Avid Media Composer - Mac

convert 29.97 sequence to 23.98

pforslund — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:59:42 GMT

I recieved a bin from an editor and I need to conform the sequence but I can't open it in my project as it's 29:97 and I'm working in a 23:98 project. I don't need to link media or anything. Just see the sequence so I can conform to it.

Is there a way I can convert the sequence?

Peter

MC4 support for Snow Leopard

AntonyC — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:49:48 GMT

Can anyone from Avid give me an idea of when MCv4 will work on Snow Leopard?

I’m not after an exact date, just an idea of when that might be; I’m looking to get a new MacPro around Christmas time and am planning towards it.

Many thanks in advance

Antony

XDCAM IMX30,40 or DV25

Pieman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:24:29 GMT

Media Composer 3.5.4, PDW u1, sony PDW700s

I have a project coming up editing on location fast turnaround news in Copenhagen. Over the two weeks with 2 camera bods I expect there could be 56+hours of footage

I don't really trust AMA (bad experience with HD ex footage linked to hard drive copies) and will go down the proxy route or try importing full res images. Both will give me backups for later comps etc (as suggested by another user, thanks again works a treat)

This project is SD and I am wondering the pros and cons of using XDCAM DV or IMX30,40 (50 seems overkill I'd rather go 50mbs HD at that data rate).

1) How do XDCAM DV25 and IMX 30 or 40 compare (apart from the obvious data rate) is IMX a significant improvement? ingest time is obviously an issue

2) Am I right that if I want to backup sequences to XDCAM disk IMX will allow me to export upto 8 tracks of audio over dv25's 2 (at 48Khz). This would be great for sequence backups

3) I assume I can not unwrap the MXF DV format either, not sure why I would want to but the devil you know.. and I know DV25 well and it works for all sorts of jobs outside avid

4) I need to deliver an mpeg2 to ftp via sorenson squeeze 5. Any issues with this format outside of avid. Should I mixdown to DV25. Issues with IMX QT ref?

5) I would normally have avid mojo for monitoring with LCD field monitor but am thinking I might buy a cheap LCD PC monitor for client preview instead. Have I lost my mind?

Sorry I am being really lazy, its been a busy week and I can't bare to open up the old avid again and run some tests on the weekend.

regards

Three channel output to Mojo sdi

pforslund — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:10:37 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to do a 3 channel output to a dbeta deck using media composer 3.5 mac w mojo sdi. I have the matrix set up correctly in the audio project settings and I can preview the cut from the timeline and everything seems fine. But the digital cut tool only shows two channel outputs - as if I was still in stereo output mode. I can't figure out why I can get 3 channels from the timeline but not from the d cut tool.

Any ideas?

Peter

"Restore from Videotape" not working

kevindh — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:59:08 GMT

I've become grudgingly used to the fact that Media Composer disables the "Archive to Videotape..." and "Restore from Videotape..." options when dealing with HD material, or material from tapeless formats like P2 (incidentally, I'd love to know what year Avid plans on activating that disabled feature, since it has been talked about in forums for about two years now). However, working in MC 4.x.x, it seems that the Archive/Restore capability has been taken away completely, even in cases that it has worked before, due to software bugs.

Essentially, in a standard definition, tape-based session, media was sent to tape via "Archive to Videotape...". However, when we tried to "Restore from Videotape...", it immediately gives us an error:

"Exception: No compressed data format found for specified VCID and video format."

So, with no way to restore the otherwise sucessfully archived material, we have to digitize the material in as a clip and manually insert (via eye-match) every... single... shot...

Does anybody have an idea why this is happening or how to get "Restore from Videotape..." to work correctly? This has happened on both a Media Composer 4.0.3, as well as a Nitris 4.0.2.

Importing quicktime to Avid loses color quality

Salahadeen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:46:50 GMT

Hi guys,

Thanks for inviting me to the forums. I've got a question that I've been trying to solve all day, but alas, I give up. I can't figure it out. Simply put, how can I ensure that when I import quicktime files into avid that I maintain the same color quality?

