HP Z400 workstation By John Virata
The Hewlett-Packard HP Z400 is the company's entry level workstation. While it doesn't have the whiz bang design features of the HP Z800 reviewed in March, it still does not disappoint as the benchmark numbers will surprise you.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #5: Speed Changes By Diana Weynand
Whether or not you have used the Final Cut Pro speed functions, you're sure to love the new speed changes. Simple-yet elegant and powerful. You will be able to change speed in your clips easily and with a lot of flexibility.
...Read More »
AVCHD Essentials: get, play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac By WIKI
AVCHD is a high definition (HD) digital video camera recorder format recording 1080i and 720p signals onto MiniDVD discs, MiniDV tape, Hard Drive, and digital camera Memory Cards. AVCHD recordings made on MiniDVD discs can be played back on some Blu-ray disc players, however, AVCHD with a .M2TS and .MTS file extension can not be played back on standard DVD players and most portable players. This tutorial will explain how to get AVCHD video off HD camcorder to Mac, how to play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac, including Snow Leopard.
...Read More »
iTech SolarVoice 908 By Joshua Virata
Bluetooth headsets have become more and more popular throughout the years and now more and more cell phones have been able to take advantage of this technology. In this review we'll be looking at a brand new Bluetooth headset from iTech, the SolarVoice 908, one of the first solar charging headsets on the market.
...Read More »
An afternoon of fun, NFL football, and the Canon 7D DSLR By John Virata
This past weekend we were able to spend an afternoon with the Canon folks at the San Diego Chargers/Philadelphia Eagles NFL football game in beautiful San Diego California to attain some first impressions on the new Canon 7D DSLR. Canon invited several journalists to shoot with the Canon 7D and Digital Rebel T1i.
...Read More »
Reaper DAW By Mike Jones
Much like video editing systems, the tools for crafting, mixing, and multi-tracking digital audio projects - be they music, audio or sound for video endeavours - have reached a very mature stage in their development and evolution as technologies. The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) market has grounded itself in all-digital workflows and common production practices whilst, at the same time, diversified into an array of major players.
...Read More »
Telestream's ScreenFlow 2 By Kevin McAuliffe
As an instructor and online trainer, I need a screen capture program that will not only be very easy to use, but also produce excellent looking end results. Windows users have a ton of options, but for us Mac users, the outlook was pretty barren. More than a year ago when I started doing video tutorials I came across ScreenFlow, and liked it a lot. Well, Telestream is back with version two of this great program. Let's see if it's worth the upgrade.
...Read More »
CUT + RUN FOLLOWS THE LIGHT WITH THE FORD FOCUS
This latest spot for Ogilvy, showcases the attraction of the Ford Focus. "White & Orange" was directed by Vaughan Arnell of production company Serious Pictures and edited by Leo King of Cut + Run, and began airing earlier this month.
...Read More »
Multitrack Editing in Sony Sound Forge 10 By Jeffrey P. Fisher
Sound Forge has always excelled at being a solid and dependable mono and two-track recorder and editor. Version 9 of the software brought multichannel support which many people misinterpreted to mean multitrack functionality. Multichannel really means the program can handle files beyond stereo such as 5.1 surround sound files.
...Read More »
Full Browser Flash By Kevin Schmitt
Let's face facts, folks: sometimes just scaling your entire Flash movie to an arbitrary window size won't cut it. A prime example of one of those times would be if you're using Flash to create Web-based applications, where your users would rightfully expect to have the application interface scale intelligently to the size of their browser window. Flex Builder can do this through a simple GUI panel, but the process is a little more involved if you're using Flash CS4 Professional, which is where we'll pick things up.
...Read More »
Epson PowerLite 1716 LCD projector By John Virata
The Epson PowerLite 1716 is a portable, wireless-capable LCD projector with a 4:3 aspect ratio targeted at mobile presenters and those on the go who need to present content in an effective manner. The PowerLite 1716 features a three chip Epson 3LCD optical engine that has a native hardware resolution of 1024x768, and features USB, component, and SVGA connectivity.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: Searchers are not experts By Richard John Jenkins
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins pokes a little fun at searchers as well as web developers. He details an unscientific study he conducted with his mother, who he tasked with looking at one of his websites to determine what she thought needed to be fixed.
