Milivoj's blog

SxS cards crash OS X 10.6.8

2012-02-01T11:42:00.005+01:00

The SxS card driver from Sony is not compatible with the latest (and last?) Snow Leopard update 10.6.8, at least on some Mac Book Pro models. When inserting an SxS card into the Express card slot, the system crashes with a "kernel panic".

Apparently, Sony has no intention to fix the problem. This is what they say on their download page:

Attention (July 2011): Users of MacBook PRO* with Intel CoreDuo Processor (*Early 2006 Model: MA464/MA092)
Sony has found that a message will appear to say you need to restart your CoreDuo-based MacBook PRO when you update the OS to Mac OS X 10.6.8 (released on June 23, 2011) and insert an SxS Memory Card into its ExpressCard slot. We do not recommend that you update your OS to 10.6.8. If you have already updated your OS and could not switch back to the previous version (such as 10.6.7), please use your SxS card in an XDCAM or XDCAM EX video recording product, connecting it to your Mac via the USB cable. You may also be able to use your card with an 'SxS Memory Card Reader/Writer SBAC-US10,' which is sold separately.

If you have this problem, the only solution seems to be a re-install of the OS. Then, a system update to 10.6.7, and finally disabling all further automatic updates.

If you are thinking of avoiding a re-install and doing a downgrade from 10.6.8 to 10.6.7 instead, forget it. I tried, and failed miserably, ending up with an unbootable machine (kernel panic straight away at startup). But if you do know of another solution than a re-install, please leave a comment.

Adding subtitles to a DCP

2011-07-05T22:29:00.006+02:00

There are several extremely expensive tools to do this sort of stuff, and there is an open source one (OpenDCP) which could certainly also do it. But it can also be done "by hand" quite easily.

The subtitle XML file can be exported from Belle-Nuit Subtitler (it is called "DLP Cinema" in the export menu). Since it is just an xml text file, it can also be produced in any text editor, or converted from another format with a few regular expressions. Examples of the format are easy to find on the net.

I had a non-encrypted DCP of a trailer, and the subtitles xml exported from Belle-Nuit. After many tries I finally ended up with a DCP folder which EasyDCP Player+ plays without complaining. (Well, the demo version plays the 15 first seconds in psychedelic XYZ colors. If you have a few thousand Euros lying around you can get the full version).

Open the subtitle.xml file, and copy the UUID from the SubtitleID tag near the top.
If needed, also adjust the MovieTitle, ReelNumber and Language.
Take note of the exact size of the file in bytes.
Edit the CPL file (the .xml file which starts with "<CompositionPlaylist>") to add the subtitle section. It goes into the AssetList, next to MainPicture and MainSound. Use the UUID you copied from the subtitle.xml, and set the right durations and language. In the end, it looks similar to this:

<MainSubtitle>
   <Id>urn:uuid:CBEB439E-AA36-4B87-975D-2776A268A9AF</Id>
   <EditRate>24 1</EditRate>
   <IntrinsicDuration>3167</IntrinsicDuration>
   <EntryPoint>0</EntryPoint>
   <Duration>2927</Duration>
   <Language>de</Language>
 </MainSubtitle>

Edit the PKL file (the file named "....PKL.xml" which starts with "<PackingList>"). The subtitle Asset section looks like this:

<Asset>
  <Id>urn:uuid:CBEB439E-AA36-4B87-975D-2776A268A9AF</Id>
  <Hash>7jzdoZCDXGet6tPWSv2htztPlw4=</Hash>
  <Size>12161</Size>
  <Type>text/xml;asdcpKind=Subtitle</Type>
  <OriginalFileName>melancholia-trailer-dcp-stfr.xml</OriginalFileName>
</Asset>

The hash value is a SHA1 hash of the file, Base64 encoded. It can be produced with this command in Linux or Mac:

openssl sha1 -binary "Your_Subtitle_File.xml" | openssl base64 -e

Maybe you can also just leave the hash out. It appears to work in EasyDCP.

