We recently released a major new update to Pro Media Tools, our suite of media management tools for video professionals.

macOS 10.15 Catalina compatibility

The main change in this version is long-awaited compatibility with macOS 10.15 for all apps in the suite, with the exception of QT Edit, where a Catalina-compatible version is still in development and will be released in a future update.

Additionally, as previously announced, Gamma Shift Detector has been removed from the suite, but can be downloaded free of charge here.

Some apps required few or no changes in order to be Catalina compatible, but the two apps that required the most work were Edit Detector and Video Check. The QuickTime foundations of these apps were stripped out and replaced with AV Foundation equivalents, resulting in faster processing speeds as well as the aforementioned compatibility.

Other changes

The apps in the suite now support Dark Mode on macOS 10.14 and higher.

Additionally,  we managed to optimize and improve Edit Detector’s detection accuracy as a nice side-effect of the rewriting work we did.

Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for media professionals. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.

Kollaborate Server 3.0.3 is now out, which is a minor update to our self-hosted workflow platform.

Docker changes

• Fixed an issue where the container may not be able to communicate with LetsEncrypt's servers
• Setting USE_LETS_ENCRYPT to false now removes existing certificates, which is useful for troubleshooting
• Fixed an issue where Postfix may not start automatically
• When LetsEncrypt is switched on, http requests are now automatically forwarded to https

Other changes

• Support for showing image files in the Adobe Panel
• Comments - Replies are still listed under their respective parent comments when ordering comments by date
• Comments - Fixed an issue where comment replies may not be threaded correctly
• Player - Fixed an issue where pressing Play on Cut Notes wouldn't stop rewinding/fast forwarding when synced to the web UI
• Users - Fixed an issue where admins could be unable to add users in some instances
• Various minor tweaks and bug fixes

Upgrading from a previous version

Please see the Upgrading section of the installation guide for instructions on how to upgrade your existing installation.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).

The latest update for our self-hosted workflow platform, Kollaborate Server 3.0.2, is out with significant improvements to the Docker integration plus lots of backend tweaks and polish.

Docker changes

• Environment variables have been moved to a separate config.env file to make future updates simpler
• LetsEncrypt integration allows you to easily setup SSL encryption
• A proxy is now used to route HTTP and Websocket data to the correct services, increasing the compatibility of Synced Sessions with certain firewalls / network configurations
• Kollaborate Server now has a local mail server for sending emails directly from the server, although you'll still need to setup things like SPF, DMARC, reverse DNS records, etc, at the domain level in order for emails to get past spam filters.
• Fixed an issue where special characters may not display correctly
• Fixed an issue where thumbnails may not display
• Limited the size of Docker logs to save disk space

Other changes

• Deleted files and projects can now be restored for up to 30 days, up from 14
• Deleted file events now appear on the History page for a project (only project admins can see this)
• You can customize the port that the websocket server listens on and allow Kollaborate to connect to it over web ports (80 or 443) if it's running through a proxy. Connecting through standard web ports increases compatibility with firewall and network configurations.
• Overhauled how encoder pinging works on the Admin Dashboard and statuses can now be refreshed manually without needing to reload the page
• Some browsers may block autoplaying videos with sound, which can affect Synced Sessions. Kollaborate now mutes audio if it detects this to allow the video to still play in sync. Users can click on the Mute icon to unmute audio. Repeated use of Kollaborate will eventually teach a browser to allow autoplaying video with audio.
• More efficient preloading of hoverscrub thumbnails
• Fixed an issue where the size of a file could be reported incorrectly if it takes a while to move to the shared storage volume
• Fixed an issue where link recipients could only download the originally linked file and not any other versions
• Fixed an issue where folder link recipients couldn't view comments in certain situations
• Fixed an issue where caption durations could be incorrect depending on the timecode start point
• Only documents below 300 MB are converted to PDF, which fixes extremely long encoding jobs for documents with embedded videos
• Improvements to how folder disk usage is calculated when moving files
• Various minor installer tweaks and improvements
• Various minor backend tweaks and bug fixes

See the release notes and setup guide for information on installing from scratch or upgrading from a previous version.

