This article appeared in the June 2007 issue of EventDV Magazine. To view the online article click here.
Continuing Education: Matrox RT.X2 Revealed
By Chris Randall & Laura Randall - Posted Jun 1, 2007
It seems that all nonlinear editing programs come with their own collection of effects to apply to video. One thing that is missing is a good description of how to get the most out of each effect. Most manuals that come with your favorite NLE only offer brief descriptions, and the Help file may not provide any more clues on how to get the most out of the provided effects. To complicate things even further, some third-party companies create their own effects that may differ from the ones that are supplied by the NLE. This is the case with hardware-assisted cards that provide their own real-time filters. You almost need a roadmap to follow how these effects can best be utilized in your day-to-day productions. When Jeff Pulera created the RT.X2 Revealed tutorial DVD ($99 from Safe Harbor Computers), he set out to create just such a roadmap—and quite a bit more.
RT.X2 Revealed is a must-have for anyone who has recently purchased the Matrox RT.X2 card, currently owns one, or is considering purchasing one. The nice thing about choosing a Matrox RT.X2 system, is the ability to edit HDV footage in real-time with various effects applied. Not only does the tutorial DVD go over every single real-time effect that the RT.X2 provides, it also explains how to install the product on your computer. The DVD has clear and concise step-by-step instructions on installing the hardware and software. Included are recommendations on putting together a system yourself. Pulera suggests checking the Matrox website (www.matrox.com/video) to get a list of validated hardware that is compatible for the RT.X2 card. If you are not as adventurous and don’t want to build your own system, Jeff recommends considering purchasing a turnkey system built by Safe Harbor Computers (who produced and distributes this DVD). Safe Harbor has built a solid reputation for creating stable nonlinear workstations with just about every editor in mind.
The DVD is broken down into chapters that allow you to navigate easily from the installation of the RT.X2 card to the final output of your project. Once you have your system up and running, Pulera goes over selecting the proper project settings to enable full use of the RT.X2 card and its effects. This DVD assumes that you are familiar with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, the software that ships with the RT.X2 card. (For basic instruction on using Premiere Pro 2.0, I recommend reviewing the Total Training DVD that came with your copy of the software.)
After showing you how to create a new project with the proper settings, the next chapter on this DVD goes over capturing video using the Breakout box that comes with your RT.X2 card. The breakout box allows you to capture composite, S-Video, component, and DV via the FireWire port. The RT.X2 comes with a nice, long cable, eliminating the need to get behind your computer to make the various connections to your equipment.
The next 26 chapters are dedicated to going over the real-time effects that come with the RT.X2 card. Each effect is clearly explained with a description of what the effect does. From there, Pulera goes over each parameter of the effect, explaining how each tweak affects the final look of the video. Multiple examples are played back to give the viewer an idea of the full range and capability of each effect. Some of the many effects that are covered are Transitions, Color Correction, Old Movie Effect, Move and Scale, Shine Effect, Chroma Key, Lens Flare, and custom masks.
The final chapter covers the use of Matrox Media Export to output your video to various formats. Matrox chose to utilize the same Media Exporter that comes with Premiere Pro, but be sure to select the Matrox Media Encoder, and not the Adobe Media Encoder. The interface is the same, but by choosing to use the Matrox Media Encoder, your encoding times will be greatly reduced because it will use the Matrox RT.X2 to do the encoding. Pulera has a clear understanding of the ins and outs of the Matrox RT.X2 card, and is often referred as the “Matrox Guru,” offering countless hours of support for users on various online forums. This DVD quickly allows viewers to get up to speed so that they, too, can aspire to “Guru” status.
Chris Randall, a 2006 EventDV 25 honoree, is co-owner of Seattle-area studio Edit 1 Media with his wife, Laura.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Blu-Ray Tutorial
How to create a Blu-ray disc with Encore CS3
by Chris Randall – Edit1Media
Adobe brings Blu-ray Authoring to the Masses
With the recent price drop and the flurry of new HDV video cameras on the market now, just about anyone can afford to shoot and edit in High Definition. NLEs are being upgraded to handle HDV editing and just about any new system has the power to do so. Unfortunately due to the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, the video production world has been waiting for a solution to deliver HD content to their clients. It appears the wait may be over with software giant Adobe selecting Blu-ray as their format choice for delivery of High Definition video.
