Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to MacVideo's weekly newsletter and stay up-to-date with the latest, breaking Mac related videos, reviews, interviews and news.

Subscribe to our newsletters...

Recent news

More news...

RSS Feeds

Keep up with the latest news and features from MacVideo and have the headlines delivered direct to your desktop, by RSS feed.

Subscribe to our rss feeds...

Recent reviews

Sonnet Fusion F2 - powered eSata on the move

For those needing high-speed transfer of data eSata presents a solution which is reliable and faster than either FireWire 800/400 or USB. The Sonnet Fusion F2 is unique in that it provides the world's first truly portable eSata RAID which can powered direct from the Mac. FireWire 400 is used to power the device while transfer of data is through the Express 34 slot on the MacBook Pro, making this a portable RAID which can be run in the field without AC power.

More reviews...

Latest blog entries

Live long and prosper....

I'm on the sunny side of a disaster. Backups and archives functioned, and my Mac systems are back at cruising altitude.

But, lest that one should sound smug, I am aware that archiving is an interesting case in point, especially for an EX1 owner.

I'm using hard disks, with archive to DVD-R and now Blu-Ray. That works out well - in that everything is on hard disks, and every project has double Blu-Ray media managed backup, and if the footage isn't on tape, Blu-Ray backup too (though I back up the EX1's QuickTime files, not the original data - oooh, I can hear the sharp intake of breath from here).

But that's not what's on my blog-radar today. What has caused a blip is reading a little note from the BBC News website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7525143.stm

Yes - film is falling apart.

Sure, Star Wars was rescued, re-scanned, twiddled and is now a lot of ones and zeros on a great many hard disks. Lots of other films have gone or are going through this process.

But going digital can cause problems: what if the format you store it on becomes redundant?

I have this problem. I have a project dear to my heart - an interactive touch screen application I made more than 12 years ago. I used Macromind Director 4 then, and I updated it to 5, 6, and MX. But now its projectors do not run on Macs. I cannot open the older files in new versions of Director. Such is the pace of progress, the files are too old - Do Not Resuscitate.

That's the fear of many archivists. How do you open an image saved from a ZX81? How can you grab an original visicalc file to present today? Digital files change so quickly, and so many works are in esoteric custom formats. JPEG and MPEG may be safe for now, but for how long?

The film industry have a solution: 35mm! Common standard, easy to store, can't erase it by mistake, could last for ages if looked after.

But wait, aren't we trying to resuscitate 35mm originals that are rotting before our eyes? Ah, but that was old fashioned film - not new tough film, but sloppy stuff made from recycled cow hooves. Today's material is far more scientific. But expensive.

So what of all those careless snaps now, which will mean so much to generations hence? Not the major epics, but those little glimpses into a century forgotten. Hundreds of years from now. No printouts from your desktop are going to survive like those ancient sepia bromides. No CD-ROMs are going to survive unless hermetically sealed in a protective gas and shaded from light.

But digits are digits. I had another project in Director that I diligently upgraded, and copied, and exported and re-saved. And its still with me. Not sure if it was worth saving, but it's still there. And that seems to be the secret: revisit your archive, copy it, view it, don't just back it up. Use open standard formats. Use widely accepted media. I still have Syquest drives with data on it. The data isn't quite worth spending specialist money on it. The contents aren't particularly earth shattering. Not now. But in 300 years? Who knows? What's worth saving?

And has anyone tried buying VHS tapes recently?

Don’t Panic

The job took 2 days to shoot, 3 days to edit. It all turned out well. I was proud of the work I had done.

alt.edit.final.final.final

It's the last 10 yards of an edit. Well actually, today it's two edits symultaneously.

Graphic Artists Borrow, Artists Steal

Sorry to inaccurately paraphrase Mr Picasso, but I'm trying to excuse the fact that I'm watching Top Gear. With a notebook. I'm pretending to be a petrol head, but I'm watching the editing like a hawk. Or a hungry chicken. Whatever.

Apple TV - don't put yourself through the pain

Okay, now the Apple TV is a great concept, but what a pain in the ol' proverbial lower regions. I've had my Apple TV now for well over a year or so - considering I've been a Mac fan for well over 20 years I figure hey if I'm going to de-wire the house and try to unify all aspects of both my work and lifestyle why not Applefy the whole house? Apple logos everywhere but especially on my TV! Yay... not necessarily.

