timecode

(May 8, 2009) NVIDIA announced today it has released version 2.2 of the CUDA Toolkit and SDK for GPU Computing. This latest release supports several significant new features that deliver a major leap forward in getting the most performance out of NVIDIA's massively parallel CUDA-enabled GPUs. In addition, version 2.2 of the CUDA Toolkit includes support for Windows 7, the upcoming OS from Microsoft that embraces GPU Computing. Additional new features in CUDA Toolkit 2.2 include: Visual Profiler for the GPU

Leading music print publisher to distribute award-winning tone generation software and hardware interfaces (Modena, Italy--May 8, 2009) IK Multimedia is proud to announce they have entered into an agreement with Hal Leonard, the world’s largest music print publisher. Hal Leonard will now distribute IK Multimedia music production software and hardware to music stores in North America.

(Colorado Springs, Colorado--May 8, 2009) Convergent Design announced today a $2,995 MSRP price for the highly anticipated nanoFlash, which will ship in June, now with analog audio I/O. nanoFlash is the world’s smallest, lowest-power professional HD/SD recorder/player creating visually lossless Quicktime or MXF files stored on affordable Compact Flash media. The diminutive (4.2x3.7x1.4” / 107x94x36 mm) nanoFlash easily mounts on any professional camera, adding less than 1 lb (400 grams) additional weight. The very low power consumption of less than 6 Watts assures long battery life, while the very wide power input range of 6.5 to 19.5V makes nanoFlash compatible with most power sources.

24/7 News Channel Deployed in Record Time (New York--May 8, 2009) Dalet Digital Media Systems announced today that "Your News Now" (YNN) in Buffalo, the latest news channel for Time Warner Cable's Local News Division, has implemented Dalet News Suite system as its newsroom and automation system.

(New York--May 8, 2009) Orad Hi-Tec Systems today announced that All Set Productions, located in New York in Manhattan's Times Square, is implementing Orad's ProSet™ virtual studio system to create a one-stop-shop for virtual set production needs. Thanks to the new virtual 3D solution, All Set can now offer professional media and production services for projects such as feature films, documentaries, talk shows, commercials, and television news specials.

(Sunnyvale, California--May 8, 2009) Colfax International, a leading provider of fully-customizable, high-performance computing solutions, today announced their collaboration with PixBlitz Studios to create a high-end solution for broadcast and online premium video content. Colfax's GPU-based high-performance systems enable a rich set of real-time video processing applications using PixBlitz's highly parallel and scalable software architecture for photo-realistic video rendering. The system incorporates NVIDIA® Tesla™ GPU Computing processors, NVIDIA® Quadro® SDI, and AJA LHe for maximum rendering performance and efficiency. "Processing 720p and 1080p HD video in real-time within sub-second latency and at one hundredth of a pixel accuracy requires supercomputing power that was out of reach till today," said Vikram Joshi, Founder and CEO of PixBlitz Studios. "Our software architecture combined with Colfax’s highly reliable, fully customized, compute-intensive systems provides our customers with real-time, high-definition video processing.”

Procedural Texturing Middleware Reduces Download Size, Boosts Productivity and Offers Unparalleled Visual Content (Clermont-Ferrand, France--May 8, 2009) With more games moving online and digital distribution becoming an increasingly important business strategy for publishers, improving visual quality and allowing user-generated content while containing client size and broadening the audience has become a critical challenge. Allegorithmic, an emerging 3D technology company developing advanced texturing tools for real-time 3D content creation, is filling this immediate market need through the worldwide availability of Substance Air.

Every three years, the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress holds DMCA 1201 hearings to determine if exemptions should be made to the anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In 2006, media and film professors successfully won an exemption from the DMCA to legally break DVD copy protection in order to use high-quality clips in the classroom. The 2009 hearings are in progress this week, and up for discussion is whether or not this same exemption should be granted to educators in all subjects, and if students should also be covered by the exemption.

Rrepresentatives of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) argue that there is no need to break DVD copy-protection, and went on to demonstrate at length that that for fair-use scenarios users should consider videotaping a TV screen to extract the video segments for use in the classroom. I’ll say that again, just in case you missed it…the MPAA suggests that videotaping a flatscreen television is an acceptable alternative for educators to capture and use video clips in the classroom.

