Kollaborate
Pro Maintenance Tools
Pro Media Tools
CinePlay
Post Haste
Preference Manager
FCS Remover|
Maintain, optimize and troubleshoot your NLE
|
Professional cloud workflow platform
|
Simplified media management
|
With WWDC around the corner and a likely unveiling of a new version of OS X, here’s six improvements we’d like to see.
When Apple introduced OS X 10.9 they included Finder tags which allowed you to tag a file with additional metadata.
However, this is not particularly useful because the tags appear as color dots instead of text and they are very small and overlap each other. It also means you can no longer color code the entire filename, making it easy to miss color-coded files.
So my proposal is for two types of tags: color tags and text tags. Color tags affect the background color of the file in the list and can be easily spotted when scrolling. You can only assign one color to a file.
Text tags do not affect the background color of the file, even when colored, but appear in a bubble next to the filename. So you can tag it “VFX†and “Delivery" for example and anyone can see at a glance that it is a VFX deliverable. Any tags that can’t fit in can be expanded by clicking an ellipsis icon next to the filename.
It should be possible to stream video from a Mac video player like QuickTime or CinePlay to an Apple TV. This is something that can already be done in iOS but still hasn’t made it to the Mac.
There are some solutions to this but they are very hacky and developers would benefit from an officially-sanctioned method.
One of the most annoying things about OS X is how it frequently refuses to perform an action like moving a file or emptying the trash because the file is in use, even when you can’t figure out what’s using it and haven’t opened that file in months. This bug has existed for a very long time.
I have a theory that it may be related to QuickLook scanning the file to update its icon but I haven’t been able to exactly pinpoint it.
There are some workarounds such as copying a file instead of moving it or securely emptying the trash.
There are some very powerful tools in Apple’s AV Foundation media framework. Unfortunately many of the functions for scanning media files and extracting information are limited only to files that exist on the user’s local hard drive. This can limit the options you have for dealing with files on a remote web or FTP server.
There is no real reason for this because even though the data originates on a remote server, it still ends up in memory and/or cached to disk, depending on the situation. Because AV Foundation is built to be asynchronous, there is no reason why this data cannot be provided to an app as and when it is downloaded.
OpenGL ES is a cut-down version of OpenGL that is intended for mobile devices. Metal is a low-level iOS API by Apple intended to improve performance of graphical apps.
Because neither of these are supported on OS X, it means porting graphical apps between platforms requires a lot of work. With some parts of OpenGL ES it’s easy because all you have to do is slightly modify the name of a function, but in other cases it’s trickier because there are no direct equivalents for certain commands.
One rumor making the rounds is that Apple will forego major new features in favor of polishing and optimizing its codebase.
I feel that Apple’s software quality has slipped in the past five years and the annual release cycle means that Apple is often introducing new features (and therefore new bugs) before it has finished fixing the bugs introduced in the previous version.
The last time Apple did this was for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and I have spoken to many people who consider it to be the best release of OS X. In fact, more of our customers are on 10.6 than 10.7 or 10.8.
I would therefore be willing to sacrifice all of the above feature requests in favor of a massive codebase polish from top to bottom.
Earlier this week we released Pro Media Tools 1.3.7, a minor update to our suite of Mac media management tools.
QT Edit can now rotate, flip and flop QuickTime movies, either individually or in a batch. This is useful if videos were shot in landscape on a phone but are incorrectly rotated to portrait. It can also be helpful in situations where a lens adapter or other camera accessory is causing video to be recorded upside down.
Â
Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for media professionals. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.
Kollaborate 1.3.2 is now live on the cloud, offering some great new additions to our cloud workflow platform for video professionals.
Kollaborate will automatically play back files where you left off, making it seamless to switch between home and office or desktop and mobile. A corresponding update for our Mac / iOS player apps will be released soon.
This setting can be disabled in Actions > Playback Settings in the player.
It's now easier than ever to share files with clients outside your project. We've reduced the number of clicks required to share a file and made it much easier to track links across the entire project.
Plus you can get additional statistics including when a recipient last viewed the link and the timecode position at which they stopped viewing.
You can also relink to a different file so that you can silently fix problems without needing to send the person another link.
