Larry Jordan's Newsletter: July 17, 2023

July 17, 2023

AI (machine learning) is all the rage these days, holding promise for both good and ill. I'm skeptical, but I'm not an expert. Brian Meaney was one of the key engineering leads on Apple Final Cut (the first version). He worked at Apple for more than twenty years, then moved on to Magic Leap for ten years. Last month he became Head of Product at Alteon, a company using AI for media.

I was given the opportunity to interview Brian about his new position and used that to learn more about the potential impact of AI in media production and post. It's my lead story this week.

Link: Technology & AI in Media Creation. An Interview with Brian Meaney.

Lou emailed a good question: "Should I partition the internal drive of an M-series Mac to get the maximum speed for video editing?" The answer is no - but not for the reasons you might suspect. I wrote a commentary that details why.

Link: Does Video Editing Need the Speed of the Internal Mac Drive?

I use the term "RAID" a lot. Last week, in my webinar, I detailed what the six RAID levels are, how they are used and how to calculate their speed and capacity. If you need to move into storage that is both faster and larger, this short video will help you understand what to get.

Link: Explaining Data Storage RAIDs and How They Work [v]

SPECIAL OFFER: I posted a PDF of my 50 slides containing tables and charts from last week's webinar - How Fast Is Fast? Measuring Performance. These are available in my store for only $4.97. They cover RAIDs, system storage, picking the right system, and performance comparisons for Final Cut and Premiere.

Link: How Fast Is Fast? (PDF-only)

Last week's webinar "How Fast Is Fast? Measuring Performance" provided an overview of how your computer and software use storage, how fast it needs to be, and compares 2013, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023 Macs to show the benefits of M-series computers. There are two versions: PDF of my slides and the full webinar with narration and more details.

SPECIAL BONUS! The full version includes the webinar and a PDF of all 50 slides.

PDF-only link: How Fast Is Fast? (PDF-only)

Webinar link: How Fast Is Fast? (includes PDF)

There's an interesting new feature in Premiere Pro called Revert Trim Session. Not only is it new, but, strangely, it is off by default and undocumented. So, I rose to the challenge to learn more. Here's what it does, when to use it, and a question about why Adobe created it.

Link: New! Revert Trim Session in Premiere Pro

Thinking of Adobe, I've written extensively about Premiere performance. This short video details speeds for render, export, proxy creation, multicam editing and video compression using a variety of Mac desktops. The key takeaway? M-series Macs will save you a ton of time.

Link: How Fast is Adobe Premiere Pro Using M-series Macs? [v]

Turnabout is fair play. I also researched Final Cut speeds. This short video details speeds for render, export, proxy creation, multicam editing and video compression using a variety of Mac desktops. Again, M-series Macs are stunningly faster than any Intel system.

Link: How Fast is Apple Final Cut Pro Using M-series Macs? [v]

It could be argued that there is no such thing as "too fast." On the other hand, today's Mac systems - desktop or portable - can easily handle any video format that we are shooting today or likely to shoot in the next several years. The challenge is no longer the speed of our computer, but the speed of our storage. The difference adding an SSD RAID made to my personal system is nothing short of stunning. Renders, exports and compression that used to take 30 minutes to an hour are completed in five minutes or less. I no longer need to render in Premiere or Final Cut during an edit, I can easily view high-quality results and only render when it's time for final output.

Smile... Apple doesn't pay me to sell their gear or software. But, I must confess that the time I saved after buying an M1 MacBook Pro then, later, an M2 Mac Studio means that projects that used to take me a couple of days are easily done in less than a day. Provided, that is, that I can avoid falling asleep while listening to my own voice. But that can't be solved with faster hardware.

Until next week, stay safe, stay healthy and edit well.