Sierra!

Yeah baby, macOs Sierra, 10.12! 

I'm careful, I'm doing a fresh install on a fresh SSD on a MacPro 3.2Ghz quad core.

(I'm still on Yosemite on my other machines, I decided to skip 10.11 El Capitan altogether.)

So far so good, Os installed, Os updated, no problemo. Apple Pro Apps installed: FCPX, Motion, Compressor, all good.

Signed-in and installed Adobe Creative Cloud, PP, AE, PS, AI, AU, AME, all went smoothly, I even installed PP CS6 to have Encore handy, all are launching fine.

I had to migrate my font collection, and had a few red flags from Font Book. Not sure why. I didn't install the flagged fonts to stay safe.

(Note to self: I will try to keep this system drive as light and clean as possible.)

Next, I need to install Avid MC, BMD Desktop Video, Resolve and Fusion. Then ProTools, Waves and other plug-ins.

And then I need to TEST everything out! Will update soon.

---Update 4-17
All is dandy and four months (and a couple Sierra uppdates) later the main Mac is still purring nicely, nothing weird to note. So I will be updating my second machine as soon as I have some time to do so. Then the third machine should follow suit promptly.

FCPX 10.3, Motion 5.3 and Compressor 4.3 are out!

But damn it, they only run on El Capitan OS X 10.11.4 or later - I have to upgrade the OS.

How to prevent iTunes to automatically start when connecting a bluetooth speaker? Yes, how???

I've had it with iTunes automatically starting when I connect my bluetooth speaker. I checked bluetooth preferences, could not find anything there. I checked iTunes preferences, nothing there either.

Finally I removed iTunesHelper from the Login Items in my user account under System Preferences/Users and Groups, and YES! After restarting iTunes stays put when I connect the bluetooth speaker.

If you want to bring it back for some reason, the iTunesHelper.app is inside the iTunes.app package. Right-click onto iTunes.app/Show Package Content, inside MacOS folder you will see the iTunesHelper.app, select it and drag it to the Login Items window, voilà.

---Update

Unfortunately this DOES NOT WORK!  Damned it!

I don't know why iTunes didn't launch last time, now it's just back to its old ways. No matter the iTunesHelper presence, or absence of from the Login Items, as soon as I turn my bluetooth speaker iTunes stubbornly starts... I need a solution to this madness!!!

---Update
I left a message on the iTunes feedback page, please do the same and ask Apple to give us the choice: auto start iTunes when a bluetooth gizmo is connected, or do nothing. I need the later. The more users are requesting this, the better chances are Apple will listen. Thank you!
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Premiere Pro: "This project contained a sequence that could not be opened..."

10:30am

I need to do a quick fix on a short film, I'm launching Premiere to work on the cut, I duplicated the Project file first to work on a new increment.

Adobe flashes a window asking of I want to use the 7 days Demo mode, or if I want to sign-in??? I do sign-in. Premiere then takes a good 3+min. to launch, loading all the components.

Finally it's up, I open my duplicated Project and... Premiere starts with an error:

"This project contained a sequence that could not be opened. No sequence preview preset file or codec could be associated with this sequence type."

Lovely. Don't we all need this level of stress added to our everyday professional life?

Looking for the problem, I find this page:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/features-presets-missing-premiere-pro.html

Oh boy... I don't want to spend three hours troubleshooting this damn app. My blood pressure is raising.

I will take it one baby step at a time, I'll quit Premiere and relaunch as starter.

Premiere takes another 3+min. to launch.

I open the Project, and... Yeah! This time it loads just fine. I duplicate my Cut19 Sequence, rename it Cut20, and off I go.

10:45am

So if you get that error message, before jumping the gun and going into full-on troubleshooting mode, just quit and start Premiere again.

Pfff...

Apple Guidelines on how to resolve issues In FCPX

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203477

FCPX 10.2.3 refuses to delete a clip!

That's a new one!  I have this lonely clip at the end of a Timeline, nothing special about it, when I select and hit delete... NOTHING HAPPENS!

What the heck is this? I have to MOVE TO TRASH the media from the browser first before I can get rid of the damn clip in the Timeline. This is annoying.

ProTools 12.5.2 "The Video Engine had an unrecoverable error" - now fixed, (sort of.)

I got aggravated with ProTools 12.5.2 previously, so I will share this tip:

Do not use h264 or ProRes, or whatever codec for the video, use only DNxHD.

