Mkv or matroska video files have been around for a while, and have been the encapsulation format of choice for the hd geeks when it comes to viewing hd.

Mkv is not a codec but a container format, just like avi and mov. movs and avi can contain videos with mpeg compression, etc. anyways, more about container formats here.

Processing mkv files can be cpu-intensive, expecially when the content is encoded hd (which is usually the case).

If you’re on a multi-core mac (or equivalent), here is a simple workaround if you want to speed up mkv transcoding via Compressor  into an editing-friendly codec.

1. You have to be able to play mkv files natively. You need to download Perian, a free Quicktime component add-on that lets you play dozens of the newer formats (codecs) available, including matroska files.
2. Open the mkv file that you want to convert in Quicktime Player and wait for everything to finish caching then save it as a self-contained movie.
   This will then changed the container format from mkv to mov. And no, renaming the file extension will not work.
3. With the encoded video file being in an mov container, you can now take it to Compressor and it will be more responsive.You can speed things up more by using the Apple QMaster trick, but let’s talk about that next time ‘coz my batch just finished rendering.

Kolorete [trailer, 30s] from ruelo zendo on Vimeo.

Cinema One Originals

Salida Productions

“KOLORETE”

120mins/BW/Digital/2008

Written by Sherad Anthony Sanchez

Directed by Ruelo Lozendo

Edited by Clang Sison

Sound Designed by Tengal Drilon

blogging from my virtual vista appliance, running flock 1.2.4

this is what’s keeping me busy these past few months. comments are welcome and appreciated

http://www.69andahalf.com

hello.

long time, no see.

i have been busy doing nothing for the past couple of weeks. doing nothing substantial, really,  and i often find myself easily turned off and uninterested in most of the things that are happening around me. that’s why i usually end up not going, not giving a damn.

i think i have grown a little more cynical.

i also realized that lately, i can get really bored.

now that, IS weird. i’m never bored.

i’m going to start editing with that new movie in 2 weeks, so probably this me psyching up for it. yata.

basta weird.

i was at gian’s spring/summer 08 fashion show at the makati shangri-la last week. the clothes were fantastic! i reckon they were looking for tall, slender, female models a few months back — and i couldn’t think of anybody i knew who would be bagay.

then i remembered a few friends, suddenly, during the show na.

weird.

oh, and that photo i posted here — it’s an hdr image. it was taken at a ranch in batangas.

plainly put, it’s more than 1 photo of the same shot, taken at different exposures. then you merge it, and tone-map it in an hdr app (or photoshop cs3) and what it does  is, it gets the shadow information from the photos with the lower exposures, and gets the highlights from the ones with the higher exposures and merges them together into 1 picture.

the range of the tones are insane! although too insane that your typical computer screen cannot display it properly. but the color and tonal information are all there, so you have more headroom to play with it.

i just tone-mapped it into an 8-bit jpeg. nice aint it?

i think i’m getting a hang of the process now, i can now actually stripe xml and fake the exposure settings on raw images, to force photos for hdr use.

how nerdox.

i’m excited to see the penshoppe summer collection billboards (penshoppe planets) due in 1-2 weeks. we used hdr on the models there, i hope it comes out good.

watched the new lost episodes a few days, very impressive how they got to re-focus the storyline. 2 seasons na lang!!! jj abrams is a genius.

i also tried catching up with season 2 of dexter, but i realized i couldn’t take watching it alone — natatakot ako. i got so engaged, so involved. stopped at episode 5.

is it just me?

been listening to the eagles of death metal lately, and the usual stephen malkmus and the jicks.

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