...Read More »
The New Video Standards War - Ogg Vorbis vs. MPEG-4 By Matthew David
There is a new video CODEC standard battle that is about to turn into a full, blown out war. On one side is Google and FireFox with the Open Source video format called Ogg Vorbis. In the other corner is Apple with the industry standard MPEG-4. The shared ground they are fighting over: dominance in HTML5. This article looks into this new battle and looks to see if there is already a clear winner.
...Read More »
Rhino 'Crashes' Fall Lineup With Spot Promoting Starz Series
Rhino Creative Director Vico Sharabani recently completed yet another close collaboration with the Snorri Bros., this time creating all the VFX for a carefully choreographed :30 promoting the new season of Starz' acclaimed series, Crash.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: See your site through your searchers eyes By Richard John Jenkins
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins discusses how you can see your site through your searchers eyes. He discusses the Golden Triangle. He also discusses Enquiro Eye Tracking Study, which looks at how people look at websites and how they scan what is on the websites that they visit.
...Read More »
Speeding Premiere Pro CS4's H.264 Encoding with NVIDIA QuadroFX and Elemental Accelerator By John Virata
High definition video editing and HD video encoding are two of the hardware intensive tasks that can be done with a computer. It takes a lot of power to complete these types of jobs, oftentimes rendering your computer limited in functionality while it encodes video. NVIDIA's Quadro line of graphics cards can help to speed up H.264/AVC encoding in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with an assist from Elemental Technologies' Elemental Accelerator.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro freebies for a better edit experience By Mike Jones
It seems no matter how mature and complex creative software tools become, particularly non-linear editing systems, there always seem to be the extra things you find yourself wishing for. The technology trickle-down effect has seen enormous changes over the past decade where the tools that were once the sole domain of high-end turn-key systems - with appropriate astronomical price-tags - are now stock standard.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #7 - Improved Markers By Diana Weynand
You know those little post-it note pads that come in multiple colors? Ok, admit it now. Do you ever color-code your notes? Maybe yellow notes are financial, pink ones are hot to-do items. Well with Final Cut Pro 7, you can now use color to label your markers in a very similar way. There are several other marker improvements as well.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: The need behind the search query By Richard John Jenkins
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins discusses the need behind the search query. He explains that people perform three types of searches based on their search needs. These include Navigational, informational, and transactional searches. He explains in this video.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: How searchers search By Richard John Jenkins
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins takes another look at how searchers use search engines to search. He shows this by trying to find an SEO firm in his neighborhood. He discusses how most people start searches broad to narrow, and he discusses how SEO's make the mistake of optimizing sites for very broad terms. You don't want to optimize sites for broad terms unless you don't have any competition. He explains it in this clip.
...Read More »
The impact of Flash Professional CS5 exporting to the iPhone By Matthew David
If you are a Flash developer then Adobe has big news for you. You can now export your movies as native iPhone Apps. Well, sort of. In this article you will find out what the impact of exporting Flash movies to the iPhone really is.
...Read More »
Kaspersky Lab's Peter Beardmore talks anti-virus and the Mac OS By John Virata
Kaspersky, developers of anti-virus and security software has just released a version of its anti-virus software for the Macintosh operating system. While the Mac OS is targeted by malware and virus writers significantly less than Microsoft's Windows OS, it still gets attacked, just on a much smaller scale. Digital Media Net spoke with Peter Beardmore, senior product marketing manager, Kaspersky Lab, about viruses, malware, and the Mac OS.
...Read More »
Adding Audio Hardware Meters to Sony Vegas Pro By Jeffrey P. Fisher
There's no doubt that watching volume levels with your audio- and video-centric projects is important. The digital audio world has a top limit --- 0 dBFS --- that you can't exceed. But screen real estate is often at a premium when working in the Vegas NLE. Sure you can pop the Audio Mixer and/or Mixing Console over to a secondary monitor, but that's often filled up with audio/video effects, waveform/vectorscope monitor, and even full-screen previews.
