Quick update: FreshDV had a crew at Cine Gear this past weekend and we captured a number of video interviews and info on new gear. We’ll have the first videos up very soon and will be posting the remainder throughout the week. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if any readers attended Cine Gear and wish to share, please do so in the comments. I’ll promote any interesting info to posts.

HDFilmTools has an interview with Jeff Youel, President of Wafian Corporation. They discuss the Wafian HR-F1 Direct-to-Disk field recorder, a portable unit that records from HD-SDI in 10-bit 4:2:2 Cineform Intermediate Codec. The HR-F1 can capture up to 10 hours of 24p footage utilizing Cineform.

B&H has posted an article entitled a “Basic Guide to Understanding EQ,” and it looks to be a useful resource for anyone without an audio background. They cover the basics of frequency high/band/low pass and shelving filters, and the difference between a graphic and parametric equalizer systems. You can read the article here.

aspectRatio is a simple little freeware utility for Mac OS 10.5 users that takes the guesswork out of resolution and framesizes. It quickly and cleanly calculates what the appropriate aspect should be for commonly used as well as custom ratios. You can snag a copy here.

Veteran filmmaker Oliver Peters has written 3000+ words on the subject of resolution in digital cinema, and why he believes it to be a false dichotomy in the image quality discussion. Says Oliver:

“… I have spent several decades working in all sorts of image formats, resolutions and display technologies. From this experience, I can say that often the supposed resolution of the sensor, as expressed in pixels, has very little to do with how the image looks. I see a lot of folks online expressing the desire to finish in 4K, without any understanding of the real world cost or desirability of 4K post and distribution. Not to mention the fact that true 4K theatrical displays are quite a few years off, if for no other reason than the lack of financial incentive for major theater chains to convert all their 35mm film projection to something like Sony’s SRX-series digital cinema projectors. So in spite of an interest on the part of content producers to see 4K presentation venues, the reality is that high-resolution-originated product will continue to end up being viewed on various displays, from web movies to SD and HD television up to film projection and/or digital cinema projection at 2K or less.”

He then goes in-depth on the history of digital cinema, and the myriad other factors besides resolution that contribute to an image. Much in the vein of our syndication of Panavision’s Demystifying Digital Cinema video series, this is a very interesting read.

(Via HDFilmTools)

Larry Jordan over at HDFilmTools has written a first impressions review of the latest version of MC from Avid.

“Ever the digital editing daredevil, I decided to do the upgrade right in the middle of locking a feature film. (Actual stunt editor. NOT recommended for sane users)…”

“I start putting 3.0 through it’s paces and at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it is ROCKING. No latency, no glitchiness, (my word, Colbert) picture quality is noticeably and substantially better and the playhead is slicing through multi-layer, real-time effects and title comps like “butta”. I’ve got reels with 20 audio tracks, 3-5 video tracks, I’m deleting, re-patching, copying and pasting, I make tons of cuts and changes and Media Composer doesn’t flinch once. I start getting a warm and fuzzy feeling and think, this is a beautiful thing. These guys have really done their homework.”

Convergent Design has announced a compact, lightweight recorder solution for HD-SDI camcorder taps. Much like it’s big brother the Flash XDR, the new nanoFlash recorder utilizes commodity CompactFlash media to capture high-quality Sony 4:2:2 MPEG2 video with embedded audio. The unit is a diminutive 4.2″ x 3.7″ x 1.4″ in size, and can be powered by standard camera batteries. Press release follows:

“The camera-mountable nanoFlash, a miniaturized version of the award winning Flash XDR, has two CF card slots and embedded audio support only (see Flash XDR for analog audio I/O + four CF slots). nanoFlash can be powered from a camcorder battery (6.5 to 20V) and records 1080i60/50, 1080p30/25/24 or 720p60/50 at full-raster (1920×1080i/p and 1280×720p) 4:2:2 MPEG2 at 50/100 Mbps (Long-GOP) or 100/160 Mbps (I-Frame only). As both a recorder and player, nanoFlash sports HD-SDI I/O as well as LTC-in, RS-232/485 (remote control) and a power/start/tally-light connector. High-quality MPEG2 video and up to eight-channels of embedded audio and time-code can be stored in the MXF format using the FAT32 file system. nanoFlash seamlessly records and plays back across the two CompactFlash cards.