It seems when I import anything into final cut pro, it always imports to full quality just like the original quicktime file. When I import into Avid though, either I loose image quality but keep original color, or I keep image quality but loose color quality (I.E. the image looks bleak and pale).

Can you guys help me with this? It is a 29.97 NTSC file I'm trying to import on MC 3.5. Any help will be very appreciated.

Thank you guys.

-Salahadeen

Quicktime reference files and Avid AMA v.4.0

markus70 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:08:45 GMT

Call me crazy, but I am almost positive that I was able to export Quicktime reference files from P2 media in version 3.5 even though it was accessed via AMA. Now in version 4.0 I get the message that Quicktime reference files cannot be performed on clips linked via AMA. Is there a setting that I might be missing that will allow me to do this in version 4.0?

New third party Matrix posted in MC Mac Announcements

BLKDOG — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:18:43 GMT

Updated the Boris Matrix and added a pretty comprehensive Matrix put together by Avid in the Announcements section at the top of this forum.

Formatting old window files to work with new mac

nglasser — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:34:17 GMT

Today I purchased an apple promac notebook... I have mediafiles on external hard drives that was formated ntsf.

I know tha mac will read the files but will it be able to write to file...(I think not)... what is the best way to approch this mess...

Thansfer files to the new apple, then format the drives, place the files on the drive. then how do I link them?

Or can i have the avid move the files to the drive, thus linking them?

can't launch. assertion failed: False/Fatal error

srdjedit — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:24:12 GMT

I can't figure this one out, I've repaired permissions, trashed the databases, and I'm still getting the following errors:

Assertion failed: FALSE file:/Snapshots/releng.relengintel4_1221705213/vobs/coresw/ame/projects/Mac/.../.../src/msmdb/local volume.c, line 1845

I can continue after that and when I do I get:

Exeption: fatal error and a recap of the above errror.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS 10.58, Media composer 3.05,

Snow Leopard not Qualified for Any version of the Avid Software

BLKDOG — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:04:32 GMT

Ok, since we are getting two posts a week on this subject, I thought I'd post this as a central clearing house for all your Snow Leopard needs.

First, Avid had not yet qualified Snow Leopard for any version of the Media Composer software. As a Matter of fact, without a workaround, the software will not launch. You can find the workarounds in this post:

http://community.avid.com/forums/t/74863.aspx

We do expect to qualify Snow Leopard in a future release. No dates yet. As soon as we know anything, we'll post it here.

BCC 5 with MC 4?

Martin in Chicago — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:43:28 GMT

Man, I was so excited when I saw a thread from Blkdog pinned to the top of this forum called Boris Effects Compatibility Chart. That sounded like that would exactly address my question, but if it does, I can't figure it out.

My client just handed me the Boris box set for a Final Cut job. Preferring MC, I was thrilled to see it included those discs. But it's all V.5 and I can't tell (and couldn't find on that matrix) whether I can run it on MC 4.

Point me in the right direction and I will try and complete the journey on my own,

Martin

No Video thru Firewire on Mojo

alvin lowery — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:30:55 GMT

For some reason I can not capture Video thru Firewire on Mojo. It had been working fine. The S video input is still working.

Any help appreciated.

Trial version of Media Composer 4.0.2 won't launch/open

Simon Egleton — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:08:34 GMT

Hi All:I'm new to the forums (but have been around Avid products) Appreciate any help with this.

I spent 3 hours yesterday searching all over this forum and google, looking to see if anyone else is having the same issue and came up with nothing. I cannot get the 30 day trial version of Media Composer 4.0.2 to launch/open (Hardware/OS details below.) Once installed it won't launch at all if my 2 firewire drives are mounted. The application bounces in the dock, I hear an error beep, then nothing.

If I unmount the firewire drives then try again. the application starts to launch, I get to the Welcome screen showing options including "I want to continue running the 30 day trial." I click that and a message about MojoDX and Nitris DX and system sleep appears (not relevant to me as I don't have those connected.)

