Avid Symphony

Using Sorensen 6 and Symphony Nitris DX

bigrob — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:53:52 GMT

Have just begun to investigate using Sorensen 6 for exports. One thing I notice:

There are a bewildering amount of options to use for MP4 exports or QTs.
If I export an HD-1080i sequence (1920X1080) as a regular QT movie (not using Sorensen), this QT file then is able to be imported by another of our Avids with no signal degredation.

Yet,if I export the same sequence using Sorensen Squeeze, and then import the exported file into Sorensen Sqz 6 ,using the QT 480p (16:9) and Video MC H.264 format (for instance)...I see a large singal degrade when I then import the file back into my Avid (or somebody else imports it) after SS6 is done converting it.

And, no matter which format option I choose (QT or import), I see the same signal degredation...or worse. Pix always looks soft and has a "low-rez" appearance to it.
Again,I'm a newbie to Sorensen...does anyone know what is an optimal setting to use when importing hi-rez exported QT files into Sorensen? I'd love to be able to use a Sorensen-finished file and have it be "broadcast-ready" in appearance. Not to mention, since SSQz makes the files smaller, that's great for sneding the files via email....another reason I'd like to use Sorensen.

Thanks for any tips. BY the way: we use the DNX HD 145 MXF codec with our 1080i work in our Avids. I don't see any matching codecs in DD6 for this particular codec. Should there be one? OR...is it simply better to keep using exported QT files directly to import elsewhere in our Avids and NOT use SS?

Rob NYC

Importing AVC-Intra 100 QT's

zakcarr — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:22:02 GMT

I have a series of AVC-Intra 100QT's without any associated p2 data. I believe that the QT's were originally used on an FCP system and we were given their working folder structure and I now need to import them. AMA linking obviously won't work as there is no P2 data and they are AVC-Intra 100QT and not AVC-Intra 100MXF.

I also attempted to flip the files to DVCPRO HD with Sorenson 5 but it would not accept them.

Any suggestions?

Avid Symphony DX 3.5.9 Vista

AMA relinking (Mac MC to PC Symphony)

Dom Q. Silverio — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:36:49 GMT

We have bunch of P2 media imported via AMA link volumes.

Edited in Mac MC v4.

We are trying to relink it in the online room (PC Symphony v5, Vista 64). I can't get it to work.

Are there particular steps to take?

TIA-

digitizing dvcpro hd at 23.98

stevejones — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:44:46 GMT

We have a client who shot a show on dvcpro hd in 24p mode where the camera adds pulldown and records at 59.94

They have international deliveries so want to offline and online at 23.98

Offline at 23.98 ntsc no problem, the pulldown is removed on ingest, but when it comes to the online can the same thing be done at full hd resolution?

Is there a setting in the capture tool or is there a specific deck that will remove the pulldown?

One of our competitors claims to be able to do it and I know FCP can do it but I was not aware of how to do it in avid

i thought of digitizing in a 59.94 project then modifying to 23.98 but then they would first have to offline at 59.94/29.97

and they are adament about offlining at 23.98

Any ideas?

Thanks, Steve Jones

5.02 zip file missing stuff

stevejones — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:33:07 GMT

Trying to install the Symphony 5.02 downloaded from the Avid site

keeps giving me error messages about missing files

Is the zip file on the Avid site messed up?

Has anyone installed it successfully?

Title tool positioning shifts from Media Composer to Symphony

kent_bassett — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:28:28 GMT

When passing chyron titles from offline to online, the text shifts. In Avid Media Composer offline, 2-line texts (top and bottom) lined up perfectly vertically, but when we bring it to online (symphony), the texts shift slightly and no longer line up. Since we have hundreds of titles that have to be re-created, it wastes hours of online time to fix each title.

Both systems are PC xw8600s. In offline, we create titles at 10:1m in a SD project, in Online, we recreate them in a 1920x1080i HD project. In symphony, the titles look lined up when opened in the title tool, but when saved they shift so that they are no longer lined up vertically. Perhaps this is simply a symphony issue?

We didn't have this problem before we upgraded from Avid 3.0.5 to Avid 4.05 for both Media Composer and symphony.

Thanks,

Kent

Confused by audio mixdowns in Nitris DX version 5

MT Eli — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:14:46 GMT

My Symphony Nitris DX at work just got upgraded today to version 5 (I work nights...support works days...so imagine my surprise). My primary job is to finish edit shows and get them to tape for ship. One task is to mix down the audio into an 8 channel mix.

