New to the softwre, just a few questions.

My .avi files load up as white screens with the audio intact. I have the latest QT, is this the problem? I ran the GSpot program and it says I have all the codecs required for that file. If it is the QT version, which do I need, and if I have to roll WAY back then...

Would it be worth my while to find a copy of Xpress on eBay? (dont want to shell out lots of dough for Media Composer just yet).

Avid Free DV was EOL (End of Life) quite some time ago.  You've told us nothing about your system, other than the QT.  Due to the age of the program, it doesn't support the latest "anything".  Not Windows Vista, not QT 7.5.x, etc.

Please provide full system specs.

Quite right, sorry about that:

AMD Athlon 64 3500

Windows XP Pro SP3

2 GB Kingston HyperX Dual Channel DDR RAM

Nvidia GeForce 8800GTS

Sound Blaster Audigy 4

Quicktime 7.5.5

First off, you need an earlier version of quicktime. I'm not sure which specific one, but user camoscato is moderator for Free DV, ping him and I'm sure he has the answer. You can download older versions quicktime here. The white screen indicates you do not have the codec for that file. You can get QT codecs for Avid here.

Ok, will hang on for the QT version. I already have the Codecs download installed, and the GSpot software says I'm good to go (from a previous post of yours). I guess the hang-up is in the QT version.

Also, would it behoove me to purchase a copy of Xpress Pro secondhand?

Express Pro is also EOL (end of life), but is and still will be supported by Avid for the next couple of years. If you want to upgrade, you should look at Media Composer. I'm not sure what upgrade path there is from free DV, but if you were to purchase a used (AND LEGAL) version of XPRO on ebay, you could then upgrade to Composer for $395.00 for the basic upgrade, $595.00 for the upgrade including the additional plug-ins. The normal price of Composer is $2,495.00, so that's quite a savings and Composer gives you far more capability and features than XPRO.

I'd love to Larry, but I'm only a poor college student. The education version looks appealing, but still a little steep for my budget. Can anyone compare Free DV to Wax (open source editor)? Pros, Cons? Is it worth it to roll back my QT and forge ahead with Free DV?

The educational version of Media Composer is $295.00. It is completely identical to the commercial version of Composer, but without the additional plug-ins. The only caveat is you may not use it for any commercial profit making products. You can upgrade to the commercial version at a later time.

Hi,

Like Larry said, it's your Quicktime version.  The last version qualified for FreeDV was QT 6.5.2 (FreeDV has been dead for over a year).

You might be able to find a copy of Xpress Pro someplace, but be careful, because you'll need a good (meaning "legitimate") dongle with it to make sure it works, and you'll need to transfer the dongle license to yourself, which costs $100.

If I were in your shoes, I'd go with the educational version Larry suggested.  It may seem like a lot of money now, but if you finish school knowing Media Composer, you'll be ahead of other people trying to get jobs who have never touched it.  If you really can't afford it, I'd try rolling back QT and go with FreeDV, because at least you'll learn the Avid interface, and will still be ahead of people with no Avid experience.

good luck,
Carl

camoscato:

If you really can't afford it, I'd try rolling back QT and go with FreeDV, because at least you'll learn the Avid interface, and will still be ahead of people with no Avid experience.

I agree 100%.

Back to the posters original question - I happen to have run into this same problem today at work on my brand new (out of the box today) MC 3.1.1 with QT 7.4.5, windows XP. Also on another similar machine. The avi we were given imports as a white screen. Any ideas why?

Windows media player tells me that the audio codec is mp3 but the section for the video codec is blank. Which suggests to me that it's an unusual video codec that is causing the problem, but then again, if Media Player can play the video - why can't Avid import it???

cheers,

Campbell

Hi Campbell,

You're getting the white screen for the same reason the OP was getting the white screen: Avid doesn't read whatever codec was used to make the video.  The solution is to either recreate the AVI, and use an Avid-friendly codec, or to convert the AVI to Quicktime using an Avid friendly codec.

good luck,
Carl

Avid uses QuickTime to decode and import files. Open the AVI in QuickTime player and see if its able to play it. If it isn't, and my guess is that it won't be able to, show the Movie Inspector in Quicktime player. This will tell you want codec is needed.

Its likely the AVI is using a Windows Directshow filter.

FWIW free dv runs fine on two machines I've got with QT 7.1 There may be other issues, but I'd suspect it's not the version of QT but the codec of the source file. Avid products are picky about the codecs they'll import: the codec may be on your machine, but still not importable. If you can try using another encoder to change the file- preferably to some flavour of DV (quicktime or avi- using the avid codec, if that's an option.) That should import fine.

I have an old copy installed here as well of FreeDV (last available version) and using QT Pro version 7.5.5  Working fine.  There is a habit of using the blanket response of "you have the wrong QT Version" for a lot of things that are not necessaily true exactly.  On the other hand I have had so many codecs installed on this machine that I am lucky it didn't throw up it's hands in disgust long ago but the short of it is, on my 8000 PC with XP Pro (previous life was a DS machine) I can cut and export using QT 7.5.5.

S.