More free stuff

[JWRL]

For those of you who haven't already found it, Digidesign have a free audio processor plug-in for Avid and Protools users. Check it out at http://www.digidesign.com/products/details.cfm?product_id=4562

[JWRL]

And in the continuing "free stuff" saga.....

This one's for Photoshop, but still worth the download. It's a plug-ing that allows a vast range of film-like manipulation of images, and it's at

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

[JWRL]

Another free tool... This one's for PC based editors who suspect that they might have conflicting versions of driver software installed. Go to http://www.drivercleaner.net/ and download the free copy of Driver Cleaner Pro that you will find there. It can save you a Windows re-install.

[JWRL]

This one's a utility that Avid editors will appreciate. It's a tool called MediaSift.

I quote the Dave, the program's author: "MediaSift is an OMFI management tool for Avid editing systems. It's designed to allow you to copy/move/sift OMFI files to move projects around, and to dump stats on any/all Avid projects on your system."

"MediaSift is compatible with Avid editing systems running on Windows 2000 and Windows XP - It's been tested with Avid Xpress Pro, Xpress Pro HD, and Symphony Universal (although it will likely work with any Windows-based Avid system)."

If you want to try it, go to http://www.senkou.com

Dave can also be found on the new Avid user forums as Dave G.

[JWRL]

Well, there's an update to MediaSift (see above) already, and it's definitely worth it. Go to http://www.senkou.com/ and check it out.

Changes:

Updated to allow a user to select only certain projects in the list to be "sifted" on the selected drives, rather than sifting entire drives.

Added more verbose error-checking for non-media files in the OMFI directory, will show why the scan failed (usually non-media files which exist in the OMFI files directory).

Allows users to continue despite an index that doesn't match the number of files on the drive if they desire (doing a sift on that drive may help identify the file that's not indexed properly)

Added CSV data export.

Detect empty OMFI dirs (except for 2 index files) and skip them.

Added "Default OMFI Directory" mode, adds "OMFI MediaFiles" if no directory is chosen on a destination drive.

Made the copy dialog a bit more verbose - when it says "files skipped", it really means "files skipped because they already exist at the destination", so there's no point re-copying them over themselves.

And it's soon to be available for Macintosh users as well, with a somewhat enhanced feature set.

I'm not going to keep posting about this tool, but if you're an Avid user I strongly advise regularly checking Dave's website to ensure that you're up to date with the latest version.

[JWRL]

After my glowing rave about MediaSift you might think there'd be nothing more to say about media management tools for Avid. Not so. A Russian developer has a Windows app called MDV which does something similar.

It currently only works a drive at a time, but apparently a forthcoming release will scan all drives including network drives (Unity / Editshare etc). It also will have the ability to show head frames of media found.

It currently has a Hardware Tool to show drive usage. If you go to http://fiool.nm.ru/progz/ and ignore the Russian you will see two downloads 'MDV_AVID' and 'MDV_AVID(áåç ïðåâüþ ñ ïîääåðæêîé MXF)'.

The first version is v0.1 and the second is a stable beta v0.2, which provides MXF support. This is currently something Media Sift can't do.

[E_Tedeschi]

JWRL, you are truly a godsend to this website! Keep up the good work.

I hope you don't mind me polluting your Avid / PC based Free Stuff thread with a very nifty little tool for Mac that I am surprised more people have not heard of.

It's called MPEG StreamClip, and it's a FREEBIE, which is always nice:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html

It will take most of those messy MPEG formats (including MPEG2 VOBs directly off a DVD) and convert them into just about any Quicktime codec available on your system - useful for getting stuff into Final Cut Pro.

I answer posts on the COW on almost a daily basis that can be solved with this nifty little tool.

Enjoy! Let's get some more OSX/FCP freebies up here, people!

e.

[JWRL]

I don't mind in the least, Enzo. In fact if anyone else has any little gems that they use, Mac/PC, Avid/FCP/Premiere/whatever, please feel free to post!

In fact if anyone knows of a similar tool to StreamClip for the PC world please post it so that all us PC-based editors can use it.

