Manifest Tech Blog

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 is intended as a complete consumer video editing program, to import, edit, burn and share standard or HD video.

However, over time even consumer tools like VideoStudio have bulked up with a wide range of features and options for more experienced enthusiasts, which may then overwhelm beginners and occasional users.

As a result, Corel has split its VideoStudio Pro product into four separate applications, for easy vs. more advanced editing, and for video and DVD:

• VideoStudio Express 2010 - for easy video editing and sharing
• VideoStudio Pro X3 - for advanced video editing
• DVD Factory Pro 2010 - for easy disc authoring and burning
• DVD Movie Factory 7 SE - for advanced disc authoring and burning

(Yes, the product names are somewhat inconsistent, with two DVD "Factory" products, and using "Pro" for the entry-level DVD tool. In addition, DVD Movie Factory was a late addition to the product after it shipped, so it's a separate download, and not integrated with the other tools.)

The key features of the new VideoStudio Pro include new templates and filters, broader support for high-definition file and disc formats including Blu-ray, and faster editing and rendering with support for multi-core processors and graphics acceleration.

The entry-level tools included in the product, VideoStudio Express and DVD Factory Pro, share a common design built around a Media Organizer hub to import and organize clips.

But somewhat confusingly, these are actually two-in-one tools -- supporting direct editing and sharing of individual clips within the Organizer, as well as the video editing or DVD authoring for a collection of clips as the product names suggest.

The more advanced tools then have more traditional interfaces, with VideoStudio Pro built around operations on a timeline, and DVD Movie Factory using a three-step process to assemble media, edit and preview the menu design and navigation, and then burn the resulting disc.

Corel offers free trial versions of its products as downloads from its website. These are full versions, so you can fully explore the software, and experiment with how it runs on your particular system and with your specific kinds of video clips.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 was released in early 2010 for $99. VideoStudio Express 2010 is available separately for $49. The venerable PaintShop Photo Pro X3 also was recently released for $99, or is available with VideoStudio Pro X3 as the Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle for $149.

See full article - Walkthrough: Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

See my Video Editing Software Gallery with related products, consumer and professional.

Find Corel VideoStudio Pro X3, VideoStudio Express 2010, and the Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle on Amazon.com.

I've you've been interested in trying out a smartphone, but have been put off by the idea of paying $200 for an iPhone, Verizon Wireless has just started a new promotion for you -- the Palm Pixi Plus is now only $29.99 (originally $99), and you get a second one for free!

That's a full-fledged smartphone, with Web browsing, e-mail, camera and media playback, and downloadable apps to customize your experience and connect to your social networks (see earlier post). And, oh yeah, it's also a mobile phone and an organizer, with syncing of contacts and calendars to the desktop and online. The Pixi design is relatively small and light, with a built-in keyboard to help you keep communicating.

And if you want a little more power, the Palm Pre Plus from Verizon is now only $49.99 (originally $149), with a larger screen, double the memory, and higher-res camera, in a slide-out keyboard design. And you get a second one for free.

Even better, these both support 3G Mobile Hotspot -- which turns your smartphone into a local Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five devices. And Verizon now offers this service with up to 5 GB a month for free (was $40 for 5 GB and 5 cents per megabyte overage).

So, for example, the Palm Pixi Plus can act like the Verizon / Novatel MiFi (see earlier post), connecting to the cellular broadband service wherever you are, so your laptop or other portable devices (like an iPod touch) can quickly go online using their built-in Wi-Fi networking.

Some gory details: These prices are with a two-year activation. All Verizon smartphones require at least a $29.99 monthly data plan (which includes unlimited personal e-mail and Web). However, while any Wi-Fi devices are connected to the phone all data traffic is billed to the Mobile Hotspot plan (and not the smartphone data plan). The 3G Mobile Hotspot application itself is a free download, and supports both open and protected Wi-Fi service.

