General Discussion & Off-Topic

XDCAM EX1 : Raw DV or AVI DV

mcs — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:03:38 GMT

Apologies if this is the incorrect forum--but figure its a question easily answered.

I am shooting on a Sony EX1--- need to cut in DV for a particular project. Running Avid Express Pro 5.7.2

The Sony Clipbrowser will export/convert the HD files to DV. There are two options: 'Raw DV' and 'AVI DV'

Which would be better from a quality point of view to ingest to the AVID?

Also---The Sony Clipbrowser version 2.6 ..would it create a superior DV clip to Clipbrowser version 2.0?

Thanks

P2 Clips not linking

GMan123 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:38:44 GMT

I've upgraded from MC 3.0 to 4.0 and now cannot see several P2 clips that were imported using 3.0

There are over 200 clips on the P2 volume in question but I can only link to 193 of them. Is there some limit to the quantity of files I can link to.

Is there a way I can break the P2 card into two parts if that is the case?

Avid 3rd Party Plugins Matrix.

BLKDOG — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:20:07 GMT

This Matrix compares Avid Software versions to 3rd party vendors.

Big news for digital artists...

Adman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:13:56 GMT

The long awaited ArtRage 3.0 to be released soon:

http://www.artrage.com/artrage3.html

SONY introduces NXCAM - AVID now it´s time to jump on the AVCHD train

PeterSchmitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:55:06 GMT

Hi everybody,

Sony will introduce the NXCAM format early next year. NXCAM is nothing else then the AVCHD Codec. So I hope AVID will jump onto the AVCHD track - it is not a comsumer format any longer.

Here is an interesting hands-on article about the first Sony camcorder:
http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=223

Greetings from germany
Peter ;-)

FCP = "reigning market leader"?

Kenton.VanNatten — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:05:00 GMT

I just received the latest copy of EventDV magazine and there is an article "What's New in Final Cut Studio 2009?". The very first line states:

We finally have the latest upgrade to the reigning market leader in the professional postproduction market, Final Cut Studio 2009

On what grounds does Ben Balser, the author of the article, base his claim on?

Read the article yourself at: http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/What%27s-New-in-Final-Cut-Studio-2009-56530.htm

EventDV I find is usually full of fluff articles about gaining ground in the wedding/funeral segments, but they seem to be waayyy heavily biased towards PC based editors and FCP on Mac. They rarely if ever mention Media Composer in any of their publications. It's quite frustrating and it may be time for me to send an email to the editor.

Another switcher story

Haze — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:50:34 GMT

At this weeks LAFCPUG meeting Walter Murch and his assistants will discuss swithcing back to Avid. Should be interesting.

http://www.lafcpug.org/user_schedule.html

Finishing an Xpress Pro (!) Project in FCP

Sasha-ann — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:20:45 GMT

I am a huge avid fan! However, I have a documentary that I have been working on for 4 years (hence the xpress pro - I didn't want to change up a good system mid-edit). I can't afford to do a sweet online, and so plan to migrate the project once I have picture lock to FCP so that I can finish it in Apple Pro Res 4:2:2. Questions:

Can I XML the project FROM Avid to FCP? Everything I have tried to find out about this involves going in the other direction (ie from FCP to Avid).

Should I do a hard print to tape out of avid and then just digitize that back into FCP? That can't be loss-less right, b/c of the dv 5:1 compression..?

Do I need a mojo so I can go 1:1 out of avid and into FCP? I sort of get this, but wonder would I need to rebuild my project in FCP?

Sorry if these questions seem dumb, I am just really stuck, and also, really broke!

THANKS!

AMC 4 - Video presentation

drbgaijin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:22:11 GMT

My apologies if someone has already posted this.
I haven't seen it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm-4GVi8g0U&feature=player_embedded

Regards,

Douglas

Which Macpro?

Solopost — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:26:58 GMT

Title says it all - ready to upgrade to a Macpro, but which one. I already have a 2xQuad-core 3.0Ghz Harpertown with 9Gb of RAM and 1.2Tb.

Fully spec'd for Avid and FCP - problem is a duplicate of this system is difficult to locate. However the newer Nehelam (sp) are available with slower proc speeds, but faster bus/caching.

But is this power really needed? I do a lot of AE & PS work - as well as editing. I am a proponent of the multi-tool workshop (Avid and FCP working in harmony). Have kicked up my use of 720 HD/v work.

I am in the market for a Mac (specifically) so I request y'all limit thoughts, feelings, ideas to pros, cons of which Mac I should go for.

As always, I appreciate any / all assistance with this.

What version of Symphony do I need?

