We mentioned perpendicular recording hard drives last year (read that link for technical details on PMR). Well, it’s not just a buzzword anymore. Hitachi recently announced 2.5″ models that utilize perpendicular recording, and now Seagate has leaked info on new SATA 750GB versions in their Barracuda line. Dude. Sweet.

Seagate claims an access time of 4.16ms, and 78 Mbytes/sec maximum sustained transfer rate. That is pretty damn fast. Fast enough to wonder if they are padding the stats. We shall soon see…

This is the first fullsize (3.5″) drive to support vertical-bit storage (i.e. perpendicular recording). And the advantages of perpendicular storage are immediately evident…it’s 750GB in a single drive! Bear in mind of course that due to the totally incompatible way an OS sees drive space vs the way drive space is marketed, your ACTUAL net capacity on a 750GB drive is a lot closer to 700GB. Not that I’m
complaining or anything…

(Via Slashdot)

Broadcast Wave Format workflow in Final Cut Pro is apparently not well documented. Over at Ken Stone’s FCP site, Clay Coleman does a good job explaining the workflow and advantages of BWF in FCP.

(Thanks, Ken!)

Those planning picking up one of the first new HD-DVD players on Tuesday may have to wait a bit longer. Online retailers Best Buy and Amazon.com are revising availability and ship dates.

(Via Slashdot)

TVTechnology is running a feature on the Ampex Mark IV VTR prototype, the very first videotape recorder which debuted 50 years ago. Historic, inspirational, and a very interesting read.

Wikipedia has info on the recorder and the 2-inch media it used.

(Via Slashdot)

Steve Douglas has posted a review of Vector Key 2.0 over at Ken Stone’s excellent Final Cut Pro website. Vector Key is a plugin for FCP and FCE created by a fairly new company called Oak Street Software. The software plugin is a paltry $59.00, and the reviewer seems to like it.

Apologies to FresHDV regulars for the dearth of fresh content. I’ve been swamped with projects and unable to devote much time to updates and news. John Lennon once said “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”

A lot has happened lately, and I’m having to play catch up. First off, we’ve added another member to the FresHDV team, Kendal Miller of Chicago-based LMPStudios is now onboard and blogging. Welcome, Kendal!

In (semi) current news and updates, Sony decided against downsampling Blu-ray content for analog HDTV users (read: “punishing legacy users”), and other studios have followed suit.

TDK is shipping Blu-ray blanks, and you can supposedly buy Blu-ray burner-equipped desktops and notebooks from Fujitsu in June.
Or when hell freezes over, whichever comes first…

Due to a error at Best Buy, some guy in California managed to buy a HD-DVD player a little early. Considering the stiff $500 pricetag, I can’t decide who really got the last laugh in that situation…

16X9 has announced a remote “follow focus” type system for the HVX200. Hard to explain. Go. Read.

Red Giant’s Film Fix software is now cross-platform, with versions available for both Mac and Windows versions of After Effects.

HD For Indies/Mike Curtis has been posting on The Big Texas HD Test, coverage at DVinfo as well. Mike has tons more notes at HD For Indies, that link is just the announcement.

Apple shipped Final Cut Studio 5.1 (universal binary version), and it was quickly discovered that MacIntels are faster than PPC Mac hardware on some important photo and video-related tasks.

Popwire is shipping MacIntel-compatible WMV playback software.

DVGuru is looking for bloggers. No mention of how much the positions will pay, though I’ve read elsewhere unofficial rumors of the standard weblogsinc pay rate. YMMV…

Another review of the Canon XL H1, this one slightly less technical and more operational/logistics.

Apple released a BETA multiple-os-boot-loader, Boot Camp. Awesome! It is eating some hard drive partitions. Un-Awesome! Too bad it’s BETA software and unsupported…might think twice before installing on mission-critical machines.

Ted Schilowitz has just left AJA and joined the RED Digital Cinema team. Mike Curtis has an exclusive interview that covers Ted’s move and what that means for RED. Also some details and an update on what to expect from RED at NAB, namely:

*As expected, RED is further nailing down and revising specific target specs. The assumption is that certain things have been dropped, but Ted says “…4K/2K/1080p/720p are all still in there.” That’s good.

*At NAB they will have a 20′ square booth (SU1401) where they will show prototypes of the RED camera body and workflow, and “…things that really shock the world and shock the competition…”. They will probably reveal pricing as well, and an encouraging comment is Ted’s “…the time is right to prove a digital cinema camera can be created at a viable price point…..and deliver something that is viable for a full spectrum of users.”

*The vaunted RED codec is still in development, but Ted hints at it being wavelet based.

*”Mysterium”, the image sensor “is under development” (and based on the name, perhaps Harry Potter is the chosen manufacturer? ;-) I keed, I keed…)

*Ted dodges Mike’s question about lenses and pricing, saying only “Check with us at NAB.” But if you consider that optics are probably the simplest part of this camera for the Oakley-experienced team to knock out, I think we’ll see RED or Oakley branded lens offerings at the NAB booth.

My favorite quote from the interview was this one (in reference to the camera): “This thing is so f**ing wicked cool - this thing will knock your socks off, this thing is like no other camera that has ever been built.”

And I sincerely hope Ted is right. NAB should be interesting.

