The present and future of post production business and technology

Another reminder that Adobe is really in the best position to capitalize on the move to HTML5 http://bit.ly/aHgNHT Adobe is a tools company.

Although Adobe may prefer that the web use their proprietary Flash format, it makes most of its money from the tools that we use as content creators. Flash CS5 has rudimentary export to HTML5 and Canvas. Canvas is another of the HTML5 tags. This one allows for very sophisticated animation of the screen – up to doing 3D cubes with video on each side, for example. It’s also part of what makes HTML5 competitive with Flash.

When I refer to HTML5 as a replacement for Flash, I’m actually referring to the combination of:

The <video> tag that allows video to be played without any plug-in;

The <canvas> tag that allows regions of the screen to be manipulated in very sophisticated ways;

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which provide even more formatting and animation options; and

Javascript for the smarts. (The code that provides interactivity and connects to the tags above).

There’s more to HTML5 than that, but that’s the basics and Adobe is definitely in the best position to make the tools we will need for HTML5 to be successful. They’re already much closer than anyone else

 

Dan Rayburn writes “For Adobe, There Is A Lot More At Stake Than Apple Devices, Here’s The Bigger Story“

With no stake in the discussion, he explores how Adobe should be reacting, and points out that Adobe could be worried about losing a chunk of cash they get from the Content Delivery Networks for delivering the proprietary RTMP streaming format, and how the move is to HTTP streaming (and not only for Apple’s iDevices).

No Apple (nor Adobe) apologist Rayburn writes:

For starters, don’t let the discussion get sidetracked by those who want to imply that Apple is supporting HTML5 out of the goodness of their heart or because they want to support some kind of “open standards”. Apple’s decision not to support Flash on their devices is purely a business decision and one they have the right to make. Anyone who tries to imply that Apple is being the “Robin Hood” of the industry and is trying to do away with proprietary technology for the benefit of us all is simply wrong.

While Adobe’s not happy with Apple’s decision, Adobe needs to stop whining about it and adapt their business due to changes that happen in the market. Industries do not sit still, business evolves and any good company evolves with it. While Apple threw Adobe a curve ball, Adobe should stop complaining about the pitch and change their business so they can hit what’s thrown to them. And I don’t mean by filing a lawsuit which would only help Apple and hurt Adobe.

And, after a long and very good article he concludes:

The bottom line is that there is a lot more at stake for Adobe than whether or not Flash works on the iPad. That’s what the media and bloggers want to talk about, but there is a much bigger story here. Yes, Adobe would lose some revenue from content owners not using Adobe products to generate content for the iPhone and iPad, but they will lose even more once HTTP streaming takes over if they don’t throw their weight behind it now.

More good news about 3D http://bit.ly/dfZD8Z Don’t drink and watch. (Kind of makes it impossible to watch football in 3D!)

Samsung warns:

“Pregnant women, the elderly, sufferers of serious medical conditions, those who are sleep deprived or under the influence of alcohol should avoid utilising the unit’s 3D functionality.”

Since that describes me, about 80% of the time (sleep deprived mostly) I wonder when I could watch 3D TV if I wanted to? Also difficult to wear the 3D glasses and multitask on my laptop as I do more than half the time I watch TV.

Add to this new data point the fact that some 30% of the population cannot see 3D (stereo blindness) or find that it gives them headaches or worse, and you have to wonder why it’s so prevalent this NAB. During the week I also saw a post, but didn’t bookmark it, that indicated it wasn’t a great idea to drive after watching a 3D movie in a theater – something to do with changed depth perception after the 3D experience.

I remain 3D skeptical. I might be wrong.

This is big news: Google to open source VP8 for HTML vidoe http://bit.ly/90n9eA

Google acquired the On2 corporation largely for their codec expertise and got control over the VP8 codec (Flash 8-9 used the VP6 codec). They can open source it if they want, and they have. They are also pushing it for adoption as the video codec for the HTML5 <video> tag, which will allow video to play without using a plug-in like Flash, QT or any of the others.

However there is already contention between the Ogg Vorbis codec (also open source) and MPEG-4 (open and equitably licensed but not always free to publishers or software developers). The arguments usually go down the path of “Ogg is open source so it should be used” vs “Ogg quality is not great and MPEG-4/H.264 is much more widely deployed.

I would expect Chrome to gain support for the VP8 in the <video> tag but I’d expect Apple to fight VP8 as the only choice. Apple are very much behind MPEG-4/H.264.

The rumor went around last night and has been confirmed this morning: Blackmagic Design have indeed released a software-only version of daVinci Resolve for US$995 and a turnkey package for just under $30,000.

I never thought I’d stay in this indusry long enough to see a daVinci product under $10,000, let alone under $1000. daVinci color correction tools have traditionally been priced at over $300,000 (with hardware). High end color correction has never been more affordable, with Apple’s Color included in their Final Cut Studio package and Avid’s Symphony product also providing high end color correction capability.

There is no reason that your project shouldn’t look visually stunning.

It’s only a rumor going around Twitter over the last hour or two but it would be awesome! Resolve is the high end software daVinci system. Last year daVince (pre Blackmagic Design purchase) were showing Resolve on a laptop so it’s not impossible.

Frankly, I’ll believe it when it’s announced tomorrow morning at the Blackmagic press event. More then.