With the growing number of websites using the new flash video format and improvements in quality, flash video is starting to see wider penetration throughout the net. Though up until this point encoding flash video on the Mac has been somewhat of a challenge, but with the release of On2 Technologies latest software update the process should now be much more simplified. The On2 Flix Exporter 8 now features built in support for Apple's Compressor encoding tool. This will now allow Mac users to directly encode Flash formatted video from both DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro. The software has some nice features such as variable frame rates and is available now for $150.

So I am back in the New York City for NAB Post, a post-production convention held at Javits Center. I have not been back to my former hometown for about a year so all this is very exciting. I have to admit I left the convention to hang out with some friends in the afternoon and missed some classes that I had planned on attending. Oh well. Anyways, back to NAB Post -- the booths were not open yet (will be open tomorrow) so I attended some classes. I attended a class on basic lighting (needed this for a video I am directing soon) and another class on Motion which was excellent. Though I am very familiar with Motion, it was an eye-opener to see a Pro using the software. I do not know if I had forgotten or not realized that Motion 2 is capable of 32-bit floating point editing. Something like this is very important when you are adding a lot of effects, filters and color correction. In most softwares, including After Effects, the added filters have an deteriorating effect on the quality of the picture. Anways, I hope to have more stuff to report especially with the booths open today but I am not promising anything if my friends show up.

Avid Free DV is a new piece of software from Avid that as the name implies is completely free. The application is a streamlined version of Avid’s other commercial editors and is both Mac and PC compatible. As expected the software is somewhat limited, especially in the areas of video encoding and color correction though it still remains mostly full featured. Another positive is the software has no restrictions on project saving and will allow you to save your work freely.

 For a free application Avid Free DV looks decently featured especially for PC users who have been stuck with Windows Movie Maker. Though it’s hard to say if the application will be able to compete with iMovie on the Mac front, it is certainly worth a look especially if you are considering purchasing one of Avid’s other applications.

Mike's last post about SATA to USB really got me thinking about storage in general.  Creative Planet Communities: Post-Inudstry (say that 20x fast) has an in-depth look at storage relating to video production, and video post-post production.  Basically, they breakdown different storage technologies and where they're useful.  Each section has a testimonial from someone who uses the technology on a daily basis.  What form of storage do you use to keep yourself afloat?  I just stick to my Huge Media Vault, on raid 3.

M-Audio (now a part of the monolith that is Avid) has released a new track library for pretty cheap.  The ProSessions library has five different volumes.  At $50 per volume, with some pretty quality tracks, they'd add a layer of depth to your productions for pretty cheap.  They're acidized, so if you're into Acid Music, or Soundtrack, they should run on your system.

Adam Nielson, friend and co-host of DV Guru's Vodcast promised a write-up of his tips on frame accurate editing, and thats exactly what he's delivered.  Read on for your fix of frame accurate editing tips.

• MovieLogger 1.0 - MovieLogger is a text-based logging tool for QuickTime movies. Logs can be exported to Final Cut Pro’s XML file format (clip markers are automatically created from logs) or to Rich Text Format (RTF) for further text editing or printing. ($99)
• LensTweaker - Helps to remove lens distortion from your pictures. ($29)
• Front Row Remote 1.0 - Allows you to control Front Row running on one mac from another. (Free)
• Movie Jukebox 1.2.1 - Organize and play your movies, iTunes for movies. ($15)
• DoubleTake 2.0b7 - Stitches photo's into one big photo. ($12)
• MPEG Streamclip 1.5.1 - Don't know what I would do without it. For converting almost anything with video. (Free)
• DiskCatalogMaker X 3.6 - I don't use it but has following. Catalog your discs with this software. ($19)

• Recording High Fidelity Audio on your iPod - use one of the most overlooked features on the iPod.
• Pan and Zoom in Photoshop Elements - Simple enough.
• How to take 'screen-based flashbulb' pictures - Do what the new iMac can do on other computers.
• A Beginners guide to mixing in GarageBand - Excellent tutorial. Read even if you don't use GarageBand.
• Recording Audio on Mac's - Damn good stuff. Bookmark the page.
• Multisession Burns Using Tiger's Disk Utility - Another excellent tutorial from Ken Stone. It is for beginner's, pass it along to those that pester you with questions on how to do this.
• Watch movies in the Software Update window - Interesting, useless Mac tutorial.

Pixar Animation today announced the release of RenderMan for Maya, the studio's next-generation 3D rendering plug-in. RenderMan allows Maya artists to enhance their productions with the functionality of Pixar's award-winning RenderMan technology. Pixar says that RenderMan for Maya has been specifically engineered to deliver high-end feature film quality standards. Leveraging an extensive development effort, Pixar said it placed as much importance on workflow integration as on pure rendering functionality. It is available for both Mac OS X and Windows XP and can be purchased for $1000. Some of the features:

• Cinematic-quality imagery
• Seamless  integration; nothing new to learn.
• Fast 3D motion blur and true depth of field
• Pixar's "Deep Shadow" technology
• Ambient occlusion, Global illumination, and HDRI
• Software rendering of all Maya Particles, and Maya Fur and Hair
• Render Maya Material networks,  PaintFX, and much more!

