Avid Product Feature Requests

It´s not 1995 anymore.

tota — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:43:21 GMT

ok it´s 2009 it´s not 1995 anymore.

I´m been editing on Avid around 12 years, then I moved to FCP for three years and now I´m forced back

to Avid 3.5 again with Isis and the new interplay. And at Avid time is standing still, what happend? some new codecs and format compability.

no userfriendly steps has been taking. So this is my feature requests so far.

Why is there two interfaces when you use Interplay, why should I have bins and Interplay?

Why isn´t there a "find folder" as "find bin" I would use it all day long?

Why does everything stop when you touch the audiotool it´s still not 1995 how can you mix audio when it´s not playing?

Why does the audiosuite open in seperate windows?

Why can´t you put several eq and compressors ond the same clip, and if you use the old eq you can´t see

audiosuite plug beneath if it´s rendered? And if you render both you will get wrong output(BUG)

Why is the new feature from FCP "the big move segment backward, forward" moving the fill and erasing your cuts.

Why doesn´t it work to"hide monitors" workspaces workspaces anymore?

Why can´t I lock video clips and audio togheter to one unit?

Why can´t I "open in editor"?

Why can´t I hide all folders that i`m not interested in, in Interplay.

Why do I have to click three times on everything to get something done?

Why isn´t there a good way to work with big stills and I dont´t mean the crappy thing you got.

Integrate Interplay into the avid window.

And the import should be more automatic like in other software.

And there is still problem when you import dv50 movies into the Avid.

I could go on forever but I´ll stop here for now.

But come on and move the Avid in to 2009, if you want to keep us editor you really have to do something.

Things are happening out there!!!!!

audio mix tool must be updated!!! please vote!!

postmark — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:40:10 GMT

1: Allow the avid to remember when it has imported a stereo file - and always gang the faders for its tracks together on the audio mix tool. But also allow that link to be turned off when wanted.

2: Make the audio mix tool show all tracks at once. No more switching to "Grp 2"

3: Allow timeline tracks to be assigned as stereo/mono and gang faders togther automatically. This would over-ride the clip setting described above.

If you do only these things my hands and wrists will thank you very much.

Superbin - close selected bins

TrevorA — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:06:08 GMT

The superbin is a great feature, but it is a complete PITA closing bins that are opened within it. Currently it involves double clicking on the bin name to open it outside the superbin, then right-clicking and 'close selected bin'. How about 'close selected bin' (and ctl-w) only close the selected bin, not the super bin?

Please cache the frames (thumbnails) in a bin

CreativeControl — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:32:54 GMT

Can we please have the option to cache the frames or as everyone else calls them, thumbnails in a bin. It's just ridiculous how they keep re-drawing after just about any operation. It makes working with frames like wading through mud.

Surely we have enough ram to do that now. I think MC is about the only program I've seem in a while that doesn't.

It really does slow down work. AMA modes seem particularly slow.

Why Toolsets Suck

Pixel Monkey — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:19:12 GMT

Running MC4.0.3. A number of folks ask me why I'm clinging onto Workspaces instead of using Toolsets.

Look in Toolsets. See how Save Current is right above Restore Current to Default? That's why I use Workspaces. Any chance Save Default could be either moved down to the bottom or to have a spacer separating the two?

When in the final days of a $1m edit, mice and Wacom tablets move very fast. Please help us out!

Matchframe precomputed files

sven2615 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:21:39 GMT

Matchframe on precompute files would be great.

MC4 bin background colour not sticking and AMA view un-readable

carlgmi — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:55:59 GMT

MC4 installed.

When I imported an AMA folder (folder copied to my RAID drive), looking in text or brief view, the bin colour is bright yellow and the text white when clips are unselected - almost un-readable. In frame or script view it defaults to charcoal. Under interface options I tried changing the colour for the bin bg and it made no change at all. Toggled the setting off and all my bins go white with black text and the AMA bin stays yellow but the text is now black and readable.

So next I deleted the avs file from the project and forced it to rebuild it - no change.

Then I went to the Users\public\public docs\avid media composer\settings folder and deleted MC State, Site_Attributes and Site_Settings avs files. (after backing up of course)

Still no love - bin is yellow with white text in Text or Brief view and fine in Frame or Script view???

Tried a brand new project - nope, same result

Loathed to clean install the whole thing when its running very smoothly - any ideas anyone or is anyone else getting this?

Effects editor GUI in MC really needs to be overhauled completely.

CreativeControl — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:59:12 GMT

In my opinion, the effects editor window is poorly designed, the controls are too small and it's awkward to use. Take a lesson from Softimage which you used to own. Also the window should stay on top until you're done editing the effect. Right now, it vanishes if you click on anything else and you have to dig it up again, and again and again...

To summarize, it's not up to the standard of the rest of the MC interface at all. It's like a cheap tack-on thing that was thrown in at the last minute and never finished. It's too small, and too much like playing pick-up-sticks.

It would be nice to have a real effects interface that matches the main one.

