844/X User: October 2004

Alert: iTunes and 844/X Issue

We have had a couple of report of users experiencing audio drop outs and instability with their 844 systems that seems to be related to iTunes.

The issue seems to be that iTunes has resources that are running constantly, which are taking up excessive CPU usage. This usage seems to be creating performance issues when working in 844, such as audio drop outs in programs with many audio and video layers and instability of the 844 application. If you are experiencing any of these issue and have iTunes, you may want to remove iTunes, and see if that improve your systems performance.

Thanks to Butch for investigating this one.

News: Genarts - Sapphire Plug-ins

You all need to check out the Sapphire plug-ins from Genarts. These are a great addition to the 844/X range of filters. Effects include transition effects, lighting effects, lens flares, distortions effects and many others.

We all know transition effects options in the 844 can be limited, with Sapphire effects, you can now create key-framed transitions with colour boarders, soft edges, varying shapes and distortions. These really save the hassle of having to render some matte shape in AE or creating something with the geometric filter and matte tool.

If you would like to give these a try, Genarts have a trial version that lets you use the product for 15 days with no watermark.

I can't say enough good things about these effects, so if you have a spare 10 minutes I recommend you all download the trial version and give it a try.