Fixing Final Cut Pro...the Bob Zelin Way

I saw a particularly good post from Bob Zelin on FCP-L about trashing preferences and resetting FCP, especially if you are having difficulty with an AJA card:

Trash your preferences. You must do this "all the way".

This is how to delete the Final Cut Pro preferences:

Quit Final Cut Pro.

on your MAC internal hard drive, navigate to /users/yourloginname/library/preferences, and delete this file - com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist

navigate to
/user/yourloginname/library/preferences/FinalCutProUserData
and delete these three files -
Final Cut Pro 6.0 Preferences
Final Cut Pro Obj Cache
Final Cut Pro Prof Cache

thats is ! Relaunch Final Cut Pro, and you will be "starting from scratch".

Now, launch FCP. Right away, to to EASY SETUPS. Choose an EASY SETUP that relates to the AJA Kona LHi drivers, not 8 bit uncompressed or DV/NTSC, or something like that. Choose something like AJA Kona NTSC 8 bit uncompressed, etc. OK, now CREATE A NEW SEQUENCE (file>new sequence), and click on this new sequence. Try to open up color bars on your timeline from the film strip. Do you see color bars ? Is it on your TV ? Go to VIEW>EXTERNAL VIDEO>ALL FRAMES. Is it on your TV ?

If the answer is still NO, then your FCP install is corrupt and you must reinstall FCP.

Of course--you follow this at your own risk and if you toss the wrong file its your responsibility. However, I've done this before with positive results.

The Pros I Know - Ryan Todd

Ryan Todd - Director extraordinaire: http://www.director-ryantodd.com

The Pros I Know - Nick Trivundza

Nick Trivundza - fantastic motion graphics guy

http://www.naissance.tv

This pretty much sums up 2009...

Terence Curren from www.alphadogs.tv just sent these wishes out. I think it sums up 2009 very well.

As this year draws to a close, I am taking this opportunity to once again thank all of you who make this a group effort.

2009 will be remembered as a very tough year for most of us. Many changes in our industry, combined with a painful recession combined to create a challenging environment to say the least. Those who have survived, are stronger for it. And to those who have left this industry, I wish you well.

2010 promises to be another challenging year that will present both hardship and opportunity. I hope for all of you to find the latter and prosper in new and interesting ways.

It will be interesting to see what hardships and opportunities arise in 2010...

tl

The Pros I Know - Eric Maddox

Eric Maddox - awesome editor, motion gfx, shooter with a great eye: http://bit.ly/5A9qOe

CONFLICT ALERT! Autodesk Smoke and RED Rocket

Please make sure you're aware of the following conflict before installing Autodesk Smoke (demo or full version) on your RED Rocket system.

Smoke requires native 64-bit OS whereas RED Rocket drivers works in 32-bit space. So, if you install Smoke and boot in 64-bit, RED Rocket will not work since the drivers will be unable to load.

There is no solution to this for now besides using one or the other at a time.

Tip: if you want to boot in 32-bit, hold down 3+2 on your Mac when booting. If you need to boot in 64-bit, then hold down 6+4. Otherwise, your operating system will make the choice for you when you boot up--either 64 or 32.

If you've installed Smoke and now you can't see your Rocket, simply reboot holding down 3+2.

tl

(Hey Tyler, you can thank me later...)

SCRATCH 5.0 Released!!

This just in from the ASSIMILATE Team

SCRATCH v5.0 and SCRATCH CINE v5.0 are released! SCRATCH owners with access can visit the Assimilate support site for detailed documentation on this release.

As of v5.0, SCRATCH and SCRATCH CINE are released as native 64-bit applications only and will NOT run on a 32-bit operating system. The target OS for v5.0 is Windows 7 64-bit (any edition). Be aware that NOT all graphics cards are fully functional with Windows 7. Assimilate urge you to plan your upgrade to v 5.0 and READ CAREFULLY the article on the support site for ‘SCRATCH v5.0 Drivers and Installation issues’. This covers NVIDIA graphics card support, downloading a suitable driver for Windows 7 and additional hardware issues you need to be aware of.

