I’ve struggled to use Handbrake for conversion of .MKV to an Apple/iTunes aware format (either .M4v or MP4). It’s easy enough to do, but the file size would grow exponentially. And scaling Handbrakes “Constant Quality” would reduce the file size but create an inferior playback. Through research, I became aware that possibly the wrapper was all that needed to change. And that is indeed the solution I landed on.I am using a program called Subler (https://bitbucket.org/galad87/subler/wiki/Home). With this, I am able...
read moreI spent a great deal of time over the past 3 years concerned if Apple had intentional or willfully abandon their professional user base. The long and short is, doesn’t matter why, it appears they are not going to return. So after much consternation and resistance I made the jump from Final Cut to Adobe Premier. It ended my 14 years of editing on Final Cut, beginning with 1 and ending with X. What I learned was, there is no reason to not consider Premier if you are not happy with Final Cut. The transition was seamless. I simply set...
read moreFinally performed the upgrade to Maverick (OS X 10.9). For the most part … not too bad. But with that provides the ability to update Final Cut Pro X (10.0.9) to (10.1.1). Subtle increment, but supposedly significant change to media handling – an area where FCP X fails miserably. I’ll put down my thoughts on the move to Libraries after I’ve had more time. But this is about the upgrade process. WHAT HAPPENED? After the upgrade, all of my projects and media events disappeared. This is by design from the shift to...
read moreFor over a decade I used Retrospect to accomplish my back up tasks. However, Dantz/EMC just continue to abuse their user base. The two most annoying: A time out on the software. At the end of five years, the software license expired and you were force to buy a moder version in order to continue archiving. A lack of backward compatibility. It is complete absurd for software design to archive and restore to not be backward compatible with itself. How the brain trust at Dantz concluded that Restrospect V7 did not need to be able to read V6...
read moreAfter years of experience using Handbrake, I found myself struggling to get version 0.9.9 working on a new Mountain Lion installation. I tried the usual: Installed VLC Installed libdvdcss.pkg Installed Handbrake When I would attempt to rip, I would receive a “No Valid Source Found” error or the rip would simply end abruptly. I believe the solution turned out to be a preference needed for setting the viewing region of the DVD. Since the Mac Pro was brand new, I had never watched a DVD on it. Here is the solution I believe worked:...
read moreApple’s Compressor takes a lot of knocks. Some are warranted! It has a cumbersome interface; multiple independent windows that are hard to hide and show; and hidden everything! But it is also a powerfully flexible and high quality encoder for conversion or transcoding. For several years I’ve been burning BD5 discs for clients. These are hybrid discs that allow high resolution content to be burned to a Standard DVD media. The only caveat is, this type of disc, must be played back on a Blu-ray player (at least to my...
read moreI’ve been using Handbrake to transcode my Final Cut Pro output for Apple TV3. Since ATV3 is 1080i, and Compressor 3.5’s Apple Devices Presets didn’t include a preset or ability to customize to 1080, I used Handbrake. I searched over and over for a complete list of changes to Compressor 4 vs 3.5. I found very little other than frustration by users how little update Compressor has received. I finally took the plunge and invested. For the record: The Presets HAVE been updated. There is now more settings for current day...
read moreLately, I’ve been using ProShow Producer to build photographic elements rather than build them by hand in Final Cut Pro. Frankly, it’s just quicker and easier. But ultimately, I end up wanting the final product from ProShow to be ported to a Final Cut Sequence. Using the standard publishing feature would occasionally give me compression artifacts or poor results in general. So here is my work flow for high-res output from Photodex ProShow Producer to Final Cut Pro. A couple of quick notes: First, if you have Quicktime...
read moreOkay…. I know sometimes the answer seems obvious. But here it is just in case. The ONLY Apple Pro Res CODEC that supports transparency is Pro Res 4444. But here is the the less obvious part. When exporting footage EVEN with PR4444, you must select “MILLIONS +” under advanced to get the Alpha Channel included.
read moreDuring a recent post session, I was struggling with combining footage from multiple cameras (and eras). I had three basic formats: SD, HDV, and AVCHD. The SD and HDV were LOWER field interlacing, while the AVCHD was UPPER. (I also had a small amount of progressive footage from another source – though it didn’t present a problem.) I elected to have the Final Cut Sequence setting to UPPER as most of the footage was AVCHD. Therefore all SD & HDV footage received a SHIFT FIELDS filter with a value of -1. This seem to work...
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