Mar
17
Testing Flock
Filed Under tech | Leave a Comment
As cool as WordPress and Safari are, they don’t play well together. I have to keep changing browsers in order to post to my blogs. In an effort to make my life easier, I’m trying out the Mozilla based browser called Flock. If it works well, I may just ditch Safari and FireFox. Flock’s built-in blogging tool seems pretty cool.
Jan
12
Hey, motion picture industry. You just turned a perfectly honest, hard working American consumer into a raging pirate. You took 10 hours of my life and now it’s “go time.”
All I want to do is hook up my TiVo and DirecTV DVR via HDMI to my friggin’ receiver and see it on my tv. Nope. Can’t do it. See, these fokkers who make movies are so afraid that we’re going to copy their precious stuff that they’ve convinced the manufacturers of electronic equipment to cripple the stuff.
Well, guess what? I used to pay for all of my music and movies. I used to lecture people about doing the same. I used to believe that people deserved to to be compensated for their product. That was before today. Today I was treated like a criminal. Today I spent ten hours trying to get a simple configuration to work because the instruction manual didn’t tell me that it wouldn’t. After doing a ton of internet research I found out that the feature that I had been trying so hard to make work had been intentionally disabled in order to keep me from copying some piece of garbage that Hollywood passes off as entertainment.
You’ll die like a rag doll and I’ll be laughing as I copy and distribute your crappy programming. You brought it on yourselves.
Dicks.
Jan
6
CES 2008
Filed Under travel, tech, jobs | Leave a Comment
I’m in Las Vegas covering the Consumer Electronics Show for a large cable company based in Philadelphia. Chew on that one. This is my first time in Vegas and I must say that I have been very impressed so far. The city is clean and colorful and really interesting.
I’m shooting XDCAM HD and I can’t stress enough the joy I get from looking like a real professional in an environment like this. I mean, this camera is a real professional camera. That’s the problem with much of today’s smaller gear. It’s makes you look like an amateur. This honkin’ axe commands instant respect!
There’s a ton of stuff to see and do so I’m sure the days will fly by. I plan to take tons of pictures and will post some here if I can figure out the flickr thing.
I hope to get to the Hoover Dam on Wednesday since it’s only 32 miles from my hotel, the Luxor. I’m told that seeing it produces one of those holy crap moments, kinda like the Grand Canyon. We shall see.
Apr
17
Final Cut Studio 6 and Final Cut Server are the next logical step in Apple’s bid to become the HD editing solution of choice for everyone from the freelance editor to the broadcast news monolith.
Sporting a new feature set and several core technologies acquired in recent purchases, Final Cut Studio 6 appears to have made the huge jump from professional also ran to serious contender. Time will tell if Apple can make a major dent in the emerging HD broadcast arena, but from a workflow standpoint, most of the previous barriers and limitations have been addressed.
Final Cut Server is an exciting new cross-platform offering that will allow users with massive asset collections to manage them on multiple machines across a network, and even do basic editing and export. Talk about a much needed addition to the Final Cut Family. And its ability to serve single files to multiple workstations (a-la Avid’s Unity system) is sure to shake up the purchasing plans of large corporate customers planning multiple FCS seats. At US$999 it could turn out to be a stroke of genius.
The new color correction and manipulation program - simply called Color - is a very nice addition and the much improved integration between applications in the suite is huge. Apple has made it incredibly easy to hop from program to program, treating your projects and clips quickly and completely. Compressor 3 sports export settings for all the latest toys including AppleTV, the iPod and mobile phones.
There is so much outstanding new stuff in Final Cut Studio 6 that it’s hard to quantify in a weblog. Suffice it to say that with a slew of hot new features and a very compelling price point, Apple has taken a huge step toward becoming the quintessential editing solution for just about every serious, budget conscious video outlet.
Mar
30
Apple TV First Impressions
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I’m a gadget freak and I usually buy cool new stuff immediately after it becomes available. Apple TV is just this kind of toy. However, it has limitations that I decided I wasn’t willing to deal with. I did want to see one in the flesh though so I headed to the King of Prussia Apple Store to see what up.
The Hardware
Apple TV is supremely thin and attractive. I personally would rather it be a little thicker and include a DVD player. While Apple TVs chipset and QuickTime itself is capable of 5.1 surround sound, the unit is currently not able to do it. Let’s hope for some improvements in version 2.0. The two store units on display were connected via HDMI to a pair of Sony 32-inch HD LCD Televisions. Both units were noticeably hot. And by that I mean that you could iron your boxers or make a nice panini between them. Where’s my spray starch?
The Interface
Navigating through the menus on Apple TV was even easier than I had imagined. It’s simple, straightforward and responsive. The one caveat is that the remote does not control the volume. For that you’ll have to use your TV or stereo controller. The interface is beautiful to look at. The cover art really pops and the text is crisp and legible. Very impressive indeed.
The Content
If you’re hoping to watch your iTunes Store purchases on Apple TV I hope you don’t have a very trained eye. In fact, you may want to sit several meters from your set and squint while you watch. It’s that bad.
ALL of the video content on display at the Apple Store was from the iTunes store and it all looked like poo. I work in the television industry so I know that I’m not the typical video customer but I find it hard to believe that most average consumers are so unrefined that they won’t notice the insane level of graining and all of the compression artifacts that are inherent in this kind of setup. HDTV and iTunes store video - in its current form - is simply a wretched combination.
Pictures on the other hand looked amazing. And why is that? Well, they’re high definition! The slide shows on the display units played really nicely with a music bed and the ol’ Ken Burns effect. Of course these slide shows were carefully assembled with precision in and out motion points and all images were oriented horizontally so they filled the screen with no black bars on the sides. No complaints on that one though, it’s just good marketing.
I was surprised to find that Apple has no HD video content on these display models at all. Nothing, nada, zip. You would think that they could throw on a couple of HD flicks from their QuickTime demo page, but no. And there are several HD podcasts out there so why not show off a little? I think it’s insane to sell an HDTV product like this and not allow people to see any HD video content on your display units. It boggles the mind.
I asked one of the Apple Store associates if there was ANY HD video content that I could watch. His response was that there is no HD content on the iTunes Store. Yeah, no s#!t, Sherlock. But you’ve got QuickTime trailers and HD podcasts. He explained that there really isn’t much HD content out there. Yeah, ok. Then why produce an HD box? Clown.
Conclusion
Apple TV appeals to just about anyone who loves a good gadget. However, the shine wears off a bit when you consider that you can get most of the same functionality from your video capable iPod. If you’re creating your own HD content and you do lots of HD slide shows then I guess Apple TV is right up your alley. If you’re pounding the Kool-Aid then you’ll probably want one. If you’re a gadget freak with some extra cash then why not get one? Me? I’m waiting for rev.2