Colorista II By Kevin McAuliffe
When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista.
...Read More »
Avid's Media Composer 5 Part 3 - Matrox's MXO2 mini By Kevin McAuliffe
When AVID stated that they supported the MXO2 mini to monitor external video, I was pretty surprised, as this is a big change of direction for AVID as they normally only support their own hardware for video monitoring. I wanted to give the MXO2 mini a fair shake, as for the $449 price tag I really wanted (and hoped) it to work for the user bases sake. Let's see how it fared.
...Read More »
The Non-Linear Road To NAB By Charlie Wade
For video editors, NAB is akin to a pilgrimage. Every year they flock to Vegas, push themselves through the crowds to the booths of the video editor purveyors, and watch, learn, debate and yearn. Here are 5 top notch solutions, plus one who should have been there but wasn't!
...Read More »
NAB 2010: What Cameras were HOT? By Charlie Wade
Missed NAB 2010 this year? Lots of people did but I know you still want to know what was hot. For you who live for camcorder technology, here are six of the hottest cameras (or camera announcements in some cases) at NAB 2010.
...Read More »
Dazzle Video Creator Plus HD By John Virata
The Dazzle Video Creator Plus HD bridges the digital divide, enabling you to capture video from your digital camcorders via the analog composite or RCA outputs on your camera, as well as serve as an effective bridge that can digitize those VHS and 8mm video tapes captured during the last 25 years. And when it captures that footage, it sends it back into the computer as a digital file for editing via Pinnacle Studio HD v. 14.
...Read More »
iFunia Video Converter Pro for Macintosh By John Virata
iFunia's Video Converter Pro is an application that converts your video into a wide variety of formats, including AVI, WMV, AVCHD, MKV, FLV, H.264/AVC, MP4, MOV, 3GP and DV. It is straightforward to use and the results are very good to excellent. The application works in three simple steps; Source Setup/Add, Destination Setup, and Start Conversion/Start.
...Read More »
Adobe Premiere Elements 8 By John Virata
Adobe Premiere Elements version 8 has some added new features to an already full featured consumer level video editing application. It competes with other similar NLE's on the market, but remains, like most of its competition, a Windows only application.
...Read More »
AJA Ki Pro By Kevin McAuliffe
Every once in a while (sometimes a long while), a product comes along that makes you say "WOW!". I haven't had one of those moments in a long time, until I got my hands on the Ki Pro from AJA. I remember sending my AJA PR rep an email when it first came out, and there was, of course, a backlog of reviewers who wanted to get their hands on one, so I went into the queue, and forgot about it.
...Read More »
AJA Ki Pro By Kevin McAuliffe
Every once in a while (sometimes a long while), a product comes along that makes you say "WOW!". I haven't had one of those moments in a long time, until I got my hands on the Ki Pro from AJA. I remember sending my AJA PR rep an email when it first came out, and there was, of course, a backlog of reviewers who wanted to get their hands on one, so I went into the queue, and forgot about it.
...Read More »
Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate Collection HD and Class on Demand Complete Training for Pinnacle Studio 14 By John Virata
Pinnacle Studio 14 is a very mature video editing system targeted mostly at home users and video editing enthusiasts, but certainly not limited at these groups. Any application that continues into double digit versions has to be a good app with a lot of functionality, and Studio 14 is one of those application's that has its own ecosystem of support with books, online sites, and video tutorials.
...Read More »
3.06 GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro By Heath McKnight
I recently had a chance to review the latest, top-of-the-line unibody MacBook Pro from Apple; with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and many other great features, this is the fastest Apple laptop I've ever used.
...Read More »
Speeding Premiere Pro CS4's H.264 Encoding with NVIDIA QuadroFX and Elemental Accelerator By John Virata
High definition video editing and HD video encoding are two of the hardware intensive tasks that can be done with a computer. It takes a lot of power to complete these types of jobs, oftentimes rendering your computer limited in functionality while it encodes video. NVIDIA's Quadro line of graphics cards can help to speed up H.264/AVC encoding in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with an assist from Elemental Technologies' Elemental Accelerator.
...Read More »
Sorenson Squeeze 6 By Kevin McAuliffe
These days, it seems as though every company has an application for taking your edited files and processing them for the web, and many of those applications are included with the editing bundle you purchased. Adobe has Adobe's Media Encoder, Final Cut Studio has Compressor, and there are the standalone applications such as Episode, and even QuickTime can do it as well.