Also note that Palm Pre and Pixi come in two flavors, the original versions sold through Sprint, and the newer Plus versions sold through Verizon, with the mobile hotspot feature. The Pixi Plus also added Wi-Fi and the Pre Plus doubled the memory.

And shop do around: Walmart is offering big discounts on smartphones -- the Palm Pre Plus is free with online discount, and the Pixi Plus is not only free, you actually get paid $50 from a mail-in rebate.

The bottom line is that you can get a nice smartphone (or two!) for under $30, and also have it serve as a free mobile hotspot. Of course, while the 5 GB limit is great for checking e-mail and basic Web browsing, don't plan to be streaming movie videos to your laptop over Wi-Fi.

See my full article on the design of these new Palm smartphones: Palm Pre: Product Summary

See my Mobile Communications Gallery for more on the Palm and other smartphones.

Find the Palm Pixi Plus and Palm Pre Plus on Amazon.com.

I've been having a lot of fun this year giving talks and demos about smartphone apps, especially on the Apple iPhone and Google Android.

The trick for demoing smartphones, of course, is to find a good way to let the audience see what you're doing on the small screen. You can use a webcam display from a laptop, but it's tricky trying to hold up the camera to the phone, and you can get bad reflections and glare on the phone's screen.

My answer is to set up a simple rig with the Joby Gorillapod SLR -- a highly flexible mini-tripod that you can bend to fit to any surface, from a table to a slanted podium (see earlier post).

The Gorillapod SLR model is big enough that you can position the camera about 8 inches off the surface, and then spread out the legs to give enough clearance above the phone and to the sides so that your fingers can work comfortably on the touch screen. You also can tweak the angle of the tripod so that the phone image is squared up, without perspective distortion. The Gorillapod SLR is priced at around $39.

The webcam that I'm using is the Logitech Webcam C905 (formerly the QuickCam Pro for Notebooks) -- a small design around 2 x 1 inches for easy carrying (see earlier post). The webcam has a clip that holds securely to the base plate of the Gorillapod -- so there's no screws or other assembly required. It's also helpful to add a USB extension cable to allow you to position the tripod further away from your laptop if needed to fit a particular facility. The Logitech webcam is priced at $99, or around $75 street.

I typically run the QuickCam at 1280x1024 resolution, which clearly shows the details on the smartphone screen. Even with video flowing at this higher resolution, there's no obvious degradation of the system performance oven on an older lower-end laptop.

When showing demos, the phone fills almost the full height of the video window. The Logitech software also can apply a small digital zoom if desired to enlarge the size of the phone's screen. Since I'm not running full-screen, it then just takes a click on the laptop to switch back and forth between showing the live camera feed and other presentation material.

The result is quite good, even when you're trying to shoot a bright screen in a dark room, or with glare from overhead lighting. I've found it best to override the auto settings and manually adjust the focus and brightness / contrast to pull out the detail on the phone's screen. It also helps to place a plain background under the phone (even a white piece of paper).

One other issue with shooting phones is reflections and glare on the screen. I have experimented with polarizing filters to knock down some of the glare. You can get packs of 2 x 2 inch polarizing film from companies like Edmund Optics, cut it to fit over the camera lens, and simply tape it in place. However, these are not going to make serious reflections magically disappear. Instead, I've been able to adjust the tripod setup to control the lighting issues, sometimes aided by turning off particularly troublesome podium lighting.

The result is an easy to carry set-up that also simple to set up, and has produced good results in a variety of venues. The trick is to spend some time to optimize the set-up for the particular facility before the talk starts -- and be sure to check that the organizers aren't planning to change the lighting as you get underway.

See my Digital Photo Cameras Gallery for more on the Gorillapod and other tripod accessories

See my Home Networked Media Gallery for more on the Logitech Webcam C905 and other webcams

Find the Joby Gorillapod SLR and
Logitech Webcam C905 on Amazon.com.

It's the weekend for the Apple iPad, and appropriately it looks like Steve Jobs has pulled another beautiful lust-inducing bunny out of his magic hat.