There's also a corresponding Kollaborate Encoder 1.5.1 update with the following changes:

• Compatibility with Kollaborate Server 3.0.2
• Communication with Kollaborate Server now follows redirects, which fixes an issue where you may get a blank response from the server if you set the web server URL as http instead of https.
• Limit images passed to ffmpeg to 15Kx15K as it can't deal with images bigger than that
• Fixed an issue where document jobs wouldn't requeue if they fail
• Fixed an issue where soffice could be killed prematurely, preventing office docs being converted
• Fixed an issue where some temporary document files wouldn't be cleaned up after encoding finished
• Various small bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).

We've now got a pre-release version of our self-hosted workflow platform, Kollaborate Server 3.0.2, with significant improvements to the Docker scripts. We've tested it internally but need some extra feedback on how the Docker scripts work in certain environments.

Docker changes

• Environment variables have been moved to a separate config.env file to make future updates simpler
• LetsEncrypt integration allows you to easily setup SSL encryption
• A proxy is now used to route HTTP and Websocket data to the correct services, increasing the compatibility of Synced Sessions with certain firewalls / network configurations
• Kollaborate Server now has a local mail server for sending emails directly from the server, although you'll still need to setup things like SPF, DMARC, reverse DNS records, etc, at the domain level in order for emails to get past spam filters.
• Improved performance when macOS is the host OS
• Fixed an issue where special characters may not display correctly
• Fixed an issue where thumbnails may not display

Other changes

• Deleted files and projects can now be restored for up to 30 days, up from 14
• Deleted file events now appear on the History page for a project (only project admins can see this)
• You can customize the port that the websocket server listens on and allow Kollaborate to connect to it over web ports (80 or 443) if it's running through a proxy. Connecting through standard web ports increases compatibility with firewall and network configurations. (Note: our apps currently assume the websocket port is always 8000; we will be releasing updated versions of our apps shortly that respect the new settings.)
• Fixed an issue where folder link recipients couldn't view comments in certain situations
• Various minor backend tweaks

See the release notes and setup guide for information on installing from scratch or upgrading from a previous version.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).

Due to the ease of remote working in our industry, many of our customers are continuing working during the pandemic and so we wanted to make a statement about the continued availability of our services.

We have always been a remote and nimble company so the coronavirus pandemic does not change our business operations in any material way. Customers should therefore expect services and support to continue as normal.

If you're looking for a way to help in the fight against coronavirus, we recommend people with fast computers download Folding@Home to aid in scientific understanding of the virus. We'd also recommend people contribute to Mozilla's Common Voice project, as this pandemic will likely accelerate the need for non-touch machine interfaces like voice.

We've got a new webapp on the site: Aspect Ratio Matte Generator. This allows you to generate a transparent PNG image with black bars at the top and bottom to mask video to a certain aspect ratio.

While there are image packs like this already on the internet, the creator of such a pack has to try to anticipate all the resolutions the end-user is likely to need in advance. This means you may need to resize such an image if the pack creator didn't create one for the specific resolution you're working at. The advantage of our tool is that you can create one on-the-fly at the exact image size you need. It also supports aspect ratios less than 1.0 (i.e. with black bars at the sides), if such a thing is desired.

This tool is completely free and works in modern web browsers.

If you like this tool, check out our other webapps, our numerous products for video professionals and our cloud workflow platform.

Last week we released Kollaborate Server 3.0.1 - a major update to our self-hosted workflow platform.

Docker integration

Both Kollaborate Server and Kollaborate Encoder are now integrated with Docker, allowing them to be run in a container. We know some of our customers in the past had difficulty getting everything setup, so integrating with Docker allows for considerably simpler and faster installation.

In the next update, we are planning to make the software Linux-only, so Docker will become the only way to run the software on a Mac or Windows computer. For now, customers on macOS/Windows can use the latest version on their existing installations but will need to switch over to Docker in order to use the next version. We recommend all new installations on macOS / Windows to be via Docker. (Linux users have the choice of installing manually or via Docker.)

For more information on the Docker integration and converting an existing installation to use Docker, see the installation guide.

Hide comments from certain users

You can now choose to hide others' comments when creating a link or when editing permissions for a team member. This means the person can only view comments they made and replies to those comments.

File pinning

Pinning a file or folder makes sure it always displays at the top of the Files page, regardless of how files are sorted. This can be useful to highlight important files to your team.