CS3
July will bring the release of the much anticipated Adobe CS3 Production Studio. The Adobe team has brought many new features including Blu-ray support to Premiere and Encore and much tighter integration between applications. This only speeds up workflow and allows the user to easily accomplish tasks without having to leave the editing software to do them. In its earlier version, Premiere Pro 2.0 improved on its DVD authoring by adding the ability to import DVD menus from the library or from ones that were created in Photoshop. With Premiere CS3, they decided to remove the DVD authoring tool in favor of creating a link directly to Adobe Encore CS3. This allows the user to export their edited timeline right into Encore. You have the ability to export your HDV timeline in the Blu-ray format as a straight play Blu-ray disc or a fully authored Blu-ray disc with Menus. Even better, once your encoded HD file has been brought into Encore, it can easily be down converted to SD for DVD playback or exported in flash for the web. Not only do you get a streamlined way to author your Blu-ray disc, you also get the robust features that Encore provides.
Adobe Encore CS3 currently supports Blu-ray Burners from Samsung, Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic. I tested the Panasonic SW-5582 Blu-ray Drive. Street Price - $600 which has worked flawlessly from the start. All of the internal Blu-ray Drives connect to your PC in the same way as your current DVD drive. Installing the drive was a rather straightforward process. Simply disconnect and remove your current DVD drive and install the Blu-ray burner in its place. Since they use the same cables, it is just a matter of re-connecting the appropriate cables. The Panasonic drive is also backwards compatible with all DVD/CD formats. It can burn CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW plus Dual Layer DVD discs in both formats as well as DVD-RAM discs. This drive does it all. Unfortunately, Burn speeds for Blu-ray discs are limited to 1X and 2X. A 25 GIG disc will take up to 1 hour, 45 minutes to burn which will only improve as drives become faster in the future.
Main Title
From this point, I will walk you step by step on creating a Blu-ray disc using Adobe Premiere CS3, Encore CS3 and the Panasonic SW-5582. I recommend getting a BD -RE (Blu-ray rewritable) Disc for your initial tests. Discs are expensive right now ($18-$25) but should come down in price in a few months. To begin, you will need to install the drive in your system. Once the drive is installed, and you have powered on your PC, make sure that Windows recognizes the new hardware and installs the correct driver. You can easily check this by right clicking the drive letter in Windows Explorer and select properties. Click the hardware tab and view the devices that are listed. You should see the Blu-ray burner listed by the manufacturer’s product name. On my system, it is listed as Matshita BD-MLT SW-558
Now that we have verified that the drive is installed correctly and is working, go ahead and run Adobe Premiere. Open up one of your HDV projects with a finished timeline that you are ready to burn to Blu-ray. Insert chapter markers using the chapter marker button. These markers will automatically be brought into Encore when you encode the video. Once you are ready to export your project to Blu-ray, go ahead and select "Export to Encore" This will bring up a dialog box with several options. Go ahead and name your Disc. Under type, select Blu-ray Disc, single layer MPEG-2. The next item you need to do is choose if you want to Author with Menus or do a Direct Burn without Menus. (See Figure 1) Check your encoding setting and verify you have the correct one selected. Once you have that done, press the OK button to start the encoding. You will be asked what to name the encoded file and where to save it. Encoding times will vary based on the length of your video and encoding settings.
After the encoding is finished, Adobe Encore will automatically open and import your video into a timeline. (See Figure 2) From here, authoring is nearly the same as creating a standard DVD. If you are doing a direct burn, all you will need to do is verify your settings and go to the build DVD menu. For a fully authored Blu-ray disc, Encore provides a whole library of Menus for you to choose from that are already in the HD format. The great thing about these menus are that they can easily be brought into Photoshop and changed to your liking with a click of a button. You can use frame grabs from your HD video and replace the background, keeping the titling and buttons intact. Once you have created your menus and added buttons, you will need to link the buttons to the individual chapters.