If your PKL is signed, remove all the signature and certificates stuff.
(If someone knows how it could be re-signed with a new certificate, please let us know; xmlsign can probably produce the right output if we know which options to use; I didn't investigate this)
Finally, edit the ASSETMAP file to add the subtitle file and correct the sizes of the CPL and PKL files.

Open questions:

Do Cinema servers accept unsigned DCPs?
How compatible is the result with the various server models and versions? There must be a reason why the subtitles are often burned in instead of being in a separate XML.

TC et FCP suite

2011-02-16T20:55:00.002+01:00

Le petit article précédent examinait des possibilités de synchroniser dans Final Cut Pro du son et des images avec timecode, en particulier dans le cas où le TC a été enregistré sous forme de son sur une piste audio de la vidéo. Avid fait ça depuis le siècle dernier, mais FCP nécessite des programmes supplémentaires.

Voilà un petit rappel de la procédure à suivre pour un film particulier, mais qui s'adapte certainement aussi à d'autres films. C'est un long chemin plein de détours, mais quand même plus rapide que de synchroniser à la main.

1. Préparation

Sur le disque dur:

Grouper les clips quicktime vidéo dans des dossiers par jour de tournage.
De même, grouper les fichiers audio dans des dossiers par jour de tournage.

2. Dans FCPauxTC

Vérifier les réglages (par exemple: PAL, AuxTC is on: Check it on each file)
(Les options dans le menu "Error correction" ne faisaient pas de différence pour nous, mais cela dépend peut-être de la qualité d'enregistrement du TC)

Pour chaque jour de tournage:

File -> Open et choisir le 1er fichier video du dossier
Cliquer le bouton "Batch", ce qui importe aussi les autres fichiers du même dossier
Quand il a terminé, il affiche dans le bas de la fenêtre "Info: scan done"
Exporter le résultat avec File -> Export All clips ... (on a plusieurs possibilités)

(Voir aussi le manuel PDF livré avec FCPauxTC, qui explique bien les choses.)

3. Dans Final Cut:

Importer les fichiers audio (il faut FCP v. 6 au moins pour qu'il reconnaisse le TC des fichiers BWF)
Importer les nouveaux clips vidéo traités par FCPauxTC
(importer dans un nouveau projet, pour éviter des risques de confusion de FCP quand on réimporte les mêmes clips avec des TC différents)
Regrouper les sons et les images de chaque jour de tournage ensemble dans des bins par jour.
Exporter ces bins quotidiens audio+video en .xml

4. Dans Sync-N-Link

Avec chacun de ces fichiers .xml quotidiens exportés précédemment:

Ouvrir le .xml
Vérifier les options
(Une option importante est le choix entre "Trim to full duration of video" ou "No Trim". En général, "No Trim" convient mieux aux tournages de fiction, et Trim to video convient mieux pour les documentaires, où il y a souvent d'énormes têtes et queues de son par rapport à l'image)
Et exporter la xml décrivant les merged clips.

5. De retour dans FCP

Importer les nouveaux XML produits par Sync-N-Link.
Au besoin, ajuster la synchro (il y a souvent 1 ou 2 images de décalage). Cela peut être très rapide avec l'affichage des waveforms et un raccourci clavier pour décaler la piste sélectionnée

Faut-il / peut-on ensuite "re-merger" les clips avec la synchro corrigée?

A vérifier: si on a des clips "trimmed to length of video", est-il facile de récupérer les queues de son quand on en a besoin? Comment fait-on?

Timecode et Final Cut

2011-02-11T11:58:00.007+01:00

Audio timecode

Certaines caméras comme les Sony Z1 et EX1 n'ont pas d'entrée pour un générateur de time code externe. On peut alors enregistrer le son d'un générateur de TC sur une piste audio. Mais contrairement à Avid, Final Cut Pro ne peut pas décoder ce son pour obtenir le time code. Pour cela, il faut des programmes externes. J'en connais 2:

FCP auxTC reader de VideoToolShed. Il coûte $ 250, et il propose une version démo qui permet de le tester avec quelques limitations.
et TimeTools de Gallery. Celui-là coûte $ 900, et ne propose pas de version démo, ni même de mode d'emploi en ligne qui permettrait de se faire une idée. Alors on se demande pourquoi il coûte presque 4 fois le prix du précédent.