Mark as Viewed / Unviewed

You can now manually mark a file as viewed or unviewed by you.

Better searching

Advanced Search now populates your current search when you go back to it, so it can be edited or tweaked.

Additionally, we've added new criteria for you to search against: Tag Value, Is Pinned, Version Title, Status Text, File Workflow, Color, Is Alias, Viewed by Me.

SVG logos

You can now upload your company logo as an SVG. Vector SVGs are now our recommended logo format to ensure your logo always looks crisp regardless of screen size or DPI.

Task improvements

Task descriptions are now optional and tasks no longer have to have a due date.

Higher quality encoding beta

We're testing new encoding settings that both improve quality and lower file size, at the expense of compatibility with very old devices (>8 years old). Higher quality encoding can be enabled on a per-user basis by visiting http://[your site]/beta .

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).

Kollaborate 3.0.1 is now live on the cloud. Here's what's new:

Hide comments from certain users

You can now choose to hide others' comments when creating a link or when editing permissions for a team member. This means the person can only view comments they made and replies to those comments.

File pinning

Pinning a file or folder makes sure it always displays at the top of the Files page, regardless of how files are sorted. This can be useful to highlight important files to your team.

Mark as Viewed / Unviewed

You can now manually mark a file as viewed or unviewed by you.

Better searching

Advanced Search now populates your current search when you go back to it, so it can be edited or tweaked.

Additionally, we've added new criteria for you to search against: Tag Value, Is Pinned, Version Title, Status Text, File Workflow, Color, Is Alias, Viewed by Me.

SVG logos

You can now upload your company logo as an SVG. Vector SVGs are now our recommended logo format to ensure your logo always looks crisp regardless of screen size or DPI.

Task improvements

Task descriptions are now optional and tasks no longer have to have a due date.

Higher quality encoding beta

When we first launched the site in 2013, the biggest factor affecting viewing experience was CPU processing power - even on desktop computers - so our proxies are optimized to decode quickly and not cause the CPU to spike too much.

However, since then devices and browsers have become much more optimized at playing video. If we sacrifice some compatibility with very old devices (such as the iPad 2 from 2011) we can produce better quality video at lower file sizes.

Because it only affects devices that are 8 or so years old, we're not expecting it to have a big compatibility impact, but we're running it as a beta just in case. You can opt in to the beta here.

Better technical data gathering

A feature that's not visible to users is much better logging of technical data at our end. This allows us to respond better to usage spikes, errors and fine-tune the site to ensure everything stays fast. We have plans to optimize things even further over the next few months.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. To find out more, see the overview or register for the free trial.

This year we're discounting the following products from November 27th through December 6th 2019:

Pro Maintenance Tools - $129 $99

Pro Media Tools - $99 $79

CinePlay for Mac - $29 $19

Kollaborate Server Small Business - $599 $479

Kollaborate Server Business - $999 $799

Kollaborate Server Unlimited - $1499 $1199

Kollaborate Encoder - $199 $159

Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.3, a major update to our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

Catalina support

Pro Maintenance Tools is now compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina. Because Catalina removes 32-bit app support, this required us to transition away from QuickTime and use the more modern AV Foundation framework instead. This comes with numerous benefits, but also the downside that codec support is more limited. As a result, some features were removed or restricted with this release:

• Media Salvage no longer supports Apple Intermediate Codec
• You can no longer use third-party codecs with Corrupt Clip Finder

Dark Mode

Pro Maintenance Tools has full support for Dark Mode on macOS 10.14 and higher, respecting whichever look you've set under Appearance in System Preferences.

Plugin installer notarization

Plugin Manager now supports notarization, which is a requirement for all apps in order to run on Catalina. Plugin Manager takes care of almost all of the process for you, but it requires you to setup an App-Specific Password for your Apple developer account first. We've written up a tutorial detailing exactly how to notarize here.

Also note that disk images should be notarized too, so Plugin Manager also includes a feature to notarize them under the Tools menu.

We recommend plugin creators utilizing our installers to recreate them with the latest version to make sure users can continue to use them on modern versions of macOS.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an invaluable toolset to help working video professionals get up and running again quickly in the event of a problem. To find out more, see the feature overview, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.