...Read More »
Coremelt Complete V2 By Kevin McAuliffe
You can never have enough plug-ins. Trust me, as an editor/graphic designer you always have clients that want something "cool," but have really no idea what they are looking for, so you end up finding yourself going through the plug-ins on your system to try and put something together to really "wow" them, your plug-in collection needs to have three traits.
...Read More »
Third Party Plug-Ins/Apps For Final Cut Pro By Heath McKnight
Time for another edition of my third party plug-ins and software apps for Final Cut Pro (FCP). This time around, I take a look at the powerful and easy-to-use (with a ton of codec options) iFunia Video Converter Pro, FxFactory 2.1 and idustrial revolution's Volumetrix 2 transitions, and FxFactory 2.1 and DVShade's EasyLooks 2.5 and LiveToon 1.0.
...Read More »
Pegasys, Inc.'s TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress with Leadtek SpursEngine Hardware accelerator By John Virata
TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress is a video encoder application along the lines of Sorenson Squeeze, Apple's Compressor, and Adobe's Media Encoder. It has been around for quite a while, but doesn't seem to get the press that the other tools get, despite the output quality being very good. The application offers support for NVIDIA's CUDA technology as well as Leadtek's SpursEngine hardware accelerator.
...Read More »
Production Assistant for Sony Vegas Pro: From a Final Cut Pro User's Perspective By Heath McKnight
Sony Creative Software introduced Production Assistant for Vegas Pro as a way to streamline post-production, and I have to say, it's a terrific plug-in, created along with VASST. As a Final Cut Pro editor, I take a different look at the software, and I also discuss Vegas Pro version 9.
...Read More »
Apple's Color 1.5 By Kevin McAuliffe
As everyone knows, the inclusion of FinalTouch (renamed Color by Apple) into Final Cut Studio 2 was shocking. A few months before Apple announced it, I looked at purchasing FinalTouch as a separate, stand alone application for a post facility I was working for.
...Read More »
The Sony Vegas Pro Production Assistant By Jeffrey P. Fisher
As editors we are always looking for ways to be more efficient so we can focus on what we do best: telling stories with sound and visuals. But let's face it, there are a lot of mundane and routine tasks when editing that swallow our time but don't call upon our collective creative inspiration.
...Read More »
What if Dropbox offered time tracking, versioning, & more?
Answer: You'd have something like the just-released GridIron Flow 2.0. It can save your butt, for free. Why would you not start using it immediately?
...Read More »
Colorista II
When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista.
...Read More »
Avid's Media Composer 5 Part 3 - Matrox's MXO2 mini
When AVID stated that they supported the MXO2 mini to monitor external video, I was pretty surprised, as this is a big change of direction for AVID as they normally only support their own hardware for video monitoring. I wanted to give the MXO2 mini a fair shake, as for the $449 price tag I really wanted (and hoped) it to work for the user bases sake. Let's see how it fared.
...Read More »
The Non-Linear Road To NAB
For video editors, NAB is akin to a pilgrimage. Every year they flock to Vegas, push themselves through the crowds to the booths of the video editor purveyors, and watch, learn, debate and yearn. Here are 5 top notch solutions, plus one who should have been there but wasn't!
...Read More »
NAB 2010: What Cameras were HOT?
Missed NAB 2010 this year? Lots of people did but I know you still want to know what was hot. For you who live for camcorder technology, here are six of the hottest cameras (or camera announcements in some cases) at NAB 2010.
...Read More »
Dazzle Video Creator Plus HD
The Dazzle Video Creator Plus HD bridges the digital divide, enabling you to capture video from your digital camcorders via the analog composite or RCA outputs on your camera, as well as serve as an effective bridge that can digitize those VHS and 8mm video tapes captured during the last 25 years. And when it captures that footage, it sends it back into the computer as a digital file for editing via Pinnacle Studio HD v. 14.
...Read More »
iFunia Video Converter Pro for Macintosh
iFunia's Video Converter Pro is an application that converts your video into a wide variety of formats, including AVI, WMV, AVCHD, MKV, FLV, H.264/AVC, MP4, MOV, 3GP and DV. It is straightforward to use and the results are very good to excellent. The application works in three simple steps; Source Setup/Add, Destination Setup, and Start Conversion/Start.