Besides the sheer irony of this idea coming from an organization that has spent countless dollars and time trying to stop camcorder users in theaters, it shows just how out of touch they really are with reality. Do they really expect educators to go through the process of realtime analog workarounds for FAIR USE in today’s digital world? Unbelievable. An attendee to these hearings filmed and posted the MPAA’s video demonstration of their analog method of bypassing copy-protection. You can watch below. If you’re like me, you’ll be holding your jaw up off the floor.

MPAA shows how to videorecord a TV set from timothy vollmer on Vimeo.

To add to the irony of it all, I noticed that their demonstration appeared to be played from a computer using VLC, a media player software whose original featureset included the ability to DeCSS DVDs for playback over a network. Nice. Wendy Seltzer was also at the hearings and live-tweeted it as well as wrote a nice blog recap. You can read that here.

Serving up fresh, crispy news and views for creators and consumers of digital video

This comes from my pal Jeremy Garchow, who has a blog over on the Creative Cow. He, like I, deals a lot with P2...but he really gets into the metadata, which is valuable information. He, like I, am a big fan of MXF4QT when it comes to importing P2 into FCP, as it retains all of the metadata recorded onto the clips, and maps that information to columns in FCP. That and it allows FCP to edit the MXF files natively...so no lengthy LOG AND TRANSFER.

As if THAT wasn't cool enough, Andreas Kiel of Spherico Film Tools and Björn Adamski of MXF4mac have been working on a P2 metadata editor called P2 Flow that will allow you to add and edit this metadata, and send all kinds of useful information to FCP.

Here, read Jeremy's blog post about this before I plagiarize his site any further.

Here is the LINK to the demo video. There is no audio. You can SAVE AS a QT movie on your computer and then scale it to fit.

(Grass Valley, California--May 7, 2009) AJA Video Systems, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, announced compatibility of their Ki Pro portable digital disk recorder with JVC's new GY-HM700 camcorder. Ki Pro records files to the Apple ProRes 422 codec directly from camera and provides a new way of connecting production and post with its extensive analog and digital connectivity, delivering10-bit ProRes 422 media that is immediately available to edit within Apple's Final Cut Studio. JVC's GY-HM700 ProHD camcorder delivers the fastest shoot to edit workflow of all professional camcorders in its class, recording natively in the Final Cut Pro .mov file format at 35 Mbp/s, 25 Mbp/s and 19 Mbp/s, and providing a full bandwidth 4:2:2 uncompressed signal. When used together with Ki Pro, the JVC 700 can also deliver files in the ProRes 422 format offering both a second level of redundancy and Final Cut edit-ready files. The GY-HM700 combines JVC's popular compact shoulder form factor with a new level of performance suitable for demanding applications in mainstream production, electronic newsgathering and cinematography. The camera also provides the convenience of solid state recording, the economy of widely available SDHC media, and extreme versatility.

(Montréal, Canada--May 7, 2009) Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced that 2D Lab and Breakthrough Animation, in association with Treehouse will co-produce "My Big Big Friend" using the Toon Boom pipeline. The production of this 52 eleven minute episodes recently started in March 2009 and the series will air in Brazil early 2010. Implementing the new Harmony solution, including Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, Animate Pro and possibly Toon Boom Manager, 2D Lab is already in full steam embarking on this large scale project, bringing its studio from 6 people to over 40 in a very short time. Toon Boom is also providing consulting services to set up the network, assist in starting up the production and custom train the new hires.

Adds Realistic Movement to Interactive Photo-real Visualizations; Cost-effective Animation Solution Saves Hours, Days and Weeks of Laborious Animation Time (Munich, Germany--May 7, 2009) With the goal of delivering powerful, new real-time 3D animation tools to the industry's leading designers and visual minds, Craft Animations™ AB and Realtime Technology (RTT) AG today announced a strategic alliance that includes the upcoming port of Craft Director Tools to RTT DeltaGen.

OK, I just have to post this video again. It has been two years since I last posted it, but it is still freaking HILARIOUS!

THE PROFESSIONALS

OK, and one that blog follower Doug posted in a comment...THE PHOTOGRAPHER. This is a small snippet of a full episode, which you can find in three parts on YouTube, in the related video section of this link.

Boris Continuum Complete 6.0.1 AE Now Available, Free Update for BCC 6 AE Customers (Marlborough, Massachusetts--May 6, 2009) Boris FX, the leading developer of integrated effects technology for video and film, today announced that Boris Continuum Complete 6.0.1 AE is now available as a free update for Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE customers. The BCC 6.0.1 AE update adds a new EPS extrusion filter as well as a new anti-aliasing option for the BCC 6 3D Objects category of filters.