Lors d'un essai rapide des deux sur une journée de tournage, FCP auxTC reader s'en est mieux sorti. Il n'a pas reconnu le TC sur 3 clips, alors que TimeTools ne l'a pas reconnu sur une dizaine de clips.

Merged clips

Une fois que les vidéos ont le bon time code, encore faut-il les synchroniser avec le son externe correspondant pour en faire des "merged clips". Là aussi, Avid permet de le faire automatiquement sur un bin entier, mais pas FCP. Il faut sélectionner l'image et le son correspondant, puis les "merge" individuellement.

Pour éviter ce travail long et fastidieux, il y a Sync-N-Link for FCP. Malheureusement, il coûte $ 500.

Remarques

FCPauxTC n'accepte que des fichiers dont le nom a l'extension ".mov". Il semble possible de faire des captures dans FCP qui créent des fichiers sans extension. Dans ce cas, il faut d'abord tous les renommer en leur ajoutant ".mov". Cela peut se faire facilement par une commande dans Terminal. (Ceux qui ne sont pas à l'aise dans Terminal peuvent installer un programme graphique payant comme comme par exemple Pathfinder.)
FCPauxTC permet aussi de faire des clips avec le son, mais il ne fait pas des "merged clips" associant image et son. Au lieu de ça, il ajoute le son dans le quicktime image. Il peut n'ajouter que le lien vers le son ("by reference" au lieu de "self-contained"), mais en général on préfère quand même des "merged clips" standard.
Pour les tournages sans TC, il y a aussi PluralEyes de Singular Software, qui ne coûte que $ 150. Il fonctionne en analysant le son, et en reconnaissant des sons identiques. Il paraît que ça fonctionne bien quand le son externe a été enregistré sur la caméra (par une liaison HF par exemple). Mais si le son caméra est celui du micro caméra, il serait trop différent du son externe pour que PluralEyes puisse le reconnaître. (Je n'ai pas pu l'essayer, parce que quelqu'un l'avait déjà essayé sur la machine que j'utilisais, et je ne pouvais pas ré-installer une version test une 2e fois.)

Voir l'article suivant pour un rappel des procédures pratiques à suivre avec FCPauxTC et Sync-N-Link.

Importing a DVD into Final Cut Pro

2010-11-18T17:30:00.003+01:00

(You probably need the MPEG-2 Playback Component for Quicktime, which is available for around $20 here.)

If you import VOB files directly into FCP, they seem to have no sound.

MPEG Streamclip will let you save them as .m2v video files and .aiff audio files without re-encoding them.

(these tests were done on Mac OS X 10.6.4 with FCP 7.0.3 and MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b2.)

Open the .vob file in MPEG Streamclip
If you want, set in and out points (by pressing I and O ) to export only that part
In the File menu, select Demux -> Demux to M2V and AIFF...
Import the files into FCP, where you can merge back the video and audio.

If you put such a DVD video file on an HD sequence, it is automatically scaled to your sequence settings. You can change this scaling in the clip's Motion tab.

When I did all this, weird things happened, which don't really matter but which I don't understand. If you do, leave a comment. "Demux" (de-multiplex) means separating the interleaved video, audio and other tracks to write them as separate files. So in the example above, the video goes to the .m2v file, and the audio to the .aiff file. And this is how MediaInfo sees the files: only video in one, and only audio in the other. However, when I imported them into FCP, the .m2v file appeared to somehow magically have audio in it... sometimes. And sometimes not.

So you may be able to throw away the .aiff file and skip the merge step, depending on the positions of the stars or on what the LHC is smashing at the other end of the lake...

XDCAM EX software

2010-11-18T15:27:00.013+01:00

If all you want is to quickly download the software you need to work with XDCAM EX files, go to Sony Canada: http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/ or skip to the updates at the end of this post. The rest below is just a rant I had to let out.