...Read More »
Adobe Premiere Elements 8
Adobe Premiere Elements version 8 has some added new features to an already full featured consumer level video editing application. It competes with other similar NLE's on the market, but remains, like most of its competition, a Windows only application.
...Read More »
AJA Ki Pro
Every once in a while (sometimes a long while), a product comes along that makes you say "WOW!". I haven't had one of those moments in a long time, until I got my hands on the Ki Pro from AJA. I remember sending my AJA PR rep an email when it first came out, and there was, of course, a backlog of reviewers who wanted to get their hands on one, so I went into the queue, and forgot about it.
...Read More »
Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate Collection HD and Class on Demand Complete Training for Pinnacle Studio 14
Pinnacle Studio 14 is a very mature video editing system targeted mostly at home users and video editing enthusiasts, but certainly not limited at these groups. Any application that continues into double digit versions has to be a good app with a lot of functionality, and Studio 14 is one of those application's that has its own ecosystem of support with books, online sites, and video tutorials.
...Read More »
3.06 GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro
I recently had a chance to review the latest, top-of-the-line unibody MacBook Pro from Apple; with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and many other great features, this is the fastest Apple laptop I've ever used.
...Read More »
Speeding Premiere Pro CS4's H.264 Encoding with NVIDIA QuadroFX and Elemental Accelerator
High definition video editing and HD video encoding are two of the hardware intensive tasks that can be done with a computer. It takes a lot of power to complete these types of jobs, oftentimes rendering your computer limited in functionality while it encodes video. NVIDIA's Quadro line of graphics cards can help to speed up H.264/AVC encoding in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with an assist from Elemental Technologies' Elemental Accelerator.
...Read More »
Sorenson Squeeze 6
These days, it seems as though every company has an application for taking your edited files and processing them for the web, and many of those applications are included with the editing bundle you purchased. Adobe has Adobe's Media Encoder, Final Cut Studio has Compressor, and there are the standalone applications such as Episode, and even QuickTime can do it as well.
...Read More »
Coremelt Complete V2
You can never have enough plug-ins. Trust me, as an editor/graphic designer you always have clients that want something "cool," but have really no idea what they are looking for, so you end up finding yourself going through the plug-ins on your system to try and put something together to really "wow" them, your plug-in collection needs to have three traits.
...Read More »
Third Party Plug-Ins/Apps For Final Cut Pro
Time for another edition of my third party plug-ins and software apps for Final Cut Pro (FCP). This time around, I take a look at the powerful and easy-to-use (with a ton of codec options) iFunia Video Converter Pro, FxFactory 2.1 and idustrial revolution's Volumetrix 2 transitions, and FxFactory 2.1 and DVShade's EasyLooks 2.5 and LiveToon 1.0.
...Read More »
Pegasys, Inc.'s TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress with Leadtek SpursEngine Hardware accelerator
TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress is a video encoder application along the lines of Sorenson Squeeze, Apple's Compressor, and Adobe's Media Encoder. It has been around for quite a while, but doesn't seem to get the press that the other tools get, despite the output quality being very good. The application offers support for NVIDIA's CUDA technology as well as Leadtek's SpursEngine hardware accelerator.
...Read More »
Production Assistant for Sony Vegas Pro: From a Final Cut Pro User's Perspective
Sony Creative Software introduced Production Assistant for Vegas Pro as a way to streamline post-production, and I have to say, it's a terrific plug-in, created along with VASST. As a Final Cut Pro editor, I take a different look at the software, and I also discuss Vegas Pro version 9.
...Read More »
Apple's Color 1.5
As everyone knows, the inclusion of FinalTouch (renamed Color by Apple) into Final Cut Studio 2 was shocking. A few months before Apple announced it, I looked at purchasing FinalTouch as a separate, stand alone application for a post facility I was working for.
...Read More »
The Sony Vegas Pro Production Assistant
As editors we are always looking for ways to be more efficient so we can focus on what we do best: telling stories with sound and visuals. But let's face it, there are a lot of mundane and routine tasks when editing that swallow our time but don't call upon our collective creative inspiration.
...Read More »
Vegas Pro 10 Available Now