Make sure to check your project for errors before burning using the Check Project wizard. Go ahead and select Build - disc to bring up the Build dialog box. (See Figure 3) From here you want to choose Blu-ray under format and select Blu-ray Disc in the Output drop down box. Your destination should automatically display the Blu-ray burner. If not, select it from the Recorder drop down menu. With the blank disc inserted, you should see how many Gigabytes are used up by your project. Once you press build, Encore will begin creating the files necessary for your Blu-ray disc and write them to the disc. (See figure 4) Once the burn is complete, you will want to test the disc. I recommend getting CyberLink Power DVD Ultra for testing your Blu-Ray disc on your PC. (See figure 5) This software costs $99 and plays all of the latest formats including HD-DVD. If you verify that the disc plays without any problems, you can test the disc on a PlayStation 3 or other stand alone player. Of course if you haven’t invested in a Blu-ray player yet, a trip down to Best-Buy is in order to try out your disc on one of the display models. This is great for testing compatibility among various players being sold.
Bonus features
Now that we have created the Blu-ray disc, you can easily take the same project and burn the video to DVD. Encore will automatically down convert the Blu-ray format to DVD standard. This is great if your clients want to give copies of their wedding to parents or relatives who don't have a Blu-ray player yet. Another great feature is the export to flash feature. This is a great option for putting DVD content on the web. You can host your clients wedding for virtually anyone to see worldwide. Not only do others get to see your work, the do so in a way that is just like watching a DVD on their home DVD player.
Conclusion
It is nice to see that there are finally some options out there for creating and delivering weddings in HD. Adobe has really stepped up to the plate and created an integrated solution that really makes the process easy and streamlined. With the cost of Blu-ray burners such as the Panasonic SW-5582 coming down in price, it makes it a very affordable solution for burning HD weddings.
by Chris Randall – Edit1Media
Adobe brings Blu-ray Authoring to the Masses
With the recent price drop and the flurry of new HDV video cameras on the market now, just about anyone can afford to shoot and edit in High Definition. NLEs are being upgraded to handle HDV editing and just about any new system has the power to do so. Unfortunately due to the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, the video production world has been waiting for a solution to deliver HD content to their clients. It appears the wait may be over with software giant Adobe selecting Blu-ray as their format choice for delivery of High Definition video.
CS3
July will bring the release of the much anticipated Adobe CS3 Production Studio. The Adobe team has brought many new features including Blu-ray support to Premiere and Encore and much tighter integration between applications. This only speeds up workflow and allows the user to easily accomplish tasks without having to leave the editing software to do them. In its earlier version, Premiere Pro 2.0 improved on its DVD authoring by adding the ability to import DVD menus from the library or from ones that were created in Photoshop. With Premiere CS3, they decided to remove the DVD authoring tool in favor of creating a link directly to Adobe Encore CS3. This allows the user to export their edited timeline right into Encore. You have the ability to export your HDV timeline in the Blu-ray format as a straight play Blu-ray disc or a fully authored Blu-ray disc with Menus. Even better, once your encoded HD file has been brought into Encore, it can easily be down converted to SD for DVD playback or exported in flash for the web. Not only do you get a streamlined way to author your Blu-ray disc, you also get the robust features that Encore provides.
Adobe Encore CS3 currently supports Blu-ray Burners from Samsung, Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic. I tested the Panasonic SW-5582 Blu-ray Drive. Street Price - $600 which has worked flawlessly from the start. All of the internal Blu-ray Drives connect to your PC in the same way as your current DVD drive. Installing the drive was a rather straightforward process. Simply disconnect and remove your current DVD drive and install the Blu-ray burner in its place. Since they use the same cables, it is just a matter of re-connecting the appropriate cables. The Panasonic drive is also backwards compatible with all DVD/CD formats. It can burn CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW plus Dual Layer DVD discs in both formats as well as DVD-RAM discs. This drive does it all. Unfortunately, Burn speeds for Blu-ray discs are limited to 1X and 2X. A 25 GIG disc will take up to 1 hour, 45 minutes to burn which will only improve as drives become faster in the future.