When you need to download software to deal with XDCAM EX files, the first Google results lead to completely obnoxious Sony pages where you have to register with a lot of personal info, and agree to stuff like "The personal data provided [...] may be used by Sony Europe (Belgium) N.V. and other Sony Group Companies [...] to advise of, offer and supply goods and services, for other marketing purposes, and for additional purposes [etc.]".

In short, after they have sold you a quite expensive camera, they will only let you use it if you agree that they will be able to spam you forever. Then there is yet another license agreement to check before you are allowed to get the software.

The XDCAM EX cameras are really nice, but that Sony company is full of shit!

Except, it seems, Sony Canada, which appear to be the only Sony subsidiary to respect it's customers and be helpful. They have a very simple, directly accessible download page with all the software you need: http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/.

(That is in November 2010. Let's hope they keep this perfect download page as it is.)

Update May 2011: The download page for XDCAM EX is now http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/Navigation.do?category=XDCAM+EX

Update Nov. 2011: The situation seems to have improved on the pro.sony.com site. The software is listed here. And now this is the easiest (copy/paste) way for Mac until they change their site or you need a different version. In Terminal:

XDCAM Transfer for Apple Final Cut Pro

curl -o PDZK-P1_XDCAM_Transfer_v2_13_0.zip http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcam/downloads/apps/PDZK-P1_XDCAM_Transfer_v2_13_0.zip

XDCAM Browser Software

curl -o XDCAM_Browser_1_3_Win_Mac.zip http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcam/downloads/apps/XDCAM_Browser_1_3_Win_Mac.zip

curl -o XDCAM_Browser_200_Mac.zip http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcam/downloads/XDCAM_Browser_200_Mac.zip

curl -o XDCAM_Browser_200_Win.zip http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcam/downloads/XDCAM_Browser_200_Win.zip

SxS Card and iLink FAM Device Drivers

curl -o SxS_UDF_v1_01_and_Device_Drivers_v1_xx.zip http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcam/downloads/apps/SxS_UDF_v1_01_and_Device_Drivers_v1_xx.zip

Why I hate Shotput Pro

2010-11-09T14:48:00.005+01:00

Most people I know seem to be fond of Shotput Pro for offloading XDCAM EX cards to hard disks.

I understand why they like it, but I don't. So I'm still looking for a better solution to recommend to people.

For myself, I use custom shell scripts with rsync, but they need to be configured for each project, which is sometimes too much of a hassle, and certainly not something I can recommend to people who have never heard about Terminal.

Shotput Pro isn't all that bad, and is definitely much better than using the Mac Finder for such an important task. But several details drive me mad, especially because they seem so obvious, and should be easy to fix. Here is my list of ...

...Things I Hate About Shotput Pro

(in no particular order)

It doesn't preserve folder dates and times, so you don't see the shooting date straight away in the Finder listings. Since every shot is in it's own folder, the shot list in the Finder is a mess of meaningless numbers used in the folder names, and just as meaningless dates and times.
It doesn't find the SxS card automatically, even though it would be very easy (it's a FAT32 partition which is the only one on that disk, and which contains a folder named "BPAV" in it's root; it's also usually labelled "Untitled" by the Mac).
When you want to offload cards into folders named by date, which is what I always want, it's automatic naming is catastrophic: it somehow uses your system settings for the date format, which in most cases contains slashes ("31/12/2010")! Of course, slashes cannot be used in names, on any current computer, so the Finder will helpfully replace them with colons behind your back, but still show you slashes. So you end up with folders which have different names depending on whether you look at them from the Finder or from another program (like Terminal) or on another system.
Then Shotput adds the time and timezone, separated by spaces. Not as bad as using slashes, but still very annoying.
And the " +" or " -" before the time zone isn't a great idea either.
It cannot continue an interrupted transfer. If you have offloaded most of a card but then had to add a few shots to it, or if you just had to suddenly interrupt the transfer to move to another location (which tends to happen when filming), you cannot finish the transfer at a later time. When you restart the offload, it will actually restart from scratch. It will have noticed that you already have a folder with the same name, and instead of a prompt similar to "You already have a folder named '2010-12-31_14h23'. Would you like to update it?", it will just start over into a new folder after appending a "-2" to your folder name.
A 32GB card takes a lot of time to be copied twice, and with Shotput, you will often be stuck watching it re-copying files long after wrap time.
Requires activation over an Internet connection. Well that may look like it's OK, since you do it only once, during preparation. But if you forget it, and rush on a shoot in a remote place without Internet, haviung only your new computer and your fresh Shotput Pro download, you won't be able to use it.
A much worse scenario is if your computer dies during the shoot. Before you can activate Shotput on your replacement machine, you first need to deactivate it on your old machine over the Internet. That will be hard if the old machine doesn't boot. I'm sure such a situation can be solved with an email to the company, but that will also require an Internet connection, and not be done immediately on a Sunday at 2AM.

