• Avid Media Composer

  MC6 – 1080i footage in a SD timeline

  Posted by Benny Christensen on January 19, 2012 at 7:07 pm

  First of all, as one of the Avid exodus considering coming back into the fold, I am amazed at how much I have forgotten and how foreign it feels to edit in MC compared to FCP.

  So I downloaded the MC 6 Trial and here’s my problem – I need to edit footage shot in 1080i into a SD timeline. But it only squeezes the footage and it then seems to have to blow it up way past 100% and I have to add an effect to position it. This can’t be right.

  This is really straight forward in FCP.

  You edit the footage and you choose whether it is letterboxes or zoomed in. Then you can pan and/or scan the position for the framing you want in the edit window. Render and you are done.

  What am I doing wrong?

  Thanks in advance.

  Benny Christensen
  Producers Playhouse
  Oklahoma City, OK

  2 x 3GHZ Quad Core Intel Xeon – 10.5.8 – 16Gb RAM – FCP 7.02 – KONA3 – ATTO UL4D – 2 x HUGE 320RX – Facilis Terrablock 12D

  Julian Roberts replied 14 years, 3 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  Hector Berrebi

  January 19, 2012 at 7:30 pm

  yup… this ain’t right…

  welcome back to the Avid way of thinking, resolution is project based, not sequence based, and it does kind of suck.

  🙂 with every Avid update in the past 6 years its the first thing i check. it made so much sense in the transition years from SD to HD,
  that the fact it wasn’t introduced then makes me wonder if it will ever be.

  I’d even say its the one thing where FCP7 beats MC with no reply

  oh well… maybe in MC7

  hector

  Hector Berrebi
  prePost Consulting
• 

  Neil Goodman

  January 19, 2012 at 8:03 pm

  there are pan and scan filters in MC or you could probably acheive it with the 3d warp filter.

  Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal
• 

  Hector Berrebi

  January 19, 2012 at 8:32 pm

  Neil, to my best knowledge there are no P&Z filters for video in MC, only for graphic files.
  and 3D warp won’t work either. SD project resolution will resize HD files to SD. if you resize them again, you’re resizing a resize 🙂

  only thing you can do is reformat in the bin and refresh sequence

  hector

  Hector Berrebi
  prePost Consulting
• 

  Michael Hancock

  January 19, 2012 at 8:37 pm

  [Hector berrebi] “Neil, to my best knowledge there are no P&Z filters for video in MC, only for graphic files.”

  You’re right Hector. Avid scales your footage down (or up) based on project resolution.

  Until they offer resolution independence, I recommend blowing up HD footage in an SD comp using 3D Warp or PIP effect to get the framing down (it will look pretty bad), then Automatic Duck your sequence to After Effects and redo the scaled shots there. Render standalone Quicktime files, import and replace.

  I’m hoping resolution independence comes in 6.5.

  —————-
  Michael Hancock
  Editor
• 

  Hector Berrebi

  January 19, 2012 at 8:41 pm

  [Michael Hancock] “I’m hoping resolution independence comes in 6.5.”

  amen

  much needed

  Hector Berrebi
  prePost Consulting
• 

  Benny Christensen

  January 19, 2012 at 9:23 pm

  Okay, so right out of the gate MC 6 is a non-starter for me. Too bad.

  I guess they need to borrow more from FCP 7.

  Benny Christensen
  Producers Playhouse
  Oklahoma City, OK

  2 x 3GHZ Quad Core Intel Xeon – 10.5.8 – 16Gb RAM – FCP 7.02 – KONA3 – ATTO UL4D – 2 x HUGE 320RX – Facilis Terrablock 12D
• 

  Julian Roberts

  January 22, 2012 at 8:59 am

  Until this gets fixed, I make sure I keep Premiere Pro in my toolset – particularly for shorter form and effects heave projects.

  Julian

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