I repeat: forget anything but DNxHD. I assume any Avid codec might work just fine, but I have not tested.

- I got to work on  a new project, I received a h264 movie from the client, this time ProTools would not start the Video Engine no matter what. Click yes, click no, reopen the session, whatever, nothing worked.

- I transcoded the h264 to ProRes with AME, same thing, did not work.

- I transcoded the h264 to DNxHD (MXF OP1a) with AME, WHAM! ProTools opened, Video Engine started, movie was online instantly. Worked all week without any problem.

Obviously you end up with a file that's 20 times bigger than the meager h264, but it works!

ProTools is still a pretty good and solid piece of software, didn't crash once. The weak link is the Avid Video Engine.

Thanks Avid, so instead of waisting our time why don't you specify: Avid Video Engine only works with DNx? That would make for less aggravation. Thank you.

Does someone know if Apple Motion has the equivalent of After Effects "Guide Layer"?

A convenient way to build your graphics or animation is to bring a temp background layer in your timeline. Of course you don't want to render the background with the graphics, After Effects has a very convenient "stamping": right-click on your layer, select Guide Layer = the layer won't be rendered in the output.
I can't find something similar in Apple Motion and I spend my time turning the layer on and off. If someone has a solution, please let me know!

Need to update Sony AMA Plug-in for Media Composer 8.6.3

The joy of tracking software across multiple manufacturers websites to keep your editing station going. Today: Avid Media Composer 8.6.3.

Dang!

- How to check installed plug-ins in MC:
Project window / Info

This is what I have:

AMA Plugin Info:

 MediaCollector MVP Plug-InAvid Technology, Inc. 2.1.1.3415

 AS-11 Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.5.0.3431

 AVCHD MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.9.3435

 Avid MXF MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 2.1.1.3414

 MSP_MXF Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.15.5.3452

 WaveAiff Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.4.1.3414

 AVCHD MVP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.9.3435

 AS-02 Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.6.0.3452

 Avid Image Sequencer Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.2.1.3414

 QuickTime Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.6.7.3444

 MVP_CanonXF64 CANON INC. 2.0

 RED R3D Plug-In (R3DSDK v4.6) Avid Technology, Inc. 1.11.0.6745

 MVP_MSP_SonyXDCAMEX_64bit Sony Corporation 1.9001

 SonyXDCAM_64bit Sony Corporation 3.4000.0.381

So these two underlined Sony XDCAM 64bit have to go.

- AMA Plug-ins folder location (on Mac OS X 101.10.5 Yosemite):
Boot HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/AVX2_Plug-ins/AMA

Actual folder content. Two Sony XDCAM Plug-ins in there. Bye now.

Avid AMA Support Page:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en394827

Avid AMA Plug-ins Compatibility Chart:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/Media-Composer-AMA-Plugin-Compatibility-Chart

Sony Software Download page:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/software_for_sony_equipment

Sony XAVC / XDCAM AMA Plug-in Download Page - Version 3.51 is the one for MC 8.6:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/pdzk-ma2

Now installed, and showing the proper version in MC:

MVP_MSP_SonyXDCAMEX_64bit Sony Corporation 1.9300

SonyXDCAM_64bit Sony Corporation 3.5100.0.398

FCPX nothing happens when trying to import ProRes from Sony FS7 XDCA - XDROOT

Odd behavior from FCPX when trying to import ProRes footage from the FS7 / XDCA recorder.
The XDROOT folder structure is intact. It has been copied from the Sony card to HD. The card has been freshly formatted, there is no other footage on the card.
FCPX just hangs (nothing happens - rolling ball) when looking at the folder from Import window.
On the other hand, directly drag and drop the .mov file from the XDROOT/Clip works just fine.
Any ideas?

Using Import from FCPX... Stuck there, nothing happens.

Drop & dragging the .mov file works fine though.

Note: Premiere sees the file inside the XDROOT, so does Resolve.

Error 503 from App Store

Today I get an Error 503 from the App Store, and I cannot update. Hmmm...

Update: Looks like the update went through, even though the message kept popping several times. Back to work.

Premiere vs. FCPX - Part 4

When there are lots of media files inside a folder (I have folders with 800 files in them) Premiere does not load all media and skips files (randomly? I can't tell...) That's NOT GOOD! How am I supposed to track what's been ingested, and of what's not???

