Ron Diamond, with EditGroove Software, sent me an email this afternoon. In addition to providing some free raffle prizes for my upcoming seminars, he is also offering a discount on it – more on that in a minute.

If you aren’t aware of Edit Groove’s UserMatic software, their website describes is thusly:

A versatile and powerful User Preferences Manager for Final Cut Pro.

This software allows you to:
* Backup and roll-back preference files
* Transport preference files between systems
* Create multiple preference file sets

And other good stuff.

To learn more about Edit Groove, click here.

Plus, if you use the discount code – LJ – Ron tells me you’ll save 15% off the purchase price. Or, sign up for my seminar and get a chance to win this for FREE1

My recent thoughts about the relationship between Snow Leopard and the next version of Final Cut Studio generated a lot of comments — especially on other forums. For instance, here’s an example from KenStone.net:

http://www.kenstone.net/discussions/read.php?3,13183,13183#msg-13183

Thanks for all your comments and thoughts on this. My information for my posting was based on talking with both programmers and knowledgeable engineers at a variety of different companies. However, I would be foolish to ignore the expertise of Philip Hodgetts and others. My goal in both my blogs and newsletters is to be as accurate as possible and, when errors exist, to correct them quickly.

Philip Hodgetts did a detailed analysis of this issue in his blog a couple of days ago that I strongly encourage you to read:

http://www.philiphodgetts.com/2009/06/21/what-about-final-cut-studio-and-snow-leopard/

My bigger point was two-fold: to explain why I felt the next version of FCP would not ship until after Snow Leopard and to begin to explore the impact Snow Leopard may have on Final Cut editors. The reality is that we won’t know the impact until both products are announced and shipped. Until then, I’m grateful for everyone’s comments.

On another subject, after sharing my concerns about the latest round of Apple MacBook Pro laptops, yesterday Apple released:

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 addresses an issue using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the MacBook Pro introduced in June 2009. This update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbps, however Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac portable computers, and their use remains unsupported. All previous and current Apple portables with a SATA drive interface include a SATA 1.5Gbps hard drive.

Here’s the link to learn more: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3561

Having read about my concerns with the latest MacBook Pro versions, Steve sent me a link that we can all use to send feedback to Apple.

Feel free to share your thoughts and concerns – more importantly, share this link with your friends. The more people that Apple hears from, the more likely they are to improve the next version of the MacBook Pro.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

(To see what I’m worried about, please scroll down to the previous blog posting.)

Thanks!

Apple this week announced revisions to their 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro laptop line.

Most of the time, when these sorts of things get announced, I just nod my head, acknowledge the new release and move on. I’m not buying laptops all the time, so this stuff doesn’t affect me.

However, in the last two laptop releases Apple is starting to reveal a trend which is very troubling to me as someone who uses Mac gear to edit audio and video — they are taking away the ports I need to connect my stuff.

This began with the laptop update prior to the most recent one with the removal of FireWire 400 ports. Now, in itself, this isn’t a bad thing. FireWire 400 is slow, with a limited cable length. The problem was that they didn’t replace the port with a second FireWire 800 port.

This means that I can’t connect a camera and a second hard drive to my computer without purchasing a FireWire hub. And a hub always runs at the speed of the slowest device connected to it. As well, there are legions of problems with editing video on a single hard drive, unless you are resigned to only editing DV or HDV. ProRes certainly can’t be edited on a single-drive system. Nor can any audio projects with more than a few tracks. Nor can many other HD video formats.

Then, in the latest laptop release for both the 13″ and the 15″ laptop, Apple removed the high-speed Express 34 card and replaced it with the much, Much, MUCH! slower SD card port. The SD card ports runs, according to Apple, at a MAXIMUM of 30% of the speed of an Express 34 card.

How can Apple call a laptop a PROFESSIONAL system when it has fewer ports and the ports it has are slower? They create computers with great software, blindingly fast CPUs, great graphics cards, then reduce the ways to connect external gear!

This is foolish and short-sighted.

Yes, Apple needs lower cost systems to meet the needs of the broader market. But, they also need systems that meet the needs of video and audio professionals. It makes no sense to buy a system that – out of the box – is inadequate for day-to-day video production. Yet Apple describes this as their “Pro” line of laptops.

Apple would say that they have the 17″ laptop. True, but disingenuous. The 17″ is too big to easily travel with, has a screen resolution that exceeds most video projectors which makes it totally impractical for training, and costs more than the 15″ which, up until the latest releases, met our needs for ports and speeds.

Apple might also counter saying that they offer the fully expandable Mac Pro line of computers. While true, this misses the whole point of having a PORTABLE computer for video editing in the field.

If you feel that Apple is short-changing its professional market, feel free to share this blog – or write your own – or contact Apple.

For me, though I need a new laptop, none of the current models are attractive for video editing. I’m going to hold off buying until Apple releases a system I can use, or I’ll just buy an older MacBook Pro – used.

Larry

Tomorrow, June 12, marks the end of analog television broadcasting in the US. Tomorrow, all over-the-air transmission becomes digital.

I’m all in favor of technology and change, but I wanted to say good-bye to an era.

I got my start in broadcast television, but even before then, growing up in small towns in Wisconsin, I remember how magical TV seemed. First, in the days of black and white, being able to pull images out of the air with thin pieces of wire – and family rituals developed around EXACTLY how those rabbit ears should be pointed to get the best signal, NOT that my brothers were EVER right, of course – then, came color.

When color television first appeared, the TV set was the size of a bookcase laid on its side. More than entertainment, it was a sizable piece of very expensive furniture. Filled with strangely glowing tubes, it radiated both heat and a sense of unlimited power.

