Earlier this week we released Pro Media Tools 1.0.1, which offers new features and bug fixes for our suite of utilities to process and manage media in Final Cut Studio and Avid Media Composer.

The biggest new feature is support for Adobe Premiere CS5 for Mac. Premiere users have feature parity with Final Cut Studio users and can use the tools in the suite by exporting their projects to Final Cut Pro XML.

We've also improved the email settings dialog in Render Watcher to help those who had difficulty setting it up in version 1.0. There are now presets for common email providers, you can specify custom ports and there is now a button to check the settings by sending yourself a test email.

Edit Detector had several changes too. The sensitivity slider now behaves more predictably (this fixes an issue where it would not detect changes for movies with subtle edits, regardless of how high you raised it), thumbnails can now be switched off for improved performance when detecting changes, and edit points can now be added manually by pressing the N key.

We've also created a video overview of the tools in the suite:

The full list of changes is here:

• Support for Adobe Premiere CS5 for Mac
• Auto Transfer - Fixed an issue where multiple copies of the application could be launched in Auto Mode
• Auto Transfer - Fixed an issue where progress bars may not start at zero
• Batch Renamer - Speed and memory usage improvements when dragging in a folder with a large number of files inside
• Batch Renamer - Fixed an issue where Add Suffix would place the text at the beginning instead of the end
• Batch Renamer no longer adds an underscore separator character when adding a prefix or suffix. To regain this functionality, type the underscore in the prefix or suffix text itself.
• Batch Renamer - Fixed a crash when removing frame numbers
• Edit Detector - Left and right arrow keys now step through the movie
• Edit Detector - Thumbnails can now be switched off for improved performance
• Edit Detector - The sensitivity slider now behaves more predictably
• Edit Detector - Added a button to manually insert an edit point (shortcut key N)
• Quick Bins - Added a Send to FCP button on the toolbar
• Quick Bins - Fixed an issue where it would try to send data to FCP when trying to save a standalone XML file
• Render Watcher - Added a button in the preferences dialog to test email configuration
• Render Watcher - Presets for common email providers
• Render Watcher - Support for specifying custom email ports
• Render Watcher - Fixed an issue where email passwords would not save correctly
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Pro Media Tools is available for an introductory price of $99 and there is a 15-day trial available here. It will run on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 on both Intel and PowerPC computers.

If you want to find out more about Pro Media Tools, check out screenshots and the user manual.

We've just released episode 2 of the Digital Rebellion Podcast that gives a brief overview and demonstration of all of the utilities in our newest suite, Pro Media Tools.

You can subscribe in iTunes or via the direct feed. The Episode 2 video is available for direct download here. The podcast is free and is optimized for iPhone 4 and iPad.

We're open to requests for future tutorials so please let us know if there is something you'd specifically like to see.

We've just created a video podcast to show how to get the most out of Digital Rebellion products. We plan to show tutorials and demonstrations for common workflows and focus on tips and tricks that people don't know about. The first episode is the Cut Notes overview video from earlier this year and more episodes will be coming shortly.

You can subscribe in iTunes or via the direct feed. The Episode 1 video is available for direct download here. The podcast is free and is optimized for iPhone 4 and iPad.

We're open to requests for future tutorials so please let us know if there is something you'd specifically like to see.

We're proud to introduce our newest product, Pro Media Tools. Pro Media Tools is a suite of ten workflow utilities focused on processing and managing media, with functions including detecting gamma shifts, editing QuickTime movie metadata, batch renaming files and more.

There are many features that have been in demand for a long time, including notifying when a render is complete, editing markers and adding timecode tracks and reel names to QuickTime movies.

Pro Media Tools also marks our first foray into supporting multiple NLEs. Version 1.0 supports Final Cut Studio 2 and higher and Avid Media Composer 5.0 and higher for Mac*. The Avid support is primarily aimed at people using AMA workflows. Adobe Premiere Pro support will be coming shortly.

The full list of tools is as follows:

Auto Transfer

Various actions can be performed after the transfer has taken place, including showing the copied files in the Finder, opening up the clips in QuickTime Player or, if the clips are in a compatible format, importing them directly into a Final Cut Pro project.

Batch Renamer

Edit Detector

Results can be exported in a variety of formats including Final Cut Pro marker lists, Avid locator files and EDLs.

Gamma Shift Detector

Just navigate to the same frame in both clips and click the Detect Gamma button. It will compare them and give you a percentage difference between the two. You can then use this percentage to go back to the app and compensate for the shift.

In some cases, the pixels will be identical but the gamma shift will be occurring due to a mismatch in metadata. In these cases, Gamma Shift Detector allows you to sync the metadata of the two clips with one button press.

Project Overview

It also offers comprehensive marker editing capabilities including offsetting, custom printable data fields, label presets (to label all green markers as "Needs VFX" for instance) and the ability to import Final Cut Pro marker lists and Avid locator lists into an FCP project. It's a great companion to Cut Notes, our note-taking iPad app.

QT Edit

Quick Bins

There are several types of quick bins available. A Bin Range generates a group of numbered bins, allowing you to quickly create empty bins for scenes 1-100 in your movie for instance.

A Smart Bin automatically sorts media into the bin if it matches the criteria you have chosen (e.g. "scene greater than 11" or "filename contains MVI_"). A Smart Bin Range takes this concept one step further, where you choose the criteria first and then Quick Bins automatically creates Smart Bins for each variation of the criteria.

As an example, in the screenshot below I selected "File Extension" as the criteria for the Smart Bin Range. Quick Bins went through all of the media files in the project and discovered files ending in .mov, .aiff and .tif, so it created new bins for each of these types and automatically sorted matching clips inside them.

