ErgodoxEZ Split Ergonomic Keyboard for Video and Music

My Microsoft Sculpt was failing me.  I don't know if it was my incredible typing speed (ha!) or faulty hardware, but there were way too many "failed strokes" for me to keep using a wireless keyboard.  I love the Sculpt's layout, low profile, and portability, but it doesn't matter how good something feels if it doesn't work.

I started coding for design at the turn of the Millennium (so fun to say!), and quickly learned how bad a "regular" keyboard is for 10 hours or so of daily use.  Back then, there weren't a whole lot of "ergo keyboard" options; the MS Natural Keyboard was pretty much it.  But I found that my shoulder/wrist issues necessitated getting my mouse closer to the keyboard (my arm was sticking out to far to the side), so a keyboard with no number pad became imperative. Thus, I figured out how to saw off the number pad (as well as configuring various incarnations of track pads and tiny track-balls incorporated into the keyboard housing in various locations).

When Microsoft released the Natural Keyboard 4000, I upgraded, but again had to saw off the number pad.  Finally, in 2013 they released the Sculpt, and to my joy, it came with the numpad detached!  However, after years of use, the "wireless-ness" of the Sculpt can no longer fulfill my needs.  Thus, the search for a new wired keyboard began.

There is a dirth of one-piece split keyboards with no number pad.  And once you get into two-piece "coding" boards, the price goes up dramatically.

I researched for a couple of months, and the ErgodoxEZ and Dygma Raise ended up as my two finalists.  However, the Dygma uses it's own (though still open-source) Bazecor software for layout and functionality, which even after a couple of years in the real world seems to still have many issues (as reported by regular users), so I was definitely leaning toward the Ergodox, which utilizes a more established and ubiquitous open-source software and has many "compilers" available online for easy access and use.

Over the years social media and template-based web design has turned me off to designing for the web and the coding that used to go along with it (HTML, PHP, Java, etc.), but I still use a keyboard for 8 to 10 hours a day; it's just spread over more activities, the primary being video and music editing.

I began researching split mechanical keyboards just for their ergonomic benefit, but I quickly became very interested in how I could utilize the magic of programming the layout and key functionality to improve my editing workflow.

Now that I had decided which board was going to be best for me, I started watching eBay and Craigslist to find something a little more affordable than the $350 (!!!) the ErgodoxEZ was going to cost new.   The boards on eBay were mostly in auction format and still going for nearly retail.  Craigslist had pretty much nothing listed except a Dygma Raise for pretty much MSRP.  However, after a couple weeks of diligently watching, I got super lucky and found someone "cleaning out old stuff" who was selling an early model ErgodoxEz (no tent legs, no back light) along with a "Let's Split" tiny, mechanical, split keyboard for $100!

I've spent the last couple of weeks familiarizing myself with how everything works, developing my keyboard layout, switching out key caps, loving the "clickity-clack" of mechanical switches, and getting used to using a keyboard that looks and feels nothing like a "regular" keyboard.

For the configuration part, you just create a layout using Ergodox's free online configurator (or one of the many others out there), then click "compile" and download the binary hex file to your computer.  You then use a tiny little executable called "Wally" to flash the hex file to your board.

The fun part is the vast array of functionality with which you can program each key (multiple functions, macros, etc.).  The fact that you can use layers is also great.  Basically, with a keystroke, the entire keyboard can have each and every key reassigned to a new function... and you can have pretty much as many layers as you wish.

I began my journey with the Ergodox by looking for layouts that others had created for video/music editing, and surprisingly, I couldn't find a single one.  I don't know if it was due to sub-par searching skills, or the fact that these boards are targeted more at coders and gamers, but I couldn't find anything with "video," "editing," "Premiere," or even "Adobe" in the description.  After a while I finally found a layout with "Avid" in the title, but it appeared to be just the default keyboard layout.

What I quickly learned is that there are so many layouts available online in Ergodox's un-curated database that it would be futile to try and find one that fit my exact needs.  It has taken a few weeks, and I'm still making changes on a daily basis, but it's getting to a point where I am definitely in love with this board and what a customized layout can offer.

One thing I decided early in my keyboard development was that I was going to base the general layout on the "status quo."  I think a lot of people go so far outside the realm of normalcy that when they don't have their personal keyboard with them, they can't use a "normal" board!  I find this dilemma frustrating enough when I'm on someone else's computer, and I just don't have a split keyboard or my trackball or ShuttlePRO, so I didn't want to paint myself into a corner getting used to a keyboard layout that would alter my muscle memory into oblivion.

Thus, the first layer of my layout is based largely on the MS Sculpt that I have been using for the past seven years.  I have tweaked the layout a bit to maximize functionality with Adobe Premiere, but it's largely just a "normal" keyboard layout.  However, a lot of the "extra" keys are programmed with dual functionality or even macros that allow me to execute Premiere functions more quickly.

At first, I was worried I was going to have to program all the "shift" functionality for each key, but evidently that's an Operating System thing, so you don't have to program for that.  Any key in combination with "shift" does what it would normally do on any keyboard: lower case and capital, but also symbols with their pre-assigned secondary functions (i.e. ";" becomes ":" with the shift key).

