Kollaborate
Pro Maintenance Tools
Pro Media Tools
CinePlay
Post Haste
Preference Manager
FCS Remover|
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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2015 is now upon us so here's a look back at the past twelve months.
We introduced several new products:
CinePlay for Mac, a Mac video player with professional features like timecode, markers, safe areas and overlays. It also integrates with our Kollaborate cloud service to provide cloud video playback, commenting and synced sessions with colleagues.
Kollaborate Plugin Pack - Upload files to the cloud directly from Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro for Mac.
Kollaborate Folder Watcher (beta) - Automatically upload files to the cloud when copied to a particular folder on your hard drive.
Marker Import for Windows - Free Windows tool for importing markers created by our apps into Adobe Premiere Pro. There is also a Mac version available here.
We also released the following major updates free of charge:
Pro Media Tools 1.3 - Complete overhaul of QT Edit's batch processing mode, offering significantly improved performance and stability.
CinePlay 1.1 for Mac - Audio playback, gang multiple files together for simultaneous playback (useful for comparing two or more shots) and playlist support.
CinePlay 1.4 for iOS - Audio playback support.
Cut Notes 2.3 for iPad - Added an Autosave Vault, changed hold behavior to be in line with Cut Notes 1.x and greatly improved Kollaborate cloud integration.
Preference Manager 4.2 - Compatibility with Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 and Lightworks beta for Mac.
In total we released over 100 updates for our apps.
Kollaborate subscribers also received the following features at no extra cost:
Our most-downloaded app was FCS Remover but our most-used app was Post Haste. Our most popular paid tool was Pro Maintenance Tools. Our most popular iOS app was Video Space Calculator.
We also improved our website in a lot of ways, but most significantly was the creation of an Account section that allows customers to login to manage their licenses and print invoices.
The most popular blog posts in 2014 were:
10 Useful Avid Console Commands (on track to be our most popular of all time)
Fixing missing database errors in DaVinci Resolve
How to protect your video content
Managing frame sequences in Batch Renamer
You may have noticed we've been a little quiet for the past couple of weeks and the reason for this is that we're working on some big updates, so stay tuned for new products and major updates in early 2015. You can keep up to date with new products, features and tips by subscribing to this blog, following us on Twitter or Facebook or by subscribing to our mailing list.
Last week we released Kollaborate Transfer 1.2, an important update to our free Kollaborate uploader.
This update adds lots of improvements to queue management and greater performance and stability when dealing with large batches. We also fixed a couple of issues where the queue could stop processing if one of the files failed.
In addition, the ability to choose whether or not a file should be automatically revised is now back, based on user feedback.
We were made aware that due to an issue in the software update mechanism in version 1.1.5, some users may not be prompted to update when running the older version. If you do not see an update prompt, please download the new version manually.
We've just released Pro Media Tools 1.3.4, a minor update to our suite of media management tools.
If your video is supposed to have a matte on it, Video Check can determine if it is the correct aspect ratio. It can flag up frames where the matte is missing or the wrong size.
Other Video Check improvements include a reduction in flash frame false positives and the fact that detected problems are now listed by timecode instead of frame number.
We've improved support for extreme gamma shifts, added timecode displays for each video plus many other UI tweaks.
The app will also now display an error if you try to compare a black or almost entirely black frame, prompting you to select a different one where a gamma shift can be detected.
We've added new Quick Tasks to help you automate disabling or removing audio tracks in batches. We've also added a timecode field to help you navigate through a movie.
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.
Yesterday we released CinePlay 1.1.4 for Mac, a minor update to our professional video player.
Many of the changes in this version are the result of customer feedback including:
Fast-forwarding / rewinding can now go up to 16x speed, pressing Shift+Left/Right Arrow moves 1 second forward or back and Cmd+Left/Right Arrow switches between files in a playlist. If no playlist is currently open it goes to either the start or end of the movie.
Instead of having to click on the timecode to enter a new timecode position to navigate to, you can now simply start typing the numbers over the video and the timecode position dialog will automatically appear.
The Info dialog now shows the timecode start position for each timecode track in the movie and improves the way audio codecs are displayed.
Dragging the playhead now shows a popup with the current timecode. We've also enlarged the video timecode overlay based on user feedback.
This is a small subset; there are several additional changes listed in the changelog.
CinePlay for Mac is an essential professional replacement for QuickTime Player X. It's free for cloud use and there is also an iOS version available.
To find out more, view the feature list, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.
Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.27 is a minor update to our suite of tools to maintain, optimize and troubleshoot your editing system.
Project Repair now analyzes the structure of an Adobe Premiere project before repairing to try to predict the likelihood of success. If it knows the project is unsalvageable it will be able to provide a more helpful error message. It's especially useful at letting you know when the project file was truncated in the middle of saving so only half of the data is there (yes, this can happen - we recommend Pro Versioner as a way of rescuing your data).
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.