AJA Video Systems, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, announced compatibility of its Ki Pro portable digital disk recorder with JVC's new GY-HM700 camcorder. Ki Pro records files to the Apple ProRes 422 codec directly from camera and provides a new way of connecting production and post with its extensive analog and digital connectivity, delivering10-bit ProRes 422 media that is immediately available to edit within Apple's Final Cut Studio....

Having gotten off to a very fast start, The Colonie, the post production boutique launched earlier this year by editors Bob Ackerman and Brian Sepanik and executive producer Mary Caddy, is now expanding. The company has added three artists to its staff—editors Billy Sheahan and Joe Clear, and visual effects artist/online editor Tom Dernulc. The three newcomers already have several projects under their belts, including work for Philip Morris, Porsche, Corona, Hallmark and Allstate....

: Leading colorist Ben Perez has rejoined the expanding Mega Playground post-production complex. Extensive credits on such feature films as Michael Clayton, Duplicity, Spider Man 2,and Mona Lisa Smile, and for hit TV series including Ugly Betty, Homicide and OZ, have earned Perez a reputation as one of New York’s go-to colorists. Most recently with Technicolor NY, he previously worked with Riot Manhattan, Post Logic, Manhattan Transfer and Windsor Video....

Ascent Media Group, CBS and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced the creation of a new platform designed to provide a cost-effective, optimized and streamlined platform for broadcast syndicated programming for North American broadcast stations....

The twelth episode of THE EDIT BAY is now available for download.

Have you ever gotten a job and then realized that you don't know how to use a major piece of equipment they require you to use? Me too! More than once.


To play in your browser or download direct, click here.


To subscribe to this podcast in iTunes, CLICK HERE.

(Portland, Oregon--May 6, 2009) LaCie announced today the availability of two new high capacity Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions – Big Disk Network and d2 Network. These professional file servers are optimized for users to instantly store, share, and back up files, from any PC or Mac on a wired or wireless network. LaCie's new NAS solutions deliver high-performance and professional-class reliability, in an easy-to-use network solution for the home or small office. The d2 Network supports up to 1.5TB capacity, while the Big Disk Network combines two drives in a RAID 0 setting, for up to 4TBs of storage. Both NAS solutions are perfect for advanced users or small to medium sized offices that want to develop workgroup environments for up to 50 users (15 at one time). Network administrators can choose from various security levels for user profiles, groups, and public or guest access. Users can connect an external USB drive to increase security through scheduled backups, or even expand capacity. The d2 Network also includes an eSATA connection for storage expansion.

CLIPSTER's Groundbreaking Rendering and DCI Mastering Capabilities Bring Highest-Possible Quality, Significantly Greater Efficiency to Offhollywood's RED Workflows (New York--May 6, 2009) Leading digital cinema company Offhollywood is the first company on the East Coast to purchase the DVS CLIPSTER® with the new RED® Workflow DCI mastering acceleration hardware, which allows for a real-time RED 4K workflow.

(Placentia, California--May 6, 2009) This summer CalDigit is offering two incredible ways to save on popular CalDigit products. Take up to $1,200 off the fast and powerful HDPro and save $100 when you pre-order the new CalDigit VR mini. HDPros purchased from any CalDigit authorized reseller between May 1, 2009 and July 31, 2009 are eligible for an incredible mail in rebate. Receive $1,200 back on 12TB models, $800 on 8TB models, and $500 on 5TB models. For the official rebate form complete with rules and regulations visit http://www.caldigit.com/HDPro_Rebate/HDPro_Rebate.pdf .

Starting this Sunday, May 10, HBO Documentary Films is going to begin air a 4 part documentary series on Alzheimer’s disease called The Alzheimer’s Project. Normally I probably wouldn’t promote or post about an HBO film but this series looks to be a bit more important than most. Alzheimer’s disease is a cruel brain disease that affects over half of all Americans and has an indirect cost estimated at more than $148 billion annually. Any disease with that kind of broad reaching impact deserves a special event like this that HBO is producing. I’ve personally been affected by the disease as my mother suffers from Alzheimer’s and I’ve seen the toll it can take on both the victims and their friends and family so I’ve been encouraging all that I can to watch this series.

