Hi, trying to confirm if Avid FX (last version 6.4) has broken for everyone else on media composer version 2018+.

We use Avid FX on all our edit machines to achieve transfer mode / composite / screen for flares and texture overlays. I'm aware it was not bundled after version 8 or so, but kept working fine for this up until at least 8.6.5 which is the last "stable" version we've been using on our edit machines.

We-re on HP z420-440 mostly, and on windows 7. Using Avid FX has now (on 2018.4) become unstable and crashes avid randomly when either adding preset to a segment or entering effect mode. Not usable so we're rolling active machines back to 8.6.5 which is the last safe version we've had good success with. (versions inbetween might have worked fine)

Adding Continuum at 1000$ to all the edit machines is overkilll when we only need transfer mode and adding all flares and such on the online machines would be a bad solution for us. 

Are there any solutions out there? Waiting for the feature to be added by Avid is a long time to wait since it's marked only as "under investigation" on the aca vote road map.

Workarounds like blending, keying or making a matte out of the flare itself don't look as good as the real deal.

The cheapest solution i've found for transfer mode on Avid so far is buying BMD Fusion 9 at 300$ and using fusion connect, but haven't tried it myself. Anyone tried it and been able to use it drag and drop on top of segments for transfer mode?

Thank you
Fred

Fred,

Could you post a short step-by-step  which produces the issue? I'll try that out on my system and see if I can reproduce it.

Have you tried a trial version of the latest version of Boris RED?  Its the same product as AVID FX.

I use it and am having no issues with v 2018.5 with it.

I was offered a nice upgrade price by Boris to get a fresh license for RED, upgrading from AVID FX.

You might also find that a Continuum Unit, not the full package, might work at a lower price.

Example:

https://borisfx.com/store/?collection=continuum-units&product=continuum-units-key-and-blend

Maybe this is all you need.

Thanks, the key and blend unit might be one way to go. It's still 100$ more than Fusion connect, but that seems more like a heavy workaround.

Still wanting to try to rather fix the problem though. Same systems work fine with Avid FX on Media Composer 8.6.5. Might be the quadro k2000 is right on the edge of support.

community.avid.com/forums/t/181585.aspx
Same problem it seems.

So it's probably just figuring out the correct nvidia driver to match the correct Media Composer, Avid FX version and c++ libraries for windows 7. Seems like just a bunch of trial and error. Problem is finding the time fo it.

Boris solution via chat was to go with Red. But no a good solution since it is EOL just as Avid FX. So far staying on 8.6.5 and waiting out Avid to develop transfer mode or the FX/RED thing to get solved :)

Thanks
Fred

Hello all,

Is AvidFX not working anymore with anything after 8.6.5?  I can create a new case, but this seems relativley recent and ongoing.

What happens in my case is an editor could play over the effect (created during Offline in an older version of Media Composer) but if any changes were made while parked on the effect (colour grading, adding an effect etc) it would crash out as runtime C++ error then white screen the media composer and he'd have to force quit.  Rendering the effect allowed playback, but again if any changes were attempted a runtime error occurred. This is on 8.9.4 on a z420 but I have seen this happen on 2018x versions too.

With the viewer switched off (so there's no video in your source or record monitors), the issue would not occur.  This may suggest it is an nVidea issue maybe?

I can see from this post https://community.avid.com/forums/t/127577.aspx?PageIndex=2   that "In short, Avid FX is no longer going to be included, but if you have it already it will still work with MC 8" and it does continue to work up until 8.6.5 - downgrading one of our machines has proved this.

I have also read in that Boris RED is potentially the way forward, but then this thread https://community.avid.com/forums/t/181585.aspx?PageIndex=1 points out that there are C++ issues with Boris RED that are unresolved.

Did anyone get to the botton of what the issue with AvidFX/ Boris RED runtime problems?  I am happy to try any suggestions.

Regards,

Rory

I just fired up Red v5.6 in MC 2018.12, and it worked fine. I am not in a position to try Bors F/X, but it's doubtful that it will continue to work correctly with newer versions of MC.

I've mentioned Avid Fx instability for a while.  It crashes when you edit a previously rendered section.

Example... If i open a sequence that I worked on a few days ago.

And I have an avid fx blend on v2.

If I make a change on v1 (trim, or change clip) under the avid fx clip above, it will often (but not always) cause a runtime error.

This is not ideal but you could try the workaround of turning off the viewer, once you have made the change you can switch it back on (this is not the hardward but the viewer icon beside V1 V2 ect).  Not very efficent but better than crashing out of the program every time. 

It's a shame that AVID FX/Boris Red is eol. I've used it for years as my main tool to create customized transitions which I could save into bins and just drag them on an edit and... baaam. So easy to use, so fast, no additional timeline tracks.

I've tried to recreate those transitions with the BCC effects. But therefore you'll need more timeline tracks and more steps instead of just dragging them into the timeline. And in most cases those transitions won't look as good as individual Boris Red Transitions.

Furthermore I have to rethink my editing workflow concerning the use of plugins. Mainly all my projects of the last years were edited with the help of AVID FX. So if one client wants to re-edit those projects I can only answer that mainly all transitions have to be recreated with a 3rd party software which maybe in the future also won't be updated.

One good alternative seems to be Sapphire Builder. But the costs for the complete bundle are overdone if you'll only use it for transitions. And maybe in 5 years it will also be end of line...

It is a real shame.  Dave says he has been using 2018.12 with RED but cls is getting the runtime errors.  I am thinking it is a nVidea issue as turning off the viewer for your source/record monitors seems to bypass the crash.  I am going to install 8.6.5 nVidea driver with a newer version of Avid just to test the therory but I am sure it will bring it's own new issues.  I cann't do this for a few weeks though until the suite is free.

I do have 8.6.5 working solidly with AvidFX.

Rory

well avid could just fix whatever is crashing avid fx.  the monitoring thing isnt helping.

When you say "the monitoring thing isn't helping" do you mean it didn't bypass the crashes and they still occurred or that it is not a practical way of working?  If you are still getting crashes maybe I am going down a dead end with the nVidea drivers...

I can confirm that running the system with the 8.6.5 Nvidea drivers was unsuccessful.  I feel there is a fix for this involving a certain mix of runtime/C++ installs but I've not figured it yet.

You have a much better chance of getting Red to work than FX. I've just tried it again with the latest version of MC, and it works fine.