Update: The way I do the transfers (with rsync) is extremely reliable, preserves dates and times, allows restarting interrupted or incomplete transfers, and doesn't require any extra tools (rsync is part of the base install on OS X, and most Linuxes, and is available for Windows).

However, until I find the time to package it all into a nice and fool-proof script, it is not suitable for people who are scared by Terminal. Basically, the rsync command is:

sudo rsync -rt -vi --progress --exclude=".*" "$source" "$dest"

Before that, I had source and dest initialized by a script, which ends with something like

source=/Volumes/Untitled/; dest=/Volumes/Project_1A/2011-12-14_09h18/

Sessions ProTools depuis Final Cut

2009-04-18T13:53:00.002+02:00

Voilà un petit aide-mémoire pour un export d'un montage Final Cut Pro avec des sons Cantar, vers des sessions ProTools, en utilisant Titan Flash Conform, et quelques lignes de script Perl pour résoudre un problème dans l'EDL exportée depuis FCP: http://alma.ch/film/workflows/fcp-cantar-titan-protools/ C'est en anglais, mais vous pouvez ajouter ici vos commentaires, corrections, et autres remarques dans la langue de votre choix.

field order madness: one is even

2009-04-08T11:37:00.003+02:00

The DVD Studio Pro 4 User Manual, on page 64, has some interesting new arithmetic:

"The top field is also known as field two, the upper field, or the odd field. The bottom field is also known as field one, the lower field, or the even field."

I wonder if that's just a mistake in the manual, or if the video people - who among other oddities gave us the non-square pixels - also re-invented a better definition of odd and even.

Programme de la Cinematheque en fichier iCalendar

2007-07-08T00:24:00.002+02:00

J'avais envie de voir le programme de la Cinémathèque de Lausanne dans mon programme de calendrier. Comme la cinémathèque elle-même ne propose pas de fichier "iCalendar" sur son site, j'ai un petit script qui convertit leur page web du programme en fichier standard .ics. On peut y souscrire avec Sunbird, Apple iCal, Outlook 2007, et tout autre programme de calendrier qui reconnaît ce format standard. (Outlook 2003 ne permet pas une souscription avec des mises à jour automatiques, mais on peut y importer le fichier). L'adresse du fichier de calendrier est http://alma.ch/cal/cinematheque.ics Il est mis à jour automatiquement une fois par semaine à partir du fichier de la cinémathèque, qui j'espère ne change pas le format ou l'adresse de sa page trop souvent. J'espère que ce gadget, par sa présence quotidienne dans mon agenda, m'aidera à aller plus souvent à la cinémathèque, au lieu de me souvenir toujours trop tard du film que j'aurais voulu aller voir... Mise à jour: Hélas, après plus d'une année durant laquelle le calendrier a très bien fonctionné, la cinémathèque vient de changer le format de sa page de programme, et je n'ai pas le temps ces jours d'adapter le script qui transcrit le HTML en ICS. En attendant que je trouve le temps, il n'y a plus que la page "officielle", sans possibilité d'import.