But what if you don’t have HBO? It is after all a premium channel that you have to pay extra for. It would appear that HBO is going to provide access to this entire series in almost all media outlets available today. If you have come across the printed advertisements for The Alzheimer’s Project in any number of major magazines you may have seen the list of where the program will be available:

• WATCH IT on HBO and other HBO channels
• STREAM IT on HBO.com
• OWN IT on DVD
• DOWNLOAD IT as a podcast
• READ IT in the companion book
• VIEW IT whenever you want on HBO On Demand

It may have happened before but I’m not aware of any other multimedia event that has been broadcast across so many different “new media” outlets. It’s a great use of most all of the distribution channels available today to get the message out about this important subject. Thanks for taking the time to read this post and I hope you are able to check out this documentary series. You can find out more information on Alzheimer’s disease below:

The Panasonic HDC-HS300 (MSRP 1399.99) has just about everything you could want in a high-end consumer camcorder. It features a wide range of manual controls, Panasonic\'s popular lens ring for making adjustments, a retractable electronic viewfinder, and a special set of automated controls that are designed to work with Panasonic\'s new touchscreen LCD system. All these features, combined with a 120GB internal hard drive and excellent HD video performance, make the HDC-HS300 a first-class camcorder.

I love the EDITORS LOUNGE that Terry Curren puts on at Alpha Dog in Burbank. And I really wish he'd start it later than 6:30 so that I can make it. Most of my jobs has me an hour or more away from there, so I miss them. BUT, I do get to see the highlights online. And that is great.

Studio Daily has two highlights from the last EDITOR'S LOUNGE that are really good to watch:

The AlphaDogs Editors' Lounge in April featured a panel of four seasoned editors with diverse backgrounds talking about the craft of editing and how it has changed since they got in the business. In this series of videos, feature film editor Billy Weber, reality TV editor Glenn Morgan, trailers editor Carol Streit and jack-of-all trades editor Terry Curren discuss the lessons they have learned in decades of work and offer bits of wisdom not found in any film school or editing manual.

To watch the videos, CLICK HERE. To watch the entire lounge, CLICK HERE.

I had a really strange thing happen to me...my virtual cluster (the thing where you use QMaster to set up all your processors to render faster...I'll post how at the end of this blog post)...as I was saying, before the long parenthesis aside, my virtual cluster in Compressor upped and vanished. Just went away. POOF! One minute it was compressing a file to MPEG-4 for the audio house, the next...just gone. I was perplexed.

So I iChatted with my buddy Jim Geduldick of Final Cut User and asked if he knew what happened. I figured he was a Compressor guru, having written CRAM. And sure enough, he did have an answer. A little known of button that you have to know where to find.

Well, he blogged about it and posted a tip video on how to find that button and fix all of this.

Thanks Jim.

Now, as for how to set up QMASTER to use all of these processors you have on your MacPro.

- In System Preferences at the bottom is a black splotch icon thing, that is Apple Qmaster. Click on that.
- Select Share this computer as "Quick Cluster with services."
- Share Compressor.
- "Options for selected service" should be 1 instance for each of 2 processors, so if you have an Octo MacPro, set it to 4 instances.
- Click Share...

Then when you submit from compressor, change it from "This Computer" to whatever you named your cluster. Works like gang busters...

Steven Soderbergh's 'The Girlfriend Experience' appeared as a $9.99 online rental on Amazon this week, three weeks before its theatrical debut. Variety blogger Ben Fritz asks why Magnolia, the pic's distributor, isn't making more of a fuss. Ben writes:

If you're going to break the rules, piss of a bunch of big theater chains, and try to reshape the way entertainment is distributed, why not make a stink about it? There's nothing worse than rebelling in a way that people don't notice, or even care.

The first news of the digital release showed up on Gizmodo.

I'll be a guest this Friday afternoon on HubSpot.tv, talking about how filmmakers and other artists are using social media -- and some of the insights from my book Fans, Friends & Followers. You can watch it live on Friday at 4 PM Eastern/1 PM Pacific, or you can find it on iTunes later as a podcast. HubSpot is a company here in Boston that creates tools for Internet marketing -- among them are a set of graders that will evaluate your Web site, Facebook profile, or Twitter stream. Definitely worth checking out...

You can send in questions during the show on Twitter, or post anything you think I ought to mention as a great tool or good artist case study in the comments below.