What is new in SCRATCH v5.0? Here is a just a teaser of the exciting tools now available and more fixes and workflow improvements are detailed on the support site.

• New 64 bit means more memory support and larger memory address space supported equals better support for 4k workflow and beyond!
• New RED Rocket support
• FAST playback of FULL resolution RED media!
• New Implementation of NVIDIA’s CUDA Technology*
• New Real time 32 bit Full Histogram*
• New Real time32 bit Waveform Monitor*
• New Real time32 bit Vector Scope*
• New XML Scripting capabilities

(*only NVIDIA cards with CUDA – Compute Capability version 1.3 or higher, support all the new features.)

More information here:

Assimilate SCRATCH 5.0

Raising money in 2009: Strike Two--Five Star Bank

This is a follow-up to this article about obtaining financing for expansion:

Raising money in 2009: Are banks lending to small business?

In the ongoing attempts to establish funding, we submitted an application to Five Star Bank...and it was turned down because the personal score for the submitter was not high enough.

That was it. That was the sole reason listed.

Folks--we're going on 8 years old as a company. Our expansion project will take us to three new metro areas and quadruple the size of our company. SBA is covering 90% of the risk on these new loans.

It doesn't matter--its exactly what I have said before: banks are not lending to small businesses. When you have a mature company--not a startup--with a significant growth initiative that can't get funding, the banks are just hoarding cash...

As I mentioned in the last blog post--we have three positions we could hire for immediately, but the funding for the growth project needs to be there first. Banks are squatting on billions in federal dollars and the government has otherwise failed to allocate funding to anything worthwhile, yet they are still pushing forward with "health care reform" and raising the debt limit to an amount so big, we couldn't pay it back for 100 years.

Do you know anyone who got an SBA loan lately?

I don't.

tl

Raising money in 2009: My plan for cutting unemployment in half in 30 days

DISCLAIMER--please note I am a registered Independent. My point of view comes from being a small business owner--not the left or the right.

If you are angry at the way things are being handled by Washington--please read this over and sound off below.

President Obama's dispersal of stimulus funds has been a total joke so far. If you look at the actual jobs created, the expense of the program has been monstrous:

http://bit.ly/4qw9cB

American Prospect associate editor Ezra Klein wrote in November 2008 "The stimulus package cannot be understood as spending divided by jobs...The envisioned stimulus is much bigger than simple job creation. It's infrastructure construction and aid to states and the preservation of the safety net..."

Please--tell that to someone out of work who is about to lose their "safety net."

The dispersal of federal funds by the feds and the banks should end. Immediately. The banks aren't loaning to small businesses and the feds waste the money. Give it to small businesses instead with the requirement that the funds are used to hire the unemployed.

In November, the "official" unemployment numbers was 15.4 million people and the rate was 10%. Small business owners could right this ship overnight by implementing the following program:

1. Provide direct employment loans to small businesses who promise to hire 1-2 currently unemployed personnel
2. Defer repayment of this loan to 2011.
3. Cap the interest at 5%

If you hired 7,500,000 million people this way at $45,000 per year, the unemployment rate would go to 5%. The cost of this would be $337,500,000,000. I don't know what the default rate would be, but if you assumed 85% of businesses repaid the loan with 5% interest, the real federal cost would be $36,281,250,000. This is significantly lower than the untold hundreds of billions that are being wasted by Washington right now.

If you had a 95% repayment rate, there would be no net cost to the government and this would not require a cent in tax hikes.

As a small business owner, I can tell you right now I would hire three people overnight if this program was available. I already know who they are--the job offers would go out before the ink was dry on the loan paperwork.

But I'm not a politician, so what do I know...

