Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Adobe Premiere "Pro" Is Such A Sorry POS Software (02)

 Sorry Adobe, your software is so crappy you should be ashamed.

I have a 20 clips for that small project that I want to transcribe. Longest clip is 9 minutes. Select all clips, hit Transcribe.

Premiere crashes after a few minutes on transcribing one of these clips. Boom, error, sorry got to close. All the shit that happened is not saved, sorry user, fuck you. Send the report, sure, whatever.

Fuck you Adobe.

 OK, manually going one clip at a time because Premiere is so crappy it cannot batch transcribe without crashing. Great time Saver Adobe!

Clip 1, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 2, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 3, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 4, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 5, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 6, Load, transcribe, CRASHES!!! Fuck you Adobe.

Relaunch Premiere. The first 5 clips transcriptions are still there. No transcription for Clip 6.

 OK, again manually going one clip at a time.

Clip 6, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save. (FUA.)

Clip 7, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 8, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 9, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 10, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 11, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 12, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 13, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 14, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 15, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 16, Load, transcribe, CRASHES!!! Fuck you Adobe.


Relaunch Premiere. The first 15 clips transcriptions are still there. No transcription for Clip 16.

 OK, again manually going one clip at a time.

Clip 16, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 17, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Clip 18, Load, transcribe, CRASHES!!! Fuck you Adobe.

Relaunch Premiere. The first 18 clips transcriptions are still there. There is transcription for Clip 18. Go figure!?

 OK, again manually going one clip at a time.

Clip 19, Load, transcribe, CRASHES!!! Fuck you Adobe.

Relaunch Premiere. The first 18 clips transcriptions are still there. No transcription for Clip 19.

 OK, again manually going one clip at a time.

Clip 19, Load, transcribe, transcription done. Save.

Finally! Yeah! Best NLE in the world. What should have taken 15min. unattended has taken instead 1hr babysitting stupid Premiere "Pro" all the way. What an amazing time saver waster! Thank Fuck you Adobe!!

And by the way, all the Speaker separation is wrong, like not even close. There are only two speakers, Premiere is inventing a 3rd speaker, mixing up speakers, really a great job. And the transcription is approximate at best, but that'll have to do. I'm not spending another minute on this crap.

Adobe Premiere "Pro" Is Such A Sorry POS Software

 Premiere is so crappy it's unbelievable.

I'm trying to reload a simple project from 8 years back (2017.) Premiere forces to save a new version, fine. Premiere hangs trying to locate the media, with no indication of what it's doing whatsoever, sitting there doing nothing, forever. Not fine!

Fuck Premiere. Hit Cancel, Premiere is missing all the media, opens the Link Media window, fine. If I try to locate media, Premiere hangs miserably after relinking the first media. Super!

Fuck that, hit Cancel.

OK the project opens with all the media offline, at least that. Then "Upgrade Legacy Title" message pops up "The Legacy Titler is no longer supported. Premiere Pro (cringe) will convert each legacy title into a Source Graphic, and all timeline instances will be replaced." Oh great! Click OK.

Relinking the very first clip in the timeline manually, click OK. This is working, great, only 20 or so more clips to relink in this timeline.

Let's try to relink them 20 all at once... Select, select, locate the first file, click OK. The fucking beach ball from hell... Waiting, waiting, waiting, nothing happens, waiting, waiting, waiting, beach ball spinning, waiting, waiting, waiting...

Fuck you Premiere.

Force Quit. So now what? I have to relink clips one by one? What a joke. "Premiere Quit Unexpectedly". Oh really?

Reload the freaking project, again stuck locating media. Click Cancel again. Showing again the link Media window, Cancel.

Selecting the first clip, relink, fine. Select the second clip, relink, hangs! Beach ball of hell, nothing happens.

Fuck this!

Nothing works, what a fucking joke.

Deleting all Media Cache file.

Going into the Finder, media files, deleting all the stupid ".pek" and ".pkf" files by hand.

Relinking one clip at a time, by hand. Great time saver, thank you Adobe!

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Final Cut Pro Inconsistent Behavior / Bug When Duplicating Projects Sorted by Reverse Order in a List

 I noticed an inconsistent behavior in Final Cut Pro when using Duplicate Project. I'm currently using FCP v11
that said I believe this behavior predates this version and is present in versions 10s and maybe even more ancient versions.

 This behavior happens only when Projects are sorted in reverse order in the Browser in list mode.

If I have the following list, sorted by Name or Content Created (increasing):

Project01

Project02

Project03

The Duplicate Project works normally.
It creates Project01 1, Project02 1, Project03 1 and the selection stays on the dupe.

If I have the following list, sorted by name or Content Created (decreasing):

Project03

Project02

Project01

After using Duplicate Project, FCP switches/selects the original in the Browser (ex. Project01) instead of the dupe (Project01 1). Both the Duplicate Project and Duplicate Project As commands do this “selection switch". That’s wrong, it should have the dupe selected.