Avid cannot import timecode from 24 bit BWF file

2007-03-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

The problem

When you import 24 bit BWF files into Avid, you may encounter a pretty obscure problem: some of the files will be imported without the timecode, while others will be OK. This will never happen happen with 16 bit files, nor will it happen with stereo 24 bit files. And it will only happen with files produced by certain recorders. And I'm not sure whether it only happens on Macs (I used Avid Xpress Pro 5 on Mac). It is a rare problem, and it took me a while to figure out, so here is what I found. I had the problem with files originating on a Sound Devices 744T (fw 2.03), but the same problem seems to exist with the HHB Portadrive, and probably with others as well. (As far as I know, the Cantar doesn't have this problem. I don't know about others). (Update: the Sound Devices firmware update 2.15 fixes this.) The manufacturers lay the blame on Avid, like in this post on the HHB forum:

"There has been a problem with importing some Portadrive 24-bit wav files into Avid Xpress Pro. Avid would import them via Quicktime rather than directly and in the process all metadata (including most vitally the timestamp) would be lost. This is an Avid bug and will be fixed in the next release of Xpress Pro."

However, what I found is that it seems to really be a bug in the recorders which produce invalid WAVE files, as shown also by the fact that Avid sends the file to Quicktime instead of processing it itself. I guess Avid could fix their WAV reader, but not easily without breaking the import of some valid files. It would seem much more straightforward to update the firmware in these recorders so that they write valid WAVE files, especially since the change would be quite trivial.

The theory

In short, WAV files are supposed to have an even number of bytes. When you record 24 bit mono sound, you get 3 bytes per sample, and around half of the files will have audio containing an odd number of bytes. So these files would not be valid and confuse the routines reading them. (Before all the technical details, here is the opportunity to jump directly further down to something more practical or even straight to a possible solution.) Broadcast Wave files (BWF) are really Microsoft WAVE format files, with a "broadcast extension" containing timecode and other metadata information. And these .WAV files are really just a form of RIFF files. RIFF files were created by Microsoft and IBM a long time ago, and are based on another even older format: IFF files. (AIFF is another such descendent of IFF). These specifications have all been published at some point, but have also been changed and augmented since then, and a clear and current reference is hard to find. Basically, all these RIFF files are composed of various blocks called chunks, of varying sizes. Any WAV file contains at least a "data" chunk with the audio, and a format chunk describing the number of channels, sampling rate, etc. In addition, the BWF variety of WAV files also contains a "bext" chunk which is where the timecode is stored along with other information, and may also contain various other chunks (iXML, link, etc.). The best quotes I found to pinpoint this specifc problem of odd/even sized chunks are these: GFF Format Summary: Microsoft RIFF from an O'Reilly book:

"ChunkData contains data that is WORD-aligned within the RIFF file. If the data is an odd length in size, an extra byte of NULL padding is added to the end of the data. The ChunkSize value does not include the length of the padding."

and AVI RIFF File Reference from the Microsoft site:

"The data is always padded to nearest WORD boundary. ckSize gives the size of the valid data in the chunk; it does not include the padding, the size of ckID, or the size of ckSize."

So all these chunks must have an even number of bytes. If the data in the chunk happens to need an odd number of bytes like in the case of some 24 bit mono sounds, a null byte must be added to pad the chunk to an even number. But the reported chunk size is still expected to be the exact number of useful bytes, different from the real size when it happens to be odd. Weird, isn't it? According to the IFF entry in Wikipedia, this weirdness is due to a limitation of an ancient processor:

"Chunks must begin on even file offsets, as befits the origins of IFF on the Motorola 68000 processor, which couldn't address quantities larger than a byte on odd addresses. Thus a chunk following an odd-length chunk will be preceded by a pad byte."

No wonder many devices and software are programmed without taking this (may I say) odd detail into account. Especially since you will hardly find these quotes if you search for WAV or BWF, even though they apply to any RIFF file, including WAVE files.

