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Maintain, optimize and troubleshoot your NLE
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Professional cloud workflow platform
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Simplified media management
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We've just released Pro Media Tools 1.1 Beta 1, a public beta of a major update to our suite of tools for simplifying media management.
This is the first of several planned betas that we are using to help gather feedback about the future direction of the suite.
The major changes in this version include:
The majority of the applications in the suite are now 64-bit. This means that they're better able to deal with large amounts of data, which is especially useful for Edit Detector.
Post Haste is now being bundled with Pro Media Tools. We plan to better integrate it with the tools in the suite in a future beta.
Edit Detector has been given a major overhaul. It is now significantly faster and more accurate. It is more than twice as fast on my test machine at scanning SD media. We've also implemented a caching system so that it only needs to scan the frames once. Reopening an already-scanned file is instant.
The full changelog is as follows:
This is a beta release designed for evaluation purposes. It is not intended for use in a production environment. If you require stability please use version 1.0.5 instead.
You can download the 1.1 beta here. 1.1 will be a free update for all existing customers.
Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.2, which adds many new features and fixes some issues with our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.
Here are some of the bigger features.
Final Cut Pro X XML (FCPXML) files can now be scanned by Corrupt Clip Finder and repaired by XML Repair. You will need Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1 in order to import and export FCPXML files.
By default, Corrupt Clip Finder will scan QuickTime movies, audio files and images. If you have installed third-party QuickTime components to allow QuickTime to read additional formats, you can add support for these formats in Corrupt Clip Finder by adding their file extensions to the list in preferences.
For example, if you installed the Panasonic AVCCAM Importer you can add the MTS file extension to the list to tell Corrupt Clip Finder to also scan MTS files.
Plugin Manager now supports Avid RTAS plugins, Premiere VST effects and Motion 5 templates (for use in FCPX). Please note that when installing Motion Templates through Plugin Manager, it will copy the template to the Effects category by default but you can easily drag it to another group if you so wish.
If you have multiple NLEs installed, the long list of plugins may be daunting so you can now filter plugins based on their host application.
This is a small subset of the changes in this version. You can read the full changelog here.
Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for maintaining your Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro system. To find out more, see our Pro Maintenance Tools page which includes a detailed feature list, gallery and video overview. A 15-day free trial is also available.
We're pleased to announce our newest product, Post Haste for Mac. Post Haste is a tool for organizing your projects. Everyone has their own way of structuring project folders on their hard disk. Post Haste simplifies this by allowing you to assign folder templates for different project types or scenarios, such as editing, visual effects and motion graphics.
When you start a new project, launch Post Haste and enter a few details about the project such as the project title, client name and the name of the editor. Choose a template and the directory you wish to place the new project folder into and click Create Project. Post Haste will copy the contents of your template into a new folder for that particular project. It's a big timesaver.
Post Haste was originally conceived and developed by Paul Conigliaro and we have now taken over the project, although Paul is still involved. Post Haste 2.0 is a complete rewrite of the application. You can read Paul's thoughts on the new version here.
We've completely overhauled the interface and provided the ability to setup an unlimited number of templates and filename parameters.
Templates can now be setup directly within the application through the built-in template editor. The location of templates can be customized, allowing you to store them in a shared location on your network to make them available to everyone.
One new and very useful feature is folder breaks. Folder breaks allow you to break parameters across folders, turning a project name like Client_Project_Current Date to Client > Project > Current Date. To get an idea of how this function works, watch the filename preview at the bottom of the window update as you toggle the Folder Break check boxes on and off in preferences. This is explained in more detail in the user manual.
To get a better idea of what Post Haste has to offer, take a look at our latest podcast episode that gives a general overview:
Post Haste is available as a free download from our site. Existing Post Haste 1.x users will need to download the software manually. It is also available on the Mac App Store, making it our first application on the store.
We're very interested in hearing feedback on Post Haste 2.0 from new and existing users alike. Use the links in the Help menu within the application or use the contact form to let us know what you think of the new version.
Apple released a Final Cut Pro X update today which added several much-needed features, one of which was XML import and export. I've seen a lot of confusion on Twitter so I'm going to clarify some terminology.
XML is a format for ordering data within a file. XMEML is a subset that Final Cut Pro 7 and below uses for creating a plain-text version of a Final Cut Pro project or sequence that other applications can read. The data is ordered in much the same way as it is within the project file, with the browser contents at the top, followed by the sequences, tracks and the media within.
FCPXML is the new subset for Final Cut Pro X. It is organized in the way FCPX organizes its data internally, which is completely different from the Final Cut Pro 7 way. You have resources at the top (all files and generators within the project) followed by a single sequence with the storylines and clips inside. There are no tracks and each clip is organized into a parent-child relationship rather than chronological order. Timing information such as in and out points are expressed in time units rather than frame units.
So the two formats are completely different and there is no way to directly import FCP 7 XMEML into Final Cut Pro X or vice versa. Apple seems to be leaving this up to third-parties. DaVinci Resolve supports FCPXML and XMEML so it may be possible to convert one to the other (I haven't tested this). Some features will not translate back and forth because they don't exist in the other application.
Currently XML in and out exists only as a menu command. There is no way for applications to automatically communicate with FCPX at this time. Update: Apple just confirmed you can programatically send an XML file to FCPX but there is no way of receiving XML data yet. It is also not possible to update an existing project - importing or sending an XML file will create new projects and events.
