[Tim Wilson]

I’m a big fan of reference monitoring, and no matter what your output is going to be, you should be working at the highest resolution you can, in the best conditions….

…but there’s a long way between Dreamcolor and Dolby (which my phone just tried correcting to “Dobby”). If it’s web, how calibrated do you need to be beyond a big, good computer monitor? I’m asking because I don’t know. Do you need REC XXX monitoring for computer RGB output?

And me being a dingus about more colors available on a PC than a Mac notwithstanding, you do need to take into account your computer colorspace vs. the viewer’s, and gamma maybe even moreso as you evaluate platform differences.

and to Oliver’s question, the projector used for a boardroom is different than for an auditorium our theater, could be in different colorspaces, etc.

So I don’t mean to oversimplify when I say, hmm, maybe a good computer monitor can get ‘er done for video being watched on a computer, but I sympathize with wanting to avoid the rabbit hole.

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

The typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.

[Tim Wilson]

I’m just saying that they’ll keep differentiation as long as the can make money from it, and as long as there’s unique brand equity in the names Symphony and Media Composer.

The thing is, even if they give away MC for free inside boxes of Breeze, they can upsell to Symphony. To overstate (ie, to speak in my native tongue), it’s almost like Media Composer is like Symphony Lite, or Symphony is MC Pro. No way Avid makes more money by killing one of those brands than by keeping them both alive. it might help YOU make more sense of things LOL but it won’t help Avid.

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

The typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.

[Tim Wilson]

Avid also bought Pinnacle for $425-ish million. A lot of that was in stock, and certainly much of the value was for broadcast graphics, servers, etc. — but it’s also not like $91 million in revenue for their computer graphics is anything to sneeze at.

Of course, we don’t know the extent to which consumer stuff was actually turning a profit for them. Once they get rid of the sales, support, R&D, development and manufacturing costs for those products, the $17 million might just be positive-cashflow gravy on top of stopping the bleeding.

I think it drives home that they understand that they need focus more than anything else. Well, that and making more than they spend. This could be a potential step toward both.

There’s no consolidating MC and Symphony. It’s one or the other. It would be a matter of killing the Media Composer brand and calling it all Symphony, or killing the Symphony brand and making it all Media Composer. They’re surely using the recent Symphony sale to re-evaluate this, but I suspect that they saw that Symphony still has upsell value for both hardware and software — which is to say that both brands are still valuable in unique ways. CAR ANALOGIES SUCK, but I see that most mfrs still see some value to product line differentiation…..

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

The typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

The typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.

[Tim Wilson]

[Michael Hadley] “Most of our deliverable are non-broadcast. Either for web usage or Pro Res projection. In which case, is broadcast monitoring still the best standard for critical grading”

I would think that the goal is to monitor on the best version of the screen that your clients could see, while doublechecking on the worst.

That is, web colorspace is different from broadcast that I’d think you’d want to monitor on the best COMPUTER monitor you can, and cross-reference a phone – especially if your clients are intentionally (rather than opportunistically) delivering on multiple platforms.

Same thing for projection. You can START on a broadcast monitor, but again, the colorspace of likely projectors is different – in many cases, it will be closer to a computer than a TV or film. But there’s a reason why a lot of grading for projection is done with projectors. No matter where else you start, you have to include that as part of your process, hopefully in situations close to those your audience will see it in.

But that’s what I’m getting at. Broadcast monitoring/reference monitoring is a huge deal if it’s relevant to your audience. It doesn’t sound like this will always be the case for you.

Right?

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

The typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “[David Lawrence] “..But thing is, I use my one machine for everything — work and everything else in my life. Not gonna give up Mac OS for the non-work everyday stuff. I mean would you? ;)”

Moi? Well, no but clearly I don’t know what I am missing on the windows side, it’s supposed to be the bees knees.

No, MAC is the bee’s knees – unless you’re lumpy, wear a suit and comb your hair. If 3 years of Justin Long isn’t enough to convince you of that, you’re beyond hope.

Too bad figuring out how to enter a simple IP address takes 4 screens and a chant. “

Dude, he asked about your OS for non-work everyday stuff. If you’re adding IPs for non-work, everyday stuff, I’m not sure I want you bringing desserts to my next pot-luck dinner.