...Read More »
Microsoft ships Windows 7- should you buy it? By Matthew David
Did you hear? Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows - should you buy it? Windows 7 is here. In this article you will find out if Windows 7 is worth the wait and whether or not you should upgrade. Or is Windows 7 just another Vista?
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 FCP 7 Features #8 - iChat Theater Preview By Diana Weynand
In the past, if you wanted to share some portion of your work with another set of eyes, it was a somewhat time-consuming business of exporting a QuickTime file or transferring a sequence or a portion of a sequence to another drive or server for someone else to access. That's no longer the case. Welcome to iChat Theater Preview-the quick and easy way to share and discuss your sequence with someone down the hall or around the world in real time.
...Read More »
Tonal Sets Uplifting Mood For A&E's Recovery Project Campaign
Following the success of the Emmy-winning series "Intervention," A&E has created The Recovery Project, a multimedia and community based outreach program designed to raise awareness about addiction and how it is treatable and recovery is possible. A key component to the project are two moving TV spots featuring a powerful, anthemic score composed by Alex Lasarenko, Creative Director of music/sound design house Tonal.
...Read More »
PhotoAcute Studio By Robert Jensen
Most of you have heard of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, where you shoot several shots of the same scene, each at a different exposure, then combine them in software to produce an image with extended dynamic range that brings out details in both the highlights and shadows.
...Read More »
Sorenson Squeeze 6 By Kevin McAuliffe
These days, it seems as though every company has an application for taking your edited files and processing them for the web, and many of those applications are included with the editing bundle you purchased. Adobe has Adobe's Media Encoder, Final Cut Studio has Compressor, and there are the standalone applications such as Episode, and even QuickTime can do it as well.
...Read More »
Compress DVD9 Movies to DVD5 Discs on the Macintosh By WIKI
Do you have trouble compressing DVD9 to DVD5 on Mac? Professional DVD Copy Pro can help you fast copy and compress D9 Movies to D5 without losing original quality. It can also provide 3 types of copying (Main Movie Copy, Customized Copy and Full Copy), which will satisfy your specific copying needs, especially for backup.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #9 - The Timecode Viewer By Diana Weynand
Look at the image below. Something new has been added in FCP 7. It's the Timecode Viewer, a floating time code window, which will really come in handy as you share your screen or sequence with others. And taking notes by jotting down time code as you view your footage has never been easier.
...Read More »
X-Rite's Color Munki Photo By Joshua Virata
Ever had the problem where you have a picture on your computer and then print it out and the color doesn't turn out the same? I can tell you from experience that that has happened to me many times before. But now I don't have to worry about this problem thanks to ColorMunki Photo by X-Rite. ColorMunki lets you calibrate displays, projectors and printers so that the colors in your pictures or media are accurate every time.
...Read More »
AV-HS450 16+ Input HD/SD Switcher w/ dual screen MultiViewer This 16+ input switcher is the best value in its class. Its exclusive dual screen MultiViewer lets you view up to 20 windows on just two displays. CLICK HERE!!!
Perfect your production with iStock video and audio Create your next production for less with video from iStock. Our royalty-free footage is available for web, NTSC/PAL and as large as 1080 HD. You can also find soundtracks for your masterpiece with over 50,000 iStock audio tracks. CLICK HERE!!!
Get The Ultimatte! Hardware for processing bluescreen and greenscreen composing! Ultimatte.com
Create amazing VFX with GenArts Sapphire™ Now YOU can use the same VFX plug-ins utilized in 12 years of Academy Awards® nominated films for outstanding visual effects! CLICK HERE to learn more about renting Sapphire
Vegas Pro 8 + Free Vegas Seminar Series Master classes for cutting-edge video production A $100 value free with purchase CLICK HERE!!!
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HP Z400 workstation
The Hewlett-Packard HP Z400 is the company's entry level workstation. While it doesn't have the whiz bang design features of the HP Z800 reviewed in March, it still does not disappoint as the benchmark numbers will surprise you.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #5: Speed Changes
Whether or not you have used the Final Cut Pro speed functions, you're sure to love the new speed changes. Simple-yet elegant and powerful. You will be able to change speed in your clips easily and with a lot of flexibility.
...Read More »
AVCHD Essentials: get, play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac
AVCHD is a high definition (HD) digital video camera recorder format recording 1080i and 720p signals onto MiniDVD discs, MiniDV tape, Hard Drive, and digital camera Memory Cards. AVCHD recordings made on MiniDVD discs can be played back on some Blu-ray disc players, however, AVCHD with a .M2TS and .MTS file extension can not be played back on standard DVD players and most portable players. This tutorial will explain how to get AVCHD video off HD camcorder to Mac, how to play, edit and convert AVCHD video on Mac, including Snow Leopard.
...Read More »
iTech SolarVoice 908
Bluetooth headsets have become more and more popular throughout the years and now more and more cell phones have been able to take advantage of this technology. In this review we'll be looking at a brand new Bluetooth headset from iTech, the SolarVoice 908, one of the first solar charging headsets on the market.
...Read More »
CUT + RUN ENJOYS THE XBOX 360 EXPERIENCE WITH NEW CAMPAIGN BY DIRECTOR STEVE COPE
Cut + Run recently collaborated with production company Rattling Stick and agency McCann Erickson London on the new campaign for the Xbox 360 platform.
...Read More »
An afternoon of fun, NFL football, and the Canon 7D DSLR
This past weekend we were able to spend an afternoon with the Canon folks at the San Diego Chargers/Philadelphia Eagles NFL football game in beautiful San Diego California to attain some first impressions on the new Canon 7D DSLR. Canon invited several journalists to shoot with the Canon 7D and Digital Rebel T1i.
...Read More »
Reaper DAW
Much like video editing systems, the tools for crafting, mixing, and multi-tracking digital audio projects - be they music, audio or sound for video endeavours - have reached a very mature stage in their development and evolution as technologies. The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) market has grounded itself in all-digital workflows and common production practices whilst, at the same time, diversified into an array of major players.
...Read More »
Telestream's ScreenFlow 2
As an instructor and online trainer, I need a screen capture program that will not only be very easy to use, but also produce excellent looking end results. Windows users have a ton of options, but for us Mac users, the outlook was pretty barren. More than a year ago when I started doing video tutorials I came across ScreenFlow, and liked it a lot. Well, Telestream is back with version two of this great program. Let's see if it's worth the upgrade.
...Read More »
CUT + RUN FOLLOWS THE LIGHT WITH THE FORD FOCUS
This latest spot for Ogilvy, showcases the attraction of the Ford Focus. "White & Orange" was directed by Vaughan Arnell of production company Serious Pictures and edited by Leo King of Cut + Run, and began airing earlier this month.
...Read More »
Multitrack Editing in Sony Sound Forge 10
Sound Forge has always excelled at being a solid and dependable mono and two-track recorder and editor. Version 9 of the software brought multichannel support which many people misinterpreted to mean multitrack functionality. Multichannel really means the program can handle files beyond stereo such as 5.1 surround sound files.
...Read More »
Blur Studio Reels In Animation for Goldfish Crackers Campaign
Blur Studio recently completed a ten-spot series of commercials for Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers via Young & Rubicam, NY. The campaign is entirely computer generated and was directed by Blur's Leo Santos.
...Read More »
Full Browser Flash
Let's face facts, folks: sometimes just scaling your entire Flash movie to an arbitrary window size won't cut it. A prime example of one of those times would be if you're using Flash to create Web-based applications, where your users would rightfully expect to have the application interface scale intelligently to the size of their browser window. Flex Builder can do this through a simple GUI panel, but the process is a little more involved if you're using Flash CS4 Professional, which is where we'll pick things up.
