Hiro Media on Tuesday announced the launch of the Mac version of its video download software. The technology lets Mac users watch free, ad-supported video downloads on their systems.

Hiro employs a system that embeds advertisements into video programming. The software’s already available or Windows users and launches on the Mac first in Israel, home of Hiro Media, where it’s being used by “a leading terrestrial broadcaster, several sports and children’s channels.” The company expects the Mac service to roll out to other territories, including the USA and Australia, later in 2008.

Hiro’s technology provides unskippable mid-roll advertisements that are displayed each time a video is viewed. The company claims this enables the video to be distributed over Web sites, P2P networks and other systems without the provider needing to worry about piracy, as the ad revenue is generated, whenever and wherever the content is viewed. It works on both Windows Media Player and QuickTime.

The internet has become more of a funny place, where individuals can upload their personal stories etc. How could I put it best: In the future everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. This is very true for a few “super hero’s” that are taking the internet by storm; Vernon Koekemoer and Techno Viking. In the post Chuck Norris joke days people are finding more and more humour in every day life, this idea made me create a new animation involving the two characters mentioned above. How more appropriate than have them fight for the title of cheese champion on a street fighter style arena. The animation took me a few days to create and has been well recieve by the Vernon crowd. At present the video can be view on many different video sharing websites such as Blueworld, Youtube, and Facebook

I recently had a bit of a problem when I encountered my friends Sony XDCAM and SXS memory. He wanted to capture footage from a shoot that was happening in Cape Town. Being the good friend that I am, I offer to help him transfer the data and make a quick edit on my Final Cut Pro 6.

However, I was horrified to sit for 3 hours trying to capture just the raw footage, I could see the capture names but there was no footage available. This slight problem did bug me for the rest of the day and disturbed my beauty rest that very night. So, the next day I woke up and decided to take the bull by the horns, in other words I went on the Internet and did some research. To my satisfaction I found the answer to my problem, it was the Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 update. This simple update sorted my transfer issue and I could finally rest my weary eyes and mind.

The 6.0.3 update supports editing media in the XDCAM HD422 format. You can now choose the following XDCAM HD422 Easy Setups:

* XDCAM HD422 1080i50 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080i60 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p24 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p25 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 1080p30 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 720p50 CBR
* XDCAM HD422 720p60 CBR

For more information about XDCAM HD422 format support, open Final Cut Pro and choose Help > HD and Broadcast Formats.

The Mac Experience

* you’ll be seen as cool, as different, as a creative/media type, or as someone who’s too thick to get to grips with Windows
* the unit will be visually appealing. Apple cases are well designed and match the monitors and other peripherals
* you are probably less at risk from viruses each time you go on the internet. Virus writers tend to concentrate their limited attention span on
creating viruses for Windows based machines
* Apple has some good software including iMovie, iDVD and iTunes
* you’ll have to put up with the silly names like iMovie, iDVD & iTunes
* There’s only one butt to kick if your system doesn’t work. No getting fobbed off by the software manufacturer saying the thingymijg is not
compatible with the widgetiwoo and that the third party supplied whatyamaycallit is screwing up the operating system registry
* downside to the one-butt-to-kick principle is that if the one butt is not around you’ll have no butt to kick. That is an inherent weakness in all
proprietary solutions - what happens if the company ever goes bust?
* you can use Final Cut Pro (only available on a Mac)

The PC Experience

* kick-ass speed, kick-ass speed, kick-ass speed. The top PC always beats the top Mac.
* new developments - from dual processor operation to 64 bit computing - come out on the PC first
* better value, wider choice of components, easy upgrade paths
* the huge market share of the PC makes it something that WILL be around for a long time to come.
* a lot of the best video editing products are available for the PC only
* availability of lots of resources from advice, tips, support forums, and manuals to training videos, help, and online discussion groups mean that the
PC user is quite spoilt really
* there’s a phenomenal range of software available for PC users from a wide range of video editing software to special effects applications, format
conversion programs and a range of other suites and utilities
* competition is good. It means that component prices from CPUs to video editing cards are being constantly improved and becoming more affordable
* once you get to grips with the interface, the menu system, right-clicking with the mouse, and shortcut keys you’ll find that you can navigate quite
adeptly around any Windows application

On the surface the Contour Design ShuttlePro might look like just another jog control for easy editing, a device that has can be dated back to the pre-digital era. However, the shuttle pro is built around a twin concentric dials, the outer spring loaded and the inner continuous for fine timeline advancement. There are then 15 individual buttons arrayed in an efficient and effective layout around the dials for easy single handed operation.

 
The ShuttlePro comes with a host of pre-built application keystroke mappings for virtually every major software tool - ProTools, Final Cut, Avid, Premiere, Vegas, Cubase, After Effects and so on. But the real power comes in the configuration controls where each button on the Shuttle Pro can be custom assigned to any given function in the application.