The second layer I created for media and navigation.  I set one of the first layer keys as a "momentary switch" so that when pressed and held, the rest of the keyboard becomes controls for the media player, navigation arrows, etc.  The second layer also hosts my "mouse keys."  The Ergodox has some cool "mouse" functionality that I haven't played with much yet, but basically they make it possible to control the cursor as you would with a mouse, except with key strokes.  It sounds clunky, but evidently it's pretty effective once you get used to it.

The third layer I created as symbols and numbers, with the layout based on an actual number pad (along with it's specific functionality).

And that's about as far as I've gotten to date  I'm not sure if I'll create a fourth layer loaded up with macros and multi-function Adobe Premiere and After Effects keys, but right now I'm just getting used to and enjoying the improved functionality afforded by the current layout and combination keys.

One final note: my ErgodoxEZ came with blank key caps, which is fine for "hands on" (literally) typing, but when I'm editing video and recording music, my hands are rarely fused to the home row.  Instead they are often handling peripheral controllers or jotting down notes.  Quickly finding keys is difficult with nothing printed on them! Luckily the "mini split" that came along with the Ergodox had printed keycaps.  I switched out all the ones that would work (letters and a few symbols), and then I penciled in the symbols and functions on the rest of the blank keys.  Obviously pencil marks aren't going to last long (not to mention they're hard to see), so I'm looking for a decent solution for printing on key caps.  I have seen a few people online having success with laser etching/engraving and toner, so I may try that at some point, but it would be nice to find a more permanent way to quickly mark key caps with their assigned functions.  That's really my only "gripe" at this point, but everything else is a great improvement upon my previous situation!

If you want to try out the layout I have created (and alter it for your own use), here is the link to Ergodox site:

Queuing Up Items to Watch Later in Plex Server

It is incredibly frustrating that there is no good way in Plex to click a button to add media to a “hopper” for watching later.  I have a collection of hundreds and hundreds of movies.  Some I have watched part way through (and thus are automatically marked as either “read” or “unread” depending on whatever loony logic the Plex code uses).  Some have been added recently.  Some are favorites.  Some I simply want to remind myself I want to watch again without having to search through hundreds of titles to find them (or just remember I want to watch them again!).

None of these things really allow me to access these particular movies/shows quickly.

I have spent hours looking for a solution, and finally I have discovered the ONLY (seems crazy, huh?) way to do it, at least from the actual Plex Media Server (not one of their apps for a web browser or phone/tablet).

The short of it is this: you need to add the particular title to a COLLECTION.  Then, you can use a FILTER to find those particular titles.  You can’t add Collections to a Library, or your front page, or anything that would make SENSE, you can ONLY access a Collection via a filter.  It’s a pain in the *ss, but it’s the only way!

Here’s how accessing the collection works:

HOME > LIBRARY (click the library you want: movies, television, etc.) > OPTIONS (the three bars at the upper left will expand the side bar on the left) > COLLECTION (whichever collection listed under “FILTER” that you want shown).

You can add titles to a COLLECTION by either typing in the name of a Collection in the appropriate field of the title’s settings (where you view all the fields associated with a title), or you can go to the top-tier of the library (MOVIES, for instance), click SELECT ITEMS from the tool menu bar on the left (it’s the square with a check mark icon), then tick all the movies you’d like to add to a Collection.  Finally, click the icon of the folder and plus sign in the tool bar on the left, and select the COLLECTION to which you wish to add the titles (or create a new Collection).

Furthermore, once you do this, you should be able to access a “Collection” from your Roku, so you can relatively easily go to a list of your “queued” shows.  From the main Roku screen select the Plex channel > select a library from your Plex Library Sections > scroll down to “By Collection” > choose the Collection you want.  It’s a lot of hoops, but it’s the only way!

Unfortunately, since Movies and Television shows are stored in separate Libraries, you can’t access all queued items from one list (Collection).  You must view queued Movies and queued Television shows from their respective Libraries (totally ridiculous).  It’s also much harder to “bulk” add television shows since they are stored in sub-locations where the “select” option is not available (thus you have to add single shows to a Collection by typing the Collection name into the field under that particular show’s settings).

Turns out you can only add an ENTIRE SERIES to a collection.  You can’t add just a single episode, thus this method is worthless for adding single television episodes to your queue (again, REALLY Plex?  REALLY?!).

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Windows Doesn’t Always Load ICC Color Profile for Monitor

I recently installed a new EVGA GeForce 750Ti video card in an older machine.  I had some points on a credit card that would make a card in the sub $200 range “free,” so I did some research on video cards and upgraded my rather ancient GTX 260 (which I actually used while cutting our feature film in 2009!) to decrease my rendering times and allow for a bit more oomph when utilizing CUDA processing for effects and on-the-fly rendering in Adobe Premiere.

The GeForce 750Ti is basically the “sweet spot” for cost/power in gaming cards, which are the poor man’s video-editing cards (though, as of this posting, NVIDIA has released the GTX 960, which is the new sweet spot in this category).  I would have loved to install a higher-end “Adobe Approved” Quadro card(s), but this option is cost is prohibitive at the moment (we’re putting money into camera equipment), so this is a decent band-aid for this particular editing rig.

