AMA playback

[Michael Phillips]

What kind of drive and connection are the files on? Also, are you in green/green mode?

Michael

Michael Phillips

[David Peled]

Thanks,

I use a triple 2Tera SATA II Raid 0 that sits inside the MacPro. Blackmagic’s testdrive give me 185MBS, almost enough for Full uncompressed HD..
I cant tell if it was green/green, or green/yellow. will check it out later this week. I tasted this files on another, Avid qulified Machine (MacPro 3.0Ghz Dual Dual core), with the same results.

These very same files plays flawlessly in quicktime at full screen on the same Machine, Even from their original Drive, a 800FW 1Tera Lacie drive.

I also tested the whole thing without the DNA (MojoDX) connected.

Anyone can confirm that it actually works?

David Peled.

[Michael Phillips]

Try the green/yellow mode for editorial as H.264 does take some computational power to decode. Once edited, render/transcode final sequence to a native DNxHD codec for finishing and mastering.

Michael

Michael Phillips

[Alek Rost]

I am having a similar issue, however I’m working with native RED One R3D media.

I’m running Avid MC 5.0.3 on a Mac Pro 3.0GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon with 4GB of RAM and I’m working off of an external Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB FW800 drive.

When I’m running the Avid with the linked R3D AMA files, either in yellow-mode or yellow-green mode, I experience extremely jumpy playback, sometimes to the point where the memory % in the project’s SuperBin skyrockets and the Avid crashes.

I’ve also been receiving ‘ASpringBuffer TIMEOUT’ and ‘AMAProducerTask::UnableToProvideSample’ errors on a regular basis.

I’ve been trying to find the source of this problem, as I have no issue playing back the 2K or 4K footage in QuickTime directly off the FW800 drive – no stuttering whatsoever.

I have been researching this for quite some time and I’ve been having issues finding a solution. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[Uli Kunkel]

I’ve been prepping an edit for a pilot shot with HDV cameras, digitized into Final Cut Pro as HDV quicktimes. I was hoping that the AMA workflow would allow me to reference the HDV quicktime files. Unfortunately, performance is not sufficient for editing. I’m working off a 2-year-old 4-core Mac Pro with 6 GB of RAM. Basically, if the computer is running ANY other process, it affects AMA playback. While sometimes it plays back smoothly, it’s inconsistent thus insufficient for editing. Any stutter is unacceptable.

Import via AMA then transcode to HDV is what I’ve decided to do. I’ve done tests with R3Ds and ProRes quicktimes as well with identical results.

Unfortunately Avid has sold a feature that isn’t up to snuff yet.

Hope this helps.

Uli

[Jeanne Slater]

I just upgraded to MC 5.03 with Snow Leopard in order to cut several Canon 7D projects. I am running a mac tower with 2×2.66 and 5 gigs ram. I installed the canon xf ama plug in and the avid mxf ama plugin. The linked media has unacceptable jitter and I’m forced to go back to importing.
Interesting because I worked with P2 footage via AMA and it was flawless.
Any idea why linking via AMA to the P2 (on MC v4.) is great but the Canon is terrible?

[Uli Kunkel]

P2 media is already in the mxf format. Canon footage is processor intensive h.264. So native mxf will play nicer with Avid.

[Jeanne Slater]

that makes sense, thanx.
What about the nikon HD dslr?

[Uli Kunkel]

Pretty sure it’s h264 as well. You can confirm that on the camera’s specs page on the website.