Besides the legions of early adapters lined up outside stores, the iPad could make good sense for casual media consumption in the home, and for anyone from students to retirees who want to keep in touch on the go (see earlier post).

(See, for example, the CNET review for a good overview of the iPad and how you might convince yourself that you need one, and David Pogue's dueling reviews in The New York Times, for the techie or not.)

Apple also has released the iTunes 9.1 update to manage and sync these new devices and media. This adds support for downloading new iPad-only applications and syncing with the iPad, plus iBooks support to organize and sync books from iBooks on the iPad or in the iTunes library. Apple also has extended the Genius Mixes feature so that you can rename, rearrange or remove your automatically-generated mixes.

(Unfortunately, be warned that the iTune 9.1 update has killed syncing for some devices, with an "Unable to load provider data from Sync Services" error. See the Apple Support Discussion thread for possible explanations from Windows DLL conflicts.)

For non-iPad owners, you can torture yourself by downloading iPad apps into iTunes, along with iBooks, but you then can't sync them with other iPod devices.

Apple has set up the E-books so they are actually are only accessible from the iPad -- You need to download the free iBooks app for the App Store (link to iTunes) to browse, preview, and buy the available books on the iPad itself (only available in the U.S. at this time).

(While you can't buy books on a computer, your iBook purchases on the iPad are backed up to your iTunes library when you sync -- see the Apple iBooks FAQ).

However, the iBookstore is not your only option for publications. Apple uses the open ePub standard format for electronic publications (see Wikipedia), so that you can download other free books (without the Apple DRM copy protection), drag and drop them into iTunes (under a new Books tab in the Library), and then sync them down to the iPad.

For example, you can find free public domain books in the ePub format at Project Gutenberg (30,000 books) and from Google Books (over 1 million books -- see the Google blog).

And what about E-books on other Apple devices like the iPhone and iPod touch? Can the touch be transformed into an "iPad mini" for reading? After all, iBooks is just an app that can display books, so what about other apps?

So choose the Books menu within the iTunes App Store to view a large collection of book reader apps and individual books (and collections like Shakespeare), available as downloadable apps, typically for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and now the iPad at full resolution.

In particular, Lexcycle Stanza is a free electronic book reader app with built-in downloading of over 100,000 books and periodicals, free and paid, from sources including Project Gutenberg and O'Reilly (link to iTunes). Stanza includes bookmarks and other navigation aids, as well as customized page display of page layout for easier reading.

So you may not have an iPad, yet, but you still can turn your iPod touch or iPhone into an "iPad mini" as a portable electronic book reader. In particular, you can find good deals in previous-generation iPod touch units that still can be upgraded to the latest software.

So see what you're missing, see Apple's iPad Guided Tours

See my Apple iPod / iPhone Gallery for details on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod products and product line history.

    Find the Apple iPod touch on Amazon.com

The Android 2.1 software upgrade that originally shipped with the Google Nexus One phones is now rolling out on the Verizon Wireless Droid by Motorola.

This finally adds Pinch to Zoom for web browsing and other apps including Gallery and Google Maps, so you can just pinch or spread your finger and thumb to zoom smaller or larger (yes, just like the iPhone).

But the bigger addition is the expansion of Speech to Text -- all text entry is now voice enabled, for any app. The virtual keyboard has a new microphone icon next to the space bar. Tap and just speak your search query or sentences to write (in English), and Android enters the text field for you.

This is not perfect, but it's typically plenty good enough for searching, and perhaps adequate for quick notes -- and a lot faster than typing on a small keyboard (see earlier post on Gesture Search).

The 2.1 upgrade also includes a new version of the Gallery app that now browses media stored online at Picasa, with a "3D" view for browsing photos and videos in stacks. There's also an enhanced Music app with new navigation tabs, and a new News and Weather app and widget customized for your location.

Other nice improvements include Live Wallpapers for animated home screens and Night mode to automatically dim the screen.