Main Title
From this point, I will walk you step by step on creating a Blu-ray disc using Adobe Premiere CS3, Encore CS3 and the Panasonic SW-5582. I recommend getting a BD -RE (Blu-ray rewritable) Disc for your initial tests. Discs are expensive right now ($18-$25) but should come down in price in a few months. To begin, you will need to install the drive in your system. Once the drive is installed, and you have powered on your PC, make sure that Windows recognizes the new hardware and installs the correct driver. You can easily check this by right clicking the drive letter in Windows Explorer and select properties. Click the hardware tab and view the devices that are listed. You should see the Blu-ray burner listed by the manufacturer’s product name. On my system, it is listed as Matshita BD-MLT SW-558
Now that we have verified that the drive is installed correctly and is working, go ahead and run Adobe Premiere. Open up one of your HDV projects with a finished timeline that you are ready to burn to Blu-ray. Insert chapter markers using the chapter marker button. These markers will automatically be brought into Encore when you encode the video. Once you are ready to export your project to Blu-ray, go ahead and select "Export to Encore" This will bring up a dialog box with several options. Go ahead and name your Disc. Under type, select Blu-ray Disc, single layer MPEG-2. The next item you need to do is choose if you want to Author with Menus or do a Direct Burn without Menus. (See Figure 1) Check your encoding setting and verify you have the correct one selected. Once you have that done, press the OK button to start the encoding. You will be asked what to name the encoded file and where to save it. Encoding times will vary based on the length of your video and encoding settings.
After the encoding is finished, Adobe Encore will automatically open and import your video into a timeline. (See Figure 2) From here, authoring is nearly the same as creating a standard DVD. If you are doing a direct burn, all you will need to do is verify your settings and go to the build DVD menu. For a fully authored Blu-ray disc, Encore provides a whole library of Menus for you to choose from that are already in the HD format. The great thing about these menus are that they can easily be brought into Photoshop and changed to your liking with a click of a button. You can use frame grabs from your HD video and replace the background, keeping the titling and buttons intact. Once you have created your menus and added buttons, you will need to link the buttons to the individual chapters.
Make sure to check your project for errors before burning using the Check Project wizard. Go ahead and select Build - disc to bring up the Build dialog box. (See Figure 3) From here you want to choose Blu-ray under format and select Blu-ray Disc in the Output drop down box. Your destination should automatically display the Blu-ray burner. If not, select it from the Recorder drop down menu. With the blank disc inserted, you should see how many Gigabytes are used up by your project. Once you press build, Encore will begin creating the files necessary for your Blu-ray disc and write them to the disc. (See figure 4) Once the burn is complete, you will want to test the disc. I recommend getting CyberLink Power DVD Ultra for testing your Blu-Ray disc on your PC. (See figure 5) This software costs $99 and plays all of the latest formats including HD-DVD. If you verify that the disc plays without any problems, you can test the disc on a PlayStation 3 or other stand alone player. Of course if you haven’t invested in a Blu-ray player yet, a trip down to Best-Buy is in order to try out your disc on one of the display models. This is great for testing compatibility among various players being sold.
Bonus features
Now that we have created the Blu-ray disc, you can easily take the same project and burn the video to DVD. Encore will automatically down convert the Blu-ray format to DVD standard. This is great if your clients want to give copies of their wedding to parents or relatives who don't have a Blu-ray player yet. Another great feature is the export to flash feature. This is a great option for putting DVD content on the web. You can host your clients wedding for virtually anyone to see worldwide. Not only do others get to see your work, the do so in a way that is just like watching a DVD on their home DVD player.
Conclusion
It is nice to see that there are finally some options out there for creating and delivering weddings in HD. Adobe has really stepped up to the plate and created an integrated solution that really makes the process easy and streamlined. With the cost of Blu-ray burners such as the Panasonic SW-5582 coming down in price, it makes it a very affordable solution for burning HD weddings.
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