Wednesday, August 20, 2008

RED module added to upcoming Sacramento Final Cut Pro training

Due to popular demand, Larry Jordan is adding time to the tapeless media portion of his training to specifically talk about ingesting and editing RED media.

Silverado is hosting Larry Jordan's North American Seminar Tour for two days of jam-packed Final Cut Pro training in the Sacramento area on September 8th and 9th.

We now have a seminar discount code for registration. Enter the code SILVER8 upon registration at www.larryjordan.biz/seminar and you'll get 10% off the course registration fee.

Different than the other locations, each registrant for the Sacramento training will get a free Final Cut Pro keyboard cover--your choice of desktop or laptop cover.

We'll also have a large sampler of RED media for participants to copy and take home--just bring a hard drive and we'll copy it off for you.

Best of all, each participant will get a free entry into OpenCut 3.

This is our 3rd year hosting Larry in Folsom and he always gets rave reviews for the technical material along with his witty presentation and sage wisdom. I highly recommend anyone looking to sharpen up their FCP skills to attend these courses.

Register today at www.larryjordan.biz/seminar

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

AJA posts updated 6.0 software for Kona 3 and Io HD

Just got this in from AJA!

Io HD and KONA v6.0 Software Now Available. VTR Xchange v4.0 Application Now Available.

AJA has now released the anticipated 6.0 drivers for the Io HD and KONA products. They are available for download from the AJA website. Additionally, AJA has also posted a new version of the VTR Xchange application to the website. Details regarding these releases are outlined below.

Io HD New Features
  • Additional format support for true progressive formats in 1080
  • Additional format support for intermediate formats
  • Added Audio Delay for Input and Audio Delay for Output controls
  • Stand Alone Mode enabled
  • Io HD LCD display now allows users to choose between the display of primary and secondary video formats or the primary video format and timecode
  • Io HD now a FireWire "plug and play" device (can now be connected or disconnected to host computer without rebooting to recognize device)
  • Active Video Output Filter added
Io HD Improvements and Fixes:
  • Component and composite now provide simultaneous output
  • General improvements to A/V sync performance
  • General improvements for multi-user environments
KONA New Features
  • RED Support added (KONA 3)
  • For more details on KONA 3 support for RED workflows, consult the version 6.0 manual, page 24.
PLEASE NOTE: When working with RED Easy Setups, AJA recommends changing the Dynamic RT setting to "Unlimited RT" for the best playback results.

Active Video Output Filter added (KONA 3 and KONA LH)

KONA Improvements and Fixes
  • 64 bit firmware update (KONA 3)
  • General improvements to A/V sync performance (entire KONA product line)
  • Custom LUT support now implemented for dual link output in addition to single link output (KONA 3)
  • General improvements for multi-user environments (entire KONA product line)

VTR Xchange v4.0 New Features
  • Multi-channel discrete audio output via new Audio Routing feature
  • Batch capture feature added
  • PLEASE NOTE: VTR Xchange does not offer batch logging and capture, only batch capture from a pre-existing batch list
  • Apple script support added
  • Support for playback of 23.98 fps movie files at 29.97 fps or 59.94 fps
VTR Xchange 4.0 Improvements and Fixes
  • RP-188 and LTC timecode is now displayed in the main window during capture
  • General UI enhancements
Please read the release notes for more details on Io HD and KONA v6.0 software and VTR Xchange 4.0 Application.

NOTE: There is important configuration and installation information contained in the READ-ME for both the KONA and Io HD software releases, so please be sure to read it completely.

The new v6.0 KONA and Io HD software is further proof of our commitment to build value and refinement into our Desktop products. KONA and Io HD offer professional features not found anywhere else, and our products are the most reliable and best supported solutions for any type of post-production work!

KONA v6.0, Io HD v6.0 and v4.0 VTR Exchange software can be found here:

http://www.aja.com/html/support_swd.html

Monday, August 18, 2008

OpenCut presentation at Sac Film & Music Festival

I was honored to be invited by the board at Sacramento Film & Music Festival to talk about OpenCut and screen the top three entries.

I talked about RED vs. Film workflow and went over how RED material made a 35mm editing competition possible.

The coolest part of the presentation was seeing three cuts of "Susannah" shown on a 40-foot screen at full res 1920x1080 HD.

I played back ProRes files from my MacBook Pro equipped with a G-Tech G-SPEED eS connected via an ExpressCard. It worked flawlessly.

I was really excited that Sean Wells--one of the top editors--was able to make it to the panel to answer questions about the editing experience. He offlined his version "Susannah" on a MacBook with FCP, then onlined his final version on an octo-Mac with Adobe After Effects.

It was such a good experience that we've been asked to repeat the presentation at an upcoming Capital Film Arts meeting. If you missed the first presentation, we'd love to see you around for the next one.