Render Watcher

Timeline Tricks

Video Check

The suite is available for an introductory price of $99 and there is a 15-day trial available here. It will run on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 on both Intel and PowerPC computers.

If you want to find out more about Pro Media Tools, check out screenshots and the user manual.

We're always keen to hear feedback, so contact us to let us know what you think and how well the suite fits in with your workflow. We have many more post production tools available here.

Update: Just a quick note for FCS Maintenance Pack users - when you install Pro Media Tools the FCS Maintenance Pack launcher will be removed and replaced with "Digital Rebellion App Launcher", so you will need to update any shortcuts or Dock aliases.

* Note: due to technical limitations, a few features of the suite are unavailable for Avid users.

Late last week we released Aspect Ratio Calc onto the iTunes App Store. It allows you to calculate aspect ratios and pixel dimensions for video. There are many preset aspect ratios for different formats to choose from and you can also specify a custom one.

Results can be copied to the clipboard or emailed.

The app will work on iOS devices running iOS 3.1.3 or higher, making it compatible with every iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad model. You can download the app here.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and will use it to improve our tools. Just use the feedback link within the app to tell us what you think.

Today we released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.3.3, a bugfix release for our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting Final Cut Studio.

Version 1.3.2 had a lot of under-the-hood changes which introduced a bug into Corrupt Clip Finder that caused it to randomly flag up non-corrupt files. This has now been fixed. We also changed the way Corrupt Clip Finder displays scanning progress to bring it back to 1.3.1 functionality, based on user feedback.

We also took the time to update Crash Analyzer definitions and fix some other minor issues including Plugin Manager's Crash Tester not working correctly with plugins that need an admin password in order to be disabled.

Please note that when upgrading from version 1.3.1 or earlier, registered users will need to re-enter their registration information. We apologize for the inconvenience and you will only need to do this once.

Since we didn't post a blog entry for version 1.3.2, here are the notable changes since version 1.3.1:

Significantly improved Corrupt Clip Finder scanning times

Files trashed by FCS Housekeeper are no longer marked "in use"

We've now made sure that files in the trash are no longer marked as being in use and they can now be trashed without any error messages or additional steps.

Crash Analyzer printing and emailing

Last week we released Cut Notes 1.0.2, a maintenance update for our iPad note-taking app.

This version fixes a crash some users had been getting when pressing buttons, as well as fixing an issue with misinterpretation of shorthand timecode.

We've been listening to your feedback and version 1.0.2 adds the ability to edit notes. Just switch to portrait mode and press the Edit button at the top. Click Done when you've finished.

Another nice tweak in this version is that when you double-tap a button to expand upon a note, after you press Enter, Cut Notes will scroll back to whichever button page you were originally on.

Finally, please note that we have changed the way Final Cut Pro marker lists are generated. The note text is now added to the marker name instead of the comment, meaning that you can ctrl-click on the timeline header and see all of the markers listed by name.

Cut Notes 1.0.2 is free for existing users or $7.99 for new users.

Last week we released Film Rate Calc 1.0.1, which adds iPad support and backwards-compatibility for iOS 3.1.3 devices, as well as fixing a few bugs.

Film Rate Calc enables you to calculate the amount of film required to shoot for a certain amount of time, and vice versa. This is really useful in planning the most efficient use of your film and should be in any script supervisor's toolkit.

Film Rate Calc is available on the App Store for $1.99.

Earlier this week we released FCP Versioner 1.2.8, a minor update to our tool for backing up Final Cut Pro projects and generating changelogs.

We've noticed that most people are backing up the entire project which can take a while if the project is large. This is not always necessary and for larger projects we recommend only backing up the sequence you are currently working on. You will notice a significant speed improvement if you do this.

Version 1.2.8 will now prompt you to backup a specific sequence when you import a large project, but for existing projects you can simply go to the Projects tab, click the Backup dropdown and select Choose sequence.

As well as the usual bug fixes, performance improvements and memory optimizations, we've also overhauled printing to provide more reliable results.

The full list of changes is below:

• When adding a large project, users are now prompted to backup a specific sequence rather than the entire project for improved performance
• Folders can now be dragged into the main window to add all contained projects to the list
• Complete printing overhaul
• Performance and memory usage optimizations
• Fixed an issue where icons in the backup type popup menu would appear blurred
• Several crashes fixed
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

FCP Versioner is available for $59 and a free 15-day trial is available here. This update is free for registered users.

Cut Notes 1.0.1 was just released onto the iOS App Store. We've received a lot of feedback on the previous version and the changes we've made in 1.0.1 reflect many of your requested features.

Here are some of the biggest changes in this version:

Time-of-Day Timecode

Time-of-Day timecode is now an option in the Project Settings window. This automatically syncs the timecode to the iPad's clock and is very useful in live TV broadcasts.

Hold button

Need more time to find the note key you were looking for? Simply press the Hold button and the timecode display will freeze with the timecode counter still running in the background. Press the button you were looking for and the timecode display will catch up with your NLE to maintain synchronization.

When using the keyboard to type a custom note, Hold will automatically be activated to ensure the note is added at the point you started typing.

Double-tap to Edit

Double-tap a note key to automatically scroll to the keyboard view and add extra information to the note.

Other Changes

• Shortcuts such as periods and partial timecodes are now accepted in timecode boxes
• When creating a new project, Cut Notes now remembers the previous settings chosen
• When setting a project to PAL, start timecode now defaults to 10:00:00:00 for European broadcast compliance
• Fixed a crash when rotating the app
Fixed a bug that could cause entered timecode to be incorrect
• Fixed an issue with projects being renamed upon saving

Our policy when developing new applications is to target a specific user group or workflow to keep things manageable and then expand that userbase over time. We have a roadmap for the future that includes NLE synchronization, among many other exciting features, and your feedback helps us prioritize this feature list.