(via MacNN)

Found this is interesting product at Engadget, a keyboard with type keys and also musical keys. Very smart idea, the implementation is still not to my liking. I wish the Musical keyboard would slide in rather that stick out like that, there is a cover for it, so you are not constantly playing elbow music but it still looks awkward. Anyways, the keyboard is only $40 which is a great deal for any MIDI keyboard. MIDI is something most music software and hardware come with, it is the pro way of creating music. So for the that alone it is worth the price. Unfortunately, I cannot get one because at least to the specifications, it only plays nice with PC's which is a dumb move especially with the amount of GarageBand users out there. Here are some other specifications:

    •     Standard USB-compatible keyboard
    •     37 mini-sized music keys with touch-sensitivity
    •     Removable palm rest (Music keys cover)
    •     Music button
    •     Enhanced function key lock
    •     Customizable hotkeys
    •     System control hotkeys
    •     Media playback buttons
    •     Volume control wheel

So Podcasting is so last year, now it is all about Vlogging or Vodcasting. And so there are so many websites/ services popping up that are trying to be the place to go to store your video like Flickr is the place to go for pictures. This is an good article that compares many of the video storage services. I do not see Blip TV or even Google Video which our Vlogging expert, Zadi Diaz, has covered. There are also other smaller but interesting sites not covered in the article, maybe DVguru can cover this terrain in future time. The interesting part to the article is actually in the comments section, so make sure to read that as well.

ResearchWare today released HyperTranscribe 1.0, a new software package for transcribing audio and video files. Available for both Mac OS X and Windows, HyperTranscribe lets you open and play most popular audio and video formats, and provides both graphical and keyboard control to play, pause, and loop playback so your hands never have to leave the keyboard. HyperTranscribe can play MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG, AVI, MOV, and many other media file types. At the heart of the HyperTranscribe workflow is the ability to select portions of your media file, playing that segment in a loop until you've transcribed it and then moving on to the next. When you're done transcribing HyperTranscribe can export your text to RTF or plain text for use in any other program, such as Microsoft Word. A single-user license is $100.

Some of these, I have never heard of but they sound mighty interesting.

• Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java. Some of the highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials. The art gallery has some nice samples, very intriguing.
• Mediaboard ONE makes it easy to catalog, access and manage your images and movies in one place - no matter if you store your media files on your Mac, on CD/DVD or access a network server. Mediaboard ONE uses Apple's QuickTime technology to access image and movie files. So besides the catalog feature, very much like a spiffed-up iPhoto. I have to admit, it does look very good. ($39)
• Create is a next generation design and layout program. In one easy to use app, professional illustration, page layout and web creation with just one click. Think OmniGraffle that is trying to do too much. ($149)
• Virtual Composer is a graphical multichannel musical compiler, sequencer and analyzer for the Macintosh, designed for perfect execution of complex polyphonic music using QuickTime's Musical Instruments Architecture.  It is mainly intended for serious performers who want to simulate human-like performances or who wish to manipulate musical scores in ways similar to those when performing live.
  

All of these software's had recent updates, so they are all new and shiny, try them out.

It is the holiday shopping season, and it seems that everyone is trying to get a little bit more of the industrial wallet around the holidays as well.  If you're looking for CineLook, or Magic Bullet, I'd suggest waiting till the end of November to buy it.  Toolfarm will put one plugin up for sale per-day @ 50%.  They're not going to pre-announce which software goes up which day, so you'll just have to keep checking back to find out.   CineLook is $850 right now, so grabbing it at $425 will be a steal.  I've only used Magic Bullet and CineLook, but if you're in the market for any of the following plugins, wait till then to grab them.  They are:

• Automatic Duck Pro Import AE, FCP & Pro Export Bundle
•  Conoa SuperPak
• Darkling Simulations DIN
• DigiEffects CineLook 2
• Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Editors 2

Avid says they will release Intel-Mac software at the same time they release their PowerPC-Mac software.  Mac users have been complaining about Avid's lack of HD support for the Mac.  Today, in a statement, Avid's president of Post Solutions says "Although our timeframe for delivering HD on the Mac is now mid-2006, our support of both the new Intel architecture and the existing PowerPC platform offers a path for all of our loyal Mac customers – and helps us to better serve their needs in the long run.”  Until then, Mac users wanting HD will have to do what they've been doing for the last two years: use Final Cut Pro.