I talked to the DP and he was referring to a particular shot that I had not seen in my bins. Bizarre, I had to go back to the drive to look at the original media, and bingo! The shot was there and it had not been imported! I had to go through all my import bins, and I found out a bunch of files that were missing, I had to re-import them one by one. Adobe you MUST FIX this!

---

Now, what?  I needed to use my media drive onto another machine, when I came back to continue editing in Premiere it lost track of some files... Why is that?  It's the same drive, same folders, same folder structure. How is that possible? Got the relink window open waiting for me to point at media files... Forget this.

OK so after I closed everything and restarted and launched Premiere and opened the project again, the third time Premiere started finding the missing media by itself, good.  Now it's recreating waveform and all this crap, so I got to wait.   All right, the cut is back, at least nothing is missing.

Export XML in FCPX stalls / seems to freeze

Quick note re. Export XML in FCPX: it can take a while!

Sometimes one can feel that it's frozen and that something is wrong, but it just needs some time to complete.

As an example I have this 4min. cut that took over 5min. to export to XML.  That's a long time!

At first I thought something was wrong because the Export bar was stuck at 25% and FCPX icon was bouncing from the Dock.

Stuck there for 5min.

But after patiently waiting for 5min. it went through. I suppose the more complex your Project, the longer it takes to complete.

How to reveal dupe material in FCPX?

Gosh I find myself in need of making sure I'm not using the same material twice in a cut.  I'm cutting this project in FCPX, and darn it! I can't figure a way to do it!

There is Dupe Detection in Avid, Show Duplicate Frames in FCP7, Show Duplicate Frame Markers in Premiere, where is dupe detection in FCPX???

Nowhere! Ooh!... Lament.

More FCPX Auditions weirdness...

All right so I've detailed some of my griefs working with Auditions in FCPX, now I'm back at it with another project, and I'm having MORE problems.

So I've created a bunch of Auditions from yet another giant VO file, and all the 28 or so Auditions clips are properly timed inside a Secondary Timeline.

So far so good. Now I want to Overwrite to Primary Storyline, so first I have to Lift from Storyline, fine that works, and then select all the 28 Auditions clips and Overwrite to Primary Storyline... It does NOT work.  Only 6 out of 28 Auditions do Overwrite. Why is that?

If I select one of these Auditions, Overwrite to Primary Storyline is GREYED OUT.  Why?  It;s not the number of clips inside the Audition, there are 3 or 4 clips in the Auditions that "work" and the ones that do not. It's not the length. WHAT IS IT?

Oh well, I guess I will keep Auditions in a Secondary Storyline.

I cannot download any attachment with Gmail (Part 2)

This problem is driving me nuts!  I wrote about it previously.

Not only do I have to systematically save to Google Drive, now it sometimes DOES NOT EVEN SAVE to Google Drive.

Gmail shows that the document is in the Google Drive, but when I go there NOTHING!  Restarting Safari doesn't do anything.

I found a temporary workaround though: Right-click on the attached document / Copy link, then open the Safari Show Downloads window and Paste. Presto the download starts.

Puff... It's MADDENING that I have to go through this crap to download a simple attachment.

I cannot download any attachment with Gmail (Part 1)

What the heck is going on?  I've been having on and off problems with downloading attachments from gmail recently.  It sometime works, sometimes not.

Now it looks like the download button stopped functioning altogether.  It does't work with the Download button on the attachment as part of the message, it does't work with the download button after opening the attached document by clicking on it.

I can Add to Google Drive and then download from there, but that's a waste of time.

Ideas?

I'm on Mac Yosemite 10.10.5, Safari 10.0


---
UPDATE!  I found the answer and culprit(s): freaking Safari Plug-ins! 
---
UPDATE!  NOPE! - I thought that was the problem, but it is NOT.  I CAN'T download any attachment. Read on if you want, but that stuff below didn't fix the problem.

Go to: Safari / Preferences / Security

There is a box for Internet plug-ins, I turned OFF "Allow Plug-ins", and bam! I can download attachments just fine.

 When "Allow Plug-ins is checked, one can click onto Plug-in Settings and you get to see what's there, what's allowed to run or not, and make changes.

But darn it! With 8 Plug-ins installed already and hundreds of websites, forget it!  I'm not tweaking these by hand. I think I'll simply delete them all and re-install with an eye on it.
---
To remove Safari plug-ins: Go to 

• /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
• ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19241?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

---
Interesting info from Safari help:


Allow Plug-ins

Let Safari show plug-in content on websites.