Also -- Google Earth now runs on the Droid, as well as the Nexus One and iPhone. You can fly around the globe and then zoom in on a location, now also with search by voice, plus local information and a roads layer as in Google Maps.

Your phone will automatically notify you when a system update is available, or you can check using Settings, and selecting About phone (at the bottom of the list), and then System updates. This update is identified under About phone as Firmware version 2.1-update1.

See my full article, Verizon Droid from Motorola: Android 2.0, for more on the Droid's design and features and technical specifications.

See my Smartphone Apps Gallery for more on these and other mobile apps.

See my Mobile Communications Gallery for more on smartphones.

Find the Verizon Droid from Motorola on Amazon.com

Update details ...

Hmmm ... The NAB Show is starting in Las Vegas (see earlier post), and it's been about a year and a half since the last release of the Adobe Creative Suite, version 4 (in October 2008).

Adobe has just announced Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5), due to ship within 30 days (see press release). This is the next generation of Adobe's collection of design and development tools, spanning the creative workflow across print, web, video, interactive and mobile.

Adobe will be broadcasting its global launch event online on Monday, April 12, at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST. You can register online to view the event live, and to see the top new features of each CS5 suite, Photoshop, and the new CS Live online services.

Unlike some companies that keep all the details of new products super secret, Adobe is relatively open in sharing important information with its customers. For example, Adobe has previously released beta previews of several related components of CS4 and CS5 on its Adobe Labs site, including the new Flash Catalyst tool for interactive design without coding, and the new Adobe Story collaborative script development tool.

In addition, last October Adobe alerted its customers that Premiere Pro and After Effects will be accelerated as 64-bit native applications in this next release, and would therefore no longer support 32-bit operating systems. This was a continuation of the evolution to 64-bit processing that has occurred over the past several releases of video production tools and operating systems, and will allow users to edit much larger clips and work between multiple applications much more efficiently.

So, to get you in the mood, here's a sneak peek video of the amazing new content-aware fill feature in Photoshop (YouTube) -- This goes way beyond the healing brush to make entire trees disappear against a complex background, with just one brush stroke.

See my article, Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5, for a breakdown of the tools and suites, and highlights of what's new with the CS5 applications.

See my earlier article, Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 4, for more on the CS4 suites and individual applications.

See summaries of video applications and versions in my Video Editing Software Gallery.

    Find the Adobe CS4 Production Premium
    and Master Collection on Amazon.com

Adobe has just announced the new Adobe Creative Suite 5 collection of publication, Web, and production tools, spanning the creative workflow across print, web, video, interactive and mobile (see previous post). These are due to ship within 30 days.

This release is another impressive piece of software engineering and project management by Adobe, following a year and a half after the release of CS4 -- CS5 includes upgrades to some 14 core applications from CS4, plus new Flash tools, plus additional components and services.

Adobe offers the CS5 applications as individual tools, or bundled in five different suites, including the full Master Collection with all the applications. There's also upgrade pricing to move up from older versions of the suites or from individual tools. The pricing of the individual tools is unchanged from CS4, while several of the suites have been adjusted up or down $100.

- The Design Standard suite is priced at $1299, including Adobe Photoshop for image editing, InDesign for page layout, and Illustrator for vector illustration. The Design Premium is $1899, and adds Photoshop Extended with 3D, plus the core Web tools (Flash Pro, Flash Catalyst, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks).

- The Web Premium suite is $1699, featuring Flash Professional for interactive authoring, Flash Catalyst for interactive design, and Flash Builder 4 for Web coding, plus Dreamweaver for website design, Fireworks for Web graphics, and Contribute for Web publishing. It also includes the core Design tools (Photoshop Extended and Illustrator).

- The Production Premium suite is $1799, featuring After Effects for motion graphics, Premiere Pro for video editing, and Soundbooth for audio editing, plus Encore for DVD and Blu-ray authoring, and OnLocation for shooting (both bundled with Premiere), plus Dynamic Link. It also includes the core Design tools (Photoshop Extended and Illustrator) and Web tools (Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, and Flash Builder 4).