Background importing/transcoding of avchd (to DNxHD)

gerbow — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:45:14 GMT

I would like to see some form of background importing facility whereby I could continue to edit whilst files were ingested (especially avchd files) - just like FCP does with its log and transfer tool.

I hate the fact that I have to wait while I import (even fast importing lots of clips transcoded to DNxHD elsewhere is a pain).

apply filter on track

dew — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:28:43 GMT

Hi I would like Avid to add the ability to apply a filter to the track itself. This way any clip that is added to that track would have the effect on it. This way if I want to add a pip effect to a clip I could just use that track. Or if I have a color correction filter I could just add the clip to the track. This is a feature I used in Liquid and thought it would benefit in MC as well. Just a option from having to lasso a bunch of clips just to add the same effect.

I want to have "Pre-filled frames" back.

Ivo — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:54:55 GMT

I want to have the setting Video Display:"Pre-filled Frames" back. This setting was very good on notebooks with slower drives and less processor power.

Shorcut to Mark Entire Track

BobbyMurcerFan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:34:54 GMT

This request stems from the following thread: http://community.avid.com/forums/t/76951.aspx

Shift + T (Mark Locators) will select the entire track if there are no locators, but when there are locators, Shift + T does what it is supposed to do. Adding a modifier key to Shift + T will make the process not much different from Home, I, End, O.

So how about a Command Pallete button or Clip Menu item (could be mapped to the keyboard via 'Menu to Button' Reasignment) to Mark Entire Track?

Thanks for considering this.

Why still no rotation in Pan & Zoom?

steelborn — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:58:41 GMT

I like Motion Picture and have used it on my home system. But on my last job they didn't have it on their Adrenalines, and I used Pan & Scan. The only thing good about Pan & Scan was that I was still in the Avid environment and on my timeline. If I wanted to adjust picture over top other images, I could see what I was doing. In Moving Picture I have to step out of the program to do adjustments. How hard would it be for Avid to add rotation to their plugin? Better yet, why haven't they done it yet when users have been requesting it for a while?
I quick work around is just dropping a 3D Warp on top of the Pan & Scan, but when you rotate, you get the black edges of the border. Not so in Moving picture.

Tangent Devices support for Symphony Nitris DX

dcpost — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:05:01 GMT

It would be great to see support for a color grading control surface like the Wave from Tangent Devices. I have been doing a lot more correction in Symphony lately and it would be great to have the same flexibility I have when using Apple's Color.

Any plans for this in upcoming releases????

Thanks!

Red/yellow segment mode selection colours

Bernard Lyall — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:00:28 GMT

In Media Composer V3 +, the segment mode selection colour has been the same as the in/out selection - purple by default - which is confusing. How about making the seg mode selection colours red and yellow, according to the mode? ie. the selected clips change colour to red or yellow, the same way as the arrow cursor. Then you could see immediately a) that you're in seg mode, and b) which one you're in.

Bernard Lyall

monitor latency compensation...

sunrisepictures — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:15:15 GMT

I posted this in the Media Composer PC forum about a month or so ago but this section is probably more appropriate for the topic... so here goes.

Is there any way we could get a solution within the Avid interface to compensate for the latency inherent in lcd/plasma monitors and video projectors so that the timeline window, client monitor and audio can all be in sync at the same time? Yes, there are many ways to delay the audio in the monitor path so that it is in sync with your client lcd/plasma...but, then the timeline and monitor windows will be out of sync with the client monitor. I don't know about anyone else, but I find it very distracting when monitor playback is out of sync even by a couple of frames.

Now add to that the possiblity (or probability) of a flat panel broadcast monitor with a different latency than either the Avid monitor or the client monitor and this problem becomes even more dicey. Here are the possible solutions as I see it.

1) Add a video delay to the audio delay so that the broadcast monitor, client monitor, and audio monitor pathways are in sync. Signal to decks would not pass throught the delays so no problems with sync on video masters would occur. Avid timeline/monitor window would still be out of sync so this solution is not ideal.

2) Add a monitor delay compensation setting in milliseconds or 1/4 frames which would delay playback in the timeline/monitor window on the Avid monitor. Keep the delay in the signal path to whichever external monitor is fastest and now all video and audio is in sync. Only issue here would be in trimming on the fly, where keystrokes would potentially be off by the value of the delay compensation (assuming ones keypunches are normally frame accurate ). So this solution is better than option 1 but still not quite ideal.

3) Switch the delay compensation setting to effect the signal coming out of the Avid. Have the setting be defeatable during a digital cut or possibly only apply to one of the video outputs (I kind of prefer the ability to defeat the setting but there could certainly be reasons for the alternative). Now the video signal would leave the Avid ahead of the audio signal and the monitor/timeline window but the latency of the client monitor would bring everything back in sync. You'd still need a hardware delay in the signal to the broadcast monitor (assuming that it is the faster of the two external monitors) but now everything is back in sync. Of course, this assumes that the latency is always the same for all framerates, datarates, and definitions - it surely must be...right...