I click continue and get get an error message:

" File 'P2Proxy' not found." The application then quits.

The eventlog.log shows: 20091024123205 FatalExcpt File 'P2Proxy' not found. 20091024123906 Shutdown Application is terminating normally

Hardware:

MacPro4,1 Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz 6 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Firewire drives:

2 x G RAID 4TB (4th Geberation)

OS 10.5.8

Quicktime version 7.6.2

According to Avid's site,

http://www.avid.com/products/Media-Composer-Software/system-requirements.asp

"OS: Mac OS X 10.5.7 or 10.5.8" (I HAVE 10.5.8)

Hardware requirements from Avid site:

http://www.avid.com/resources/qualified/MediaComposer-Qualified-Apple-Workstations.pdf

"Minimum system requirements for Media Composer Software

Operating System:

• Mac OS X Leopard, Revision 10.5.7 for version 4.0 software (IT SAYS MINIMUM)

Processors:

• Intel dual, dual core 2.66 GHz Xeon (THIS IS THE PROCESSOR I HAVE)

I notice in the Read Me pdf that comes with the MC 4.0.2 download package under the Supported Macintosh OS Chart that it only lists 10.5.7, which is obviously slightly behind the OS I have installed.

Help! Problem after upgrading from 3.5 to 4 - SOLVED

starsitani — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:55:46 GMT

Hi. I had a confusing experience that I will try to summarise to the best of my knowledge.

I purchased in August 2009 Avid Media Composer 3.5 ACADEMIC, after running the trial until expiration.

I activated the 3.5 software and worked for a couple of months.

Now I found out that I could upgrade for free to version 4, but could not find clear information on how to do it. Anyway, I finally succeeded (do not remember exactly how) downloading the 4.0.2 installer and installed it.

In the mean time I received by email an "upgrade serial number".

The problem is that, after installing the upgrade to 4.0.2 Avid did never launch. The system was freezing until I had to force quit it. Maybe my installer was only for version 4.0?

Seeing no possible solution, I uninstalled the software and reinstalled Avid 4.0.2 that this time started successfully. But, when I tried to activate it (ONLINE ACTIVATION, NO DONGLE), it would try to find and deactivate the previous version activation (3.5) and could not find it (because I had to uninstall everything!). So I got stuck.

What can I do?

Please help... I need to finish a work by the beginning of next week and I am desperate.

Thanks and regards,

Simone

New 27" i7 iMac + MC 3.1 succes!

J.Skaf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:53:59 GMT

Hi Everyone:

I decided to get a new 27" iMac i7 , 8gb Ram, that comes with Snow Leopard and an Ati Card... thinking that I would have to switch to FCP for a wile...at least until Avid came up with an update to support: Snow Leopard, the Ati cards or the new Quick time....but...

Against all odds I'm running Avid Media composer 3.1 with no problem at all.

This machine comes with an Ati card, Snow Leopard and Quick Time X...but it works...

Really smooth, fast and looks amazing on the 27" display...

I though I'll just let people know since I couldn't find any info on this...

thanks!

New 27" iMac - ATI graphics support coming?

MAttacca — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:51:24 GMT

Hi All,

I am looking to purchase one of the new 27" iMacs and run Avid MC on it....however the 27" iMac's only come with an ATI Radeon HD 4850 card. Any idea if Avid plan's to qualify the ATI Radeon HD 4850 in a coming release?

Thanks!

Installing MC 3.1.3 on ATA drive

UncleLoud07 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:09:07 GMT

Per a recent post, I am having bus error issues with my G5-MC 3.0 system.

I've been advised to install OS X 10.5.5 and MC 3.1.3 on an internal second ATA 250 drive I have in my G5, then when I'm editing, just boot up off that.

When I try to install, it says the ATA drive does not meet the requirements. Any reason why this may be?

Thank you.

Analog Mojo on iMac?