- The full Master Collection includes all the tools for $2599. All these suites also include Acrobat 9 Pro and access to the Adobe CS Live online services.

See my article, Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5, for a breakdown of the tools and suites, and highlights of what's new with the CS5 applications.

Visit the Adobe CS5 Launch site for videos of the launch event and demos of the new tools.

See my DVD Authoring Software Gallery for more on Adobe Encore and other DVD authoring tools.

Find Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, Adobe CS5 Production Premium, and Adobe CS5 Master Collection on Amazon.com.

Are you 64 bits? If you're working with video, and especially high-def video, it's time to take the step up to 64-bit processing and performance. Older systems just are not up to the demands of efficiently editing today's HD video, much less running multiple applications so that you can switch effectively between longer tasks like capturing, rendering, and encoding.

Companies including Adobe, Avid, and Sony have been making this transition for several product generations, and now the newly announced Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and After Effects CS5 in Adobe Creative Suite 5 are optimized for 64-bit only, and will no longer run on 32-bit systems (see previous post).

So how much more is 64 bits?

Under traditional 32-bit versions of Windows, your computer can only use up to 4 GB of memory. Moving up to a 64-bit address space means your that computer can theoretically address 2^64 chunks of data, corresponding to 16 billion gigabytes (also known as 16 exabytes). With current operating systems, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is ready to support up to 16 terabytes of RAM, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise, and Professional editions can use up to 192 GB of memory (a big step up from 4 GB).

The good news is that the chip, computer, and operating system vendors also have been making this transition to 64 bits, so your current system may already be 64-bit ready, so all you need to do is to add more memory and possibly upgrade your operating system.

The situation is especially easy on the Apple Macintosh, as all but the oldest Intel-based Macs are 64-bit capable, and Mac OS X comes in one version that runs both 64-bit and 32-bit applications. In Snow Leopard, nearly all system applications were rewritten in 64-bit, with support for addressing massive amounts of memory. Even better, 64-bit applications still work with your existing storage devices, PCI cards, and compatible printers (see New in Snow Leopard: 64-Bit).

On PCs, computers have been shipping with 64-bit capable processors since around 2005, including the Intel Core 2 Duo and Xeon, and subsequent processors. You can check the capabilities of your system's CPU with the Intel Processor Identification Utility.

Then you need to install an upgrade to a 64-bit edition of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. This requires a "Custom" re-install, not a simple upgrade. You will also need to upgrade to 64-bit drivers for your hardware devices (32-bit drivers do not work). Use the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to check your system for hardware and software compatibility.

And there are further performance gains to be found from upgrading your system. For example, Premiere Pro CS5 also is optimized to take advantage of specific NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards with CUDA technology to further accelerate video processing and effects on the graphics co-processor

So step up to 64 bits, and pile on the memory. The result will be a system that opens and runs your applications faster, and plays and processes video much more efficiently, at higher resolution and with greater precision. Even better, you can keep many applications open at the same time to quickly switch between different tasks, and even leave complex operations running without dragging down your system.

See the Adobe notes, Speed up production with CS5 Production Premium, and associated whitepaper, Accelerate HD workflows with native 64-bit
support in CS5 Production Premium (PDF), for more on upgrading your system for greater editing performance.

For more on optimizing for the Adobe CS5 Production Suite, see my article, Editing for the Future: Moving to 64-bit Video Production, in the May issue of Videomaker magazine

See my article, Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5, for a breakdown of the tools and suites, and highlights of what's new with the CS5 applications.

One big splash at last week's NAB Show (see earlier post) was the release of Adobe Creative Suite 5, an impressive update of Adobe's entire collection of 14-plus tools (see previous post).

Meanwhile, Sony Creative Software continues to update its set of tools on independent schedules -- including Vegas Pro for video editing, Sound Forge Pro for audio editing, and ACID for music creation.

And last week, Sony announced the Vegas Pro 9.0d update (see earlier post), with new closed captioning and PSD layer support, enhanced import support for devices and files, and numerous other fixes and enhancements.

