Good news for those who followed my Market7 review from a few weeks ago.
Today I received an email from Brian Baumley announcing several different subscription packages including – get this – a FREE one. He wrote:
(…) Market7 (www.market7.com) is introducing a variety of subscription packages (including free!) for its online video collaboration services to fit any budget or scale. Today, anyone can visit www.market7.com to get started with free to premium access to a comprehensive suite of collaborative tools that address the entire video production process, from pre to post.
So go check out Market7 right now. If you can’t remember what it is, check out the details about Market 7 here.
The free subscription is really meant for you to try this out to see if it fits your flow. It’s limited in storage allowance and number of Admins but it’ll give you a good idea of its capabilities. Enjoy!
Watch this space folks! I’ve been approached by a company that has a new tool for my fellow video and production folks that’ll downright revolutionize your workflow. I’ve had a mind blowing introduction to it from its creators and I’ve come away quite impressed.
This is a wonderful new tool for: video editors, production teams, animators, producers, and shooters.
Running through the current beta of Windows 7 to make sure my clients and myself will be properly prepared once Microsoft’s new OS officially launches (probably by the end of 2009), one thing Windows 7 needs improvement on is its Networking features.
Well, kind of. I was all jazzed up when I downloaded my (not so secret ) weapon for some of my video and audio conversion jobs – SUPER – and saw that it now converts any video file into WMV9.
I’ve been using SUPERfor years because it can do some amazing things and astoundingly it’s free. The limitations of SUPER however were severe: you couldn’t convert your stuff into WMV9 (VC1), or On2 VP6 based Flash, only Sorenson.
That’s unfortunate because WMV9 is the standard for web bound WMVs, and if you’re watching Flash videos chances are those were encoded with the On2 VP6 codec which is far superior to Sorenson.
SUPER is basically a graphical user interface (GUI) program that uses encoding tools like FFmpeg, MEncoder, theora/vorbis, x264, and others to convert nearly any video or audio file to any other video or audio file.
It can even do some stuff that those expensive encoders can’t, like integrating the AAC audio codec with the H.264 video codec, and letting advanced users use AviSynth to add even more capabilities.
And now SUPER can convert your stuff into WMV9 and WVC1.
Need to upgrade your current creative workflow and get your last minute tax writeoffs in at the same time?
NOW is the time to splurge a little on new software and hardware – December 31st is coming soon so here are my recommendations. Just the best of the best, no filler shit that you don’t need. THESE recommendations will make a difference for you. If not, it’s not the software or the hardware, it’s YOU….
1) Adobe Production Premium CS 4
More of less drastic improvements to Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Flash Professional, and After Effects. If you’re editing AVCHD video footage this is a must buy: Premiere Pro CS 4 now natively supports AVCHD codecs. Most other professional video editing programs do not. And you’re past the consumer software stuff, right?
As with Adobe CS’ previous versions, the integration between programs is very tight. If you have not jumped onto the Adobe wagon I strongly suggest you do that now – your workflow will drastically improve.
One of the most dramatic speed improvements you can treat yourself with doesn’t come cheap. But Intel’s new Core i7 processor platform frankly kicks the shit out of everything I have ever encountered when it comes to processor speeds.
You could go a step lower (and cheaper) with the 940 and you’ll experience greatly improved speeds and efficiency in your workflow. But hell, why not go all the way and really squeeze out some power to shave off those extra seconds of rendering and encoding time, right?
Important Note: the Core i7 processors do require a different motherboard and memory. You can NOT use your Socket 775 motherboard with this. You’ll need to upgrade to the Socket LGA 1366 platform. A good mobo is the Intel Extreme Series X58.
(Writing all this I really wish Intel would drop that silly “Extreme” moniker on their products. What is this, 1990′s New Jersey?)
Finally, you’ll need DDR3 memory to run this beast. The Corsair TR 3x6G set of memory sticks are decent, it’s a total of 6 Gigs and the price is acceptable too, particularly considering the performance. However, if you are running a 64 bit version of Windows Vista or XP then do take advantage of the fact that you can use more than the 4 Gig (yeah, yeah 3 plus) older 32 bit versions can.
You can probably get DDR3 memory cheaper if you shop around but be sure to skip the “value” memory junk you might encounter. Newegg.com is one of my favorite shopping sources.
Regardless, you’ll be spending a good chunk of cash for all this but the increased efficiency (and enthusiasm I might add) when it comes to your video and photo editing, animations, or Flash stuff, should make up for this. Did for me.
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No Final Cut Pro recommendations. Sorry, Adobe finally took the crown and is now the top choice for this current generation of serious video and photo pros. I tried ‘em all. All of them. Final Cut Pro, Avid,Sony Vegas, and Adobe’s Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro wins for me, hands down.
One of the coolest and most useful developments for video peeps will be coming from a team of University of Washington nerdgods.
Their technology allows video to be manipulated by using still photographs as a reference. This means you can significantly increase your video quality by dialing in the photograph’s higher resolution information.
So for example if you have blown out (ie overexposed) parts, this will help you.
This technology also allows you to mask out parts of the video by creating a mask on just a single frame of the video – the software does the rest.
Check out the video for the demonstration.
I’m really excited about this and haven’t stopped thinking about new possible uses for this. I want this. Now.
Unfortunately no details on when the technology is ready for us is available at this time.
Running through the current beta of Windows 7 to make sure my clients and myself will be properly prepared once Microsoft’s new OS officially launches (probably by the end of 2009), one thing Windows 7 needs improvement on is its Networking features.
