Sundry Mac video utilities
It’s no secret that the TV Weasel is a Mac weasel. Though I dabble in Windows when working with Avid gear, my native tongue remains Mac. Herewith are some tools I’ve discovered and use in varying degrees that Weasel readers might find of interest.
Whacked TV from Apple’s developer site:
A replacement for the venerable Carbon HackTV. It shows how to use the Sequence Grabber API’s to capture movies from external video and audio sources, just as HackTV, but adds many important new features, including simultaneous capture from multiple SGChannel’s, use of the new SGAudioChannel, video preview using ICMDecompressionSession’s and OpenGL.
SimpleVideoOut also from Apple’s developer web site:
Demonstrates how QuickTime Video Output Components can be used to play video out to hardware. A common use would be playing a DV stream (.dv file) using QuickTime’s FireWire Video Output Component and recording it on your handy dandy DV camera. But the fun doesn’t stop there!
Another use would be to add TV tuner and recording capabilities to your Mac.
HyperEngine-AV from Arboretum Systems:
A non-linear video editing software that lets you capture, import, edit, arrange together and process video, photos, audio and text to create DV quality movies and slide shows.
It combines an extensive set of features with a streamlined user-interface. It gives you an unprecedented ease of use while retaining the power of real time compositing and real time video and audio effects.
It runs circles around iMovie though the interface is a bit less intuitive to experienced editors.
Lostify from Lowell Stewart:
Lostify is a metadata tagger for MP4 videos. It runs on Mac OS X, and the tags it produces aim to be compatible with iTunes and the iPod video (5G).
Read through the author’s notes and learn how the utility got its name.
iPod video formats redux from iLounge.com.
Far more technical detail than the TV Weasel has presented. Very useful for those kept up at night torn between standard MPEG-4 and H.264.
Content pricing
Today’s NY Times reports that NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has issued subpoenas to several of the major labels as part of an investigation into possible price fixing in the digital music realm.
In September, Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs publicly criticized music companies, calling some major labels ”greedy” for pushing Apple to hike prices on its popular iTunes service. Recording company executives have scoffed at the suggestion.
In a speech before an investors conference, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said that Apple’s 99-cent price for single tracks ignores the issue that not all songs are the same commercially and, like any other product, shouldn’t be priced the same.
Such discord has not kept the labels from licensing their music videos to Apple. Still, as their contracts with Apple come up for renewal, the music companies are seeking to improve their take.
Mr. Bronfman has a point, but I don’t think he realizes the favor Apple is doing his shareholders by setting a $0.99 floor online music purchases. While some songs may be worth more than a dollar, most are worth much less. The labels finally got people paying for music online, and now they get greedy. Just as folks are coming around to believing piracy is wrong…
Sooner or later the labels will run out of toes to shoot off.
It’s ironic the subject hits the headlines this way. I’ve been expecting analysts and independent artists to begin complaining that Apple’s one-price approach for music, and now videos, is detrimental to the industry. As long as Apple gets its cut, independents should be allowed to set any price they like.
Apple’s position about going over $0.99 is understandable. But why not allow content owners to set lower prices? I hardly see $0.49 downloads diluting the iTunes brand. In the world of video, if Lost is worth $2, then an independent documentary shouldn’t have to compete at the same price.
PaidContent.org covers the economics of content in depth.
Analysts hawk 2006 predictions for podcasting
From ABI Research:
Vamsi Sistla, the firm’s director of broadband, digital home and media research, says that we won’t be seeing full-length episodes of hit television shows downloaded to portable devices in 2006. Instead, we’ll have more of what’s available now: “short-form video”. These trailers, promos, and mini-episodes are only a few minutes long. But their brevity, according to Sistla, provides a golden opportunity.
“The mainstream broadcast model is an extraordinarily expensive way to trial new concepts and shows,” he says. “Over 70% of all new shows don’t survive the first season. The logic of trying short versions on emerging platforms at relatively low cost before committing to the expense of hour-long TV productions will soon be apparent to content owners.”
While I agree that full length episodes of existing brands on iPods and PSPs aren’t the ideal viewing experience, the medium isn’t going to be limited to shortform promotional content for 2006 made to feed the big media beast. Instead I look for brand extensions to launch in the podcast space.
Take Fox’s “mobisodes” of 24. These $1 per mini-episode videos were produced for the mobile video market. With the number of video capable mobile phones hovering in the 500,000 to 1,000,000 range, and video capable iPods and PSPs already far exceeding that number, Fox can simply make these mobisodes available as free video podcasts with :15 ads at the head and tail. Using non-union talent and craftspeople (I don’t Kiefer Sutherland in the picture above), and small format video acquisition, Fox can make a nice chunk of change with these. Won’t viewers skip the ads? No. It takes about :15 seconds to get into FF and REW on these devices. People will sit through the ads rather than fiddle with click wheels. The beauty of this model is that it requires virtually no promotion to build audience. 24 fans do a Google search, and up pops the link to the mobisodes.