Also note that for some reason, you can't export project-based XML when the project is loaded. You have to go back to the Project Library, select the project name and then export the XML.
As you may know, lack of XML in and out prevented us from granting feature parity with Final Cut Pro 7 users in Pro Media Tools and our other products. We're going to begin integrating support in stages, so expect updates very soon.
Update: It would appear that the XML export function in its current implementation doesn't preserve important information, which is a problem when roundtripping. We still aim to support it in our applications and hopefully these issues will be addressed by Apple very soon.
We've just released Editmote 1.0.2 with some great new features. Editmote is an iOS application to remotely control your editing software. Add markers and control playback and volume levels - all without having to leave your chair.
Version 1.0.2 adds a much-requested feature: customizable keyboard layouts. If you have customized the default keyboard layout for your editing application, you can now go into the Editmote preference pane and change the default layout to match the changes that you made. You can also use this feature to map unused buttons to extra functions within your application.
Editmote supports Final Cut Pro 6 and above, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer 5 and above, QuickTime Player 7, QuickTime Player X, Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5 and above and Adobe After Effects CS 5 and above. However, you can use the Keyboard Layouts tab in the preference pane to add an unlimited number of additional applications.
The full list of changes is available here. When upgrading, remember to install both the new iOS application and the new preference pane otherwise you won't get all of the extra features in this version. The preference pane is available on the right-hand side of the Editmote page.
Editmote is a useful addition to an editor's toolkit. Find out more with our overview video and check it out on the App Store.
Yesterday we released Cut Notes 1.0.4, a maintenance update for our iPad note-taking application. Cut Notes makes it easy to create timecode notes during a screening.
The changes in this version are as follows:
Cut Notes makes a great addition to an editor's toolkit. Find out more in our overview video and check it out on the App Store.
Last week we released Pro Media Tools 1.0.5, a small maintenance update for our suite of tools to streamline media management. It fixes some XML issues, reduces memory usage in Edit Detector and speeds up Quick Bins.
The changes are as follows:
Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for post production professionals. Download the free 15-day trial to see how it can enhance your workflow.
Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.1, which adds several new features to our suite of tools for maintaining and optimizing your editing system.
System Toolkit has several new additions to make Lion behave more like Snow Leopard. You can disable window launch animations, prevent Lion restoring windows when relaunching apps, re-enable key repeating, disable automatic spellcheck and restore the old keyboard shortcuts for open and save dialogs.
You can also easily show or hide the current user's Library folder with a single click, which can be useful even if you have not yet upgraded to Lion.
Other new features include support for Avid AVX2 plugins in Plugin Manager and extra Housekeeper tasks. There are many new bug fixes too, including several for Pro Admin. The full list of changes is here.
Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for editors and post production professionals on the Mac. Download the 15-day trial today to see how it can simplify troubleshooting and maintaining your system.
Last week we released Pro Media Tools 1.0.4, which adds many new features and optimizations to our suite of tools for simplifying media management and streamlining workflows.
There have been several performance optimizations so many of the apps are now much faster than before, particularly Quick Bins and Project Overview.
We've added several new features to Auto Transfer based on your feedback, namely ARRI Alexa support, an option to bounce the Dock icon when the transfer is complete, the ability to choose a custom archival folder in Preferences and an option for SHA-1 checksums instead of MD5.
Project Overview saw a lot of changes too - markers now load significantly faster, it is much quicker to batch modify a large number of marker settings and there were lots of bug fixes including an issue where clip usage counts were set to zero.
Quick Bins is now significantly faster when saving to XML or sending data to Final Cut Pro. Export times from my test project went from around 15 seconds to less than 5.
QT Edit had two new additions, both of which were in response to customer feedback. The first is a frame rate conforming function, similar to the one in Cinema Tools, used to quickly convert from one frame rate to another without transcoding. It's actually more flexible than the one in Cinema Tools because you are not limited to common frame rates and can enter any rate you like into the box. This feature is located under the Settings tab when the movie is selected in the track view.
The second new feature is the ability to transcode to other codecs, just like QuickTime Pro. This feature is located under File > Export > QuickTime Conversion.
Both of these features were requested by customers because they were concerned with the obsolescence of Final Cut Studio and wanted piece of mind that such functions would continue to be available to them.
There were many other changes and features and you can read the full changelog here.
Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for post production professionals. Download the free 15-day trial to see how it can speed up your workflows.
Last week we released version 1.0.3 of Pro Media Tools, our suite of utilities for simplifying media management and streamlining workflows.
Version 1.0.3 is now compatible with Final Cut Pro X and OS X 10.7 Lion. Apple has made many improvements in Lion that have resulted in a noticeable speed boost in all of the applications.
We've also made several changes to Auto Transfer. The verification feature has been overhauled to be faster and the verification progress more accurate. It now also shows the estimated time remaining for both transfers and verification.
Based on user feedback, we've added a new option in Render Watcher. You can now request that it only alerts you if the application doing the rendering is in the background. This stops alerts from appearing for short renders and it will only show them if you start doing something else while waiting for a long render to finish. This option is off by default but it can be switched on in the Actions pane of Render Watcher.
We've made several other minor changes which can be viewed here.
Pro Media Tools is an essential time-saving toolkit when working with video. You can download a 15-day trial here and view a video overview here.
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