More blog entries...

Welcome to MacVideo

Movie of the Week

Sonnet Fusion F2 - powered eSata on the move

Latest Videos

Interview of the Week

Interview with Richard Marks (part 1)

Richard Marks is one of Hollywood's most successful feature film editors. Editing credits include: Serpico (1973), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Pennies from Heaven (1981), Terms of Endearment (1983), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), Broadcast News (1987), Dick Tracey (1990), Father of the Bride (1991), One Good Cop (1991), I'll Do Anything (1994), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), As Good as It Gets (1997), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Spanglish (2004), Made of Honor (2008).

Latest Interviews

More interviews...

Editing

News > Slick iMovie plug-ins maker 'graduates' to Final Cut

More than 60 plugins for $99

Gee Three is now offering SlickFX plug-ins for Final Cut Express and final Cut Pro. The plug-ins offer Final Cut users transitions, effects, filters and generators for US$99.

Reviews > Demonstration of Adobe Premiere and Production Premium CS3 for Mac Has a video

How Adobe Premiere integrates with the other apps. in the Production Premium Suite

Adobe has earned a solid reputation for providing professional software for creatives using the Mac or PC. The Adobe Creative Suite 3 (video) on the Mac continues this tradition, and sees Adobe Premiere - which was once the only truly affordable editor on the Mac - return to the Mac platform, providing serious competition to Final Cut Pro and Avid.

Motion Graphics/VFX

News > Red Giant Software Releases Magic Bullet Instant HD Advanced

Plug-in for Adobe After Effects CS3 delivers the highest possible quality conversion for SD to HD

Red Giant Software, publisher of Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory and Trapcode products, today introduced Magic Bullet Instant HD Advanced (formerly named Instant HD Pro). This new plug-in for Adobe After Effects CS3 delivers the highest possible quality conversion for SD to HD and is well-suited to prepare analog source footage and DV video clips for inclusion in HD projects. Instant HD Advanced combines de-interlacing and de-noising; advanced pan and scan; and a super-resolution algorithm for providing actual resolution enhancement. The easy-to-use preset menu helps users choose the right HD and 2K output formats.

Reviews > Incredible Animation by M Dot Strange, FCPUG Supermeet, NAB, 2008 Has a video

Demonstration of what can be achieved using Blackmagic technology

M Dot Strange is an independent filmmaker who locks himself away for months at a time, surrounded by computers, producing amazing animation. He has produced a feature length animated film for less than $20 000 which others describe as having the look of a production costing tens of millions of dollars.

DVD Authoring

News > Blu-ray Disc rapidly gaining popularity in Japan

Japanese shipments of recorders and players based on Blu-ray Disc hit 122,000 in June

Shipments of Blu-ray Disc-based video recorders and players are increasing fast in Japan as the market rallies around the format

Reviews > Step into Blu-ray - for less than £200 Has a video

Affordable Blu-ray provides storage solution on the Mac

None of the modern Macs ship with Blu-ray writers which is incredibly frustrating for video editors/camera people, especially those shooting to tapeless formats. What we need is a reliable and affordable way to archive our media. In this report we take a Blu-ray writer, specified to work with Windows XP or Vista, and plug it into a Mac to see what happens. The results are not only surprising but inspiring. We now have that archiving solution we have been looking for.

Encoding

News > 20th Century Fox offers TV through iTunes UK

24, Bones and My Name is Earl now available through iTunes UK

Fox will introduce more shows, including, American Dad, Prison Break, Stacked, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Riches.

Reviews > Sorenson Squeeze 5

New features include BluRay VC-1 support, improved MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding, H.264 support

As ever more video content is uploaded to the Web, the number of compression applications has exploded. With so many budget alternatives, is Squeeze still worthy of consideration?

Camera Technology

News > Sony's Summer Roadshow - Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin, London

HD production from HDV to HDCam SR

Sony is running a 4 city roadshow to show off the latest Sony camera technology. Register for sessions in HDV, EX and HDV hybird, tapeless workflow with XDCam HD, and top-end HDCam SR.

Reviews > Sonnet Fusion F2 - powered eSata on the move Has a video