We use Xrite EyeOnes (i1) with EyeOne Match 3 (v.3.6.2) software to calibrate our monitors.  However, after installing the card, I kept getting the dreaded “pink screen” hue almost every time I’d reboot the machine after calibration.  The most common cause for this malady is a bad video cable (I’m using a super-thick (24AWG) and fairly long 15 foot DVI Cable, so this was definitely a possibility).  However, I checked my cables (using DVI, HDMI, and even Display Port), and the cable was not the issue.

I also checked my system defaults to be sure Windows was calling up the custom i1 color profile as the profile for the monitor.  The profile was marked as the default and appeared to be the active profile in the color settings, so I assumed it was being used.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I thought maybe it was the card.  I RMA’d the card, and Amazon sent a new one.  p.s. I really appreciate their policy of sending a replacement before they require you to send the defective unit back.  They give you a month to return the item once they send out the new one, so I didn’t have to go without a video card while waiting for the replacement (yes, I could have put the old one back in, but I was enjoying the decreased rendering times too much).

The new card arrived. I installed it and ran color calibration on the monitor.  For a couple of days, everything seemed great, until one day… the dreaded pink screen had returned.  I spent three more days researching the issue before I finally came across the solution.

It turns out there are not one, but TWO places where Windows 7 64-bit has settings for loading the monitor’s ICC color profile.

Yes, you can set your monitor’s ICC color profile at Control Panel>Appearance and Personlization: Adjust screen resolution>Advanced settings>Color Management (tab)>Color Management (button), but there is another place you need to do some tweaking in order to tell Win7 to actually USE these settings.  How stupid is that?!

So on the Advanced tab where you can select your defaults, there is a button at the bottom called “Change system defaults…”

In that panel, there is an “Advanced” tab, and at the bottom right of that panel there is a box called “Use Windows display calibration.” You must tick that box to get Windows to actually use your ICC monitor calibration setting each time it starts (even though it would appear, from the previous panel, that Windows IS using the default).  Unbelievable.  Why even have the option to set a default if the system isn’t going to USE that default without this “secret setting?!”  It’s not really a default if you aren’t using it, is it. Grrrrrr.

Many thanks to user “badspell68” for posting the solution to this problem in this thread:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/162431-color-profiles-calibration.html

p.s.  I think it’s worth nothing that the “pink hue” we experience when the EyeOne custom ICC profile isn’t properly being utilized is a result of the physical monitor settings.  I usually just calibrate the monitors using the “easy” setting in the EyeOne software, but at one point I actually went through the “advanced” setup which involves calibrating your calibration device to the ambient light in the room (our room is currently fairly warm on the color spectrum) as well as adjusting the physical settings on the monitor (not just changing the settings using software).  When I did this, EyeOne had me set the red hue of the monitor higher than it had previously been (higher than what looks good to the eye), thus when the custom color profile is not being utilized (when the monitor is displaying “as physically set”), the screen has a pink (red) hue in the white areas.

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Configuring Gmail for Multiple Accounts and Devices

Part I: Setting up your domain server(s) and Gmail

I’m pretty sure there is no one I know who has only one e-mail account.  This also extends to devices… other than my grandma, if you include your computer, who only has one device?

Thus, coordinating all your e-mail accounts and devices is a pretty serious necessity these days, and unfortunately, it’s not always that easy to set up… at least not so that it runs as smoothly as we’d all like.

I actually have around 25 e-mail address (I am an artist, a musician (with multiple entities), a designer, a filmmaker, a business owner, a webmaster, etc., etc.).

I also have 7 devices that I regularly use for communication (four computers, my phone, my tablet, and my bedside device (my old phone)).

Getting everything to work well together has been a crazy evolution over the years, but I’m finally getting to a point where it all works pretty seamlessly.

Back in the day, I accessed e-mail directly from my various severs using POP or IMAP (first using Eudora then Mozilla Thunderbird).  Over time, spam became an insane issue, and the best spam filtering software out there is, no question, Gmail.  They just do it best.  In fact, really the only reason I even have a Gmail account is so that I can filter all my e-mail through their fantastic spam filters.  Of course, this comes at the expense of Google data mining every piece of communiqué I send or receive, but I guess it’s worth the price of admission (very little spam in my inbox, and very little “real” mail in my spam box).

If you have your own server (your own domain and hosting), you can set up e-mail addresses to work with Gmail so that when you send an e-mail from Gmail, it looks like it’s coming from your actual domain (instead of being forwarded through Gmail).  This just looks a little more professional when people examine the headers of your e-mail (like it’s coming from your domain instead of Google).  If you don’t have your own server, you can still send from various e-mails, but they will be treated as “aliases” and will show as being sent from Gmail in the headers.  You will skip the “Cpanel” section below, and go straight to setting up your Gmail “send mail as” settings, and instead of deselecting “treat as an alias,” you will leave the account set to “treat as an alias.”

