It appears I may have dug myself a hole. I recorded about 300GB of 1080/30p from a Panasonic HVX200A, using Adobe OnLocation. The resulting avi files have good video and audio, as seen via WMP. However, upon starting up a project in Media Composer 3.0, I discovered that 1080p/30 was not a project option. So I tried 1080i/59.94. The audio is there, but the monitor window is white.

The Avid project page states that 1080p/30 is a supported format, so I was surprised not to see it on the project window. 

How do I dig myself out of this hole? Downconverting is an option if nothing else is available.

System: Athlon 4400, 3gb, SATA JBOD, XP/SP3, Nvidia 6800 Ultra/SoftQuadro.

TIA,

Bob Morein

(310) 237-6511

The White Screen means you're missing the codec. I believe the Media Composer is going to use QuickTime to import the AVI. If it doesn't play in QT player, I don't think the Avid can import it. DVFilm has one for QuickTime that you can try: http://www.dvfilm.com/raylight/decoder/index.htm

You could also try this free codec pack: http://www.cccp-project.net/

Bob, you are correct; it is a codec problem. Unfortunately, neither the Raylight decoder nor the Calibrated decoder (http://www.calibratedsoftware.com/Buy.html)  work. They make Quicktime think it has a codec, and a window of the expected aspect ratio opens, the timeline and audio work, but the picture is black.

     I checked the cccp project, and they do list supported formats, but DvcProHD is not one of them. They seem interested mainly in long-frame compression.

     I can't believe I've gotten stuck this way. I may have to edit the thing with Adobe Premiere!

See if DVFilm Maker can play the clips. http://www.dvfilm.com/maker/index.htm

If it can, it should be able to transcode the clips to an DNxHD QuckTime file.

The CineForm codec might be able to decode the video: http://www.cineform.com/products/default.htm

The CCCP codec pack is an implementation FFMpeg.

DVFilm Maker does not work, but it gives an error message: "End of file - part of AVI is missing." This is uniform for all the files, but all the files play in WMP and Nero Showtime. It suggests to me that Adobe is not writing the header in the expected fashion.  It may be deliberate sabotage on the part of Adobe. I looked over the product it's based on, DVRack, which apparently had the ability to produce .mov files. So it may be an attempt to close off the production path leading to Avid.

I suggest to Avid that it's time to natively embrace the import of ..avi files with whatever programming effort is necessary. I appreciate your response as an Avid representative.

 My guess is the codec you are using is proprietary and not available in the version of QT you are running.

 Will it play in After Effects?

I've been in similar situations and have used AE or even Sorenson to convert the file to something usable.

 Avid is QT based, meaning it uses QT to decode. If QT reads it, then so can Avid. QT, AVI and MXF are file wrappers not codecs so there is no "native support" for "avi" files. File wrappers are book covers, the language of the information is the codec. You could make an mov but it won't matter if you don't have the means to code/decode the information (codec).

The first two files have now run all the way through Adobe Premiere without trouble. The project is being encoded as I write this. One strange thing was noted. Originally, Premiere played only part of the sound track, which vanished later in the files. By installing OnLocation on the editing machine, this problem vanished, even though OnLocation was not used on this machine.

 I think your issue obviously has something to do with On Location. I don't know much about that app but it's good to be aware of that issue.

Open the movie in QuickTime player and select Window > Show Movie Inspector. What is listed under Format?