With Duplicate Project As, FCP opens the Project setting window where one can change the name, etc. But if you look in the Browser, FCP has created a “Project01 1” duplicate as expected, but the highlighted one actually switches to the original “Project01”. As a result, if you change the name in the Project setting window and close it, FCP will rename the original Project instead of the duplicated one, which is very confusing. You end up with “Project01 1” and “newprojectname" and the original Project01 seems to have disappeared.
It's weird, and really off-putting and usually I don't notice right away but much latter and it messes with my brain.


Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Final Cut Pro 11 is out, and it's underwhelming to say the least

 Alright, FCP11 is out, and it's seriously underwhelming. Apple has been asleep at the wheel for a number of years / releases and that's really a pity.

Adobe Premiere and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve are on fast update cycles and are now feeling more advanced than FCP. That's a real shame.

What's new? Not much really: Magnetic mask, basically AI powered automatic masking,  and AI powered transcription.

That's it? Yep.

Note that DVR's Magic Mask was introduced 4 years ago, and it got AI powered transcription for at least a full year. PP has had it for even longer. And we already had third party tools and plug-ins doing these two things very well for many years as well.

So FCP is sadly LAGGING behind.

Well there is also Smart AR conform, Auto Enhance Light and Color, Smooth SloMo, Voice Isolation. I hope Apple is way better at implementing these features than the concurrence, because let me tell you, I am not in a rush to try them out. And if they are not substantially better than PP or DVR, I will feel even more let down by Apple. 

Oh yeah there is also spacial editing and export to Vision Pro. Vision Pro is a lame, dead product. No one likes it. So unless you specialize in outputting programs for VP, this FCP "feature" is going direct to the graveyard, and it feels to me it's pulling FCP with it. Bad feeling.

So yes, that's really it, and it feels like nothing new and ground breaking. Still Apple calls it version 11. Really? 10.9 would have suffice. That's one more nail in the coffin of FCP. What's planned for v12, a new logo?

FCPX came out in 2011, we are now heading toward 2025, FCP will be 14 years old, and to me it has stalled. It is more stable, it is still more enjoyable to use than Premiere and Resolve, but the long list of improvements the community has identified and is craving for is not being implemented. Apple does not care. Apple is drinking the cool aid. 

Both Adobe and Blackmagic are listening to their communities and implementing features that are useful to their users. In turn they feel recognized and appreciated. It's also making the apps more enjoyable to use and more powerful. And to me it feels like they are taking over FCP, and I don't like it.

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Blackmagic Design Resolve v 19.01 available

 Resolve 19 is out of Beta, version 19.01 is now available to download from BMD website:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion

From the release notes:

DaVinci Resolve 19.0.1

About DaVinci Resolve 19

The free version of DaVinci Resolve 19 includes all of the same high quality processing as DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio and can handle unlimited resolution media files. However it does limit project mastering and output to Ultra HD resolutions or lower. DaVinci Resolve 19 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and Linux and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro.

If you need features such as support for multiple GPUs, 4K output, motion blur effects, temporal and spatial noise reduction, multiple AI-based tools, HDR tools, camera tracker, voice isolation, multiple Resolve FX, 3D stereoscopic tools and remote rendering, please upgrade to DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio.

We hope you do decide to upgrade as your facility grows and you do more advanced work!

What's new in DaVinci Resolve 19.0.1

  • More responsive timeline updating when moving a large numbers of clips.
  • Smoother playback when using fixed playhead in edit.
  • Addressed disabled matte nodes being enabled in duplicated timelines.
  • Addressed media management issues when transcoding embedded AAFs.
  • Addressed applying clip grades potentially causing unlinked mattes.
  • Addressed Windows issue detecting new audio devices after launch.
  • Addressed viewer annotation markers not honoring selected marker color.
  • Addressed an issue with directional blur at 180º angles.
  • Addressed a license activation issue on systems with macOS 15 beta.
  • Addressed Dolby audio bus-assign workflows not engaging the renderer.
  • Addressed incorrect GetClipProperty script return values for audio clips.
  • Addressed issues with executing compiled Lua scripts on Windows.
  • Addressed an issue with some shortcuts with the latest Mac updates.
  • Scripting API support to query audio mapping for timeline clips.
  • Scripting API support to query format for audio tracks.
  • General performance and stability improvements.

Pre-Installation Notes

For DaVinci Resolve 19.0, we have taken efforts to keep the project libraries compatible with DaVinci Resolve 18.6.6. While this allows you to access the project library with 18.6.6, individual projects created or opened in 19.0 will no longer be accessible in 18.6.6.

We recommend a full project library backup as well as individual project backups before opening projects in 19.0.