Setting up an e-mail account as a “non alias,” with a real username/pass and actual SMTP server settings from your domain account, also lets you use the e-mail in other programs like Quickbooks.  For instance, if I have an e-mail called “billing” that I use for invoicing clients, but it’s set up as an “alias” in Gmail, Quickbooks won’t let me use the e-mail address to send invoices because it doesn’t have it’s own password and domain SMTP settings (you can’t use your Gmail log-in to send from an alias in Quickbooks).

[UPDATE 12-3-14] It seems Gmail has changed their policy so that you can no longer send e-mail using their outgoing SMTP (presumably to limit spam and for other security issues).  This mean you now actually HAVE to set outgoing SMTP servers for any address with a non-Gmail domain.

Making it happen:

CPANEL E-MAIL SETTINGS

• Go to account-level filtering in Cpanel (it’s in the “mail” section of your Cpanel). You can also just use “user level” filtering, but account level filtering will forward ALL domain level e-mail for the rule (both account and user level will work to do the same thing).
• Click “Create a New Filter”
• In the “Rules” section”, choose “To” “ANY RECIPIENT” or even better (to be safe and extremely inclusive), “ANY HEADER,” select “contains” and type your email address.  (if you use only “to” then the filter ignores the CC field –this gave me fits for about a month when I wasn’t receiving some of my cc’d e-mail! –weird that some got through and some did not though)
• In the “Actions” section, choose “Redirect to email” and type the email address to which to forward (in my case, my main Gmail address).
• Click the “+” to add another action, and select discard message (this will prevent the mailbox on your server from filling up with the e-mail that has been forwarded).
• Click save, and test it to make sure it works (send an e-mail to this address and make sure it shows up in your Gmail inbox)!

Next, you need to set up your Gmail “Send mail as” settings.

GMAIL “SEND MAIL AS” SETTINGS

From your Gmail inbox:

• Click the "gear" icon in the upper right corner.
• Select "settings" from the list (third word from the bottom of the drop down).
• Select "Accounts and Import" from the blue words at the top of the page.
• The third section down is "Send mail as:"; click "Add another e-mail address you own."
• In the pop-up dialog box, enter the name you wish people to see when you send e-mail, and then enter "youraddress@yourdomain.com"
• Deselect "treat as an alias." (IMPORTANT)
• Click "next"
• In the area marked SMTP Server, make sure your outgoing SMTP settings are correct.  Gmail defaults smtp.yourdomain.com but my hosting services requires a change from "smtp" to "mail" so that the field is populated with "mail.yourdomain.com"
• Enter “address@yourdomain.com” as the username
• Enter your e-mail password
• Leave "secured connection using TLS" selected.
• Click "Add Account."

You will be sent an e-mail that will appear in your Gmail inbox.  Once you have clicked on the link in that e-mail to verify the account, your new address will be functional in Gmail.  Be sure to leave "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" selected in the "Send mail as" section of your Gmail "Accounts and Import" settings.  If you ever want to reply from a different address (than the address to which an e-mail is sent), just select a different address from your "from" drop down in your Gmail compose window (where you are responding to the e-mail).

So that’s the e-mail settings part.  Next comes access the actual e-mail from all of your devices.  This post is getting pretty long, so I’ll address setting up devices in a new post.

Cutting the Cable: One Year Later (a real world experience)

It’s been nearly a year since I cut the cable, so I thought I’d provide some thoughts on my experience, what has worked, what hasn’t, what I actively use.

For some time, the center of “cutting the cable” was a good HTPC (home theater computer).  This was where the physical media was streamed from, and also the access point for the television to actually show programs/media from the internet.  While a home theater PC is still a great tool, it’s getting easier and easier to get by without one.

I am set up with a NAS (network attached storage -in my case a Thecus N5550 with 5x 3TB RED WD drives for a total of around 11TB of media storage), and a Roku stick on each of our TV’s (one in the bedroom, one in the living room, one in the kitchen).  We also have the original television antenna that was installed on our roof around 1963, and it does a fantastic job of pulling in nearly 30 HD broadcast channels (for free). The broadcast television signal is processed through an older TV Tuner Card (Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250) that I purchased in 2010 and have installed in an older computer (from 2007) that we use as an HTPC (home theater computer).

Plex has become a major part of our media set up.  It’s a program that will push content to Roku from your NAS (and various other places, but I’m mostly concerned with getting my media from my NAS to my television, and that happens via Plex and Roku).  Plex has a subscription based online experience with various channels and content, but the actual channel/app for your Roku is offered for a one time purchase of only $5, and it is WELL worth it (you can try it first for 30 days free).  You also need to have a server running the Plex Media Server (I installed a free Plex Media server module on my Thecus NAS so all the media is streamed using the Plex Server from the NAS –but you could just as easily stream content from a PC).

Plex is able to convert media on the fly, so anything you throw at it is converted to h.264 and fed to your Roku over wifi.  I was allowing Plex to convert VOB’s from my ripped DVD collection (all ripped from DVD’s I own, for those keeping tabs), but I have recently begun converting a lot of my movies and ALL of the TV shows on the server to h264 using HandBrake and/or MakeMKV.  Plex does an “ok” job of converting on the fly, but if the files already exist as h264, you get a MUCH MORE streamlined media streaming experience (read: no delays or hiccups when watching).  The h264 files at the same native resolution also take up a LOT less space than VOB files (which are MPEG-2).

