ATI claims that their Avivo Video Converter application, in concert with an ATI X1000-series GPU, can convert H.264 video up to 80% faster than other converters.

“ATI’s Avivo Video Converter can take a 30 minute recorded show, and convert it into a format playable by an iPod in less than 5 minutes. It can cut the conversion time by 80% or more. When compared to competitive solutions, the Avivo Video Converter easily beats them.”

I wish they had named the competitive solutions…in the comparison chart, they simply list ‘em as “Competitor”. Though I’m sure we’ll see plenty of head-to-head reviews soon enough.

We mentioned Avivo technology several months ago before it was widely released, glad to see it’s now available for the rest of us.

(Via Camcorderinfo)

Video editing is a mainly sedentary task, unless you happen to be Walter Murch and prefer to edit while standing. Personally, I’ve not yet found a affordable editing workstation that would work well for both standing and sitting tasks. Until then I sit…but I digress.

Time Out! is an application for Apple OSX editors that periodically reminds you to take a quick break.

“Time Out! has two kinds of breaks: a “Normal” break, typically for 10 minutes after 50 minutes of work, so you can move about and relax, plus a “Micro” break: a very brief pause of typically 10 seconds every 10 minutes, so you can remember not to tense up too much for long periods.”

The program notifications are configureable to either slowly dim the screen, play a sound, or even run a program or script of your choice. It’s freeware, and looks to be a great help to those of use that sometimes get lost in an edit.

Whether or not you use a program like Time Out!, try to remember to stand up, get a drink (make mine a double), take a walk, whatever. Just take a break from the computer every so often, it will clear your mind and it’s better for your body.

What are some of the things you do to take breaks from editing and other production tasks? What tips can you offer to help an editor stay productive, alert and healthy? Leave a comment, or five…

(Via LifeHacker)

Camcorderinfo recently linked us to new Delkin archival media…and they are on the scene again with news of Verbatim archival-quality DVD media.

Synopsis: It’s a DVD blank that’s hard to scratch, and you store stuff on it. Enough info, right? If you insist on reading more you can check out this press release.

Idiotprogrammer has a great post on how to better fit in at the South by Southwest conference. Funny and insightful at the same time. Things that make you go “hmmm…” It’s timely info, as the conference started yesterday.

Oh, and in slightly related news…Mike Curtis is back. And he’s looking for a venue to screen The Big Camera Test, since the one scheduled at SXSW fell through.

JC Cam is a specialized camera mount that allows the talent to kick, punch, and otherwise abuse the camera. As such, it adds a whole new element of first-person realism to boxing and fighting scenes. Take a look at that link, there’s a video of the rig in action. Looks pretty sweet.

The Hollywood Reporter has a writeup on the rig as well, here’s a quick snippet:
“To begin, they modified an Arri 3 film camera, mounted with an anamorphic lens, and put it behind clear Lexan, a plastic tough enough that a fighter actually can connect with it. The Lexan prevents a punch or kick from directly hitting the lens via a specially devised spring-mounted compression system on rods, much like a shock-absorbing system found on an automobile.

The entire rig is supported by a wearable mount that distributes the impact of the blows through the shoulders and around the hips of the camera operator. And instead of precariously peering through a optical viewfinder while taking hits during a fight, the rig is mounted with a small video assist monitor so the operator can view the action safely.”

The camera mount will be used in filming “From Mexico With Love” this summer.

(Via CinemaTech)

Creative! This is a great way to teach kids (hey, and adults too!) editing concepts in a digital age. It’s a software tool that turns your video into scene cards, storyboards sorta, and you use the cards to physically layout your footage. Pretty neat idea.

(Via Unmediated)

Red Giant Software, makers of the popular cross-platform Magic Bullet look suite plugins has released a new software tool called Instant HD. Instant HD 1.0 is pretty simple in scope, it takes standard definition video and magically uprezzes it to one of several high definition resolutions.

“Instant HD up-converts DV video into a variety of HD video formats. You can choose from a list of preset resolutions to make it easy to integrate DV video into your next High Definition production. When scaling from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD), the missing pixels must be generated in an intelligent way. Instant HD provides a high-quality method for converting SD sources to HD within your favorite video application.

IMPORTANT NOTE The product is specifically designed to work with progressive (non-interlaced) images. That means that if you are starting with interlaced video such as a standard Sony PD150 DVCAM capture, you will need to convert the image to progressive in the host application before applying Instant HD.”

I recently saw Douglas Spotted Eagle of the Sundance Media Group make mention of this software in a DVinfo forum post:
“I’d wager that roughly 8-10 hours a day of my daily life involves downconverting, with maybe 10 hours per week in upconverting depending on the client, so I’m pretty comfortable with most of the tools, having experimented with virtually all of them in hardware and software. Sony Vegas, Algolith, and Red Giant are all wonderful software tools. I use Vegas most of the time, but occasionally use Algolith if I end up working AE.”

The software sells for $99.00 and is available for Apple Final Cut Pro 4.1+, Adobe Premiere Pro v1.5+, and Adobe After Effects 6.0+ hosts. There is a free demo download available as well.

(Via DVGuru)

Digital Media Net has a review of the new Dolgin Engineering TC 400 charger for small(er/ish) camcorder batteries.

