Using
EventStream in Cleaner 5 is simplicity itself. Like Media Cleaner
Pro 4, Cleaner 5 has a project window that shows you the source
movie you're working on and the settings you'll be applying to
it. It also includes a pane for EventStreams. Just go to the frame
where you want the event to occur, click the Edit button, and
the EventStream window opens, allowing you to select the event
you want to occur at the present time. You can also select the
time of the event within the EventStream window manually. Time
is expressed in milliseconds, rather than SMPTE. To create an
event for the current frame, click the Add button, and you're
presented with a pull-down menu for selecting the type of event.
Enter in all of your data, and you're done. To add another event,
just click the Add button again.
Cleaner
5's EventStream window. EventStream, new in version 5, allows
you to set interactive events within a movie in QuickTime, Real
and Windows Media formats.
Incidentally,
the EventStream window also allows you to add custom labels to
each event, which can help you remember what each event does.
The labels are not encoded into the final file, but they can be
saved for future reference. Events can also be exported for tweaking
in an XML editor or text application, for those of you daring
enough to try it.
So what else
does Cleaner 5 have?
Scriptability
Well, as if EventStream weren't enough, it's also fully scriptable
through AppleScript on the Mac and DCOM on Windows. I wouldn't
know anything about the latter, but, through AppleScript, an awful
lot can be automated. For example, you could create a script that
automatically launches Cleaner 5, encodes it in four different
formats with 12 different codecs, names each one individually
and uploads them all to your server just by dropping a movie file
into a folder. You could also create one that automatically enters
author and copyright information. You could create one that automatically
sends you an e-mail each time a movie is encoded on your network.
You could even set up a render farm though an AppleScript, letting
each machine on a network monitor a given folder. Or all of the
above.
There are
two limitations to this. First, actions in Cleaner 5 are not recordable,
so all of your scripting will need to be manual. And, second,
there are very few prefabricated scripts currently available.
As Cleaner 5 proliferates, however, you can expect users to start
sharing their scripts on the Web. And Terran provides a few on
their Web site right now.
Batch
processing
It can also batch process files—up to 2,000 in a single batch.
Version 5 adds a Batch menu, which lets you handle a number of
batch functions (a lot like the Process menu in Media Cleaner
Pro 4), from specifying batch settings to setting the default
destination.
Custom
destinations, by the way, can include FTP servers. Cleaner 5 includes
a window for entering your login information, which can be saved
and labeled. You can also specify multiple remote destinations.
And each item in a batch can have a unique destination, remote
and local.
Video
ins and outs
Also unlike Media Cleaner Pro 4, Cleaner 5 ships with MotoDV for
capturing video through the FireWire port and bringing it straight
into Cleaner 5 without further processing. It's a nice touch,
but not particularly critical. What I think is even more important
is Cleaner 5's integration with other video editing applications.
Adobe Premiere, for example, can export directly to Cleaner 5
with the click of a few buttons, opening up the application automatically.
So can a number of Avid systems, including Symphony 3, Media Composer
10, Film Composer 10, XPress 4 and XPress DV 1.5. And, of course,
you get direct integration with Media 100i.
Adobe
Premiere 5.1's Export Movie Settings dialog allows for direct
export to Cleaner 5. A number of other editing systems do as well,
including Media 100i and several Avid systems.
Direct
Export is not supported in Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects.
But documentation is available on Terran's Web site for optimizing
output from these applications (and others) for working in Cleaner
5.