32GB Compact Flash cards, available for US $135 each (about 1/10 the cost of other professional video cards), enable 140/70 minutes of record time of high-quality 50/100Mbps 4:2:2 footage (per load of two cards). (Note: bit-rates above 100Mbps require the 300X 16GB CF cards for US$216 each). Unlike Firewire based hard-disk recorders, which merely copy the native camera video quality, nanoFlash can encode a live camera’s “never-compressed” HD-SDI output to a much higher quality – higher bit-rate with less compression, eliminating most of the mosquito noise and blurring artifacts. Full-raster 1920×1080 (as opposed to 1440×1080 or 1280×1080) processing, coupled with 4:2:2 color (instead of 4:2:0), greatly improves horizontal resolution as well as keying and compositing operations. Unique features such as 24p pull-down removal, image flip, time-lapse recording and RAID1 redundant recording capability (automatic backup) further enhance the workflow.

nanoFlash eliminates the need for costly tape decks. A daisy-chain of up to four stackable Lexar Firewire-800 UDMA CompactFlash readers (total cost = US $240) is the only “deck” required. Editors now have direct access to up to 280 minutes of 50 Mbps 4:2:2 footage (four CF cards) from their NLE timeline, without copying to their hard-drive. High performance (330 Mbps read-speed), coupled with very low access times (0.4 mS) enable up to four streams of 50 Mbps playback from the NLE timeline.

“nanoFlash is a fantastic addition to virtually all HD-SDI based cameras, offering high-quality recording / playback and enabling a tapeless workflow on low-cost CompactFlash media,” noted Mike Schell President of Convergent Design. Additionally, finished projects can be archived by recording back to nanoFlash via the HD-SDI out from an NLE. The file(s) can then be copied from CF cards to a Blu-ray disk for long-term storage (a 50GB Blu-ray disk at US$35 holds 60 minutes of visually lossless 100 Mbps 4:2:2 Long-GOP video).

nanoFlash includes a special +5V output tap for powering HDMI ? HD-SDI (nanoConnect) or HD-SDI ? HDMI (nanoView) converters. These converters can be mounted on the backside of nanoFlash enabling recording from HDMI based cameras or playback to HDMI/DVI monitors and projectors for presentations, museums, and client review, etc.

nanoFlash can be further enhanced with an ASI I/O firmware upgrade (pricing TBD). ASI I/O (MPEG2 TS) enables use of nanoFlash in HD ENG/EFP (live news coverage) and video over IP applications. Programmable bit-rates from 17.5 to 100 Mbps easily support microwave and satellite transmissions.”

Expected MSRP for the nanoFlash is $3495 USD, and the target ship date is September, 2008. More info at www.convergent-design.com

Digital Heaven has released a sweet little freeware app for Mac users that might just save your sanity. Disksomnia is an application that keeps your hard drives from spinning down and sleeping, keeping you ready to edit at a moment’s notice! (just as soon as you stop procrastinating and step away from the fridge)

In theory, unchecking this option in the System Preferences > Energy Saver pane should stop disks from going to sleep. However some disks ignore this setting and will still go to sleep if they haven’t been accessed for a few minutes.

Disksomnia solves this problem by giving external disks a gentle poke every five minutes if Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express is running.

You can snag your copy of Disksomnia here. Hint: Click the “Get Freeware” link.

Think that the job of a colorist is overrated? Take a look at this amazing series of images and then report back if you still feel the same way. This is a fantastic example of how critical this part of post-production can be. For more discussion on the topic, check out this post.

If you aren’t up to date on Sony’s HVR-Z7U camcorder, here’s a short video that should rectify that. Midtown Video has created a fantastic overview of the camera and featureset that quickly addresses all the major points and should bring new users and those considering the camera up to speed.

The Leatherman Skeletool looks to be a nice addition to the production toolkit. A built-in carabiner allows you to clip the 5 oz gadget to your side for easy access. There’s also a bitdriver available as soon as you flip the tool open, and an assortment of replacement bit options available. Popular Mechanics did a writeup on the Skeletool back before it was released.