Easily see the most recent changes to a project with the project alert dropdown at the top right of the screen.
We've enlarged the size of thumbnails to make it easier to locate and tell the difference between clips. This affects all uploads from now on but if you want to apply it to existing files, you can go to Actions > Set Thumb to Current Frame in the player.
A new Kollaborate Transfer 1.3 beta has been released with support for the larger thumbnail size. Our other uploading apps will be updated later this week.
Kollaborate is a cloud workflow platform designed to help you work better with colleagues and clients. Upload files to the cloud, have them reviewed by others and then export their notes back to your editing application. To find out more, view the feature list or sign up for the free no-obligation 15-day trial (no credit card needed).
We've just released Kollaborate Server Scripting Beta 1, which allows you to integrate our cloud workflow platform with in-house databases and tools through the Python scripting language.
Usage examples include integrating tasks with an in-house calendar or work-order system, automatically backing up uploaded files, sending custom shared link emails, logging employee performance and sending files to a playout server when they are approved.
The scripting functionality works by calling functions in a custom Python script based on certain events, such as when a file is uploaded or a comment is added to a file. Contextual information is passed on such as the text of the comment, the timecode position, who added it and the file it was added to. The current implementation is passive - events can be responded to but not triggered - and in future versions we plan to integrate it with our REST API when it is made public.
We're releasing this early version to start a dialogue with our customers about exactly what information and events their in-house scripts need access to, so please feel free to contact us with any comments or suggestions.
The beta is open to any Kollaborate Server customers with valid maintenance or a trial and can be downloaded from the Kollaborate Server site after logging in.
(If Python is not your language of choice or your in-house scripts use another language, you can run other languages from the command-line within Python. More details are available in the Scripting Guide.)
We've just released CinePlay 1.2.1, a minor update to our professional Mac media player.
In addition to many bug fixes, optimizations and UI tweaks, we've listened to your feedback and added the option to burn a matte directly into frame grabs taken within CinePlay.
CinePlay is a professional Mac media player complete with timecode and safe area overlays, markers, annotations and full cloud playback, note-taking and real-time integration with our Kollaborate cloud workflow platform.
To find out more, view the feature list, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.
Last week we released Kollaborate Server 1.3.1, a minor update to our in-house workflow and review platform for video professionals.
This update coincides with Kollaborate Encoder 1.0, which allows you to transcode uploaded video and audio files to playable formats in-house on your own servers. If you have a large volume of files being uploaded at once you can even combine multiple Kollaborate Encoder servers to handle them simultaneously. Kollaborate Encoder is available as a separate purchase but is included free with Kollaborate Server Unlimited licenses. All existing customers, regardless of their current license type, have been given free Kollaborate Encoder licenses.
In addition, it supports all of the features of the cloud version including:
Kollaborate alerts team members to your actions like uploading a file or making a comment. However, in some situations you may not necessarily want this, so you can now temporarily switch off notifications for your actions when you want to silently upload a file or add a user.
Improve the security of your account by tying it to a phone. When you login you will be asked for an additional code from the phone, meaning it is very difficult for someone to access your account without having physical access to your phone, even if they know your password.
This feature is currently in beta and we welcome all feedback. Note that this currently only applies to logins directly through our site but logins through our apps will be added soon.
It's now easier to change the positions of team members in your project by choosing from the dropdown menu instead of having to enter editing mode.
We've also added the ability to import and export to vCard format to integrate with your contacts in other tools like Gmail and Outlook.
Plus you can now invite multiple users at once to the same department and position by separating their email addresses with commas.
Kollaborate is a cloud workflow platform designed to help you work better with colleagues and clients. Upload files to the cloud, have them reviewed by others and then export their notes back to your editing application. Kollaborate Server gives you all of those features in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, view the feature list or sign up for the free no-obligation 15-day cloud trial (no credit card needed). Trials of Kollaborate Server are available on request.
We've just released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.1.1, a free update to our suite for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.
Several customers have sent us events that can no longer be opened in FCPX due to corrupt stabilization data. Project Repair can now remove all stabilization information to fix such events.
We're planning to expand on this in future updates to strip out other commonly-corrupted parts including third-party effects.
