

Scroll to the bottom of your Gmail page and click "turn off Buzz" unless you want people "following" you.

More in more detail here: Google Buzz Privacy Concerns

I've sent the url to several clients (especially the less tech savvy ones) so they can make the choice themselves.

UPDATE: There's far more involved in turning Buzz off. Read this.

The three steps to turn it off are here.

And check it out, Yahoo had "Buzz" a year before Google. It's even called "Buzz."

Evom

Evom is a FREE little app that converts a bunch of video types to various Apple devices or just rip their audio to .mp3. It's tiny and free so it could be a handy tool to have for some quick conversions. So far it'll convert most .avi's and .wmv's.

It's currently in beta and when you first launch it it requires you to download some video components (ffmpeg in your Application Support folder) for the transcoding (reminds me of VisualHub's method, actually).