...Read More »
Epson PowerLite 1716 LCD projector
The Epson PowerLite 1716 is a portable, wireless-capable LCD projector with a 4:3 aspect ratio targeted at mobile presenters and those on the go who need to present content in an effective manner. The PowerLite 1716 features a three chip Epson 3LCD optical engine that has a native hardware resolution of 1024x768, and features USB, component, and SVGA connectivity.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: Searchers are not experts
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins pokes a little fun at searchers as well as web developers. He details an unscientific study he conducted with his mother, who he tasked with looking at one of his websites to determine what she thought needed to be fixed.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #6 - Apple ProRes Formats
Apple ProRes is not new to Final Cut Pro 7. It was introduced in Final Cut Pro 6. But with FCP 7, the ProRes family has been expanded to include 3 new-and extremely useful-formats.
...Read More »
The New Video Standards War - Ogg Vorbis vs. MPEG-4
There is a new video CODEC standard battle that is about to turn into a full, blown out war. On one side is Google and FireFox with the Open Source video format called Ogg Vorbis. In the other corner is Apple with the industry standard MPEG-4. The shared ground they are fighting over: dominance in HTML5. This article looks into this new battle and looks to see if there is already a clear winner.
...Read More »
Rhino 'Crashes' Fall Lineup With Spot Promoting Starz Series
Rhino Creative Director Vico Sharabani recently completed yet another close collaboration with the Snorri Bros., this time creating all the VFX for a carefully choreographed :30 promoting the new season of Starz' acclaimed series, Crash.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: See your site through your searchers eyes
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins discusses how you can see your site through your searchers eyes. He discusses the Golden Triangle. He also discusses Enquiro Eye Tracking Study, which looks at how people look at websites and how they scan what is on the websites that they visit.
...Read More »
Speeding Premiere Pro CS4's H.264 Encoding with NVIDIA QuadroFX and Elemental Accelerator
High definition video editing and HD video encoding are two of the hardware intensive tasks that can be done with a computer. It takes a lot of power to complete these types of jobs, oftentimes rendering your computer limited in functionality while it encodes video. NVIDIA's Quadro line of graphics cards can help to speed up H.264/AVC encoding in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with an assist from Elemental Technologies' Elemental Accelerator.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro freebies for a better edit experience
It seems no matter how mature and complex creative software tools become, particularly non-linear editing systems, there always seem to be the extra things you find yourself wishing for. The technology trickle-down effect has seen enormous changes over the past decade where the tools that were once the sole domain of high-end turn-key systems - with appropriate astronomical price-tags - are now stock standard.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #7 - Improved Markers
You know those little post-it note pads that come in multiple colors? Ok, admit it now. Do you ever color-code your notes? Maybe yellow notes are financial, pink ones are hot to-do items. Well with Final Cut Pro 7, you can now use color to label your markers in a very similar way. There are several other marker improvements as well.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: The need behind the search query
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins discusses the need behind the search query. He explains that people perform three types of searches based on their search needs. These include Navigational, informational, and transactional searches. He explains in this video.
...Read More »
Search Engine Optimization: How searchers search
In this clip, host Richard John Jenkins takes another look at how searchers use search engines to search. He shows this by trying to find an SEO firm in his neighborhood. He discusses how most people start searches broad to narrow, and he discusses how SEO's make the mistake of optimizing sites for very broad terms. You don't want to optimize sites for broad terms unless you don't have any competition. He explains it in this clip.
...Read More »
The impact of Flash Professional CS5 exporting to the iPhone
If you are a Flash developer then Adobe has big news for you. You can now export your movies as native iPhone Apps. Well, sort of. In this article you will find out what the impact of exporting Flash movies to the iPhone really is.
...Read More »
Kaspersky Lab's Peter Beardmore talks anti-virus and the Mac OS
Kaspersky, developers of anti-virus and security software has just released a version of its anti-virus software for the Macintosh operating system. While the Mac OS is targeted by malware and virus writers significantly less than Microsoft's Windows OS, it still gets attacked, just on a much smaller scale. Digital Media Net spoke with Peter Beardmore, senior product marketing manager, Kaspersky Lab, about viruses, malware, and the Mac OS.
