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AMA stutter
I’m having a problem using AMA. I linked to a volume on my external Lacie drive connected via firewire 800. All the clips are H.264 some are 59.94 and some are 29.97. My project is set up for 720p 59.94. The problem I’m having is all the 59.94 clips stutter and freeze in the timeline but all the 29.97 clips play perfectly fine. I’m not sure if I’m using AMA wrong or if fire 800 is to slow of a connection. Any help is appreciated.
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5 Replies
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Firewire 800 is pretty slow, mixing framerates is processor intensive, and H.264 is very processor intensive. Try transcoding your footage to DNxHD. The firewire drive still be a bit slow, but might work better.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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Thanks I thought about transcoding to DNxHD but then that contradicts the point of AMA
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Well, yes and no. AMA provides a simple way of bringing the footage into the system, but H.264 is a long GOP format and far from optimal for editing from.
P2 tends to be fairly smooth playing via AMA, but that’s largely because it’s an I Frame codec and good for editing. Most long GOP formats will bog down your system because of the nature of their compression, this includes H.264 and XDCAM EX. RED plays slows because their raster sizes are massive.
Think of AMA more as a universal entry way, but that still doesn’t negate the need to transcode for ease of use by the system. Especially since it will introduce the same media management issues that occur on Final Cut systems, if you start moving folders around once they’ve been mounted as an AMA volume. Whereas, once you transcode the footage, they take on the benefit of Avid’s solid media management. I’ve heard there are some color space issues when transcoding from AMA. Just something to be aware of. https://community.avid.com/forums/p/93584/533230.aspx
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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[Sam Winchester] “that contradicts the point of AMA”
No…the point of AMA is ACCESS. The ability to ACCESS the media. And not all media accessed in this way is editable. H.264 for example….it’s a highly complex format. If you do short form…30 seconds or so…it will be fine. But long form? no, gotta transcode.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I suspect MC6 will see improvement with H264, as it will be a 64 bit app.
64 bit NLE’s like FCPX and Premiere Pro can edit it natively, if you have a fast system.
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