WARNING! NSFW! CONTAINS PROFANITY. Well justified profanity, but not something you want your boss to hear coming from your computer while you are at work.

This is a small section from a documentary about Harlan Ellison called "DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH," that a company that I worked with did. GREAT documentary. He rants about how companies with money want to get content from creative people...for free. Very timely rant and fitting with a lot of stuff that is happening today.

I smell a future podcast episode, as something similar happened to me.

Go to www.dreamswithsharpteeth.com for more excerpts.

See the full trailer here.

New RadialWave offers endless animation options while the new H.U.D. filter delivers viewfinder looks from binoculars, weapon sights and cameras (Boston, Massachusetts--May 5, 2009) Noise Industries, developer of visual effects tools for the post-production and broadcast markets announced that development partner SUGARfx is releasing two new plug-in FxPacks; RadialWave and H.U.D. (Heads Up Display). FxFactory® powered FxPacks are designed by Noise Industries and their development partners to extend the visual effects capabilities of Adobe® After Effects® CS3 / CS4, Apple® Final Cut Studio® and Apple Final Cut® Express applications.

1,000 Highly Realistic Models and Texture Files for 100 Species of Plants and Trees Available (San Francisco, California--May 5, 2009) Architects and designers now have access to 100 species of Xfrog plants and trees that can be easily integrated into digital worlds and environments created with Autodesk 3ds Max Design modeling, animation and rendering software.

FreeForm AE Brings High-End Functionality to After Effects (Wilmington, North Carolina--May 5, 2009) Digieffects®, a developer of popular visual effects software plugins, today announced that FreeForm AE is available for purchase. FreeForm AE, a plugin for Adobe After Effects, is an intuitive and robust warping tool that allows users to manipulate a flat object into almost any shape using a mesh in 3D space.

(May 5, 2009) The documentary special "Expedition Grizzly," which aired May 3 on National Geographic Channel and features naturalist Casey Anderson and Brutus, the 800-pound bear that is his full-time companion, was produced with Panasonic's P2 HD solid-state camcorders. Production firm Grizzly Creek Films of Bozeman, Mont. used the AJ-HPX3000 native 1080p camcorder, AG-HPX500 2/3" shoulder-mount and handheld AG-HVX200 camcorders to capture Casey and Brutus exploring Yellowstone National Park and seeking out its isolated population of some 600 grizzly bears. The show was shot last spring to coincide with the Yellowstone bears coming out of hibernation.

Part of that interesting online is that a lot of the b-roll used in the cut is DVCPRO HD footage that a production manager shot. The fact that he shot it isn't interesting...how I am getting the master footage is. You see, he has the tapes, but he also captured this footage into the Avid at high resolution..DNxHD 175. And he had some MPEG-4 versions with timecode so he could shop it around as stock footage. The MPEG-4s is what we used in the offline cut, converted to DV.

But now that the online is upon me, I want the high res stuff. So I can either rent a deck or deal with the Avid files. We weren't going to rent a deck (money's tight) so I have to convert the Avid files.

I took the raw .mxf files and put them in an Avid file structure on my external FW drive. AVID MEDIA FILES>1>the files. I then opened Avid MC and made a new DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 project. I then opened the MEDIA TOOL and searched for the files...they showed up fine, because they were in the proper structure. See, with the Avid media files you need to do this, unlike FCP you can't just IMPORT the files...Avid won't allow that. You need to use the Media Tool. That is just how Avid rolls.

Anyway, I loaded the clips into a bin, then loaded them into the Preview Monitor, and exported them as DVCPRO HD QT files. They were now in the DVCPRO HD Avid codec. Meaning that you need the Avid codecs to view these files. Obviously I did. I checked the QT movies and they retained their original timecode.

So far so good, but I am not done yet. Now I need to convert these DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 files to ProRes 1080i 29.97...progressive to interlaced. So I took them into Compressor, loaded the ProRes 422 for Interlaced onto one of the clips, then modified it. I turned on the FRAME Controls and set things to BEST. Not ALL of them, a couple refer to de-interlacing, and I didn't want that. I needed them to be interlaced.

After I modified the settings I hit SUBMIT. The sytem estimated 7.5 hours. Fine, as I was leaving for the night. When I returned the next day, they were done. They retained their timecode, but now they were full raster 1920x1080 and 29.97...interlaced Compressor did a pretty good job.

OK, now to recapture the HDV footage.