...Read More »
Adding Audio Hardware Meters to Sony Vegas Pro
There's no doubt that watching volume levels with your audio- and video-centric projects is important. The digital audio world has a top limit --- 0 dBFS --- that you can't exceed. But screen real estate is often at a premium when working in the Vegas NLE. Sure you can pop the Audio Mixer and/or Mixing Console over to a secondary monitor, but that's often filled up with audio/video effects, waveform/vectorscope monitor, and even full-screen previews.
...Read More »
Microsoft ships Windows 7- should you buy it?
Did you hear? Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows - should you buy it? Windows 7 is here. In this article you will find out if Windows 7 is worth the wait and whether or not you should upgrade. Or is Windows 7 just another Vista?
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 FCP 7 Features #8 - iChat Theater Preview
In the past, if you wanted to share some portion of your work with another set of eyes, it was a somewhat time-consuming business of exporting a QuickTime file or transferring a sequence or a portion of a sequence to another drive or server for someone else to access. That's no longer the case. Welcome to iChat Theater Preview-the quick and easy way to share and discuss your sequence with someone down the hall or around the world in real time.
...Read More »
Tonal Sets Uplifting Mood For A&E's Recovery Project Campaign
Following the success of the Emmy-winning series "Intervention," A&E has created The Recovery Project, a multimedia and community based outreach program designed to raise awareness about addiction and how it is treatable and recovery is possible. A key component to the project are two moving TV spots featuring a powerful, anthemic score composed by Alex Lasarenko, Creative Director of music/sound design house Tonal.
...Read More »
PhotoAcute Studio
Most of you have heard of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, where you shoot several shots of the same scene, each at a different exposure, then combine them in software to produce an image with extended dynamic range that brings out details in both the highlights and shadows.
...Read More »
Sorenson Squeeze 6
These days, it seems as though every company has an application for taking your edited files and processing them for the web, and many of those applications are included with the editing bundle you purchased. Adobe has Adobe's Media Encoder, Final Cut Studio has Compressor, and there are the standalone applications such as Episode, and even QuickTime can do it as well.
...Read More »
Get AVCHD M2TS and burn M2TS to DVD on the Mac
The .m2ts(AVCHD H.264,VC-1, MPEG-2 HD) file format is given to video/audio files created by certain Sony Camcorder models. How to Burn M2TS to dvd on Mac?
...Read More »
Creating Effective Reflections in Sony Vegas Pro
Here's how to add a mirror reflection that makes your titles and logos stand out. It's quick and easy inside Sony Vegas Pro and it looks great.
...Read More »
Compress DVD9 Movies to DVD5 Discs on the Macintosh
Do you have trouble compressing DVD9 to DVD5 on Mac? Professional DVD Copy Pro can help you fast copy and compress D9 Movies to D5 without losing original quality. It can also provide 3 types of copying (Main Movie Copy, Customized Copy and Full Copy), which will satisfy your specific copying needs, especially for backup.
...Read More »
Diana's Top 10 Final Cut Pro 7 Features #9 - The Timecode Viewer
Look at the image below. Something new has been added in FCP 7. It's the Timecode Viewer, a floating time code window, which will really come in handy as you share your screen or sequence with others. And taking notes by jotting down time code as you view your footage has never been easier.
...Read More »
X-Rite's Color Munki Photo
Ever had the problem where you have a picture on your computer and then print it out and the color doesn't turn out the same? I can tell you from experience that that has happened to me many times before. But now I don't have to worry about this problem thanks to ColorMunki Photo by X-Rite. ColorMunki lets you calibrate displays, projectors and printers so that the colors in your pictures or media are accurate every time.
...Read More »
AV-HS450 16+ Input HD/SD Switcher w/ dual screen MultiViewer
Perfect your production with iStock video and audio
Vegas Pro 8 + Free Vegas Seminar Series
