• Avid Media Composer

  faster watermarks

  Posted by Joe Huggins on October 3, 2011 at 3:27 pm

  Avid Gurus,

  I can make a clean H264 file quickly by exporting from Avid a QT Ref movie then using that and Matrox Max to make an H264 file. An hour file is done in maybe 10min.

  But I have to make a ‘property of’ watermark to an H264 file. Now I have to render a ProRes QT first, (almost a full hour) then use Max to make the H264.

  Is there any faster software/hardware way to add a super without a full render step?

  Thanks, Film Joe

  Michael Hancock replied 14 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 8 Replies
• 8 Replies

• 

  Mark Spano

  October 3, 2011 at 4:18 pm

  If you have Compressor, you can add the watermark in the encoding process. I think some other applications have this feature as well – but Compressor is what I use for this (under Filters / Video / Watermark).
• 

  Joe Huggins

  October 3, 2011 at 7:36 pm

  Mark,

  Not sure that works. If we have Avid mxf media and render a QT ref movie, Compressor can not add the super. Every frame comes out black with the super. (in FCP a QT ref movie does work, but not from Avid media). Is there a setting I can change to correct this?

  Thanks, Film Joe
• 

  Mark Spano

  October 3, 2011 at 8:08 pm

  I’ve never seen that happen – but I have seen weird QT refs out of Avid if I don’t check the “use network references” in the export dialog. I’ll have to do some tests to see if I get the same behavior as you.
• 

  Joe Huggins

  October 4, 2011 at 2:02 pm

  Mark, to clarify- The problem here isn’t the QT Reference … I can open and play it fine. But once I go into compressor and make an H.264 from that reference file all I have is a dark image of the first frame with the title burn. Checking “network references” does not seem to affect it.

  Do your tests confirm this? Would Sorensen of some other software from Avid third parties fix this? Let me know if you have any ideas.

  Thanks, Film Joe
• 

  Mark Spano

  October 5, 2011 at 1:36 pm

  I haven’t had a chance to test yet – been quite busy (luckily). When I do I will post here.
• 

  Michael Hancock

  October 5, 2011 at 1:40 pm

  [Joe Huggins] “Would Sorensen of some other software from Avid third parties fix this? “

  Sorenson can add a watermark to your footage, and it reads Quicktime Ref files just fine.

  https://community.avid.com/blogs/training/archive/2008/07/11/how-to-add-a-watermark-to-your-compressions-in-sorenson-squeeze.aspx

  —————-
  Michael Hancock
  Editor
• 

  Joe Huggins

  October 5, 2011 at 2:08 pm

  Thanks Michael,

  Does Sorensen work with the Matrox Max accelerator though? Compressor can add a watermark from a FCP file, but not Avid mxf media. I take it Sorensen has no problem coming from Avid mxf? Our techs don’t use Sorensen, but it comes with MC right?

  Thanks, Film Joe
• 

  Michael Hancock

  October 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

  I don’t think Sorenson works with Max, unfortunately. But it’s a pretty fast encoder and if you have a copy (it does come with Avid) it would be worth testing.

  Just export a quicktime reference and drop it into Squeeze, make a new preset or use one that fits the output you need, and start a compression. I believe it tells you how long it took encode when it’s finished, so you can walk away and come back. It probably won’t be as fast as Max, but I imagine it will be a lot faster than adding a watermark in Avid, rendering for an hour, then using Max.

  —————-
  Michael Hancock
  Editor

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