Sometimes FCPX will generate corrupt XML that cannot be reimported. XML Repair can now fix the common "Element audio does not carry attribute ref" error.
Â
Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for media professionals that is used by freelancers and major studios alike. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.
Yesterday we boosted the storage space for all of our Kollaborate subscribers completely free of charge. The Freelance package now offers 15 GB instead of 12 GB and we've boosted all of the packages up to Network Plus, which jumps from 500 GB to 600 GB. These changes have been activated for all new and existing subscribers with no action required from users.
We also unveiled a beta version of Kollaborate Transfer 1.3. This update encodes files to a higher resolution, resulting in improved visual quality when viewed full screen on a large display. This will eventually become the default resolution on the site but we're releasing the beta to get customer feedback and fine-tune the encoding profile. Please use the Feedback link on the site if you have any questions or comments.
Once we've determined that this works well, we will make it opt-in for our other apps and the cloud encoder, before rolling it out for everyone by default.
Please also note that we will soon be making changes that will cause older versions of our apps to become inoperable. We will give plenty of warning before this occurs but we strongly recommend that all users remain on the very latest versions of our apps for best compatibility with Kollaborate.
Kollaborate 1.3.1 is a minor update to our cloud workflow platform for video professionals.
Kollaborate alerts team members to your actions like uploading a file or making a comment. However, in some situations you may not necessarily want this, so you can now temporarily switch off notifications for your actions when you want to silently upload a file or add a user.
Improve the security of your account by tying it to a phone. When you login you will be asked for an additional code from the phone, meaning it is very difficult for someone to access your account without having physical access to your phone, even if they know your password.
This feature is currently in beta and we welcome all feedback. Note that this currently only applies to logins directly through our site but logins through our apps will be added soon.
It's now easier to change the positions of team members in your project by choosing from the dropdown menu instead of having to enter editing mode.
We've also added the ability to import and export to vCard format to integrate with your contacts in other tools like Gmail and Outlook.
Plus you can now invite multiple users at once to the same department and position by separating their email addresses with commas.
Import comments from FCP 7 XML
Comments can be imported from markers inside an FCP7 XML file which can be created by a variety of applications including Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Premiere Pro users should note that in order for the markers to be imported, they need to have a name or comment assigned to them which Premiere does not create by default unless you edit the marker.
Kollaborate is a cloud workflow platform designed to help you work better with colleagues and clients. Upload files to the cloud, have them reviewed by others and then export their notes back to your editing application. To find out more, view the feature list or sign up for the free no-obligation 15-day trial (no credit card needed).
CinePlay 1.2 is a major update to our Mac-based media player for video professionals.
You can now play back image sequences stored in TIFF, BMP, PNG and JPEG formats. CinePlay caches intelligently so it works well even with very long sequences.
Illustrate your comments by drawing over a video frame. Annotations are supported for both Kollaborate and locally-stored videos. Changing the color of the marker also changes the pen color to match.
Note: This feature is not yet supported by Kollaborate Server. It will be added in the next server update.
CinePlay has been able to join Synced Sessions for a while but can now host them too. You can create Synced Sessions and invite users directly within the app and can use the Kollaborate Browser to switch between files.
Synced Sessions allow you to control playback on colleagues' computers and direct them to parts of the movie you want them to see.
CinePlay can now cache cloud files locally in situations where the user is on a slow internet connection. This is an option you must initiate manually by going to Cloud > Cache Current File. This downloads the file to your computer for fast scrubbing and playback but interacts with it as if it were stored on the cloud.
This is a useful option during a Synced Session when different users are on connections of different speeds.
Kollaborate files marked as Needs Approval can now be approved or rejected, along with an optional comment, directly within CinePlay.
Additionally, the Kollaborate Browser now indicates the status of a file under the filename.
We've re-engineered the playback code within the app to be more modular. This potentially allows us to easily slot in additional formats that are not compatible with AV Foundation and this is something that we will explore in future updates.
CinePlay is an invaluable addition to any video professional's toolkit. To find out more, check the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.
Cut Notes
CinePlay
Aspect Ratio Matte Generator
Video Space Calculator