AdamGiles — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:18:19 GMT

Sorry to hijack the thread, but what is the relationship in version numbers between MC and Symphony?

If I'm offlining on MC2.8, should I be looking for a Symphony 2.8+ for the online?

2010 NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL EARLY BIRD DEADLINE OCT 23!

Newport — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:57:58 GMT

Early Bird Deadline approaching!

SUBMIT NOW AND SAVE

EARLY BIRD DEADLINE:

OCTOBER 23

Features $35

Shorts $30

Newport Beach Film Festival

April 22-29, 2010

For more information on submitting, visit www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com

Problems Importing MXF files using XDCAM EX cliprbrowser version 2.6

mcs — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:25:37 GMT

I tried posting on the Avid Express Pro forum but it won't let me.

I've got Avid Express Pro v. 5.7.2. I shoot with XDCAM EX1... convert files to 'MXF for NLE's' and 'import' to an AVID HDV project. With version 2.0 of Sony Clipbrowser there were no issues...import was smooth.

I've recently upgrated to Clipbrowser V 2.6 and after converting to MXF for NLE's i try to import the same as before...only it won't let me import the clips converted with V.. 2.6. I get the following box:

'Exception: MXFDomain_INIT_failed,file::(then the name of the particular mxf clip number)

'Exception:MXFDomain;failed to open AAF-MXF Vo file for reading'

This happened before with an earlier version---2.5 and i thought it was a glitch... any idea why this is happening??

I have a laptop Sony PC ...2.0GB RAM 2.0Ghz processor.... never had this kind of issue before.

m box mini question not that tech.

hotrodrick — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:57:45 GMT

i know im a little bit behind on the times, but i just set up my new pc and the os is windows vista. when I bought my m-box mini the the version of pro tools was 7.3.1 for windows xp. If i were to buy pro tools 8.0 would i be able to use my existing m-box mini ???? i'm so far behind the times lol

SubCap Tool - anchor point bug

editdudes — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:44:10 GMT

In the SubCap tool, the positioning anchor point doesn't follow the text alignment setting.

Align Center should naturally have the anchor point at the center of the text lines, and Align Right should have the anchor point at the right edge of the text lines.

Various users have been reporting this BUG at least since september last year, but this anomaly hasn't been fixed yet.

Also, the text border feature can only be used to fatten the text. Dark border erodes the characters and is totally unusable. Better antialiasing or at least a subtle softening would be nice too...

MojoDX Trade-up is back!

videoguy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:33:51 GMT

Just wanted to let everyone know that Avid has brought back the Trade-up to MojoDX promotion. If you own an old Mojo or Mojo SDI you can trade up to MojoDX for $4,995. Trade-up includes an upgrade to MC4.

Upgrade Avid Mojo to Media Composer Mojo DX or NewsCutter Mojo DX and Save 33%

Got an Avid® Mojo® or Mojo SDI interface? Gain higher performance and real-time editing with the newer Avid Mojo DX interface. For a limited time, trade in your old interface towards a Media Composer® Mojo DX or NewsCutter® Mojo DX system and save 33% off regular upgrade pricing.

Capture SD and HD digital material, experience highly responsive real-time editing, and enjoy SD and HD monitoring using Mojo DX and the new Media Composer 4 or NewsCutter 8 software, the world’s most advanced film and video editing systems. Whether you’re working with HDV, XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra, Avid DNxHD, or a combination of multiple formats, frame rates, and resolutions, both of these systems offer more affordability without sacrificing quality or performance.

http://www.avid.com/promos/mojo_upgrade/index.asp

As you would expect, we're all over it and making it a little bit sweeter.

Gary

Avid Xpress HD and Internet Explorer

Liam — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:44:51 GMT

I have just updated Internet Explorer to version8 (stupid move) and now Avid wont load up. It gets to the stage where it loads audio drivers etc and locks up.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling AVID but this does not solve the problem.

Is there a solution to fix?

Regards
Liam

An Open Letter to Avid - Revisited

Kevin Klimek — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:12:13 GMT

Hey all:

Does anyone remember the "Open Letter to Avid" thread started by Jon Moser in the PC Forum two years ago? It was quite the discussion. You can still check it out here.

Jon recently came to Tewksbury, sat down with Kirk Arnold and the Avid product management team and has spent the past month talking to customers, industry influencers and Avid folks to round out the story.

The piece below will appear in the November issue of Post but is online now right here.

Check it out and feel free to post any comments you might have, including what you think about what has happened over the last two years.

Classic!