FresHDV Test Bench Review
Audio Hijack Pro
By Kendal Miller
April 12, 2006

$32 - $70
Rogue Amoeba
www.rogueamoeba.com

Recently while looking for a way to alter and EQ my speakers and boost the gain (to get even more from my sound card on my Mac G5), I found a neat little app entitled called Audio Hijack Pro. Essentially this little app allows you to route the audio from any application to their software before it goes to the computer speakers. This gives you a complete set of inline tools ranging from EQ to gain control, as well as format conversion and recording of that same audio stream.

So whether you want to tweak a little more volume from iTunes or recapture an online audio source, this is the app to check out. The demo is free and completely functional allowing recording times of up to 10 mins. If longer recordings are desired you will need to purchase a license, which is available for $32 at the same site. At the time of this short review there is currently no solution available for the Windows platform.

As a new owner of the HVX200 I have been following the developments of this new camera with much interest. This week DVXuser.com unveiled what I believe will be the first of several user “hacks” to tweak even more performance out of this already stellar camera. Essentially one of the users used the text files which store the user preset data for scene files on a memory card, and altered the code to unlock a complete additional set of variable frame rates including speeds as low as 2FPS which when combined with an altered shutter angle opens the door to create images representative of slow shutter speeds created by traditional still photographers. All in all I believe what I find most exciting is the fact that end users are taking the tools available and creating even more opportunity to advance this camera, pushing the envelope even further in the name of creating great imagery. So don’t be surprised to see even more hacks and updates made available as this camera finds its way into the hands of more and more people.

No time to process all the fascinating stuff that Mike Curtis has been posting, so if you have the time to you should check out HD For Indies.
When I get a chance to assimilate some more of the details, you can bet that I’ll be posting my thoughts. I can say this…as I suspected, Mike and his cohorts have done a stellar job with this test, and much will be revealed as a result of the hard work. Great job, guys!

DVGuru points to a handy website that offers Motion resources and training.

Shane Ross tracked down a PCI-based PCMCIA card reader from SSIG, Inc, which of course will be able to read P2 cards. The only problem is that being a PCI card, it naturally is installed in one of the G5 PCI slots…which means you’ll need access to the back of your computer to swap P2 cards. I suppose if you need it you’ll make do. I did a little preliminarey checking, and the reader is listing for around $50 at various online stores. SIIG’s product page has links for where to buy.

They’ve wrapped Day 1 of the Austin, TX HD camera shootout, and it sounds like a long one. Mike Curtis has posted an overview of the prep involved for the shootout and a rundown of the days events. From Mike’s synopsis, it sounds like it has been a royal PITA to pull all the gear and equipment together. My hat is off to him and those that made it possible…

Today’s shoot covered charts and dynamic range testing. Tomorrow (yeah, well today actually) they’ll be shooting talent and doing motion studies, etc. “Today was all static tests, tomorrow’s motion tests will tax the MPGE-2 codecs much more heavily…..Talent was told to bring camera unfriendly attire - we WANT to see how bad reds bleed, strips jitter, etc. to see which ones work best. So test footage won’t be pretty, but it’ll be informative.”

Here’s some quickies that Mike has posted, just the stuff that caught my eye.

*”We basically shot charts for all cameras in various frame modes (24p or closest metric equivalent (24F, CineFrame, 50i, and 60i/60p). Then we set up and lit and shot high dynamic range test shots, shooting one camera at a time from the same sticks to minimize angle variance.”
*”HVX200 wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, confirming earlier reports.”
*”XL H1 HD-SDI contains neither timecode nor audio…” 24F mode results in loss vert res, but it “looks pretty darned good.” That might be the highest praise from a Texan…
*”AJA HD10A rocks - used it on GY-HD100U in 720p59.94p mode, and on Z1U in 1080i59.94, and HVX200 in 1080i mode.”
*Cameras that do 24p “fakey” mode spit out “HD Analog as 1080i60 - NOT 1080pSF” (means post-production pulldown removal).

Mike has also posted a gallery of annotated photos from Day 1.

All in all, this shootout looks like it’s going to provide some very informative test results. I’m impressed by what they’ve accomplished so far, and I’m really looking forward to more data as they have time to ingest and post it. I see this shootout as really seperating what each camera does best. There is no one camera for every situation, many times we’re forced to make compromises and pick on that best fits the need of a project. Hopefully we’ll have some nice solid test results from the work these guys have done that will help make that equipment selection process a lot more intuitive.

Mike Curtis, Adam Wilt and Chris Hurd are testing cameras this weekend in Austin, TX. Mike has been planning this test for months, it’s good to see them finally able to make this happen. They’ll be putting the following cameras through their paces, side by side:

Sony Z1U
Panasonic HVX200
JVC GY-HD100U
Canon XL H1
Sony F350 (the new XDCAM HD, the nicer of the two)
Panasonic Varicam

Of particular interest to me in this test is the addition of the F350 XDCAM HD. Should be interesting to see how this new camera compares. I have the utmost respect for the three main people involved in this test, I believe that we are going to see careful, well-documented analysis and clearly understandable results that will help all of us make informed decisions on equipment purchases.

Apple has released a public beta of “Boot Camp”, an elegant boot loader that greatly simplifies the process of dual-booting Windows XP on Intel Mac hardware. The software will also be included in the next operating system release, Mac OS X Leopard.

The software provides drivers and handles any issues with Windows non-support of EFI, and it appears that Apple couldn’t resist making a jab at Windows in the process…
“EFI and BIOS
Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.”

If there was ever a time for fence-sitters to dive into the Mac platform, that time is now.

(Via Slashdot)