Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #5: Speed Changes By Diana Weynand Whether or not you have used the Final Cut Pro speed functions, you're sure to love the new speed changes. Simple-yet elegant and powerful. You will be able to change speed in your clips easily and with a lot of flexibility. ...Read More »

AVCHD Essentials: get, play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac By WIKI AVCHD is a high definition (HD) digital video camera recorder format recording 1080i and 720p signals onto MiniDVD discs, MiniDV tape, Hard Drive, and digital camera Memory Cards. AVCHD recordings made on MiniDVD discs can be played back on some Blu-ray disc players, however, AVCHD with a .M2TS and .MTS file extension can not be played back on standard DVD players and most portable players. This tutorial will explain how to get AVCHD video off HD camcorder to Mac, how to play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac, including Snow Leopard. ...Read More »

Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #7 - Improved Markers By Diana Weynand You know those little post-it note pads that come in multiple colors? Ok, admit it now. Do you ever color-code your notes? Maybe yellow notes are financial, pink ones are hot to-do items. Well with Final Cut Pro 7, you can now use color to label your markers in a very similar way. There are several other marker improvements as well. ...Read More »

Adding Audio Hardware Meters to Sony Vegas Pro By Jeffrey P. Fisher There's no doubt that watching volume levels with your audio- and video-centric projects is important. The digital audio world has a top limit --- 0 dBFS --- that you can't exceed. But screen real estate is often at a premium when working in the Vegas NLE. Sure you can pop the Audio Mixer and/or Mixing Console over to a secondary monitor, but that's often filled up with audio/video effects, waveform/vectorscope monitor, and even full-screen previews. ...Read More »

Diana's Top 10 FCP 7 Features #8 - iChat Theater Preview By Diana Weynand In the past, if you wanted to share some portion of your work with another set of eyes, it was a somewhat time-consuming business of exporting a QuickTime file or transferring a sequence or a portion of a sequence to another drive or server for someone else to access. That's no longer the case. Welcome to iChat Theater Preview-the quick and easy way to share and discuss your sequence with someone down the hall or around the world in real time. ...Read More »

Creating Effective Reflections in Sony Vegas Pro By Jeffrey P. Fisher Here's how to add a mirror reflection that makes your titles and logos stand out. It's quick and easy inside Sony Vegas Pro and it looks great. ...Read More »

Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #9 - The Timecode Viewer By Diana Weynand Look at the image below. Something new has been added in FCP 7. It's the Timecode Viewer, a floating time code window, which will really come in handy as you share your screen or sequence with others. And taking notes by jotting down time code as you view your footage has never been easier. ...Read More »

Diana's Top 10 FCP 7 Features: #10 - Color Coding Tabs By Diana Weynand The ability to utilize the operating system's color-coding capabilities for organizing and easily identifying bins, clips and sequences has been a standard feature in earlier versions of the software. However, Final Cut Pro 7 now raises the bar by implementing the color-coding of bins, clips and sequences to their respective tabs in the Timeline, Canvas and Browser windows. ...Read More »

Sony Vegas Pro Split Screen Previews By Jeffrey P. Fisher Every software application seems to have at least one tool that is both a blessing and curse. For many NLEs it's a ripple edit mode that is one part super-terrific and other part the dastardly evil-doer that wreaks havoc on your timeline. ...Read More »

How to Play MTS on Mac for free or Convert MTS Videos to DVD on Mac for watching on TV By WIKI I. What is MTS File ? MTS format is a high-definition MPEG, AVC, H.264 transport stream video file format which commonly used by HD camcorders such as Sony, Canon, Panasonic. .MTS files are used primarily with Sony hardware. Camcorders make use of MTS in the form of AVCHD, a recording format made specifically for camcorders. Some camcorder models from Canon also use MTS files. These files are also present on Blu-ray disc compilations, therefore they are capable of storing quite a large amount of information and data tracks. ...Read More »

Basic Training for Final Cut Studio 2: Compressor By Tom Wolsky In this clip, host Tom Wolsky discusses the two things you should do before you export your projects out to tape. One is to render out your material and the other is to mix down your audio regardless of the number of tracks. He goes through the export function, and discusses the various export formats available in Final Cut Pro. He discusses the reference movie options as well as the Make Movie self contained option, and QuickTime conversion. He covers Compression in detail as well. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Episode and Episode Pro: Flash video By Nate Caplin In this clip, host Nate Caplin discusses the Flash compression settings in Episode Pro. He details what the file formats are for Flash--SWF, and FLV, and details the difference between the two as well as the newer Flash players. He looks at the settings in detail of Flash 8, discusses the Flash output format, video and audio codecs, source files, and more. ...Read More »

Basic Training for Final Cut Studio 2: Optimizing your system By Tom Wolsky In this clip, host Tom Wolsky details how to set up your Mac to efficiently work in Final Cut Pro. He shows how to make changes in the system preferences, how to turn off Dashboard and Expose, switch off the mouse button, and how to setup the keyboard and mouse. He also discusses F keys for those working on a MacBook Pro. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Episode and Episode Pro: Video and audio preprocessing By Nate Caplin In this clip, you will learn how to use filters intelligently in Episode. Host Nate Caplin takes a look at video and audio preprocessing, a key aspect in getting quality output. He takes a look at some of the sample files and opens a few to show how you can apply Episode Pro filters to tweak clips that have artifacts and other issues. He shows how to apply compression settings as well. ...Read More »

Complete training for Edius 4.5: Filters, keyers, and titlers By Michael Downey In this video, host Michael Downey takes a look at filters, keyers, and titlers, showing how to use them to make your videos look the way you want. He explains what a keyer is and shows how to get to the keyer in the Edius interface. He details what a filter is and how it affects the clip, and a titler enables you to add titles to your clip. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Edius 4.5: Editing By Michael Downey In this video, host Michael Downey goes through the basics of editing, from capturing video from your cameras to editing and trimming. He details the interface, shows how to control a deck, rewind, fast forward, and reverse. He also shows how to use the J,K, and L keys in doing so. He shows how to use the Capture button, how to save and name a file, and so on. ...Read More »

Complete Training for NewTek SpeedEDIT: Outputting the finished project By Faraz Ahmed In this video, host Faraz Ahmed discusses outputting your projects to tape and to different file formats. He shows the Speededit tools needed to complete the output process. He shows the most reliable way to output back to tape. The process is identical in DV and HDV with the exception that HDV is 16:9. Speed Edit does not care what the format is, at it will scale accordingly. ...Read More »

Basic Training for Adobe OnLocation: The workspace By Tim Kolb In this video, host Tim Kolb discusses what OnLocation is and how it works in the edit suite. He showcases the studio shot clock, timecode, vectorscope, and waveform monitor. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Boris Red 4: Creating the transition By Steve Oakley In this video, host Steve Oakley shows how to create a transition in Red in Premiere Pro. He shows how to drag Red into the Timeline and then goes into the effects control window to show how to get inside the Red user interface. He then shows how to build the transition in Red. ...Read More »

Complete Training for NewTek SpeedEDIT: Lower Thirds By Faraz Ahmed In this video, host Faraz Ahmed shows how to add a lower third in Speededit. He details this from going to the window to add media via the effects>titles and also shows how to choose lower thirds templates to add to the timeline. ...Read More »