RT=Re-Tweet...Twitter term, sorry. But I guess this is a RB...Re-Blog, as this tip comes from another blog, Final Cut User.

Anyway, this is a great little video tutorial on how to add metadata to your footage with Compressor. Nice. I'm all for passing along tips that OTHER people figured out too.

As I mentioned on THIS POST a week ago, I am faced with an interesting online. A mixed format timeline with ProRes (and I just found out, ProRes HQ), HDV and DV...and then stock footage that I need to capture from BetaSP and digibeta and upconvert to HD. The biggest issue was going to be finding what footage is what on the timeline, so that I can separate it out and recapture the DV and HDV as ProRes. The stock footage is very easy to spot, as it has visibe timecode on the clips. DV might be easy as it will look pretty low res in comparison to the rest, but the HDV clips won't be that easy to spot.

So how am I going to find all that footage and separate out what I need to recapture?

Well, Martin Baker of Digital Heaven e-mailed me saying that he had a tip that would help me tremendously. It was on page 56 of his new book, FINAL CUT PRO KILLER SECRETS, which I am allowed to share with you:

Finding Timeline Clips with Matching Attributes

This tip is useful for locating clips in a sequence that match certain
attributes such as being offline or a particular codec.
For example, when preparing a sequence for export to Color, clips that
aren’t running at 100% forwards speed will need to be exported and
replaced. Here’s how to identify those clips.

1 -Create a temporary bin in the current project.

2 - With the Timeline active, press Command-A to select all the clips in
the sequence and drag them to the temporary bin.

3 - If it’s not already visible, right-click on a column header and choose
the Speed column.

4 - Click on the Speed column header to sort the clips in the bin
by their speed.

5 - For each clip that isn’t 100% speed, open it into the Viewer then press
F to reverse match frame into the current sequence. The playhead will
move to show where the clip is used.

While this tip is for finding speed changes...also something that I need to do as I prep for Color, you can also use this to sort the footage by compression type or frame rate...any column heading. Sure enough that trick did the...uh...trick, and I am good to go.

Looking at the rest of this PDF (just glancing through) I am already learning a LOT of stuff I didn't know. I'll wager those timeline scrolling lock and Autosave Restore are in there too. If you are interested you can download a copy for only $19.00. This already has saved me that much in time.

Man that was a fairly simple trick...and the simple ones are always the best. Makes you go "why the heck didn't I think of that?"

I have added the FINALCUTTERS blog into my blogroll. Full of FCP news and tips from other blogs, including this one.

(thanks for the tip Martin.)

About a month or so ago we recorded a new That Post Show which was a 30 day follow-up to an earlier show about Avid’s Media Composer 3.5 announcements. A number of us on the show had been using the new MC version for a while and we had a great discussion that included two people from Avid there to chime in on the discussion and answer questions. The show is now online. Listen at that link or subscribe via iTunes (iTunes link).

New features, functionality and optimizations (Modena, Italy--May 4, 2009) IK Multimedia is proud to announce the immediate availability of AmpliTube Fender® 1.0.1 and AmpliTube X-GEAR 1.3.1 software updates, bringing new features, functionality and optimizations to AmpliTube Fender®, AmpliTube Fender® Studio and AmpliTube X-GEAR!

(New York--May 4, 2009) Manic, the New York-based studio for VFX, cutting-edge motion graphics and finishing services, has hired Bob Cagliero as Managing Director. An industry leader with award-winning experience in both production and advertising, Cagliero's career credits include founder and principal of commercial production company East-West Films; senior producer at Ogilvy & Mather, where he supervised global campaigns for top brands; and most recently executive producer at 89 Editorial, where he played a significant role in company growth and brand development. As Managing Director at Manic, Cagliero will be responsible for managing company operations, sales/marketing and overall expansion and brand development. He notes, "I am thrilled to be working with the group of talented artists and producers at Manic. I became immediately impressed with the comprehensive resources the company provides their clients through every dimension of visual effects, sound, web design and completion - all via state of the art technology attached to the highest level of creative standards. Equally exciting to me is the vision and energy the partners Michael Saia, Dee Tagert, Luis Moreno, and Barry Stilwell bring to table - they are truly devoted to a growth plan to successfully place Manic in the forefront of the design + visual effects industry."

Over on Andy Plesser's Beet.tv site (which covers the world of online video), they're running an excerpt from Fans, Friends & Followers that features JibJab founders Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, along with some video of Gregg that Andy shot last year.