Channels 1 and 2 need to be "full mix stereo." Channels 3-6 are mono mixes, and channels 7 and 8 are "stereo music."

My problem is with the new format for stereo mix downs. The problem is 2 fold.

1. I usually have channel one set to stereo mix left and channel 2 set to stereo mix right, so that when I output to tape in direct out mode the full mix is on channels 1 and 2, L/R. How do I do this with the new mix-down setting my stereo mix to just one channel?

2. I can't seem to over-write with my stereo mix-down. Usually I would create my mix downs, then copy my sequence to an output bin. On the copied sequence I would move my "full mix stereo" channels up to channels 1 and 2, overwriting the unmixed audio. For whatever reason, when I'm in "red arrow" overwrite mode, Avid will only let me move the stereo mixdowns left and right...but not up to a higher channel. Mono mixes move up just as before.

Where am I going wrong?

Show UNC Path in Bin?

Steve Pomerantz — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:47:17 GMT

I work on a show that is a 1 hour documentary series, and about half of the shots come from imported CGI and stills.

I would like to add a column to my bin view showing the UNC path for imported graphics. According to the help menu, it should be available in my bin headings, but when I go to bin headings, it isn't there (not even greyed out).

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Steve P.

horizontal tearing on QT exports etc.

jdw — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:51:25 GMT

I have a sequence with color correction. When exporting a QT ref and running it through Sorenson for MPEG2, the picture gets clean horizontal separation on motion--basically tearing. Tried exporting a QT, and it is there as well. Tried mixing down the sequence, no fix. Exported the MXF and had another system create a QT, same problem. Anyone seen this?

Also, playing out to tape is fine.

SN 4.0.5

OS 10.5.8

export to xdcam

dakes — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:11:22 GMT

hi all - wanted to check if others are having the same prob.

just got new symphony nitrus v5 and i can't send to xdcam. we have a pdw-u1 and i towrks like a traet o the AVID MC v4.

we have all the latest drivers and firm ware for the xdcam unit and computer as well as the latest v5.0.2 update.

thanks in advance for any avice / help

dakes

The 444 option is greyed out?

Michael16oz — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:41:48 GMT

On a Ver 5.02 symphony and I can seem to acess the new 4:4:4 option?

I'm trying to create a 1080p 25f 4:4:4 project

any ideas

thanks

Michael

Manual

Arnie328 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:08:03 GMT

Are any User Manuals for Symphony posted online?

Thanks

Arnie

Timeline settings question

Nimrod Erez — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:18:04 GMT

I just had a new Symphony installed today and while I'm absolutely thrilled to using it on the next film I'm editing I did find it quite annoying that Avid narrowed the track color and background color selection to a few (and terrible) colors. Is there a workaround? I'm so used to working with a black timeline background and hate to switch to NAVY!

What was it about the previous color selection that made Avid decide it's not worthy to be included in the new version?

Symphony CC Problem

Michael Wolf — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:13:02 GMT

When coloring by Source Clip Name, all is well. I then change one of the clips of the same name to color by Master Clip to tweak it a bit. I then adjust one of the previous clips colored by Source Clip Name. Now all the clips with the same Source Clip Name that were changed to be colored by Master Clip revert to Source Clip name and adopt the newly adjusted setting.

This should not happen. Any clips set to Master Clip should stay that way regardless if clips with the same Source Clip Name are adjusted.

I seem to remember in a previous version this being the case.

AAF tools...

DMcL — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:13:22 GMT

We use AV Transfer to do a quick QC on AAFs. It's been a great way to check them if we are sending out of house. Are there any other programs that can do this? Just wondering. I know I could always just reimport them into Avid but AV Transfer is a quicker alternative. Thanks.

Avid and Filmlight?

Josh Petok — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:45:05 GMT

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I do find this to be very interesting:

http://bit.ly/b8uh31

A software only version of baselight was revealed at NAB. "Baselight for grading, finishing quality of DS" Not sure where Symphony fits in that dynamic.

I'm not insinuating that the sky is falling or that Avid is killing off Symphony. I just found it very intriguing that Avid is promoting someone else's CC tool.

