Monday, January 23, 2017

Is It Possible To Use Adobe Premiere Pro To Check Your DCP?! Well, Yes! Sort Of.

I never tried that before, interestingly enough, PP can open a DCP - j2K and pcm mxf(s) components, and let you bring them into a Timeline and playback!
DCP Playback inside Premiere. Groovy!

I know it does not replace checking your DCP on-site / in a theater / on proper DCP servers, but it's an easy way to at least check for gross error (or lack of thereof) in your encode.
PP performs the XYZ -> YUV correction on the fly as you can see in the screen grab above.

On my MacPro I can playback at 1/2 in real time, with synced audio so I can check that as well. And I can play the whole DCP. I say it's pretty dandy!

Coupled with Easy DCP Player Demo to check for the DCP integrity, it's a step towards controlling the quality of your creation.  In Easy DCP Player you can playback the first few seconds, after that the quality of the image is severely degraded, and the audio is muted, unless you buy the full version.
DCP Check with EasyDCP Player Demo (playback quality degraded after a few seconds)

Note that you can also check your DCP in Resolve, thanks to the bundled Easy DCP Creator/Player Demo plug-in, but high quality playback is limited to a few seconds here as well. You can however just scan through without playing just to quickly check how it looks, without degradation.
DCP Playback in Resolve (scanning through the timeline in pause keeps the image in high quality - unlike playing back.)

Why Premiere Pro is so sloooooow at startup (not always, only from time to time...)

Normally PP starts in a few seconds on my machines. Once in a while it takes muuuuuuch longer though. Can someone explain to me why from time to time Premiere takes such a long time to start? Is there some kind of scheduled process that forces PP to validate plug-ins and fonts and whatever else it's doing at startup every week or month or what is going on??

Ah! and now as I started Photoshop... this:
So this morning PP starts without any problems, but Photoshop is giving me the finger...
Allright, downloading the AAM now, let's see what happens.

Well, again I'm stuck with the Error 86 and not able to update Application Manager.
Time for a chat with Adobe.
---
After a remote session with Adobe (44min.), the update went through and the above message is gone. So back to work.

FYI it involved a lot of force-quitting processes from the Activity Manager:
Creative Cloud, CoreSync, CCC Process, CCC Library, Adobe Desktop Service, PC Broker...

Then had to trash Adobe Application Manager from Applications, then trash OOBE from /Library/Application Support, and maybe a few more things I'm not 100% sure, the guy controlling my computer was too fast.
Finally, after all the quitting and trashing, he had me download the Application Manager Installer from Adobe and we installed that. And... Bingo!

Still now with Adobe CC you must have an internet connection open at all times, since you never know when something is gonna get stuck, and the only way to unstuck it is to get Adobe support onboard - via internet/remote sessions.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Adobe Encore CS6 (basic BD screener) works fine on macOs Sierra 10.12.2

I just created a short BD screener with Encore CS6 on Sierra 10.12.2, everything worked, Preview worked fine.

I encoded m4v and AC3 with Media Encoder, imported the files into an Encore project.

Created a new Timeline, dragged files in, set First Play to Timeline/Chapter1 ("autoplay".)

The project checked OK, I built a Blu-ray image, it went through without hiccups.

Will burn with Toast and check the disc at a later time and report.

Final Cut Pro 10.3.2 !!!

Apple updates Pro Apps across the entire line!

The new Final Cut Pro (10.3.2) is out!

So are updates of Compressor (4.3.1), Motion (5.3.1) Logic Pro X (10.3) and Garage Band (10.1.5)

Final Cut Pro puts a big emphasis on the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar:
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/whats-new/
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/what-is/
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/resources/
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/specs/
The ecosystem is featured:
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/resources/ecosystem.html
Supported cameras:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204203

Motion is still a 2D app with limited 3D for text:
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/motion/

Compressor - Where is h265? Maybe I missed it:
http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/compressor/

Logic:
http://www.apple.com/logic-pro/


Note that Pro Video Formats (2.0.5) was updated on Jan 1:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1898?locale=en_US

From Pro Video Formats (2.0.4):
https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1396?locale=en_US


Tuesday, January 10, 2017

macOs Sierra 10.12.3 does not recognize some USB devices

I have a problem with a USB audio interface not being recognized under Sierra 10.12.2, and I'm not the only one having this kind of problem:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-12-sierra-post-bugs-and-fixes-here.1991731/page-16#post-24143277

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/65232

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb-audio-interface-not-recognized-sierra.1982544/#post-23129064

I confirm that the same USB box is properly recognized under Yosemite and El Capitan (no driver necessary), so it is definitely a Sierra bug.

10.12.3 beta is out, I hope it's being fixed and we'll soon have a public update that solves this issue.

--- Updated to Sierra 10.12.3 and the problem still exists... Please Apple fix this!

Monday, January 9, 2017

Premiere Pro playback on macOs Sierra with 1GB VRam is terrible! LOL!

In my main editing station I have a 3GB VRam Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950, which works OK with FCPX. It's barely adequate with Premiere though, meaning I can playback almost in real time, almost all the time, in HD at 1/2 resolution (no rendering.)

I tried to playback my current Premiere project with the stock 1GB Radeon card... LOL, it's a disaster! Nothing plays!  Playback is terrible no matter what I do, 1/4 resolution, everything tuned off, no go! The screen doesn't even update when I park the cursor further down the timeline. Terrible!

Boy, the Sapphire is an expensive card, and I only have one of them... What if it craps out? And really I would need an even better card to playback at full res in PP. But what's out there?

According to MacVidCards
Nvidia GTX 780 6GB ($525) or Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6 GB ($660)
or Nvidia GTX Titan X 12 GB Maxwell (for a cool $1099.) 
Pretty limited choice.

Some vendors have flashed cards on eBay. Some 3GB and 4GB cards for a decent price - Like this macvmotive or this lonestarmacpro. Are these cards any good? Do they work fine with editing apps? I need to do some research. I'm not very found of eBay though.

In addition... Nvidia or Radeon?

USB audio interface Aimpro21 HD USB audio (Model AS372N) on macOs Sierra limited to 48K 16bit (even though it's 192K 24bit capable)

The 5.1 / 7.1 usb audio interface Aimpro21 HD USB audio Model AS372N, (sold under the name: Sewell SoundBox Pro on Amazon), needs to be set on "U1" in order to be recognized by macOS Sierra. If set on "U2" it does not work at all. (NOTE that it does not need a driver, so it's not a driver issue.)


With Sierra, "U1" mode - Limited to 48K 16bit...

With Sierra, "U2" mode - NOTHING THERE!? The device is not recognized!

The thing is "U1" limits the device to 48K 16bit audio, the superior "U2" mode goes all the way up to 192K 24bit.


With Yosemite and El Capitan, "U2" mode - Superior 192K 24bit available! Yes!

Why is the best mode not recognize under macOS Sierra? It is available and working great under Yosemite and El Capitan. Again, it does not need a driver: as soon as it is plugged to the computer running 10.10 or 10.11, the device shows instantly in the Audio MIDI Setup and Sound Preferences. Not so with 10.12...

Please Apple, fix this asap! A large number of sound pros rely on usb interfaces, we need the best sample and bit rate available. Sierra has been out for a while already v. 10.12.2.


Let me know if you experiencing a problem with your audio interface under Sierra, USB or other protocols (Thunderbolt, Firewire), and please send feedback to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html



UPDATE:
It now works with High Sierra! As noted previously by Fabien in the comments, works with 10.13.2 for him. I'm on 10.13.4, still working. Good news.