We've just released Pro Media Tools 1.3.3, a minor update to our suite of media management and processing tools.
We've updated Video Check to more reliably detect subtle flash frames (e.g. a partial frame or a second frame that is almost identical to the first), as well as increasing the default flash frame sensitivity for first-time users of the app.
We've overhauled Gamma Shift Detector to use a different detection method which can more reliably detect pixel-based gamma shifts.
We temporarily disabled the Instances feature in the last Video Check update to make the app more reliable while we were waiting for our new architecture to be implemented. Now that this is in place we've re-enabled the feature which has resulted in a significant performance boost.
This is a small highlight of the changes; you can read the full list here.
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.
We've just launched a major new version of Kollaborate Server, our in-house cloud workflow platform.
Kollaborate Encoder is an add-on that encodes incompatible videos uploaded via the web interface on a separate server. Encoding is fast because the encoder runs on your internal network and has direct access to your Kollaborate Server storage location.
Your Kollaborate Server license includes one Kollaborate Encoder license, although an unlimited number are supported and Kollaborate Server will automatically send jobs to the server with the lowest number of items in its queue. Currently there is no way to purchase additional licenses but this will be coming soon.
Kollaborate Encoder is considered beta so we recommend exercising caution when using it in a production environment and we welcome all feedback.
Kollaborate Server 1.2 also features the changes from Kollaborate 1.2, including:
Favorite a file or comment to refer back to later. This is useful for creating to-do lists.
Custom departments and positions can be added on a per-project basis, allowing you to create private storage areas only a few users can see.
Aliases have been redesigned and can now be linked to all past and future revisions of a file or just a particular revision.
Kollaborate Server is an in-house cloud workflow platform that connects with Digital Rebellion products to allow you to share files and collaborate with colleagues and clients on your project. For those who prefer a simpler setup, a cloud version is also available.
To find out more, read the feature list and FAQ, watch the overview video or register for the free 15-day trial (no credit card needed).
Yesterday we launched Kollaborate Plugin Pack. This is a group of NLE plugins that allow for direct uploading to our Kollaborate cloud workflow platform from your editing application, saving both time and effort. We currently have plugins for Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro for Mac.
The installer places Send to Kollaborate functions in the File > Export menu in Premiere and the File > Share menu in FCPX.
The user manual provides a full tutorial but the basic workflow is as follows:
1. Go to File > Export > Send to Kollaborate (Premiere) or File > Share > Send to Kollaborate (FCPX).
2. At this point FCPX users should enter a title and other basic details for the project. Premiere users should skip to step 3.
3. Assuming you're logged into Kollaborate, select the project and provide basic details such as the title, description and where to store the file.
4. Click Export Sequence and the NLE will take over the rendering of the file. Once that is complete, the Kollaborate plugin will upload the video in the background and alert you with a Notification Center alert when it's done.
Note: due to limitations in the Adobe Premiere API, any in and out points in your timeline will be ignored when exporting through the plugin. To export a section of your timeline, please nest the sequence.
System requirements are OS X 10.8+ and FCPX 10.1+ or Adobe Premiere Pro CC or higher.
Kollaborate is the only professional workflow platform that integrates in this way with your editing application. To find out more, register for the free 15-day trial (no credit card needed).
Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.26, a minor update to our suite of maintenance and troubleshooting tools for your editing application.
Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.26 is compatible with OS X 10.10 Yosemite. This means that every product we make is now certified as Yosemite compatible.
Lots of changes have been made to System Toolkit, including an overhaul of the Cleanup Tasks pane to provide descriptions of each task and the type of problems it is likely to fix. We've also added new tasks to clean QuickLook and Help caches, the former of which can help fix the inability to preview certain types of files or issues where file previews are corrupted.
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.
We've just launched a major new version of Kollaborate on the cloud. With Kollaborate 1.2 we decided to address almost all of your top feature requests at once, including:
Favorite a file or comment to refer back to later. This is useful for creating to-do lists.
Custom departments and positions can be added on a per-project basis, allowing you to create private storage areas only a few users can see.
Aliases have been redesigned and can now be linked to all past and future revisions of a file or just a particular revision.
You can specify a custom site logo that will appear at the top of the page when others view your project.
Link other accounts to your subscription to allow team-members to also create projects.
Incompatible files under 20 mins can now be converted to H.264 on our server. This will take place by default for non-H.264 video files or files that are not in an MP4 container.
For power users we still recommend Kollaborate Transfer for uploading due to its faster speeds and greater customization.
Server-side encoding is currently considered beta so please let us know of any bugs, issues or incompatibilities you encounter.
Kollaborate is a cloud workflow platform that connects with Digital Rebellion products to allow you to share files and collaborate with colleagues and clients on your project. To find out more, read the feature list and FAQ, watch the overview video or register for the free 15-day trial (no credit card needed).
Cut Notes
CinePlay
Aspect Ratio Matte Generator
Video Space Calculator