I am still using the HTPC (an actual computer), but funny enough, we use it mostly just to watch Hulu (you can’t get Hulu on your Roku unless you pay for HuluPlus, and I’m not interested in paying $10/month for a service that DOESN’T eliminate the commercials (what the hell?!)).  Also, from what I understand reading other people’s complaints about HuluPlus, it doesn’t even offer all of the content on Hulu free (again, what the hell?!).

I am close to finalizing our over-the-air recording set up (broadcast TV recorder) that will allow me to stop using Hulu altogether.  We pretty much only use Hulu to catch up on Network TV that we’ve missed throughout the week, so once I am recording all those shows with a PC/TV tuner and the broadcast signal from the aerial antenna, we’ll be able to stream the recorded programs from the NAS via Plex/Roku and will no longer need Hulu –or an internet connection, for that matter.

We’re actually already set up to record broadcast TV (just Windows Media Center on the bedroom HTPC), but it’s a part of an HTPC that has to be physically hooked up to the TV, and I’m working on getting it moved elsewhere, and then automating the record/convert-to-h264 for Roku streaming process and we won’t need an attached HTPC cluttering up the bedroom or making noise where we’re trying to watch/sleep.

Recorded TV: you can set up XBMC (free media software) with a third-party recorder like NextPVR to record TV from signal using a tuner card in your PC, but I prefer to just use Windows Media Center, since it comes with Windows and doesn’t require any additional work (Windows 7/8 come with television recording ready to go –you just have to buy a TV Tuner Card).  There are also other software programs you can use to record live television with a PC Television Tuner Card (often they come free with the TV Tuner Card).

If you’d rather go the XBMC route, here’s a post on Lifehacker showing how to set up the software (again, it’s a bit more complex than just using WMC).

The only problem I have with WMC (Windows Media Center) is that it records to a proprietary format (.wtv) that’s really just a container file for video encoded using the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standard and audio using MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3.  Some people have had trouble converting the .wtv format to h264 with Handbrake, but to date (knock on wood) I haven’t had any issues; it’s been working great for me.  I just use Handbrake to convert the files recorded by WMC directly to h264 for streaming.  If it doesn’t work for you, you can try right-clicking the WMC file (the .wtv file) and converting it to the older Windows Media Player format (.DVR-MS), then converting that file to h264 with MakeMKV and/or Handbrake.

So outside of the stuff we stream from the NAS (ripped movies and television shows from recorded over-the-air and ripped DVD’s), we use Roku to stream from Amazon Prime, HBO, and some PBS (and will likely start streaming Netflix again in the near future).  I’ve tried using Roku channels like the History Channel, but the content is limited to a couple of episodes of each show so once you’ve watched the channel, it’s basically “used up” until they refresh the content in a week or a month).

A lot of the “cable channels” on Roku are set up this way.  You can watch one or two episodes of each show, but that’s it.  Some of the channels will allow you to subscribe to see all their content, but I’m not willing to pay $30 to watch a season of a single channel when sources like Amazon Prime have tons of content (thousands of shows and movies) for one, much lower, subscription price.

So, to recap, I rip DVD’s to h264 and put them on a NAS (network attached storage, 11TB of media that is always on and available).  I also record Network TV from an old fashioned television antenna that receives almost 30 broadcast channels (in HD resolution) over the air.  The ripped DVD’s and recorded television are converted to h264 (.mp4 or .m4v) for streaming from the NAS via Plex on the Roku hooked up to each television.

We also watch movies and television from Amazon Prime (paid subscription), HBO  (Comcast has added streaming HBO to a couple of their ISP packages, including Internet Plus and Blast Plus, see image below), and soon Netflix again (we dropped it for a while, but are going to sign up again).

 
(here’s a full screen shot with address bar to “prove” the free HBO with internet is coming directly from Comcast)

We have almost cut out the HTPC (the home theater computer), and the only thing that might be missed will be direct access to the internet (but almost all content accessed directly from the internet can be found through other plug-ins/apps/channels/routes).

We are doing quite well without paying for cable.  I think some people would miss the “ease” of channel surfing, but I actually like the control of a more specific and intentional media watching experience.

There are also TONS of options for streaming to your tv from your phone or tablet (things like Twonky, Roku Screen Mirroring, various content provider apps, etc.) as well as Boxee, Apple TV, Xbox, Chrome Cast, Amazon Media Fire, etc., but for us, an antenna with a PC tuner card, NAS, Plex, and Roku are what we find serve us best (and for so much less cash than a cable subscription!).

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Google Drive is Preventing My PC from Shutting Down

…and Google doesn’t seem to care!  There are posts from years ago on the Google forums, and responses from Google admin saying “we’re looking into this,” but the problem still exists (in Win 7 and Win 8).