Back to practice

You can recognize these problematic files by the fact that their size in bytes is an odd number (once you find how to get your file manager to show you exact sizes in bytes instead of MB). If the audio is not padded to an even number with a null byte, you end up with an invalid WAV file, which some programs will understand, and some not. If the audio happens to be at the very end of the WAV file, which seems to be the case with the files I have seen, some programs will either not mind about the missing null byte which is not part of the audio anyway, or not even notice (I guess that is what happens in the Windows version of Avid). However, if the audio data is followed in the file with another chunk like a bext or iXML chunk, you are likely to have many problems. The way Avid seems to handle it, is that it does see the file as invalid, and lets Quicktime have a go at it. Quicktime will read the audio, but it skips the bext chunk with the timecode, so Avid gets back the audio without the TC. You will also notice, during the import into Avid, the mention of QT instead of WAVE in the progress window. This is a clear sign that you will get the audio through Quicktime, and without timecode.

The solution

In the HHB forum thread mentioned earlier, they suggest using a little Mac OS9 program: HHBFix which can be downloaded from the HHB site. It did fix the specific files I had so that they imported correctly. However, it does it in a way which proved quite unreliable in some cases: it just blindly adds a null byte to the end of any odd-sized file. Obviously, this will only work if the audio data chunk happens to be the last one in the file. That will probably be the case in a file coming straight from a portable recorder, but there is no guarantee about it. If, before importing the file, some program added another chunk at the end, HHBFix will not do any good. I would also have another solution, but it currently uses Perl in a shell window, and a modified version of the File::Format::RIFF module. Since the people likely to need a solution are also unlikely to know what Perl or a shell window like Terminal are, I'm not sure it's really useful. The best solution would really be for manufacturers to correct the code in their firmware (update: Sound Devices seems to have done that quickly). Update: BWF Widget Pro (runs on Windows) added the ability to correct these invalid files since version 1.175.

Conclusion

Don't let this discourage you from using timecode. In most cases, you will never encounter this problem since it only happens with mono 24 bit sounds produced on some recorders and imported into a Mac version of Avid.

Flac sur Mac

2006-06-27T12:31:00.000+02:00

Si je vous ai passé des fichiers audio au format FLAC et que vous utilisez un Mac, il vous faudra 1 ou 2 programmes supplémentaires pour les écouter et/ou les convertir dans un autre format. Il en existe plusieurs, la plupart gratuits. J'utilise souvent le format .flac pour compresser de la musique parce que c'est un compresseur "lossless" (sans perte de qualité), et que c'est un logiciel libre: non seulement gratuit, mais surtout libre de droits et ouvert. Ca me garantit que je pourrai toujours trouver un programme pour lire/décompresser ces fichiers sur l'engin de mon choix, même dans 10 ou 20 ans quand il n'y aura peut-être plus ni Macs ni PCs Windows, et que mon CD original aura été perdu ou irrémédiablement rayé. Contrairement à d'autres programmes de musique, iTunes ne lit pas les fichiers .flac (sans doute pour tenter de capter les utilsateurs dans son propre format non-libre). Il faut donc soit les décompresser, soit utiliser un autre programme pour l'écoute. Pour écouter les fichiers .flac, il y a le fameux VLC (que vous devriez probablement avoir de toute façon pour lire les nombreux formats que Quicktime ne lit pas), ou Cog que je ne connais pas. Pour les décompresser en WAV ou en AIFF standard, il y a xACT et d'autres. A partir de là vous pourrez les recompresser dans votre format préféré (mp3, aac, etc.) Si vous avez déjà Toast 7 Titanium, il paraît qu'il peut graver des CDs audio directement à partir des fichiers .flac. Peut-être peut-il aussi faire autre chose avec? Pour une liste tenue à jour, voir la page officielle.

Consommation pétrolière

2005-09-16T22:56:00.000+02:00

Encore une statistique de plus. Il semblerait que la consommation de pétrole par habitant ressemble à ceci: 1 terrien moyen consomme 5 barils par an. Plus en détail: 1 américain consomme 25 barils par an 1 européen 12 1 chinois 2 1 indien 1 D'après Yves Cochet, entendu sur France Culture.