At $495.00 for the unit, the TC 400 certainly isn’t cheap. But it offers many features you simply won’t find in standard chargers, and the charge time-savings alone may warrant the Dolgin a necessary purchase for some. Consider too that the optional $99.00 TDM discharge module can help prolong battery cell life by completely discharging the battery prior to a charge. The charger supports batteries from all kinds of camcorders from the Sony VX-2000 to the JVC GY-HD100 and more, through the use of interchangeable charging plates. Overall, it’s an intriguing product, and from the pics, it looks to be built like a tank.

The reviewer, Douglas Spotted Eagle of the Sundance Media Group and VASST, also seems to think it’s a worthy investment:
“…this is one of those “gotta have” tools for a working shooter, as the benefits far outweigh the costs. With battery charging time cut nearly in half, accurate feedback on the level of charge, 12 volt vehicle charge ability, access to AC power for the camcorder during charging, and ability to charge up to four batteries at the same time, it’s difficult to think of a reason that one wouldn’t want to have this unit sitting in their studio or production storage room.”

You can order the TC 400 charger from the Dolgin website.

Last week we posted an example of a smooth and well-planned P2 shooting workflow. Well, Shane Ross has just posted Part3 of his quickly growing tutorial series on P2 production. In this edition, he goes into detail how the production team used the P2 Store card reader/hard drive to dump the contents of P2 cards quickly, before being copied off to external disk storage.

One interesting thing Shane mentions is how much simpler it is to mount and copy files from the P2 store on PC vs a Mac. (This isn’t any fault of OSX, per se, but rather the design and operation of the P2 store. Seeing things like this and the fact that there is no P2 Viewer for the Mac, it seems that the P2 development team must have been largely PC-based…)

And at the bottom of Shane’s post, you’ll find tips for importing P2 footage into FCP, as well as video tutorial on the subject he’s created for ProAppTips. Excellent info, many thanks to Shane for taking the time to relay his experiences.

Ran across this link at DVXuser…it’s a hybrid tool called The CamTransporter.

It’s a Segway-type transporter with the upper portion chopped off and knee braces installed. It allows a Steadicam operator to smoothly ride at speeds up to 13mph, and to steer and control the whole thing hands-free with only slight body movements. They claim the CamTransporter will travel either 9 or 21 miles on a single LION battery charge, depending on the model you choose.

The website has some videos of the device and operator in action, as well as a photo gallery that includes a shot of the Father of the Steadicam, Garrett Brown himself.

The CamTransporter can be rented or purchased, however the website lists no prices.

Apple has released an 18-page PDF entitled “Workflow for Final Cut Pro and the Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camera” that covers, umm, the workflow for…yeah, I think you get the general idea.

The white-paper covers various issues, I’ve listed below a few topics and subtopics that caught my eye:
P2 Cards and Card-Reading Devices
Capturing vs. Ingesting
Shooting Modes and Formats
Working with P2 Footage
Offloading Clips from the HVX200
Importing P2 Footage into Final Cut Pro
Using Log and Capture for P2 Footage
Outputting a P2 Project
Workflow Tips

(Via DVGuru)

Cinematech is reporting that The Rochester Institute of Technology “is probably the first university to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Cinema.”

Hasn’t Lucas already exhibited BS in Digital Cinema? Oh wait, that’s a different thing entirely…

Here’s a handy little widget. The Daily Grind widget is a simple project time-tracker for freelancers, or anyone that wants to keep an eye on time-on-task. The author is careful to state that this is not a full-fledged time tracking application, it’s mainly aimed at those who just need a quick and easy way to keep track of things better.

“TheDailyGrind provides a unified interface that offers a quick and simple way of keeping an accurate track of the tasks you perform with a minimum of fuzz and distraction. No more scattered stickynotes, textdocuments, spreadsheets or napkins. Just peace of mind and focus on the task at hand.

TheDailyGrind lets you add as many trackers as you need (currently limited only by vertical screen real estate), label them accordingly and start and pause them as you see fit.”

(Via DVGuru)

Freesound has teamed up with M-Audio and others for it’s “Earth, Wind, Fire and Water” competition.

“You have to upload at least 4 samples, each one themed as one of the elements. You have to record or synthesise these samples, one for “earth”, one for “wind”, one for “water” and one for “fire”.”

The winner takes home a M-Audio Microtrack, Soundman OKM Binaural Microphones kit, and Izotope Ozone Mastering Processors software. That’s a yummy little package.

In related news, Camcorderinfo reported recently that Freesound has added Geotagging, a feature that integrates with Google Maps to locate sound samples based on geographical origin. It’s a pretty sweet interface.

And of course, we’re reported on Freesound and the M-Audio Microtrack in the past.

Sony has updated it’s venerable CineAlta line of 24p-capable HD cameras with the announcement of the new HDW-F900R.

“This new camcorder features a more compact and lighter chassis, HD-SDI outputs and new accessory boards for slow shutter, image inversion and down conversion with 3:2 pull-down. The HDW-F900R model can also take advantage of the optional video cache feature of Sony’s HDW-730/750 camcorder series, giving this new camcorder even more production flexibility.”

“…features three 2.2 megapixel CCDs, 12-bit DSP, and has the same optical axis as its predecessor model with virtually identical image-making capabilities.”

Sony says the HDW-F900R will be available in July, for a mere $79,900 bones. Thank god for rentals.