Websites use plug-ins for pictures, music, video, animation, interactive features, and other enhancements. Some plug-ins track your browsing history.

Click Plug-in Settings to see which plug-ins are installed, disable or enable plug-ins, see which websites you visited use each plug-in, and set blocking policies for plug-in use.

To disable or enable an installed plug-in, deselect or select the checkbox to the left of the plug-in name.

To set a blocking policy for a visited website that uses a plug-in, select the plug-in on the left, select the website on the right, then click its pop-up menu and choose a policy:

• Ask: When you visit the website, Safari displays a placeholder instead of the plug-in content. You can click the placeholder to allow the website to use the plug-in.
• Off: When you visit the website, Safari will first attempt to load content without using a plug-in. If a site still requires a plug-in, Safari displays a placeholder instead of the plug-in content.
• On: Safari lets the website use the plug-in, unless it’s blocked by macOS File Quarantine. For more information, see the Apple Support article About the "Are you sure you want to open it?" alert.
• Enable Security Protection: Safari prevents the website from using the plug-in if it’s blocked by macOS File Quarantine. To run the plug-in, hold down the Option key, click the plug-in’s pop-up menu, and deselect Enable Security Protection. Deselecting Enable Security Protection may present a security risk, so choose this option only for a website you trust.
• Run in Safe Mode: Safari lets the website use the plug-in but runs malware checks. To run the plug-in outside of Safe Mode, hold down the Option key, click the plug-in’s pop-up menu, and deselect Run in Safe Mode. Deselecting Run in Safe Mode may present a security risk, so choose this option only for a website you trust.

To set the blocking policy for other websites that use a plug-in, select the plug-in on the left, then click the “When visiting other websites” pop-up menu and choose an option described above.

Premiere vs. FCPX - Part 3

Premiere is very sluggish on this short film, granted I'm not using the proxy workflow, and I have a lot of disparate materials. And some large stills.

FCPX seems to degrade the playback on the fly in such case, but never gets stuck the way PP does. I'm set at 1/2 playback by the way, and sometimes a few seconds pass without anything happening on screen, then it catches-up all of a sudden, and I've missed everything in-between.  All audio goes bonkers as well, it degrades to the point of unbearable noise being introduced. Solution? Stop, and play again.

I like a lot the fact that FCPX always keeps the timing right, no stuttering, only in rare occasions, and the image is never degraded to the point that Premiere degrades it if you playback at 1/4 for ex. That's very, very comfortable. Premiere (and After Effects) still lack on this point.

Even at 1/4, PP is not reacting fast enough to show you images of each clip if you hold the up or down arrow to navigate the timeline. FCPX does, it does not skip clips randomly the way PP does.

Man I HATE this zooming feature of Premiere, and I keep hitting Shift+Z to make my cut fit the Timeline. What is the shortcut to do that in Premiere? Ah! It's "\", well I am remapping this to "Shift+Z" in PP Keyboard Shortcuts. There, and "\" now goes for Zoom to frame.

Grrr, while I'm at it, I am also remapping Add Edit and Add Edit to All Tracks to "Command+B" and "Shift Command+B", instead of "Command+K".

And some more...

Large still pictures are likely the culprit here.

Uh, oh... More Adobe weirdness

So I had this upgrading problem with Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App:
http://humanuser.blogspot.com/2016/09/adobe-creative-cloud-desktop-app-does.html

Since then, all was fine. And then tonight, out of the blue:

MacKeeper has hijacked my Safari browser

I don't know how this page from MacKeeper got opened in my Safari browser on the first place, but now these weasels are feeding some code that block from leaving the page or closing the tab or window in Safari. They are trying to force you to install their sorry ass software.

I found this solution in order to leave this crap page without having to quit Safari:
- Go to Safari / Preferences, turn Enable Javascript OFF.
- Type something in stuck the address bar, like http://www.apple.com
- Go back to Safari / Preferences, turn Enable Javascript ON.

Adobe Premiere love

Adobe Premiere showing some love. Yeah!

To Adobe's credit, the recovered project was spot on where I left it.  That said I manually saved right before the crash.  Had I not...

Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App does not update (Error code: 86)

I'm trying to update Adobe CC Desktop App to v. 3.8.0.310 from the App itself, but NO GO!

That's the third time I try, and the third time it quits in the middle and nothing gets installed.

The App disappears from the Menu bar, when I restart, I'm where I was before: CC App calls for an update...

I when online to Adobe.com and downloaded the stand alone Adobe CC installer:
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/desktop-app.html

Ran the installer, which initiates a download of CC Desktop as well, in the middle of the download I get an error message:

"We've encountered the following issues:
Another version of Creative Cloud desktop is currently running. To Continue, please quit that instance and click retry. (Error code: 86)"

What the hell? Clicking "Retry" brings the same error message over and over.

- SOLUTION -
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

This is what worked for me:
Download and run the Adobe uninstaller:
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

After this goes through, run the Adobe installer:
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/desktop-app.html

There! This time it worked. Ahh!  The bliss.

My favorite stock music sites

My favorite stock music sites are Premiumbeat and Musicbed.

Why? Because they have a VOLUME setting.  Ahhh!... The luxury.

Take that Audiojungle, Pond5 and others. I can't stand having the music blast my ears off each time I listen to something.

Plus we all listen to online preview while playing our cut in the NLE, and damn it we need some adjustment control here!

Music sites, you MUST have volume adjustment on your previews!

FCPX Auditions are driving me nuts!

It's a great idea, similar to what ProTools does, but man it is lame in its implementation.

For one only when I create an Audition in the Browser does FCPX take it into account as far as being able to list Auditions in the Browser - like making a Smart Collection: Type = Audition.  If I create an Audition in the Timeline, NO-GO! The Smart Collection is EMPTY!  Why is that Apple?

Second, I have a bunch of Favorites, all part of a gigantic single audio with multiple passes and multiple takes. Hey I can't create subclips remember? (Don't tell me I can work with Compound clips instead, NO, not with audio only, they suck!)  Anyway, I'm fine with creating Favorites out of Selections, so far so good. Now I want to create Auditions from all the different reads of each sentence, but FCPX is being finicky stupid in creating gigantic Auditions, or Auditions with the WRONG in and out points for some entries.

When I select say 5 different entries and Command+Y... It screws it up!  All these entries are fine, more or less 7 some seconds in duration, but NOOO, Final Cut creates an Audition that's the length of the WHOLE damn audio file. And worse, it makes five different Auditions... What?? I note that the Audition Duration is correct though. What is going on???

Well OBVIOUSLY Apple these Selections are all from the same gigantic audio file, but with proper Start and End points that are NOT the Start and End point of the whole file, I quadruple checked. Of course one cannot create an Audition by selecting Favorites, it has to be clip entries.

To go around this I have to expand each entry and show the Favorite, and then drag each of the Favorites into an Audition in the Timeline. This way it works properly: the Audition is as it should at 7 some seconds long. But it is slow as hell to drag ten different Favorites one by one inside an Audition compared to selecting a bunch of clips/entries and Command+Y them.  And at the end of the day, I still cannot have them listed under my Type = Audition Smart Collection.  Damn it!  

Why when I right+click on an Audition in the Timeline does FCP ask me if I want to rename the Clip??? Nope, I want to rename the AUDITION. All the entries have the same clip name under the audition by the way, not very useful is it? How about letting the user select what name to be listed in there? How about being able to list the Favorite name instead?  There has to be a way to differentiate two or more selections within a larger media file, so if we cannot make subclips what will it be?

Then I can Break Apart Clip Items of an Audition clip, GREAT!  But when I want to bring them back together as an Audition, what do I do? I cannot Command+Y them, WHY??? I cannot drag a clip over another clip to do it by hand either... WHY? Instead I have to use Match Frame (Shift+F) , find the Favorite, and drag that inside the first clip to create an Audition. It does not help that FCPX seem to list Favorite names and Keywords in no particular order, once it's above, next it's below, where is the logic? Makes it hard to find what one is looking for.

So interesting how both Apple and Adobe have screwed up with audio related functionalities, it's not working people, it has VERY LIMITED functionality, please fully implement the functionality, I feel like I have a giant tease if front of me.

-- And why can't we adjust the in/out/duration of a Favorite after the facts? 