Importer le son d'un DVD dans Final Cut Pro

2005-04-04T13:10:00.000+02:00

Comment peut-on importer le son d'un DVD dans Final Cut Pro? Un preneur de son a suggéré de brancher un lecteur DVD de salon sur le lecteur DVCAM, et de capturer le son à partir de là dans FCP. Ca fonctionne sûrement, mais ça me semblait un procédé un peu absurde (convertir un son digital en analogique, pour le re-digitaliser) et trop long, alors qu'il devrait suffire d'extraire le son digital tel quel du DVD. Les opérations nécessaires sont:

Copier le DVD sur disque dur. S'il s'agit d'un DVD commercial, il faut en même temps supprimer le cryptage CSS (deCSS).
dé-multiplexer (demux) le son de l'image. (Les fichiers .VOB du DVD contiennent le son et l'image; il faut donc les séparer, et ne garder que le son)
Convertir le son dans un format pouvant être importé dans FCP. Le son des DVD est en général du Dolby Surround. Après le demux il sera dans un fichier .AC3. Pour l'importer, il faut le convertir en .WAV ou en .AIFF.
Importer dans FCP.

S'il s'agit du son d'un DVD commercial et d'un projet commercial, il reste encore l'étape la plus complexe: trouver le détenteur des droits, et négocier l'utilisation du son dans votre projet. Mais heureusement, ça n'est pas le boulot du monteur. Il existe de très (trop) nombreux outils gratuits pour ces opérations, aussi bien pour Windows que pour Mac. J'en ai essayé quelques-uns. Pour Mac, la copie, le décryptage (deCSS) et le "demux" peuvent se faire avec MacTheRipper, et la conversion du son AC3 en WAV ou en AIFF avec mAC3dec. Avec Windows, je viens de tester:

DVD Decrypter pour sauver, décrypter et extraire le son ("demuxer")
PX3Convert ou Ac3Decode pour convertir le AC3 en WAV.

Si vous avez d'autres outils à suggérer à la place de ceux-là, vos commentaires sont les bienvenus.

Gmail

2004-10-13T15:13:00.000+02:00

J'ai quelques "invitations" pour un compte Gmail. Si ça vous intéresse, dites-le moi. Si vous ne savez pas encore ce que c'est et que vous n'avez pas cliqué sur le lien au-dessus, c'est un Webmail gratuit et très branché. Autres descriptions ici: Gmail - Wikipedia, anglais et ici en français. Le marketing de Google est vraiment très fort, si même moi qui déteste publicité, marketing et tout ce qui s'en approche, je me mets à leur faire de la pub. Ils sont plus forts que Tupperware... En tout cas, ayant reçu une de ces "invitations" dans le club très select de quelques millions de premiers utilisateurs privilégiés, je ne pouvais résister. Et puis, bien que n'en ayant pas besoin, je voulais m'y réserver une adresse à peu près convenable pour le cas où. A mon grand étonnement, milivoj @ gmail.com était déjà pris. Je me suis donc vite rabattu sur ivkovic (at) gmail.com. Et maintenant que j'ai ouvert quelques comptes gmail, je reçois moi aussi de ces invitations à distribuer, dont je ne sais que faire... L'intérêt que je trouve à Gmail:

Les 2 GB de stockage gratuit.
Pas d'ajout de publicité au bas des messages envoyés.
Interface sobre et agréable: pas de publicités multicolores et envahissantes, seulement parfois des publicités sous forme de textes brefs.
Je ne peux pas m'empêcher de tester toutes les nouveautés qui me passent sous le nez (comme aussi ce blog; devrais-je aussi écrire un article de blog sur les avantages que je trouve au blog?)

Mais d'autres ont eu des idées plus créatives pour perdre leur temps avec Gmail:

l'utiliser comme un disque dur: GMail Drive shell extension
ou comme un blog: Gallina
ou divers autres gadgets encore, comme par exemple un outil pour y archiver ses mails d'autres comptes: Mark Lyon's GMail Loader (GML) - Import Your Mail into GMail