And to prove that I'm not totally PC/Avid biased, check out http://www.digitalzoo.com.au/lunchtime/lunch_docs/related_02_free.htm for a collection of free FCP plug-ins.

And PC users can go to http://www.download.com/Riva-FLV-Encoder/3000-2140-10320097.html?part=dl-RivaFLVEn&subj=dl&tag=button for a free Flash encoder that accepts AVI and MOV files amongst others,

[E_Tedeschi]

For anyone on Tiger OSX 10.4+, here's a little Timecode Calculator Widget:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19749

It does 24, 25, 29.97, and 30fps.

I love the FLV encoder! This would have saved my hide 3 months ago :)

e.

[JWRL]

Hot news! Streamclips now available for Windows XP. Get it at http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/ - it's only 300K, so it's a quick download even on dialup, and at that size you can carry it with you on a memory stick from job to job.

<edited 24-01-2006> Well, I've just tried it, and can personally vouch for the Windows version. It seems to have the speed of the Mac original but looks and handles like a standard Windows app. I've been throwing various self-made DVDs at it most of the morning, and haven't been able to make it fall over yet.

[E_Tedeschi]

God bless Squared 5!

For the less-techy minded who don't like fiddling around inside FCP's guts to delete your prefs if and when things go screwy, FCP Rescue will be a cool freebie:

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/14729

You can backup, restore and delete FCP4 and FCP5 preferences and user settings.

[Bill]

A VERY handy and powerful video/audio encoder - ffmpegX.

You will need to install the additional files but they make that pretty easy for you.

to quote from the website...

"ffmpegX is a Mac OS X graphic user interface designed to easily operate more than 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools including ffmpeg the "hyper fast video and audio encoder.

Reads the following input formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DIVX, XviD, non-encrypted VOB and VIDEO_TS, Quicktime .MOV, .DV, .WAV, Real Audio, Real Video, H.263, MP4 H.264, PGM, YUV, PPM, AC3, PCM8/16 bits, mulaw/Alaw, WMA-1/2, SUN AU format, MP2, MP3, AAC, 3GP, FPS1, ALAC, and even more formats

Converts the above formats to DivX, AVI XviD, H.264 MP4, MOV, DV, 3GP, Sony PSP, MP2, MP3, AAC, AC3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VCD, CVD, SVCD, KVCD, KSVCD, DVD, KDVD and MPEG-TS with complete control over encoding options."

http://homepage.mac.com/major4/

[JWRL]

Ffmpeg is available for Windows as well - go to http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=263 to check it out.

Actually, if we're talking open-source Unix (and Linux) based tools, next time you need a graphics package try the GIMP. It's available in versions that not only run in Unix but also Windows and OS-X. It's very powerful and totally free. Just go to www.gimp.org and follow the instructions for your OS.

[JWRL]

For After Effects users and Avid users with Elastic Gasket there's a free plug-in called Camera Flash from Buena Software. It's really part of Buena's Effect Essentials AE plugins, but now they've made it available as a free demo in both Mac and PC versions. Go to http://www.buena.com/ee/cameraflash.shtml and give it a try.

[JWRL]

Well, it's been a while, but here's another free tool. This one is described as the Swiss Army knife of audio. For those of you who have a need to convert/normalise/rip audio files, try http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ for PC. On installation it attaches itself to the right-click Windows menu, so it can be called directly from the desktop.

There are very few audio formats that it won't handle and convert to something that you can use. Give it a try.

[JWRL]

For Avid DNA and ProTools users Digidesign have a time shift plug-in available at http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=48&langid=1&itemid=23096&ref=DN0806 for free download. The following is a quote from their website.

"Time Shift is a free DigiRackâ„¢ AudioSuiteâ„¢ plug-in that delivers high-quality time stretching and pitch shifting for all Digidesign® Pro Tools® and Avid DNA â„¢ systems. Equipped with four distinct algorithms, Time Shift lets you tailor the processing to different types of source material. Choose Polyphonic to change a guitar or keyboard performance, or a full mix. Select Monophonic if you’re altering vocals or solo instruments. Pick Rhythmic to compress or stretch a loop. Or use Varispeed when you’re converting the sample rate of an audio file."

It's available for both PC and Mac based systems. Give it a try.