Torrey
-----------------------------------------------
Torrey Loomis
President & CEO - Silverado Systems, Inc.
(916) 760-0032 • FAX (916) 404-5258
torrey@silverado.cc
Web http://www.Silverado.cc
Blog http://silveradosys.blogspot.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/silveradosys

Why you want an SSD

Silverado and Paramore

Silverado's RED ONE #21 used on Paramore's recent video "Brick by Boring Brick"

Silverado Ultrascope-powered ColoRig in action with SCRATCH

Rack based Blackmagic UltraScope...

The picture below was correctly identified as a rack based Blackmagic UltraScope by Paul Conigliaro.

BMD created a gorgeous full featured product in the UltraScope. And they tried to make it as inexpensive as possible by making it a card you can drop into a spare system laying around.

However, most people who have a spare system like this don't realize the specs required. You need at least two PCIe slots--one of which needs to be a x16 PCIe slot for the graphics card. Spare systems might be an older system laying around from a previous system--and they may be PCI-X, not PCIe.

And there are few graphics cards that are officially supported, so now you are having to run out and but a new card to replace in that spare system.

AND...this would be very beneficial to all editors--Mac users included--since the system requires HD-SDI, but otherwise doesn't care about the type of platform where its coming from. However, many Mac users (not all of you...no flames please) wouldn't have a spare system like this laying around, nor would they know how to build one from the ground up (again...I know you people are smart...so no flames please...I am talking about those OTHER Mac-based editors...)

One more thing--who wants another tower on the ground? This system is in a low profile compact 2U rack which can be put on a shelf nearby, or away from the main editing system altogether in another room with a long SDI run.

So...we decided to build a companion product for the UltraScope. It will be a ready-to-use product--just rack it up, plug in a monitor, turn it on, and boot up the software. Aside from that, you don't have to tinker, install, configure or do anything else.

We've already tested it with the 24" Apple Cinema LED display. Its gorgeous. I'll post a picture later on REDuser and on this blog.

We'll have it up on the site for ordering with pricing tomorrow. The engineering is done--the product works fine, but we are recasing them since aesthetically the current 2U system looks...um...generic.

If you have a monitor that supports 1920 x 1200, you can buy it without a monitor. We'll also bundle it with a 24" display and the Gefen adapter for those who want that, too.

We still need a name for it. I was thinking about ColoRig, but I am open to suggestions. I don't think "The Mullet" will make the final list.

TL

What is this?

We're building up a new piece of technology at Silverado and we're giving you the chance to guess what it is...

If you are observant, you'll be able to get it pretty quick.

Post your guesses as comments below.

Free Blu-ray Authoring Classes at Silverado

UPDATE: Larry now has a sign-up form active on the page below.

Larry Applegate of Rivergate Software will teach an all-day Blu-ray Authoring Class at Silverado Systems, the premiere Apple VAR in Northern California, on Nov. 16, 2009.

In this class Larry will cover the three options for a Macintosh-only workflow for creating Blu-ray recordable media for playback, and how you can distribute or publish your work by duplication and replication.

Much of the material for these classes is taken from the book Fast Path to Blu-ray for Mac with the blessing of its author Bruce Nazarian, who is also President of the IDMA (International Digital Media Alliance). Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the classes.

Here is the class schedule:

10 a.m. Making Blu-ray in Final Cut Pro 7
11 a.m. Blu-ray Video with Toast 10.4
12 a.m. Lunch offsite nearby
1 p.m. Making Blu-ray in Adobe Encore CS4
2 p.m. Publishing Blu-ray with BluStreak Premaster
3 p.m. Wrap up and general discussion

More info:

http://blustreak.dvdafteredit.com/blu-ray-authoring-classes

Raising money in 2009: SacStarts

Going to check-out the SacStarts group on Sunday night:

"SacStarts dinners are informal get-togethers where the best and brightest technologists and entrepreneurs connect. Grab a seat and some food and meet other locals involved in Sacramento’s technology community."

http://sacstarts.com/events/2009/11/01/november-dinner-jacks-urban-eats

Raising money in 2009: Strike One--Tri Counties Bank

I got a call yesterday from a rep at Tri Counties Bank. He had recently come in the week before and sat down with me regarding our needs. I sent him back with a full set of financials and an outline of our expansion plans. At the time, he seemed very positive on the outlook and indicated he would talk to his underwriting department as soon as possible.