Of course Sistla’s approach will work eventually, but it doesn’t generate revenue as quickly as brand extension. Big media will milk existing brands in the portable video space before investing in new ones. Even if networks can save money creating cheaper pilot content for download, the results and the buzz will be limited to the tech-savvy, mostly male 14-24 demographic — leaving out a huge (and affluent) chunk of the prime time audience.
Using the portable video space for marketing and buzz generation will be the purview of the independent producer in 2006. Every independent will want to be podcastings first Blair Witch.
News Update
Our top story tonight, Internet Explorer for the Macintosh is still dead. No word yet when its Windows sibling will be euthanized, but Symantec stock plunged on rumors of IE for Windows’ demise.
They waited until December 19, but Congress finally made official what everyone already knew. The 2006 DTV mandate has been delayed until 2009. NAB lobbyists, with three more years of job security, are taking the holidays off before beginning work on the 2012 target date.
Miscellany
I came across this gem the other day. Del.icio.us is a kind of social bookmarking site. You store your bookmarks there and get to see others’ bookmarks as well. Pretty public, but it’s kind of neat to see who else posted the same bookmark as I. One can even subscribe to someone’s bookmarks. Why someone would want an RSS feed of my bookmarks is beyond me, but here’s the link to try it out. I’ve only got three bookmarks posted right now, but two are real winners.
Paul Graham is a must read for anyone contemplating a start up. Had I discovered him sooner, I might have taken a pass on the MBA. And David Warsh was a favorite economics columnist when he was at the Boston Globe. I’m glad he’s still writing. A little less in your face than Paul Krugman, Warsh still has some bite. This week he gets a swipe at a Wall Street Journal columnist for arguing that Toyota Prius owners are suckers.
But by garlanding about his calculations with static assumptions about technology and supply and demand, and by ignoring the external effects of consumption at a time when global warming has become front-page news, Jenkins does economics no service. Indeed, he makes those Prius buyers look pretty good — by ignoring an impending adjustment to the consequences of industrialization that may be as disruptive as the process of industrialization itself.”
Yeah… whatever he said.
And finally tonight…
if (like wine || like dogs) {
read (Winery Dogs);
written by (former Scient colleague);
}
else
goodnight;
Good night and good news.
Christmas wish list
Lennon and McCartney often combined fragments of incomplete songs to create a composition. Among them were A Day in the Life and Happiness is a Warm Gun. In that spirit, I collect the random thoughts that are not worthy of a complete entry or a full rant but I’d still like to vent, and then pass them on to Santa.
Dear Santa,
I would like the following for Christmas.
1) A Clue for CBS
What the hell was that? CSI: New York’s clumsy marketing deal with Capitol Records was an embarassment. There’s no way Danny Messer listens to Coldplay. In fact I have yet to meet anyone with a Y chromosone who has listened to a complete Coldplay song. But here they were on CSI: New York, two cool detectives about to interview a suspect, when Messer’s phone rings. It’s not clumsy enough that the damn phone goes off for no reason. He doesn’t even take the call. But his partner comments on it, and they discuss the song briefly. It was as obvious as going to a commercial break in the middle of the scene. What’s next? A locker room scene with Messer shampooing his hair and declaring he can feel the Denorex working?
I’m a huge fan of creative promotion. This wasn’t that. This was laughable. It’s imperative someone be fired for this. Product tie-ins can be very effective, but this is exactly the kind of thing that can set the approach back years. Leslie Moonves knows better. He’s quoted extensively in Madison and Vine.
2) An iPod for TV Land because they can’t afford one
As a promotion for the upcoming series Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg, TV Land created six-minute podcasts of the first few shows and got them listed in the iTunes catalog. Good, cheap promotion. I like that. Then they included video clips, and that’s where their troubles began.
- A sit down talk show between two people doesn’t make for a compelling video experience. An audio podcast would suffice. We all know what Jon Lovitz looks like.
- The podcast producer mitigated the audio vs. video issue by offering the user both audio and video podcasts. Choice. We like that. But why put it in the same feed? Why not create two feeds? One can serve the audio and one can serve the video. TV Land should encourage the user to have the content download automatically. This approach doesn’t do that. Since no one wants both, users will opt to pull content manually so they only get what they want rather than let it be pushed.
- Here’s the kicker. The video on the podcasts won’t load onto a video iPod. It seems the folks at TV Land blindly followed Apple’s flawed guidelines to encode their video. Note to TV Land podcast producers: .mov files don’t go to the iPod. Didn’t anybody test this before uploading it? And my grad students are worried about finding jobs after graduation.
3) Update for Compressor
There’s just no excuse that there hasn’t been an iPod-friendly update for Apple’s Compressor. It hasn’t dawned on Apple that maybe someone editing with Final Cut Pro might want batch iPod encoding capabilities? I also want adjustable iPod presets in Compressor. The H.264 codec looks great on an iPod at 300 kbits/second. It might not look that great on NTSC, but lots of video podcasts aren’t going to the bigger small screen. This patch is already two months late, in protest I’m only giving two iPods as gifts this Christmas season.