(screenshot from BleepingComputer.com – click for link to thread)

I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling Google Drive, but to no avail.  And it’s a serious pain in the butt, because every time you do this, in order to associate a folder with Google Drive, the drive has to be empty (you can’t associate a folder with any contents).  So once you’ve reinstalled Google Drive, you have to create a new folder, associate it with Google Drive, dump all the contents of your old Google Drive into the new folder, rename the folder, and then wait for Google Drive to figure out what the hell just happened (update sync database).

In a thread discussing problems with Piriform’s CCLeaner and Google Drive, I found this information:

When the Google Drive application is running, it creates a directory under C:\Users\Chukhung\AppData\Local\Temp with a name like "_MEI54082" (the last five digits of the directory name change every time the Google Drive application is started). Within this directory are a large number of subdirectories, DLLs, and what appear to be Python files. This directory disappears when the Google Drive application is shut down manually.  [. . .] I'm guessing that Google Drive gets seriously confused when CCleaner partially deletes the contents of this directory.

This seems like a pretty decent guess as to why this is happening, but I’m not sure what to do about it (other than to always manually shut down Google Drive before shutting down the computer, which isn’t exactly an ideal solution).

I will update this post if I find a solution, but in the meantime, feel free to post your thoughts/solutions in the comments!

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TeraCopy: Better than Windows Explorer but still lacking

I do a lot of file copying.  Most people do.  However, as a filmmaker, photographer, and recording artist, I do a lot of copying of massive amounts of data (my machine is currently running a >800GB transfer that’s been going for more than 20 hours).

The native Windows Explorer copy feature makes me nervous, because sometimes it drops data or runs into trouble with transferring data, and basically, for lack of a better term, just craps out.

A while back I finally found a copy program I like to replace the simple “cut and paste” in Explorer.  Checksum verification was the single most important feature I was looking for.  Basically this means each file is analyzed and assigned a number and then checked against the transferred file once copied.  From the ubiquitous Wikipedia: “A checksum or hash sum is a small-size datum computed from an arbitrary block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage.”

When I shoot photos or video, I need to be absolutely sure the data is not lost or corrupted during transfer.  Checksum verification helps mitigate this problem.  I never transfer anything important without running checksum verification.

For this reason, I love TeraCopy.

I also love that you can pause a transfer, and also that you can initiate several transfers that will run in the order you set them up (rather than try to run them all at the same time… though that options exists as well).

I wish you could pause a transfer or test, shut down your computer, and come back to it.  It doesn’t seem like there is anything that would prevent this from being possible (TeraCopy would just need to store the same “pause” information and then access it once the computer was restarted).  This would be AMAZINGLY helpful for when you’re in the middle of a large file transfer but need to shutdown or restart your computer.

My biggest complaint with the program is that Code Sector brags about how FAST TeraCopy copies files.  They say it over and over again.  It’s even their freaking TAG LINE (see photo).

In all my personal experience and in EVERY review I’ve seen online, TeraCopy is proven slower than just about any transfer program out there… including Window’s native “cut and paste.”

But the thing that has REALLY been annoying me lately is just how insanely slow the file check runs after the actual transfer takes place.  It actually takes CONSIDERABLY longer for TeraCopy to run the Checksum verification after the transfer than it does to actually transfer the files.

I would REALLY like to know what is going on there.

There have also been quite a few times where I’ve initiated a large file transfer and then left it to run overnight, only to come back in the morning to see an error from TeraCopy that states simply “TeraCopy has stopped.”  Uh, ok.  What about all the bragging on the TeraCopy product page about how TeraCopy will try again and again to transfer a file, but ultimately if it fails it will simply skip the file instead of crapping out (like Windows Explorer)?  From the product page: “In case of a copy error, TeraCopy will try several times to recover and, in the worse case scenario, will simply skip the file, not terminating the entire transfer.”  This has not been the case in my experience (on many occasions).

Still, though slower than Windows Explorer copy, I feel more secure transferring my precious data with TeraCopy.  Perhaps it’s a false sense of security, but at least I sleep a little better at night knowing that checksum verification has been run after the file transfer.

…

My Feature Wish List for Adobe Premiere CS4

For the past two months I have been editin a feature film in Adobe Premiere CS4.1.  While I still think Premiere is the right choice for editing a feature shot on RED, there are definitely some things lacking from the program.   A few are minor things, but a few are MAJOR shortcomings of the software.

I should have been putting this together over the course of the entire project, but I just thought to do this now.  And I guess late is better than never.  Hopefully I can remember most of the things I “wished” for while working with the program.

I submit “feature requests” to Adobe all the freaking time.  I assume my pleas fall on deaf ears, so I’m at least going to put a list together just to document my needs.  Perhaps some of these are actually already implemented, and some kind soul who stumbles upon this post will leave a solution to one of these wishes in the comments.

I will keep adding to this list as things come up.  Please feel free to cut and paste any of these wishes to Adobe Feature Request.

SOUND SYNC via TIMECODE
For some insane reason, Adobe has decided to completely ignore time code synchronization of sound/video in Premiere CS4.  This means if you record your audio to an external source, as ALL professional shoots do, you have to MANUALLY sync your audio and video.  And by manually, I mean line your waveforms up with the slate clap visually.  We recorded our audio (24 bit, 48KHz) to an eight track digital recorder.  We had a time code smart slate.  In regard to Premiere, it doesn’t matter, because Premiere won’t chase audio time code.  I can’t get over this.  This is like making an editing program that won’t handle video.  INSANE.
The work around is to sync all your audio via time code in Final Cut Pro, export the footage via XML, and then import the XML into Premiere.  When doing this, there are some very important things to remember.  You MUST place the footage on a timeline in FCP before exporting the XML.  Premiere does not link audio and video in the bins (stupid, stupid, stupid –see next wish list item) so the audio/video MUST be on a timeline to remain synced when it’s imported into Premiere.  Also, we found that FCP 7 would not work for this process.  We actually had to use an older copy (FCP 6) for the XML export/import to work.

LINK AUDIO/VIDEO IN PROJECT BINS
I cannot believe you can’t link audio and video files in the project bins.  This means you can’t use the bins to select clips for your edit.  You have to cut and paste EVERYTHING from a sequence/time line.  This makes me so angry that I can’t even write about it any more.  Moving on…

EXPORT LIST OF EFFECTS OR CLIP CHANGES
I am currently having to go through my project files to manually find each and every clip that has been manipulated by scale and position (keyed/cropped/scaled clips).  It would be phenomenal if I could simply generate a list of all the clips in a sequence that had been manipulated.  Same goes for effects.

When you generate an EDL for, say, color grading, any information regarding anything but in and out points is completely lost when the EDL is imported into wherever it’s going.  In order to recreate any changes you’ve made, the person importing the EDL will need a list of any clips that have been changed.  Thus, you have to go through each of your sequences manually to find any changes you made to each clip, and then give those changes to the person who is opening the EDL so that they can re-implement your changes.  Being able to generate a list of these changes would save an incredible amount of time.

XML EXPORT
You can import an XML, why the hell can’t you export one?!

BETTER (UP TO DATE WITH THE REST OF THE WORDL) EDL FORMAT
RED cameras generate 16 digit file folder names.  The EDL format that Premiere uses (CMX3600) only handles 8 digits for the file folder structure.  Thus, when the color house imported all our files, they had to go in and manually add the missing information.  I can’t imagine they were happy about this.

CUT/PASTE INFORMATION FROM THE “INFO” PANEL
Believe is or not, you can’t copy/cut any text in the clip “info” box window.  What in the FREAK?!  Why would such a thing be disabled?  Since I’m having to let my color guy know the file name, instance number, and in/out point of the clip he needs to manually scale and adjust, I am constantly in need of being able to copy the information regarding a clip, but I have to manually type out all the information, because you can’t select any text in the “info” box.  Infuriating.

NUMBER THE CLIPS IN A SEQUENCE
There is no place to find a clip’s instance number.  In an EDL, each clip is referred to by it’s instance number… simply which clip it is in numerical order.  In order to determine the number of a clip in a Premiere sequence, you either have to count the number of clips up to the clip in question (unacceptable in a sequence with hundreds of clips), or search an EDL you’ve generated for the clip’s file name (and then make sure you’ve got the correct instance if that file has been used for multiple clips).  How easy would it be to simply put the number of the clip in the “info” box?!  Grrrrrr.

SAVE “STATE” (expdanded details) IN EFFECT CONTROL PANEL

Since I’m having to go through and manually find each clip that’s been resized and/or cropped, I need the “motion” line in the Video Effects Panel to remain open.  Since it doesn’t, I’m having to go through hundreds of clips, click on them, then click on the little triangle next to “motion” to expand the details to see if any changes have been made to scale and position.  If I could set the “motion” line to remain open for all clips, it would save a LOT of time.

EXPORT OMF IS PRETTY WORTHLESS
That’s it.  Not much more to say here.  OMF export performance is spotty at best.
…

30" LCD Monitor for Video Editing

It kills me that I can't find any decent reviews of 30" monitors from this year (2009). A lot of the reviews I'm reading are from 2006. WTF? Has nothing changed in the world of 30" monitors since Dell upgraded the 3007WFP to the 3008WFP?

I'm looking to purchase a larger monitor. I love my Dell 2407WFP, but at a maximum resolution of 1920x1200, it's just not up to the task at hand. I need to be able to view RED files at 2k resolution (2048x1024).

Here are the top models to choose from at the consumer level (under $2,000): Dell 3008WFP (some still swear by the 3007WFP), the Apple Cinema Display, HP LP3065, Samsung 305T, and I suppose the Gateway XHD3000 and LG W300H.

There are also 30" models from NEC and Eizo, but they definitely bump you up over the $2000 mark into the "pro-sumer" level of things.

There are many things that factor into what would be the best monitor (contrast ratio, response time, gamma display, etc.), and the biggest factor in these is how the screen is constructed.

Here is an explanation from jaguarskx on Tom's Hardware (in 2007, I might add), and yes, I consider "jaguarskx" to be the preeminent expert on LCD panel types:

TN = Twisted Nematic - These are 6-bit screens that cannot really reproduce 16.7 million colors. They can only reproduce 262,144 colors; 64 shades of Red, Green & Blue. Thats (2^6)^3 or 64^3. All the other colors are created through a process called dithering. These typically have fast response times (for gaming) at the expense of color accuracy. These are inexpensive monitors.