I wasn't surprised when he called yesterday without positive news.

He said that the underwriter reviewed our information and that our expansion wasn't in line with "historical growth needs" but rather based on "accelerated needs" which the bank wasn't comfortable with. He indicated that our new opportunity for expansion was great for our business, but something that otherwise scares a lending institution because of the rapid and dramatic rise in the need for capital.

Rather than being open to $750-$850k in financing, he said the bank couldn't approach anything beyond $250k and that would have to be fully secured with collateral. He indicated even this would be a stretch for them. This was different than what he originally wrote in his email:

"We are often much more flexible than our larger counterparts. When we need outside guarantees we can turn to the SBA 504 program, or California Capital (like an SBA for the state of California)."

When I asked about these guarantees, none were volunteered or offered.

To be fair--he was very nice the entire time and I appreciated him coming to the office and sitting down with us the week prior.

I talked with an associate and she said she didn't think the story would be different with any of the other banks. "In this economy, you almost have to prove you don't need the money to actually get the money..."

We'll see...

Raising money in 2009: Are banks lending to small business?

I am going to start a new topic here on the blog along the lines of small business development and funding.

Its always hard to run a small business. Right now, it can be really hard. But that doesn't stop owners from still trying to take on new challenges, establish new markets, and continue the pursuit of growth for their companies.

We're an example of that. I've run Silverado since 2003 as a fairly organic organization--we've generally bootstrapped most of what we do from the very beginning. We do a number of very high-profile things--and we do them very well.

First, we design high-definition editing systems for film, media, broadcast, and independent editors using Apple and Assimilate technology. One of our largest projects included redesigning the TV editing facility at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center around Apple technology.

Another project includes high-end film finishing software. If you are planning to see Disney's "A Christmas Carol" in 3D later this year, that movie was finished on our editing systems using a product called SCRATCH from Assimilate.

Secondly, we've been at the forefront of helping to transform cinema production with the acquisition of two of the first RED ONE cameras in the world. The RED ONE can shoot in a format called 4K--which is akin to 35mm film grade material created digitally. It is actually a very green process since there is no film development, no chemicals, no processing, and no transporting material back and forth to labs.

We work on this 4K material in our new 5000 sq. foot Silverado Studios facility in Folsom which currently has one fully operational digital cinema editing suite along with two more edit suites and an advanced 4K digital cinema theater in development.

Did you see Lois Wolk's iPhone style-ad during the last election? Shot on our RED cameras and edited at Silverado.

Did you see Cathleen Galgiani's bullet train spots? Shot on our RED's and edited by Silverado personnel.

Our cameras and personnel have shot three full-length feature films including acting personnel such as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jamie Kennedy, Robert Picardo, and Cybill Shepherd. Our studios also hosted the editorial of the critically acclaimed Timothy Hutton feature film "Broken Hill."

For better--and worse--we've worked pretty much with the existing cash flow of the business instead of taking venture capital, angel funding, or SBA loans. We've used our own resources plus those of a few family and friends along with a local bank for a small credit line which is no longer available.

Because of that, we've been restricted in growth to what we could accommodate on our own. In spite of those restrictions, we've been awarded the following accolades along the way:

2007 "100 Fastest Growing Companies in Sacramento" - Sacramento Business Journal
2008 "100 Fastest Growing Companies in Sacramento" - Sacramento Business Journal
2009 "100 Fastest Growing Companies in Sacramento" - Sacramento Business Journal

2008 "Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America" - Inc. Magazine
2009 "Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America" - Inc. Magazine

Presently, we're poised to take on a new project in the immediate future which will require outside funding for the first year. The details are under wraps right now (my competitors like to read my blog) but will come out fairly soon. The crux of the matter is that this project will take $850,000 in excess of what we currently have. This new operation will allow Silverado to become a $10M company in about 18 months.