Minimum system requirements for Mac OS

  • Mac OS 13 Ventura.
  • 8 GB of system memory. 16 GB when using Fusion.
  • Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
  • GPU which supports Metal.

Minimum system requirements for Windows

  • Windows 10 Creators Update.
  • 16 GB of system memory. 32 GB when using Fusion.
  • Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
  • Integrated GPU or discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM.
  • GPU which supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.
  • AMD/Intel Driver – as required by your GPU manufacturer.
  • NVIDIA Driver – Studio driver 550.58 or newer.

Minimum system requirements for Windows for Arm

  • Windows 11 for ARM.
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite series processor.
  • Recommended: 16 GB of system memory. 32 GB for 4K or Fusion use.

Minimum system requirements for Linux

  • Rocky Linux 8.6 or CentOS 7.3.
  • 32 GB of system memory.
  • Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
  • Discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM.
  • GPU which supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.
  • NVIDIA/AMD Driver version – as required by your GPU.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Mac

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, double-click the Uninstall Resolve icon.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Windows

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, go to the Programs and Features control panel, select DaVinci Resolve, click on Uninstall and follow the onscreen prompts.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Linux

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, select the uninstall option after running the installer.

Additional Information

You will also need to download and install the latest Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software for monitoring with your Blackmagic Design video hardware. Desktop Video is available from www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

© Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. Blackmagic Design, Blackmagic, DeckLink, Multibridge, Intensity, H.264 Pro Recorder and "Leading the creative video revolution" are trademarks of Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd., registered in the U.S.A and other countries. Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. Avid Media Composer and Avid Pro Tools are registered trademarks of Avid. Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion and Apple Soundtrack Pro are registered trademarks of Apple Computer.

Updated September 04, 2024.

Monday, September 2, 2024

Bitwarden desktop (macOS Apple Store version) does not recognize my email + password combination all of a sudden (with Solution)

 Bitwarden desktop for macOS is acting up today, not recognizing my credentials. I tried several times, no go. I tried to uninstall the app, but then encountered a problem on the Apple Store:

"We could not complete your purchase. Bitwarden can’t be installed on “Boot Mac Mini Intel Catalina” because macOS version 12 or later is required."

So now I can't install Bitwarden, even an older version, because I'm on Catalina 10.15, the new version is for 12 and above, and Apple Store / Bitwarden is not offering to install a previous version.

SOLUTION: go to Bitwarden.com, select Download, Desktop, DO NOT CLICK on MacOS because it will open Apple Store and we are back to our problem.
Instead, Open the drop down menu: "View desktop installation guides".
Scroll down pass the Windows installers to macOS (Mojave 10.14 and later.) There is a link to Standard installer (you can also click on the following link: Bitwarden.dmg.)

Click on the link to download the installer and install manually. Voilà!

On reopening Bitwarden everything works as it should, no more error message with my credentials.

Friday, July 5, 2024

Sata SSD Exhibiting Erratic Speed, Slowing Down Considerably. Why? Read on! For A Possible Solution.

 A word of Caution regarding Sata SSDs In drive dock enclosures.

 One of my Sata SSD started exhibiting erratic speeds, slowing down randomly to a meager 10MB/s, then jumping to 100MB/s, then 200MB/s, to slow down again to sub 10MB/s operating speed.

 I started questioning the dock I'm using, the cables. I swapped the dock for another one, swapped cables, used a different usb connection, no go. Erratic behavior re. operating speed.

 I'm used to a consistent 300-350MB/s with this exact SSD in the same dock, so what's happening? I almost started a RMA with the manufacturer, then decided to test further.

 I wiped the SSD clean, formatted it anew. No change. Again getting speeds in the 240MB/s, to slow down randomly again to 100MB/s and 20MB/s or even less. Swapped dock enclosures again, used different cables, plugged it to a different computer even. Same erratic behavior.

 Could it be the heat? I let it completely cool down, I added an external fan blowing directly onto it. And, same slow erratic speed, out of whack performances.

 Mind you, it didn't stopped working or failed completely. It passed all fix disk and other tests. Just being slow to goddam slow like molasses.

Totally puzzling.

 Then I don't know why I thought about the SSD Sata connectors. What if they were dirty? Now I realize I should have looked with a magnifying glass to see if I could identify any dirt / hair / some crap sticking to the connectors, but I didn't.

 In any case, I proceeded to gently wipe the gold connectors with a piece of cloth, reset the SSD into the dock, fired Disk Speed Test, and what do you know? Full speed ahead!

 So the lesson is: if you are using SSDs in drive docks (or HDDs as well I suppose, although SSDs might be more sensitive to this than HDDs?) and all of a sudden are experiencing erratic, slow speeds, think about checking the disk connectors, and wipe then clean gently with soft cloth before trying anything else. Chances are debris are stuck in there, creating some electrical interference, and somehow are affecting the drive performances.

Gently wipe clean these gold connectors.