Besides, who uses a computer for non-work stuff anymore? LOL

And in an uncharacteristic bit of on-topicness, I have a 15″ HP WORKstation with a Dreamcolor monitor, and it’s insane. I’m definitely a 15″ guy (ahem), but I’ve seen the 17″ and it’s even insaner…But note the emphasis on WORK-station, rather than LAP top. You would not want this on your lap for very long. It is definitely not the holy grail of a single, sleek monster device that gives you tippy-top performance in a form that will make you feel all tousled hair, t-shirt, Drew Barrymore’s boyfriend.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Chris Harlan] “Nothing that isn’t already available here?

This was obviously a loooong time ago, but I toured Boris RED 3 at the same time Apple toured FCP 3, and we were at a number of user groups together, including the user group formerly known as LAFCPUG.

Needless to say, I blew them off the stage (LOL), but it really was just a demo. Asking about anything outside the demo was met with a good-natured “Next question!” Laughter abounded. Maybe so this time, maybe not…

…but in fact, the FCPX team has been much more forthcoming about features yet to be released than ever before. To their credit, they’re being more forthcoming than any company I’ve ever seen. Be fair – have you ever seen ANYONE talking about features that will be rolling in over the next year? No, because they don’t do that. Any previous Apple would have ignored the outrage until waving a hand with some ridiculous non-acknowledgement (it’s not our fault! everybody does it! put some duct tape on the corner!), and then not actually doing anything for another year, a la iPhone 4, which had a lot more outrage from a lot more people, with a product that was at the core of Apple’s business.

Anyway, while it COULD have some future-y stuff, my guess is that they’ll be showing insane pro-grade performance on the new rMBP (their putative words, not necessarily mine). That’s more than enough reason to take to the highway.

But I think that even a demo tour is a good idea. Show people some intended use cases, give some more specific insights into its advantages. Even if it doesn’t make anybody feel any better about FCPX for themselves, the first anniversary tour is good time to take their case to The People, with a shiny new machine to back it up.

Don’t expect anything about the Mac Pro. Be nice.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I really don’t like glossy monitors as I sometimes feel like I’m looking in the mirror.”

I had never articulated it before but the light has dawned: I prefer glossy laptop monitors because I’d really rather be looking at the mirror than working anyway. Glossy monitors allow me to do a LITTLE more work before I stop to ONLY look in the mirror.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Andrew Kimery] ” draft animals are still best, and many times only, way to get into and out of the woods w/o leaving a giant swath of destruction in your wake.”

You raise a great point. One of my pet-est of peeves is when people say “the tools don’t matter, it’s the editor,” or something similar. TOOLS MATTER. People SHOULD be talking about this. If you need a new ox and all your oxen breeders are now breeding armadillos or rhinos — wonderful animals (hey, a rhino is 4 times bigger than an ox! Awesome), but not what you need.

I don’t need to actually write out the rest of the metaphor at this point in the festivities, but I think that talking about tools that are suited to the specific job that you in particular need to do is very much on topic.

It’s also worth talking about the right way to do things without leaving a trail of destruction in your wake.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Tim Wilson]

[Andrew Richards] “The only thing that would be slowing FCPX down would be all its UI animations. ;-)”

You know how when babies cry, you can jingle keys in front of ’em and they stop crying?

I think that those animations are somebody’s attempt at jingly keys.

[Tim Wilson]

I’m happy to be corrected (I’m used to it by now) but no equivalent to trashing preferences, which I say only because it has never come up for me. Ditto repairing permissions, which I’ve done a bunch of times on Macs over the years…including last night to empty the trash of one recalcitrant file. I can’t think if anything like it in Windows, because it hasn’t come up. I can empty all the files in the trash just fine. LOL

Of course not that Windows has no issues, just that I was reminded how glad I am not to deal with prefs and permissions anymore.

re the switch to Windows, it has been beyond wonderful for me, restoring a joy in computing that I realized had been sucked out of me by Macs…but really, I can’t recommend anybody switching unless it solves a problem other than Apple. You’ve gotta draw a lot of polygons to offset the productivity drain of infrastructure transition.

It HAS to be about software first, not platform. Unless you see an APPLICATION experience that excites you, stay put.

but once you see a potentially cross-platform future, it’s at THAT point that I’d want to have a heart to heart with you about Windows. LOL

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou