Just for your interest the 6 camera were 1. Sony MC1P 2. Canon HF10 3. Panasonic HPX-301 4. Panasonic HMC-151 5. Sony EX-3 6. Canon HV30. www.singularsoftware.com
I was so impressed with PluralEyes that I decided to buy it myself. I then became an end user and followed the great video tutorial to the book, the tutorial comes as part of the download.
I choose a first communion I had filmed last weekend…that was my 20th and last year with the same primary school. As usual we produced a 2 camera shoot, now to set the technical scene…the main camera a Sony EX-3 has 1 internal mic for ambiance and 1 external mic pointing at a speaker. The second camera a Panasonic HMC151 recording to SDHC card pointing at the alter and the lectern where we had a small radio mic taped onto their goose neck mic. The radio mic was only there to pick up the priest and the children as they were speaking.
I brought in about 2mins of HD footage from both cameras, remembering the radio mic was almost inaudible as it had no speakers pointing it’s way…well I nearly fell off my seat when I pressed the sync button to discover both video and audio were in perfect sync, my hat is off to Mr Sharpe.
It took an email to discover how to invoke the PluralEyes application as it is not that clear in the tutorial, I put the blue, orange, green icon on my dock.
I also discovered a minor bug that is being looked into about creating a Multicam clip and the media being off line when it’s clearly not. Now this might be a settings problem with my FCP but Bruce and his team are looking into this one.
I sent Bruce some questions…
1. I notice in your tutorial it mentions starting a new project…can you not start a new sequence in an olderproject and call it PluralEyes. If not why not. (Reason. It would be great to re-visit older 2-3 camera projectsto re-sync them)
Good point and you’re right. There is no need to create a new project.
2. Is this application calculating sound files if so I assume HD and SD take the same time to analyze.
Yes, most of the time is taken analyzing audio, so there’s no major time difference between HD and SD. With regard to the time taken, it takes somewhat longer to process longer clips, but the more important factor is how many clips there are. It takes a few minutes to do a couple hours worth of material in 10 clips or so. But recently someone did a project with eight hours of material split among about 80 clips. That needed to run overnight. We weren’t really expecting that what’s people would do, but some do and we are looking at ways to speed it up even more.
3. I assume it’s better taking the PluralEyes ICON onto the Doc.
Sure, that works. Personally I’m a major user of Spotlight, so I hit command-spacebar, P-L-U, return to start PluralEyes. It would be nice to be able to start PluralEyes from within Final Cut but that has some limitations that mean having a separate app is the way it is for now.
4. Is there any conditions when syncing does not happen. ie. long video clips of about 60mins etc.
The PluralEyes matching algorithm is very robust under a wide range of conditions. That’s part of the secret sauce that makes it unique. About the only conditions where it might fail are (1) minimal overlap (e.g., 20 seconds overlap between two hour-long clips), or (2) really atrocious audio. An example of the latter was some clips we pulled from YouTube of a concert. One of the videos was taken on a cell phone and the person was making a loud phone call which drowned out the music. That proved to be a bit much. But for anything less extreme, it has proven to be very reliable over many hundreds of tests.
Having said that, we are always looking to improve the algorithm and are eager to investigate any time PluralEyes doesn’t work as expected.
5. Is this the level of fantastic support other customers can expect or will it usually be Monday to Friday 9-5
Ha, ha! YES! 
It’s a result of a couple of things. First, we had hundreds of beta testers over a period of a few months, so most of the problems have been ironed out. The number of support incidents is therefore fairly small and we can spend the time needed to take care of them. And, as above, we are very interested in making PluralEyes as solid as possible. We take very seriously the goal of automatically synchronizing with just the push of one button.
Second, the product has just come out very recently so if we’ve missed any problems this is the time when they are going to show up. The sooner we get on them and fix them, the happier everyone will be.
This is indeed great software and all in cost me $189 including a CD and tax… HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
http://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/index.htm
Here’s a quick look at PluralEyes™, the application for
Final Cut Pro that automatically synchronizes audio and video cips,
without the need for timecode. Click the image below to view the video
(length 2:30).
This is a class piece of software I have been looking for a program that can do this for years. It costs $149 and take it from me that is a steel. http://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/index.html
After some tweaking, blood, sweat, tears and the odd tree…iMedia is finally here, now rather than blab on about it why not vist the link above called ‘iMedia’ and download a copy for yourself. At the moment it will only run on a Mac but that’s no great shakes as most video pros use Macs…don’t we. It will run on Tiger or Leopard and is Intel friendly.
How much will it cost…well that’s up to you as this is DONATION software, now can I start by saying in my opinion it’s at least worth a fiver that’s seven dollers for our USA friends and 49 rubles for our Russian friends.
It’s been two years since the introduction of Final Cut Studio 2 and apart from some minor make overs Apple have become stagnant to say the least. One major topic that rides round the forums is Blu-ray support. Apple see Blu-ray as a thorn in it’s side but Adobe seems to be quite happy with Blu-ray by adding full support in CS4, Encore.
DVD Studio 4 is very dated in my opinion and really needs a make over. I use Photoshop like everyone else so having to learn Encore was no big deal, I am in no way a wizard with Encore but it’s tie in with Photoshop makes it very refreshing and a joy to use.
What Apple are not appreciating is that as more production companies start to use both applications the bigger the chance that there will be a larger migration to Adobe and that will inevitably cost sales for FC Studio 3. Another major factor will be the inclusion of Blu-ray in DVD Studio 5, unless Apple bite the bullet I think they will loose their market share to Adobe.
Snow Leapord (SL) the new operating system will not be compatible with FC S2 that’s why we have not had an update because Apple are rewriting the code for FC S3 bringing together core elements and moving towards graphic card integration whereby rendering will be solely up to the level of graphics card and not the CPU as is present.
So in other words what you have at present will be redundant … now this might have been ‘cool’ for Apple in the past but a hard hitting recession, a buggy operating system, not to mention the financial implications will not in my opinion warm many hard core Apple fans to join the new revolution.
So lets see what’s on offer…
One new MacPro with Snow Leopard (4Gig Ram) = £2800
Graphics card = £1200
One FC Studio 3 = £800
Total £4800 not to mention the price to add CS4 for SL and all the other apps that you will need to buy again !
Apple must be off their heads if they think we are all going to jump over the edge into the unknown with new software that no matter how good it is will be buggy, new hardware costing £4K upwards…why not reformat the older MacPro I hear you shout…don’t be daft you will need a working system to get the work done so you don’t have that option.
Sorry Apple, I can’t see a solution to your impending implementation of a new OS that is so radical that we are forced to start all over again and spend a fortune, it just won’t happen. As usual Apple will have some form of solution…I hope, as for implementing Blu-ray into DVD Studio-5 that’s anyone’s guess, if not as they say in Glasgow “The games a bogey”.
Just to wet your appetite… iMedia has been developed for you and me, video professionals running our own production companies. For a long time I have been looking for a program that will keep a log of my mini DV tapes, HDV tapes, SxS, SDHC, Blu-ray etc. keep a note of my client base and project information.
I was talking to my friend Chris about my dilemma and he kindly went off and designed such a program… iMedia. Now I can keep everything together on the one file.
It has only been written for Mac at present but if enough interest is shown it could be written for the PC. If you think this may be of interest to you leave a note on the comments tab in this post.
Because laptops are increasingly popular, and desktops are becoming smaller and more portable, computer theft has reached huge proportions worldwide: there were about 600,000 laptops stolen in the USA in the year 2004. According to a recent FBI report, 97% of all stolen computers are never recovered. Many people we know have had their Macs stolen, often in ‘safe’ situations. That’s why we developed Undercover: a unique theft-recovery application designed from the ground up for Mac OS X.
Accurately locate your stolen Mac
Undercover uses advanced technology developed by Skyhook Wireless to locate your Mac based on Wi-Fi positioning. In addition, Undercover transmits network information, enabling our recovery center to accurately track and locate your stolen Mac within a range of 10-20 meters.
Undercover is the world’s first theft-recovery software that will send screenshots of your stolen Mac at regular intervals. These screenshots will sooner or later reveal the thief’s identity (e.g. when chatting, reading and writing emails,…) making it much easier to work with law enforcement in order to recover your Mac.
Undercover introduces another world first: if your Mac has a built-in or external iSight, Undercover will transmit pictures of the thief and his surroundings every 6 minutes, making it even easier to identify the current user. It’s like having a private detective working for you.
