Sachin’s Posterous

I worked on Final Cut Pro for six years. The quality control was over the top. I worked on the real-time playback and effects system, and every single frame had to be delivered on time. Our playback mechanism wasn't used just for on screen previews, but even for realitime playback to recording devices, or live TV!

So the standards were high, the tolerances were low. Every single frame had to be delivered on time, along with the audio. If the video was one frame late, or the audio was one sample late (we liked to blame the audio guys!), shit hit the fan and we DID NOT SHIP THE PRODUCT.

Maybe this just goes back to my rant about beta software... But more specifically, Final Cut Pro had high standards for AV sync (aka, perfect), so when i was watching the world series today for 5 minutes, and then later watching a video on youtube, and noticed that both were out of sync, it drove me crazy.

Now, I agree that after 6 years of working on a video product where frame rate is god, my standards are high. But i'll still hold that I think products like Youtube and CABLE TV have standards that are low. Incorrect AV sync is crazy and out of the question. If you specialize in video, the least you can do is do it right.

Two stories.

First. I'm in San Diego at my mom's house now. I was using her Apple TV, which his an amazing, underrated device. Incredible interface. All your media is on your TV. And instant HD movie renting. So great.

After a few minutes her photo screen saver came on. And Kate noticed a picture of us together. "How did that get there?" I thought. Then I got it. I post my photos to Posterous, which autoposts to Flickr, and my mom's Apple TV is subscribed to my Flickr feed. Amazing workflow. So every picture I post shows up on my mom's TV just like that.

Second. I was about to order an HD movie rental on her Apple TV. I love doing that. $5 for an amazing HD movie in seconds. But my mom had a coupon for a free movie on demand with Time Warner. Ok sounds good. Holy shit. That interface was so fucking bad it drove my crazy. And my mom even has the latest HD DVR. Kate and my mom picked "27 Dresses" (yeah, i'm outvoted here). It took me so long to finally get it started.

And once it did, it's in SD, PILLARBOXED. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! My mom has an amazing HD TV. Most cable is widescreen these days. DVDs are all widescreen. Apple TV would have been widescreen. Are you fucking kidding me. We just spent $5 for the SD version of a movie, 4:3??? If it wasn't free, I would have flipped out even more.

God, I wish more people and companies cared about building high quality products and cared more about design.