23.98 imports glitch

stevejones — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:05:35 GMT

I never seen a post on here about this but I've encountered it on various symphonys and even with version 5 it's still there

maybe because no-one has mentioned it

We online several series shot on HDcam at 23.98

the offline is done in a 23.976 NTSC project, and we get the bin with the final sequence to conform

In order to digitize HD tapes from the sequence we have to modify it from 23.98 NTSC to 23.98 HD

However when we do this it totally screws up any non tape sources, files to be imported

Generally if there are say 20 different files it ends up using about 5 of them and replacing them in the sequence over and over with the same 5

Our workaround has been to do the imports first, then modify the sequence and digitize the tapes

Just figured out it screws up 7D too, the 7D was imported in the offline, V5 wasn't out at the time to use AMA for 7D

Has anyone else encountered this and if so is there a better fix?

Thanks, Steve Jones

SD to HD w/ Captions

kmcampbe — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:50:10 GMT

I have a project that was brought in at 1:1 MXF in SD that has captions on it. I need to spit it out in HD with the captions, any suggestions on how to do this? If I switch the project format I'm losing the captions.

Thanks for the help,

Kelly

HP xw9300 memory issue

stevejones — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:03:06 GMT

Running our second symphony nitris ds on an HP xw9300

we have 4 gigs of ram but windows 7 64 bit is only accessing 2.64 of it

needless to say it's pretty slow

just ram memory diagnostic it says all is fine

how can i access the rest? is the a bios setting somewhere?

we're getting more ram next week but it's pointless if it's not being accessed isn't it?

Thanks in advance for any help

Export Quicktime w HD Closed Captions

Abeyta — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:32:42 GMT

I am looking for a way to verify HD closed captions from an exported quicktime file from the Avid. Since Symphony 5 doesn't have the ability to decode captions from the data track internally I was hoping there is a way to export a same as source quicktime file and have quicktime player decode the captions for verification. Quicktime player is supposed to be able to decode CEA 608/708 captions but so far I am unable to export a QT file from Avid that shows the HD closed captions when played in QT.

Does Avid strip off the VANC data upon export or is there a special export setting that I have missed?

Will archive to tape in an HD project come back?

Michael Wolf — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:54:44 GMT

And why was it removed in the first place?

Export Quicktime Reference as one file.

the_don — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:39:35 GMT

A simple question: Can Symphony/Media Composer (3.5.1) export a quicktime reference as one file muxed, rather than a .mov and .wav?

Project Back Up?

Billy Mac — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:45:36 GMT

My department consists of three Symphony Nitris DX and two Media Composers that sit on and Isis system with interplay. We also work exstensively with After Effects and CS5. Our back-up procedure is this. 1) Consolidate our Final sequences to a Local drive copy, place a copy of the Bins and project on the Local drive. And then copy all the files on this Local drive to a Sony BluRay Disk. If the disk is formatted in a Sony PDW-1500 the the user data file is fully open to Read/write/execute. This is a time consuming process! Is this what that majority of the Avid Community does for backing-up projects? Any input is welcomed!

HD Output Anomaly

Simon Coldrick — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:11:07 GMT

System spec:NITRIS DX BOB, SYMPHONY V3.5.1, HP8600. sequence: 1080i 50

I am experiencing a really strange problem when outputting to tape via HDSDI. When I view the signal straight from the DX BOB onto a scope I get a clean legalised signal as I do EE through a deck, but when I play that signal back off tape I am getting really nasty spikes with crushed blacks and high luminance. despite all vtr outputs set to preset. I checked back the tapes on a vtr at another post house and the errors are recorded.

The sequence was played back via an Eyeheight multidef legaliser and I am confident it was doing it's job. Even so, I tried tests bypassing the eyeheight and opted for avid's internal safe level limiter and the just the color corrector with clipping set. I have tried different cables. I have tried 3 different vtrs:HDWS280 HDCAM, PDW-HD1500 XDHD and a HDV deck all via HD-SDI with the same problem. I tried playing out on a DX Mojo at a different post house with a later version of media composer, and they experienced the same problem. Needless to say we tested different footage.

The local avid reseller thought it was a deck problem but 3 different HD formats and 2 edit suites later and the same problem?? I can't help but feel this points to a combination of avid hardware/software. All three vtr's were Sony and 1/2 size units rather than full studio vtr's.. coincidental, I don't know. there appears to be a similar problem as per this thread but I have tried altering the HDMI and component outputs with no change. http://c2.avid.com/forums/p/77185/430973.aspx

I have had a four independent engineers/sales/editors have a look but with no luck in resolving this so any ideas greatfully accepted ??

Clear Mark Ins and Outs

Michael Wolf — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:53:41 GMT

Would be nice to be able to clear all the marked ins and outs on selected clips in a bin. Like we can now set the Pan and Gain on selected clips in a bin.