Well, probably not, so you would potentially have to change the monitor delay when you change project settings (ie. from hd to sd) or change projects. However, it is very possible to measure the delay and the correction to make sure sync is maintained.

This option is the most ideal as all monitor paths are in sync and trimming on the fly by "feel" is still possible. Also, the issues with variable latency exist with all the options so they're really not specific to this solution.

4) Forget the flatpanel monitor - stay all crt. Anyone think we're going to be able to do this.

5) Use a lcd/plasma/projector that has less than a full frame of latency. Does one exist?

6) Don't have a consumer (high end) monitor in the suite - Fine, but just like having multiple monitors in the audio path, it's nice to have a well calibrated consumer monitor as a option in the suite. Not in exception to a true broadcast monitor, in addition to one.

I'm not a software engineer so I don't know what the challenges are in doing this but we all know that flat panel monitors are here to stay with their inherent latencies. We really need a way to compensate for them and eliminate the distraction of having one monitor out of sync with others.

Thanks for reading, any thoughts?

Taylor Warren

Sunrise Pictures, LLC

Pan and Zoom features

Sycophant — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:01:40 GMT

It's been requested before, but I'll do it again...

1. Alpha support in Pan and Zoom

2. Rotation (Z-axis/Spin at least)

Alpha would be super helpful... Rotation would be nice.

Ability to Disable Individual Avid Effects.

BobbyMurcerFan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:40:47 GMT

Boris effects have a very nice feature where you can choose Disable. The effect is not removed but it is deactivated. This makes it easy to compare what the footage will look like with or without the effect. In many cases it's more convenient than stepping into the track or saving the effect to a bin and deleting it from the clip.

If Boris can do this than I'm sure Avid can do this with their effects as well. And every other NLE I've used (FCP and Vegas) has the ability to easily disable and effect w/o removing it or using Undo.

Thank you for considering this request.

Display a full frame when parked.

CreativeControl — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:58:53 GMT

Could we please have an option to display a full frame of video when parked on the timeline (full screen view mode). This goes for both SD and HD.

I'm so tired of clients asking me, "Is that shot out of focus?", or "Why is that soft?", or "What happened there?" or "How come that looks so bad" or.....

I just can't think of any reason why (especially on not interlaced material) that avid should show a half-res frame when stopped when full res is selected.

When is the nanoflash XDCAM 422 100 Mbit format supported?

Ivo — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:02:13 GMT

When is the Nanoflash XDCAM 422 100 Mbit format supported?

1080p ale import in 720p50 projects

chma — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:18:11 GMT

Ok, so Avid finally managed to fix the issue of importing 25fps media into a 50fps project and vice versa in version in 4.0. But 1080 .ale files still cannot be imported into a 720p50 project, which is kind of annoying.

Ofcourse the workaround of importing into a 1080p project and dragging the files over with media tool works fine, but it can't be that hard to enable the import of 1080p ale files into a 720p project when import of media works just fine.

EPS and AI import for rolls

Job ter Burg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:03:27 GMT

Would like to see an easy and fast way to import credit rolls, made in, say, Illustrator and add them to the Avid timeline.

Different keyboard shortcuts for each mode

Butcher — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:56:00 GMT

I have almost every key and shift+key on my keyboard mapped, and I need more.

I'd like to be able to map each mode differently. That way I can have a layout for editing mode, another for my effects, and another for CC. I just don't have enough options to map everything I need.

For example, V is insert edit. However, I'd like V to be the Move option in the effects palette so I can hit V, grab my video and move it off to the corner. Then I could hit R (normally reserved for Out Point) and rotate the video. When I get out of Effects mode my keyboard changes to the next mode I'm in (editing, for example).

This would make the keyboard that much more powerful and save my wrist from all the mousing I do when I go into Effects mode or color correction.

Thanks.

Michael

When opening nested effects on timeline, allow CC

Butcher — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:27:46 GMT

If you have nested effects on a clip you can go into effect mode and double click them to open the nest. Very useful. You can then add effect inside the nest and see the total effect of all effects (easier and faster than stepping in and stepping out).

However, you can't go into color correction mode, open the nest, and correct the source. The only way to do that is to step into the effect, which means you can't color sample lower layers, or see how the CC is affected by other effects in the stack without stepping out, viewing it, stepping in - making an adjustment, stepping out - etc...

I'd like to be able to open a nest until I get to the source layer (no effects) and color correct, seeing the composite of all other effects as I adjust, as well as be able to sample higher and lower tracks for color matching.

Thanks.

Michael

Promote Animatte to 3D

Butcher — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:11:36 GMT

We need to be able to promote Animatte to 3D so we can cut out/mask using Animatte, then move the entire shot, scale, rotate, etc... without our mask staying in the same place. It needs to travel with the shot. Right now I have to use 3D warp, scale, animate, etc..., then nest Animatte and keyframe it. That's just not as efficient.

Thanks.