I still remember, as a small child, the first color television that came into our small community of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The TV was displayed in a local furniture store and was four feet high, three feet deep, and eight feet wide. It weighed about 800 pounds. The store owner, Katie Malvetz, was a friend of the family and, when NBC announced they would be playing the Wizard of OZ in COLOR for the first time on network television, Katie decided to turn this into a social event.

She and a team of men moved the TV from her showroom to her living room, then she invited her friends to watch with her. When the movie started, there must have been 30 people – adults and kids – in the room. And when Dorothy opened the door to step from black-and-white Kansas into colorful Oz… well, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

To this day I remember how stunned I was to see color images invisibly coalescing on a TV screen. I think, from that moment, I wanted to learn more about how it was done. I was hooked on media.

Fast-forward fifty or so years to tomorrow.

The switch from analog to digital won’t have the same poignancy as the switch from black-and-white to color. Nor will families gather in living rooms across the country to admire the transition.

The world has changed… and so have we.

But I didn’t want the switchover to occur without reflecting back on where we’ve come – with a look forward to the future.

Television has the power to spark emotions – and memories – with the stories it tells. And, sometimes, the stories we tell about it.

Larry

In all my classes, I spend a lot of time talking about the importance of audio and ways that, as video editors, we can improve the quality of our sound.

This morning, I read a blog posting that speaks to this and I wanted to share it with you (courtesy of Studio/Daily):

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=17870

Let me know what you think.

As we all know, Snow Leopard was formally announced and demoed at the WWDC conference yesterday. So, today, Andreas Schmidt sent me this question:

Yesterday Apple announced Snow Leopard and Quicktime X. Do you know or have an idea if Final Cut Studio 2 will run under that OS or will it be necessary in order to run Snow Leopard to buy Final Cut Studio 3 once its announced?

First, Snow Leopard runs on Intel-Mac systems only, so if you are using a G-5 or G-4, you won’t be able to run the new operating system.

Second, Snow Leopard uses a (relatively) new language (Cocoa). However, much of Final Cut Studio is written in an earlier language called Carbon. (For instance, while I am not a programmer, I’ve been told that Carbon limits memory access to 32-bit, which is less than Snow Leopard will support.)

So, if you want to run Snow Leopard, you’ll need to upgrade Final Cut to the latest version – which has not yet been announced.

Finally, in answer to THAT question, Apple does not tell me when new versions of FCP will be released, but if I were to GUESS, I would say that we won’t hear of a new Final Cut Studio version until Snow Leopard is shipping. So, for me, I’m expecting an upgrade in the October time-frame.

UPDATES

Jonathan Eric Tyrrell sent me the following note:

I thought I’d should pass on the following information as Apple explicitly states that Snow Leopard will support 32-bit applications:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#64bit

For additional background, you might also like to read the following article:

http://daringfireball.net/2008/06/ins_and_outs_of_snow_leopard

One of the most frequent requests I get is for me to present a Final Cut seminar that covers material not presented as part of the traditional Apple training classes.

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently, because now, while the economy is slow and clients are scarce, is the best time to improve your skills. Because when we are busy working there’s no time left to study.

Along with the request for more advanced seminars, I’ve also been asked to:

Make the seminar less expensive
Take the seminar out of downtown LA
Add more time for questions and discussion

So, I’m delighted to announce two brand-new seminars — one in Woodland Hills (June 24) and one in Orange County (July 28) — with LOTS of time for questions and discussion and all at a GREAT LOW PRICE!

HERE’S THE AGENDA:

10:00 AM — Welcome

10:10 AM — Advanced Final Cut Pro Techniques

11:00 AM — Make Your Still Images Look GREAT! And move them like
a pro.

12:00 AM — LUNCH (not included in seminar fee)

1:00 PM — Cleaning up your video – retouching video in Photoshop

2:00 PM — Improve your videos – Flash and QuickTime compression
for the web

2:45 PM — BREAK

3:00 PM — Any question, any subject — feel free to bring a project
to discuss

5:00 PM — Seminar ends.

NEW LOW PRICE: $79 per person

Everyone who registers will get two of my tutorials FREE, along with some great raffle prizes (we are still compiling the list.)

Click here to learn more – and to register.

We only have about 30 seats at each location. I expect seats to fill quickly, so please register soon!

Thanks!

After months of conversations, petitions, and negotiations, the International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA) has announced on their website that licensing costs for Blu-ray Discs are significantly decreasing.

This means it is now much more affordable for independent producers to author and distribute their material on Blu-ray Discs.

Bruce Nazarian, president of the IDMA, sent me the following note:

“As of yesterday, new final AACS agreements are beginning to appear on the AACS website. The first one posted is the Content PARTICIPANT Agreement, aimed at high-volume AACS licensees – typically, Hollywood Studios.

http://www.aacsla.com/license/

I believe these new agreements will all reflect some long-awaited changes (cost reductions and simplifications) in the AACS fee structure, which I will report on in greater depth once the remaining agreements have been posted, and we’ve had time to digest the changes. I don’t want to post any preliminary “layman’s” interpretations of the new language, as it’s quite complex legalese.

The Final Content PARTICIPANT agreement shows reductions in Content Certificate order and fulfillment fees, which is great!

The Content PROVIDER agreement is the one most of interest to Tier 2 producers (where licensing cost $3000, one-time).
It was not online yet (as of this morning) but should appear within a few days. It is in this agreement that I believe a similar fee change will take place.

Click here to learn more.

This is great news for everyone who wants to distribute their materials on optical disc. Much of this is due to the hard work of Bruce Nazarian and the whole IDMA team.

NOTE: The IDMA website had not been updated as of the time of this writing

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