Important news this week! You may have seen the vague message Apple provided when opening a Library in Final Cut Pro X about unsupported "legacy media." Well, this week, Apple specifically announced what media would no longer be supported in future versions of the macOS. And, there's a LOT!!

Whether you use Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro X or iMovie - this announcement affects you because Apple announced changes to the operating system, not just editing software.

These changes are not happening immediately, so we have time to plan, still this potentially means that you will be UNABLE to open or play media using one of these older formats. So, please, for your own sake, read this article and share it with friends. This is a big deal - and it is critical you know what's going on.

I've reached out to Avid and Adobe for details on what they plan to do to help  users convert older media. I hope to have more details next week. Apple announced upcoming features in FCP X to help, but as I told Apple, this conversion utility needs to be a stand-alone application because most older media was not edited in FCP X. Like I said, there's a lot to think about here.

In other news, Apple released a new version of Compressor last week. There are no performance enhancements in this version - I know, because I was doing a series of speed tests when the update occurred. Instead, it adds support for ProRes RAW media.

Thinking of speed, since 2019 may be a year for media conversion, Compressor plays a central role in that for many Mac users. So, this week, I looked at ways to make Compressor faster and I was surprised at the results. What I thought would improve speed didn't work. I have all the details in my second article.

I've been using my new Mac mini for two weeks, so I updated my " Configure a Mac mini" article based upon what I've learned. Nothing major, but its in this week's articles, too, in case you want to read my updateds.

I also have a very cool, detailed tutorial on using 3D text, animated lights and cameras to create a sports open in Motion. You'll find it in Articles too, below.

In other news, the latest version of Adobe Premiere and other Creative Cloud applications now allow "auto-updating" where an app will update itself whenever a new version is released. I find this to be dangerous behavior and I encourage you to turn it off. YOU should be in charge of determining when to update, and it should never be in the middle of a project. This can be turned on or off in Creative Cloud > Preferences.

Last week's webinar was very well received, once we fixed the streaming bug. This week, we continue our four-part series on " The Craft of Editing" where I look at editing news, interviews and montages.  If you haven't signed up, please join us this week. Each session can be viewed on its own. Best of all, it's FREE!  Register here.

The Digital Production Buzz had an outstanding show last night, looking at the business of running a post production business. We talked with Terry Curren (Alpha Dogs), Mark Raudonis (Bunim/Murray), Oliver Peters (Oliver Peters Post-Production Services) and Mike Hendricks (Ascend Media Productions). This was some of the most honest and insightful commentary on the business side of post we've ever covered. I strongly encourage you to listen to the show here.

Wow! Next week is Christmas eve - where did the year go? There's still a lot going on. I'll keep you informed as I learn more. In the meantime, edit well .