Here's the video:

I don't think the news this week that Disney will contribute content to Hulu is any sort of death knell for iTunes.

Today, Hulu is there for viewing content when you've got a reliable Net connection (at home or in the dorm, for instance). But iTunes is there when you want to download content and watch it later on your laptop or iPod or iPhone -- usually when you're in motion.

One thing that Apple has succeeded at -- wildly -- is getting you to create an account, and hand over your credit card info. That enables you to make impulse buys of movies, apps, music, and TV shows. Even if Hulu had a long term plan to start selling downloads one day, in addition to streaming content with ads, getting viewers to cough up payment info is no small feat.

But Disney's link-up with Hulu signifies that clearly, media companies don't want to hand over control of their customers entirely to Apple.

Here's more analysis of the news, from the Wall Street Journal.

Last year at NAB (2008) I was working in the Matrox Booth. The MXO2 was announced, but not shipping. I was working in the booth at the MXO for FCP station, showing off how to make your Apple Cinema Display into a color correction monitor, and how the MXO displayed interlacing as well.

Well, other stations in the booth showed the MXO used in combination with Avid Media Composer. Avid? How did it work with the Avid? I thought only Avid hardware worked with Avid software. They showed me how it worked and it was pretty slick. Impressed all the Avid editors who saw it.

Then 6 months later I find myself working on an Avid. And then at one point I needed to work from home. When I found myself at home I figured, hey, why not check this thing out? I have an MXO. But the MXO took one of the DVI ports, and I still liked working with two monitors as workspaces. So what was I do to? I recalled that a station at the Matrox booth across from me showed off the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition. What this box did was take one DVI port and spread it across two monitors...increase the horizontal resolution from 1920 to 3840. This way you could put two monitors on one DVI port, and then the MXO on the other. So I ordered one.

When it arrived I got the TripleHead working with two monitors on the one DVI port. Then I put the MXO on the other DVI port. Now, the MXO does two things. First off, it passes through the computer video, allowing for another computer monitor. And second, when used with FCP, you can activate it to send a broadcast signal to an external monitor, either Apple or Dell display via DVI, or broadcast monitor via Component or SDI.

What we are going to be using is the first option...the MXO allowing passthrough for another computer monitor. While this allows passthrough via DVI, you might not know that it sends this signal out via Component, Composite and SDI as well. Because of this feature, this allows the MXO to be used on an Avid. The image isn't broadcast quality, but it is still full screen on an external HDTV or client monitor. And since most of the time you will be working with offline formats, like 15:1, or formats you capture via firewire, this is fine...it looks like poo anyway (well, 15:1 does).

HOW do you get this image onto the external monitor? Well, with this simple thing called TOGGLE FULL SCREEN. Go into the Avid Settings, click on this to open it up, drag it onto the monitor you want to use this with, and click SELECT MONITOR. Now when you activate this option your image will appear full screen.



Normally this allows you to play back the footage full screen on one of your computer monitors. Well, since the MXO allows playthrough of the computer image to another computer monitor, and out via SDI and Component, you can now send a full screen image out through the MXO to an external monitor. Doesn't matter if this is a computer monitor, like my Apple Display, or CRT monitor, like my PVM-14L5.

Would you like to see this? Here:



If you want to see it bigger, CLICK HERE.

As you can see, I have the image full screen on my Apple display via DVI, and on my HD CRT via Component. Now, because I can get this signal out via component, composite and SDI, I can now output to tape, or a DVD recorder. Not sure about deck control. I know you can get USB to RS-422 adapters, but I don't know if this will work with an Avid. I assume you can, as I did this with Media Log to log footage.

But that isn't something I tested this time. But, if it does work, this means that you can output rough cuts to tape. And have that nice big image on the client monitor. And you don't need the Avid hardware for this. $995 is a lot less than $4000 (Mojo DX). Bear in mind that the MXO does not capture, it is an output only device. And again, it is outputting a computer signal, so it isn't full quality. This will not output full res to master. But it is great as a client monitor box. If you have multiple edit systems, you can get one Nitris or Mojo to capture the footage, and the rest can use the MXO (in cobination with the TripleHead2Go) to get the image out to a client monitor.

Heck, this will even work on an iMac, since the iMac can run the Avid software, and it has a DVI out...perfect for the MXO. That makes this one heck of a versatile box.