Edit225 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:28:55 GMT

I'm about to upgrade my Xpress Pro to MC 4 and would like to buy an analog Mojo but according to the system requirements, it's not supported on my iMac (2.33 GHz, 3GB RAM, OSX 10.6.2). Does anyone out there use an analog Mojo on an iMac with no problems? Would Avid just not recognize it?

Thanks.

Canon D5 Mark II workflow

schnitt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:34:24 GMT

Thanks for any info and apologies if a bit redundant (D7 thread).

My deliverables will be internet QTs.

HD footage from D5 Mark II.

I've read I should simply bring this 30FPS footage into an Avid 1080 29.97 project.

Correct? I may be bringing in HD stock footage as well.

Do I understand correctly that what will come from that camera is H264 QTs w/o metadata and

no way to get back to higher res video?

Thanks for any help here.

Color Correction mode not opening - Error

marrian — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:52:38 GMT

Hi,

I'm currently on MC 3.5.1 running on Mac Pro 10.5.6 (2x2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon/12GB 1066 MHz DDR3), and every time I try to get into CC mode, I get the following error:

Exception: AParamItem::UniqueIdentifierToParamID - unable to convert UID to paramID

Does anyone else have this problem? I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Avid. Created new projects. New users. Nothing seems to work. Please help.

Exception: Failed to initialize audio hardware

marrian — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:29:18 GMT

I'm going to quote a previous poster to start:
"I started with the 14 day trial, bought the upgrade and wanted to keep my dongle. The system works fine, but every time it starts I get the warning that software activation failed, I click OK, it goes to the activation page, I choose that I want to keep using my dongle and away we go."
The thread recommended that I uninstall and re-install the Avid. I did that using the original purchased software (3.0) and am now re-downloading the upgrade to 3.5 from my.avid.com. The problem is that when I just want to test to see if 3.0 works, it doesn't. When the Mojo is plugged in, I get "Your hardware has detected a power up error. Please quit the application and power cycle the hardware". When it's not plugged in, I get "Exception: Failed to initialize audio hardware". The only thing I can see being the problem is my version of Quicktime...which is not compatible with MC3.0. Is that most likely the problem? If once the upgrade to 3.5 is downloaded and I install that, will my problems be solved?

Color Correction Not Loading Avid MC 4.03 SL

mburgh — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:08 GMT

All other tools working well, but when I try to load the CC tool i get the following message:

Exception: AParamitem::UniqueidentifierToParamID - Unable to covert UID to paramID

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Mojo needed??

nglasser — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:40:09 GMT

Recently I experienced a electrical blowout...computers, failled,decks, I am starting all over...

My question is do you need a mojo to capture with Sony's PDW-U! or any other tapeless HD acquisitions into the new MC4?

Can I play directly from the PDW-U1 (xdcam) to log and edit without rendering it to the avid system? Or these features only work with a mojo?

Thank you, Nick

Cannot save media to Macintosh HD - system drives and launch drives NOT filtered out

skinheadsooty86 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:08:24 GMT

Hi,

I have just purchased a new 17" Macbook Pro and a copy of Avid MC4. I am currently using the "Pixie and SWL" work-around to run avid on Snow Leopard.

So far I have had no problems opening and working on pre-existing projects on my external drive. However when I create a new project, and adjust my Media Creation settings, I cannot select "Macintosh HD" - it appears greyed out.

I HAVE NOT SELECTED FILTER OUT NETWORK DRIVES, SYSTEM DRIVES, OR LAUNCH DRIVES.

I HAVE A 7200RPM 500GB DRIVE INSTALLED IN MY MACBOOK PRO.

This is my first time using avid on a mac. Are mac's not able to save media to the local drive? or could this be a MC4/snow leopard issue?

Any help would be great.

(:hris

-----------------------------------

Avid Media Composer 4.0.0

17" Macbook Pro /2.8GHZ Intel Core Two Duo / 4GB memory / 500GB serial ATA; 7200RPM / NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512MB; and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared.

Running Mac OSX 10.6.2 (snow leopard)