CorneScheepers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:55:05 GMT

Real marketing genius

Open letter to avid revisited, the support part

jveekeres — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:32:40 GMT

In the article written by Jonathan Moser on the 1st of November.

http://www.postmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=63930E9D02644EC9A127AF67602DA756&nm=E%2DNewsletters&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=F2B2F1B15FC54898BE62CBD1EF25D5BD

There is this part:

Arnold also had to change Avid’s negative image. “We listen” became the mantra. Customer and editor advisory boards established, customer support became “Customer Success” with a revamped support network. “Code Blue” support was created. “When we have a customer who has a problem with our product stopping their ability to work — that goes to a system when top leadership would call them personally,” says Arnold.

Dear Kirk,

I'm a customer of you. Not your biggest I'm sure but with 15 MC's, 1 Xpress pro, 2 Lanshare's and 1 Unity 5 also not your smallest. The company I work for is also a long time customer and started with an Xpress Elite on windows NT.

I'm trying from around June to have all my systems covered by a support contract through your reseller in Greece. Because of several reasons that process has had a lot of delays. Recently this process has taken a very positive turn and the correct offers are finally arriving and now being discussed internally.

But for almost a year now we are facing portserver crashes. Several visits of the reseller tech. re-imaging, updating the unity to 5.1.1 and client 5.1.2 all without desired result. Due to expansion of the ethernet clients from 5 to 7, 2 months ago, the increase in frequency of these crashes have left us with "a problem with your product stopping our ability to work".

I have also contacted Marianna Montague and posted several posts in the unity forum about the issue and asked her if she could help with getting a helping hand from support. Her answer was that I have to find support through my reseller, who contacts england, who contacts Tewksbury. I hoped for a different response but, as a long time avid and forum user, have the highest respect for her efforts and trust her advice without doubt. Logic of the support contracts and the people paying for support having priority makes perfect sense. So all logs were taken by my reseller and send to england. This has left me with a very unstable system for 2 months now.

And now I read this in the article of Jonathan Moser. Has he mis-quoted you by writing "a customer" while he should have written "a customer with an active support contract"? If so then just delete this post.

Point is that all these statements like "listening, new attitude, retooled technology" have to be backed up with products and services for the customer so these statements are credible. I'm not saying they are not but the feeling I got from my individual experience when reading this passage in Jonathan Moser's article was a big "WHAT????"

Update: avid.com Knowledge Base is back online

Marianna — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:16:13 GMT

Hey everyone....

We’re currently experiencing outages with the Avid.com Knowledge Base. The issue has been expedited to identify the root cause of the outage and we are working on resolving the issues.

I will update everyone once more information becomes available.

Marianna

Partition problems on PC

MIkeFilm — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:35:03 GMT

Guys I don't know what happened but one of my external SATA drives

I lost the partition. My tech guys told me they can't retrieve anything

from the drive, is there anything I can do? Any softwares I can try?

Setup:

HP 8200 3.6

Addonics Pot multiplier card connected to my Esata box.

thanks

Business/marketing question...

Adman — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 22:23:51 GMT

Since many of the users here run their own businesses, I thought it might be useful to get a thread going about marketing and promoting video services. So I'll start off with a few specific questions as follows:

If you were to define the most viable target-market for promoting your services...what would that be? (please be specific).
What do you believe would be the most efficient and effective methods to reach that specific market? (examples might be direct-mail postcards, opt-in email, telephone solicitations, web site, yellow page ads, cold calling, etc.)
What are you doing now to promote your services?
What kind of networking to you currently do? (clubs, associations, etc.)

Also...please categorize your responses according to the type of work you are pursuing...i.e. films, corporate video, wedding/event video, music videos, etc.

This will initially be a sticky for two weeks while we gauge the response it generates.

FluidMotion Edit Tutorial

Ra-ey Saleh — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:10:09 GMT

This is a plea for someone at Avid to make a tutorial really explaining how to edit FluidMotion effects to correct artifacts.

I've re-read the Help and the FX Guide and can kind of get it, but even these don't explain half the parameters in the effect.

From what I gather, most people on here still can't edit these either.

If someone in Avid could put one together I'm sure it would be much appreciated.

The ones on ScriptSync are great - especially the one on StudioDaily - and show that when Avid put there minds to it they can make great tutorials.

Anyway, my fingers are crossed!

Ra-ey

Avid Knowledge Base not working (for me)

Monteur — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:56:48 GMT

Everytime I click on a forum link which leads me to the Knowledge Base, I get a page whith a subject title and nothing else. The page is mixed in german and english. Below is a sample. This has been like this for more than half a year now. Nobody complained about this so far, so maybe only Switzerland is affected by this. Nevertheless it would be nice somebody could fix this.

Thanks.