If you own a quad-core or 8-core Mac Pro workstation, you may be able to easily and cheaply add 2 more “internal” eSATA drives externally to your system. The folks at Other World Computing (my favorite hard drive and Mac hardware vendor) are offering a simple breakout cable kit from Newer Technology that accesses the two unused eSATA ports found on these machines’ logic boards. You might not even realize you have these extra ports hiding inside your computer and the Mac Pro can handle up to 6 internal drives (if you want more, you’ll have to add additional bus cards).

If you edit video or work in a high performance environament reequiring fast data throughput, you already know that eSATA connections are superior to USB and Firewire-connected drives. The kit consists of a simple pair of cables which you connect to the open ports and which terminates in two plugs in one of your PCI slots. You can then attach two external eSATA drives (no daisy-chaining possible and they’re not hot-swappable) or a dual drive enclosure. Installation does require removal of some screws and a fan, but it’s a pretty straightforward operation that should nnot be a problem for a pro user. The Newer Technology kit is priced at $24.95 which is much cheaper than installing an eSATA bus card.

Tags: mac, storage, eSATA

Perian is an open source (donations sought) package of extremely useful codecs for QuickTime that is a must download for any video professional. The Perian component will enable your QuickTime engine to handle files in the following formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW Supported video types include: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture and others. Numerous audio codecs are also included.

Naturally, since these codecs are installed via the QuickTime codec system, they are available to all apps that export files via QT (such as FCP). Along with Flip4Mac, this is a must-have QT upgrade. I love how this lets me use my QT player as an .flv player which is great for my workflow.

If you’re using the Creative Vado HD Pocket Camcorder, this is the software you’ll need to install to use the files on a Mac.

Tags: app, mac, quicktime, codec

PTHVolume2 is a handy application that provides a menu bar-based contoller for your audio output and input. Normally, when you want to switch between say, the headphones plugged into the front panel on your Mac Pro tower or the "line out" port on the rear, you have to launch System Prefs, navigate to the Sound panel and switch the output settings. Quite a nuisance--especially if you wear studio headphones a lot as I do.

With PTHVolume2 installed you will not only have an easy volume controller on the menu bar, but you will have an individual slider and selection button for each output (see illustration). The app is free, but donations are welcomed by the developers at PTH Consulting.

Tags: app, mac, utility, audio

Teleport is a great little app that provides an elegant solution to the old KVM switch scenario: one keyboard and mouse for two computer/monitor set-ups. Install the app on both machines and you can switch between the two monitors by simply moving your mouse off the edge of one screen. You set it up in the same intuitive way you would set up a second monitor (for one machine):

The inactive monitor will display a nice looking overlay icon that points to the active monitor. My favorite use of this app though is in working on my desktop computer with my daily-driver laptop next to it on the table.

It’s actually a much nicer way to move between two adjacent machines than Leopard’s buitl-in Screen Sharing app because you can drag and drop between desktops and synch the clipboard. Nice. A very neat, clean implementation and a must-have for users of multiple computers. This app is dontation-ware and available from the developer, Julien Robert at www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport.

Tags: network, mac, utility, app