MVA = Multidomain Vertical Alignment
PVA = Patterned-ITO Vertical Alignment

MVA and PVA panel are the most common 8-bit LCD screen around. They are relatively slow compared to TN, but offers better color accuracy. Good viewing angles and contrast ratio. However not all MVA and PVA panels are 8-bit screens. S-MVA and S-PVA are typically the ones that are 8-bit panel from my research. S = Super.

8-bit LCDs can truly reproduce 16.7 million colors. That's because there will be 256 shades of each color (2^8 ); Red, Green & Blue. Therefore 256^3 = 16.7 million (actually, a little more).

S-IPS = Super In-Plane Switching. These are high end and really expensive LCD panels. All these panels are 8-bit panels and comes the closest to CRT image quality. From what I've read they also have very good response times as well. LCD monitors geared towards graphic artists who demands the most color accuracy are designed with these type of panels. That means the shades of color you see on the screen are the exact shades that will be printed out on a good color printer.

That's at least a beginning. I need an IPS panel. But this seems pretty standard these days. Some gamers prefer the TN panels because they're a little faster and much cheaper, but I definitely need color consistency, so IPS it is.

Now I have to decide between the monitors on my list above. The big three seem to be the Apple, the Dell, and the HP (the Samsung gets pretty good reviews, but nothing's changed since 2005... that makes me nervous --should it?).

There are no definitive winners regarding any of these. Depending upon the review you read, any one of these is the superior monitor. Can this really be the case?

The Dell 3008WFP often wins the debate because of the sheer numbers of inputs on the device. I could care less. Give me my DVI port and I'm happy. I guess I'll enjoy the upgrade to 10-bit color (via the DisplayPort) over 8-bit (via DVI), but it's not really a battle-winning factor. That said, I am starting to doubt all choices but the Dell because of the DisplayPort... so I guess I lied. It does matter.

Dell seems to be the brand that gets commented on for color inconsistency the most often. But none of the others really "shine" in this area, anyway, so it doesn't really help with my decision. Most of the comlaints also seem to be from back in the year 2007, so I wonder if they've fixed the problem. I don't know, because I can't find a damn review from this year.

If I go simply by price, Apple loses the battle hands down. You can't really find it for less than $1,699 (and there are lots of people bitching about the ACD problems to boot, so it's not a matter of "the higher the price, the better the monitor"). The "regular" price for the Dell isn't much better, but it goes on sale all the time, and can usually be purchased for around $1299, depending on the day (it's really annoying how Dell fluctuates their prices all the time --the 3008WFP was actually $1039 in March of 2009). The HP is usually $1,199. The Samsung can often be found for less than $1,000.

Awwww who am I kidding? I'm buying the Dell. Having the Display Port for 10-bit color is the clincher. Now I just have to figure out how to get them to sell it to me for the price I've seen a million times ($1,299 instead of $1,699... or better yet, $1,039), but isn't available "right now."

Bastards.

New Topic: Editing RED Footage in Adobe Premiere CS4

Alright... I've been gone for a long, long time. Before my blogging hiatus, the major topic of discussion was hacking up the Samsung Omnia i910, and while I will continue to tinker with that toy (nay, superior smart phone) my new topic of choice is video editing and post production for "film!"

I am getting ready to edit a feature film in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

"Really? Shouldn't you be editing in Final Cut Pro, like everyone else?" you might ask.

Well, we shot our film in full resolution (4K) RED. Final Cut hasn't addressed the format as well as Adobe, so I'm going with Premiere. Premiere is simply at the forefront of editing native RED footage.

The new version of Final Cut Pro released last week touts the ability to edit RED better than it's previous version, but FCP still forces you to wrap the .r3d file in a Quicktime wrapper, thus you aren't really accessing the RED files natively (you have to go through that workaround).

The RED plug-in for Adobe Premiere is just the best way to go in my book.

So much of post is done in After Affects (no matter what platform you're on and what software you're using), and the integration and flow of Premiere and After Affects is superior (vs. FCP or AVID) to say the least.

Yes, there are issues with editing in Premiere (not the least of which is Adobe's apparent REFUSAL to address syncing and linking audio and video files --more on that later). But each leading platform (FCP and AVID being the two others), have their issues as well.

Other than sound, the biggest problem with Premiere (and it's admittedly a big one), as that it's a youngster in the field. Pretty much anybody who's been doing anything with film on a serious, professional level, has been using either AVID or Final Cut Pro. Thus, the knowledge base for Avid and FCP is much more vast. Finding answers for your problems with Premiere takes a lot of work. Hopefully my posts on the topic can help people find the same answers I was looking for a little quicker (a couple issues we had took weeks to find an answer to --some of the problems we still haven't found answers to, which leads me to believe that there might not be answers yet).

Bottom line, you're going to have problems (big or small) with any program you go with, so you just need to make sure you're doing what's best for you and your particular project.

Next up, the build (what I learned from researching for weeks before putting together a computer for the specific purpose of video editing).