Premiere vs. FCPX - Part2

The way FCPX handles separate audio is better.  Actually PP Merge clips is useless, even though PP actually auto sync to audio pretty well. I was trying to drag subclass into a bin and I discovered to my horror that the I/O points are all fucked up. Googling about this shit... Match frame does not work with Merge clips, what??!  I'm looking for trouble, forget Merge clips, let's make Multi-Camera clips instead. These seem to work fine according to users.

All right, I'm using Multicam, PP like FCPX allows user to look "inside" a Multicam Clip by Right+Click a particular Multicam clip and "Open in Timeline". There you can adjust sync, turn audio tracks on or off, mute, pan, level them, etc. That's just fine.

PP is superior to FCPX in the mixing department thanks to Submix and Master tracks in the timeline. Yeah! I am a classically trained sound recordist, editor, mixer as well, so I know audio. Adding a Submix track for my dialog, insert EQ, insert some Compression, bang! I'm in business. FCPX has yet to offer the same mixing / sending / inserting capabilities. Although I have to say I like the surround panner and the roles assignments in FCPX, it's just not powerful enough at the moment. We sorely need something that acts like busses and submixes Apple!

Premiere vs. FCPX - Part1 Introduction

Since I am working on a project using Premiere Pro after months of using FCPX, I thought I could just write down my experience as am cutting, and sort of adjusting on the fly to Premiere.

- I'm comparing Premiere pro CC 2015.4 and FCPX 10.2.3.

- Note that I am on a Mac Pro 5,1 and a Mac Mini 2013 systems, both with OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite and 16GB of Ram.

- The Mac pro has a Sapphire Radeon 7950 card with 3GB VRam, the Mini has the built-in Intel graphics with 1GB VRam.

- I write these remarks as things come to my attention. The list will grow as I progress through this project, and they will likely be several posts on the subject. With that in mind, let's roll!


Man, do I miss FCPX Magnetic Timeline!  Thinking that I was angry about it when FCPX first came out!  It is an AWESOME feature. I still have to figure how to "Select from here" in Premiere. Oh boy... It's "A" tool for all tracks, Shift modifier for single track, all right. 

I'm finding out I still like to create bins and organize the footage the way I want in PP. Interestingly enough, when I work in FCPX I don't miss that. Is it just an old reflex? Oh boy! Clips just move from bin to bin instead of being duplicated. Got to Copy and Paste then.

FCPX is so much more RESPONSIVE and FLUID!  PP feels like yesterday's tech.  It constantly has to redraw thumbnails, looses random media for a few seconds before automatically relinking, it is slow to start playing the timeline, slow to move the cursor around, it sometimes misses a particular selection (think selecting a transition vs. selecting a clip), it stops doing whatever task it's doing to respond to a command, and on and on.

On the other hand, it's TOO responsive (as in not in a good way) to any zooming, resizing, moving around the tracks or the Timeline. The tweaks are too abrupt, too rough, it's annoying.

IBC 2016 Avid feel the b(md)urn!

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20160909-02

So now BMD has the whole apps deal:
- A NLE (which need more work for sure) and a robust image finishing solution in an all-in-one platform: Resolve,
- A robust GFX solution: Fusion,
- The seeds for a robust audio finishing solution: Fairlight.

Are you feeling the burn Avid? Yes obviously you are! Good!
http://www.avid.com/pro-tools-hd/pricing

Get ready to lower your prices though, because I don't think BMD will offer Fairlight "Studio" software-only at $999, no, no, I think more like $450ish, but I might be wrong.

Think for a second, we''ll get a free version as well, just so it matches the rest of BMD software offering. Eh, eh, and I bet it will have 5.1 capabilities. Maybe if it does not, you can kill this sorry ProTools FirstFree of yours Avid.

Difference between Fairlight "Studio" and free? More than 48 I/O, beyond 256 tracks, 256 busses, 256 inserts; beyond 5.1 (7.1, Dolby Atmos, etc.)

Then you'll be able to buy some crazy modular Fairlight hardware: tactile mixer, I/O boxes, DSP galore, and more starting at a few thousand $.

If I were BMD, I would split Resolve and the NLE. Ala FCP "legacy" + Apple Color. But FCPX, Premiere and Avid are still big players and competitors. And after all, Apple Color got killed eventually, so... What do I know.

What to make of all this? Well, I expect Avid to do the right move and up its offering all the while lowering their prices. It won't take long for BMD to set foot into the ProTools sandbox, and if PT is not significantly more attractive it will perish. As I said you can forget ProTools First, and ProTools vanilla will quickly start to look pretty limited.