With that in mind, I need a loan. But are banks lending?

My position is that they are not lending. But rather than hem-and-haw about the situation, I intend to determine for myself if banks aren't lending to small business.

The following banks will get a loan application from Silverado Systems, Inc. in the next two weeks:

Sierra Vista Bank

Folsom Lake Bank

First Northern Bank

IronStone Bank

Bank of America ($25,000,000,000 in TARP funding)

Wells Fargo Bank ($25,000,000,000 in TARP funding)

Five Star Bank

Umpqua Bank ($214,181,000 in TARP funding)

River City Bank

California Bank & Trust

California Federal Bank

Imperial Bank

Sacramento Commerce Bank

Sonoma National Bank

Western Sierra Bank

Mechanics Bank

Comerica Bank ($2,250,000,000 in TARP funding)

Tri Counties Bank

Stockmans Bank

American River Bank

Bridge Bank

First US Community Credit Union

Our criteria is the following:

1. We need a loan of $850,000 for a business expansion project that will significantly increase Silverado sales on a national basis.

2. We will move all deposit accounts to the loaning institution.

3. If such service is offered, we will move our credit card processing over to the loaning institution.

We will report the results from every single bank right here on this blog. Either "yay" or "nay."

This isn't designed to be antagonistic, but other business owners are in the same shoes as we are right now--trying to expand their business, but not having much luck getting funding. Plus, a lot of people want to know what is being done with their taxes. When a bank gets a bailout, are they loaning back to the community?

If there are any banks not listed that you think should get an app, please let me know. Our criteria for applying to a bank is whether they have a strong business loan track record.

Note--while this might be a noble experiment conducted for the benefit of ourselves and other Sacramento area small businesses, I am a businessman first. If a private investor walked in the door with $850,000, we'd proceed with our business project immediately. If you're in that position, I can always be reached at torrey@silverado.cc

However, private capital being in the condition that it is today--I don't know if that is plausible. So, we are proceeding with the traditional loan process.

If you are a lending institution that would like to be considered for an application, please contact us at (916) 760-0032.

Further--we'd love to accommodate a tour of our facility. Please call us and schedule a time to visit. We would love to show you around the studio and we can talk about our expansion plans in greater detail.

Stay tuned to this blog for the results.

Starting from SCRATCH: Building 4K editing & finishing systems how-to PDF

I get a lot of questions about how SCRATCH systems are configured, why some things are spec'd, and general costs of these items.

I thought I would answer all the questions in one doc. Its 28 pages long and I am pretty sure it covers everything--including equipping your system for 3D stereoscopic.

You can download it here:

http://bit.ly/2FEYkm

This is a 1.0 doc, so if you have suggestions I am happy to incorporate them into the next revision.

Silverado extending AppleCare to 5 years

In an industry first, Silverado will be extending AppleCare coverage to 5 years.

Effective on all sales after 1/1/09, Silverado is extending AppleCare benefits from three years to five years on the following professional Apple equipment:

Apple Mac Pro

Apple MacBook Pro

Apple Cinema Display

Apple Xserve

When purchased with an appropriate AppleCare plan, Silverado will extend coverage on these items from three years to five years.

During the first three years, customers will obtain service from Apple as normally specified in their AppleCare agreement. In years 4-5, clients needing service can contact Silverado at (916) 760-0032 for service coverage.

At its discretion, Silverado will do the following:

• Replace items that have worn out due to normal use and repair items that no longer function such as ports, logic boards, and cables.
• Alternatively, if a repair is not available then Silverado can opt to replace the system with a brand new equivalent system.

All AppleCare exclusions will apply. Systems cannot be repaired or replaced if systems are not functioning due to abuse, accidents, and non-standard usage (i.e. using a system outside normal operating parameters such as extreme temperatures, etc...)