- New Closed Captioning support provides a full end-to-end workflow for importing, editing, and exporting captioned data in HD Sony XDCAM MXF material and via .SCC files.

- New Multi-layer Adobe Photoshop Document (PSD) support provides individual control over the separate file layers from a single PSD file, for complex animation and composting in the timeline.

- Enhanced Device Explorer support for additional cameras and devices includes CompactFlash-based memory recording units such as the HVR-MRC1 and hard-disk-based recording units such as the HVR-DR60.

- Enhanced direct Timeline Burning to DVD support joins the existing Burn to Blu-ray.

- New PreSonus FaderPort Control Surface support for touch-sensitive hardware control and automation, including volume and pan, play, stop, start transport and manage markers.

This is a free update for current owners of Vegas Pro 9. See the Vegas update site for the release notes and download.

See my full article: Walkthrough: Sony Vegas Pro 9

    Find Sony Vegas Pro 9 on Amazon.com

The NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters) wrapped up a week ago, with an announced attendance of 88,044, up from 82,650 in 2009, and including 23,000 international attendees from 156 countries (press release, see earlier post).

Major themes at the show included momentum behind Mobile DTV, production equipment and tools for 3D TV, and broader support in editing tools for new HD camera formats.

Mobile Digital DV

Live broadcast TV is coming is coming to portable devices, via your local broadcast stations. As described by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), TV stations can simultaneously deliver the primary HD channel and multiple additional digital multicast channels to homes, plus now multiple mobile digital television channels to “on the go” viewers.

Mobile DTV products demoed at NAB showed the range of possibilities for adding TV broadcast reception to mobile devices, including:
- a demo version of the Samsung Moment mobile phone, built on Google Android
- Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Entertainment prototype netbooks with HD display
- Portable DVD Players from LG Electronics
- Tivizen Mobile DTV receivers from Valups, which receive over-the-air Mobile DTV and beam it via Wi-Fi for reception on products like the iPad, iPhone, and laptops.

3D TV

3D Cameras from companies including Sony and Panasonic provide the eqipment needed to produce content for all those 3D TVs announced at CES (see earlier post). The conference sessions also included fascinating discussions by broadcasters on early experiences shooting major events in 3D.

- The Sony 3D Production System covers from cameras to recorders and processors, to monitors and projectors (Sony NAB site, PDF brochure).

- The Panasonic AG3DA1 Full HD 3D Camcorder ($21K) uses SD media card recording (press release).

Editing 3D Video

Amazingly, you can edit 3D video today, even in your favorite editor. For example:

- Sony lists several third-party add-ins for Vegas Pro -- CineForm Neo 3D, Medtron Make3D, and Pantarheon Bororo 3D

- Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 is already tightly integrated with CineForm (also available for Final Cut Pro)

- Sony has released a whitepaper on Editing Stereoscopic 3D in Vegas Pro 9, showing how to edit 3D directly in Vegas Pro using synchronized tracks

Video Editing Tools

NAB also saw updates to popular professional video editing tools.

- Adobe Creative Suite 5 (press release) updates some 14 core applications, with major performance enhancements from 64-bit processing and GPU acceleration, especially in Premiere Pro and After Effects, at $2599 for the full suite (see earlier post).

- The Sony Vegas Pro 9.0d update (press release) adds new closed captioning and PSD layer support, enhanced import support for memory and disk cameras, and numerous fixes and enhancements (see earlier post).

- Avid Media Composer v5 (press release) features expanded format support through Avid Media Access (AMA), including direct editing of RED R3D and QuickTime video formats, plus mouse-based editing through drag and drop in the timeline.

- Autodesk has brought its high-end Smoke software to the Mac (press release) for finishing work beyond Final Cut Pro -- plus applications including editorial, color correction, paint, cleanup, titling, and 3D compositing -- all in a single tool, for $14,995

More Links for NAB Wrap-Ups ...