Avid has really made huge progresses with Media Composer, thanks to the pressure exercised by Adobe and Apple, maybe they will continue to push ProTools to keep competing.  I say it's good news for us users in the long run. Of course all manufacturers keep their promises more or less loosely... Right?

OK, who's next? Apple, something to announce maybe?

My favorite Premiere screen... Not!

Coffee time...

Merged clips are still unreliable in Premiere Pro CC 2015.4

This is an ongoing issue, since Merge Clips feature has been added, since CS5.5, what the hell is Adobe doing?

Merge a video file with a separate sound file, great, auto syncing to audio waveform works just fine.

Then slice this long merged clip into subclips in the Timeline, all is good.

But then try to Option or Command+Drag select clips to a bin, everything goes to hell!

Premiere looses the video, looses the in/out points, creates a subclip that has nothing to do with the selected clip.  It's all wrong.

It's an issue - (and many more related to Merged clips) that's been documented since 2014, CS5.5...  Hello Adobe?  When is a fix coming?

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1263571

Mac OSX 10.10.5 does not Search in Library folder? Why?

Mac OSX 10.10.5 does not Search inside the Library folder, that's a pity.

- All categories are selected in the Spotlight preferences in System Prefs.

- I tried the "System files - are included" trick, nothing.

- I tried the Search: "filename:the_actual_file_name" query trick, nothing.

Does someone know how to tweak Mac OS to perform Searches inside the Library folder???

Avid Application Manager - Pro Tools Plugins installers location Mac OsX

FYI, Avid Application Manager downloads Pro Tools Plugins installers into the following folder:

Mac HD/Library/Caches/Avid/AppManager/Downloads

After a particular installation is complete, the Avid installer removes itself from the Download folder.

So if you want to save the installers in order to avoid downloading again, make a copy prior to installing.

Avid MC 8.6.1.43430 (previously 8.5.3) rock n' roll

Updated to 8.6.1.43430 (8.5.3) without any problem, running fine on Mac OS 10.10.5 Yosemite.

One thing I've noticed: it now wants 2048 MB of GPU Memory...  I got only half that much on this machine, so GPU accel is disabled. Well...

It's loosing my Font size settings, so I get to set that again: Make a particular Window active and then go to:  Menu / Window / "Set Font..." and set them again to what it used to be... BIG! As I like them.  Unfortunately this does not apply to the Effects tab. And neither to the Info tab for that matter, though I don't care much about Info, but Effects yes I do, and that's too small for me.

Pro Tools 12.5.2.511 "The Video Engine had an unrecoverable error."

Avid!  Why do Pro Tools QuickTime Server [2679] and QuickTime_OPServer [2690] are freaking NOT RESPONDING?

And likely this is causing all the stupid Video Engine errors that are constantly plaguing the system:

By the way, the Avid Video Engine is opened TWICE in the Activity Monitor, and each instance is eating 3GB of memory!  That's 6GB to (NOT) play a video file? What?

Do something already!

Duh!?  What do you think?

And no it' not BMD or AJA drivers, they are both UNINSTALLED on this system.
ProTools Avid Video Engine is way too temperamental, guess what, it's 2016 Avid!  People are running their soft on all kinds of machines, with all kinds of codecs THERE IS NO EXCUSE, make the thing WORK!

Really? Plain ProRes 422, no it's certainly NOT MISSING.

Once the Session opens fine, once it doesn't because of the finicky Video Engine, this is crap!  Why did you have to fudge with the working video function as it was?  We just want to put a damn film in the video track and play it in sync with the audio.  That's IT!  Is this difficult or what?

Are you too busy taking basic functionality out of the low-end systems to give a shit?  For what I can see online, even the HD systems are plagued by errors:
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=383387
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=383114
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=381573

Why would film and TV pros want to spend any money on you?  Here is a tip for you: drop PT First, drop PT/PTHD segregation. Just make ONE piece of amazing software: "PRO TOOLS" that does it ALL and WORKS on anything, with or without hardware. Sell it for $40/mo, sell the hardware separately, sell the plugins separately, and then focus on customer service = fixing bugs and making enhancements as fast as you can. You cannot sell any hardware nor plugins if the core app is not working.
Put your shit together and fix it now because confidence in your brand continues to erode and you will soon be left with nothing.