Avid: Faint sound – blank white image

[Kenton Vannatten]

I think it would’ve been easier for you to rent a deck and captured the tapes yourself.

But, the extensions that you get when importing the files into Avid are the Avid media files extension (.omf/.aif) Every bit of footage that you import or capture gets these extensions regardless of what it started out as.

Secondly, in some of your posts you indicate you thought the files should have “.DVCPRO” as the extension, codecs don’t determine the extension, the file types do.

I’m with the others on this one and believe the person who captured this footage for you did so NOT on an Avid system (or more frightening didn’t know what they were doing).

Had you gotten it captured on an Avid, the capturer would’ve created some bins and captured the footage. The footage would then live on your hard drive with the .omf/.aif extensions and Master Clips that are representations of the Media Files would live in the Bin. You would NOT need to import anything after the capture process.

You would simply attach your hard drive, and launch Avid. Then open the Bin that contained your Master Clips. This would work regardless of Avid version or tape format.

Where are you located? I’m between jobs right now and could do the job (right) for you… 🙂

-k

Kenton VanNatten
Avid Editor (for hire)

[S. Marcotte]

“the person who captured this footage for you did so NOT on an Avid system”

I’m fairly certain he did it on FCP. I spoke with him briefly today. He said the “white source monitor” problem I’m having is due to my selecting the wrong format and resolution when I start the new project. But I’ve tried every option and I still get the same result, or lack of result.

He did mention the file extensions were .mov. I’ll have to take his word for it, cause they sure don’t appear in Windows, with or without “view file extensions” turned on.

He said he still had some of the files he captured and would try to see what the problem is from his end. Kinda strange, come to think of it. If he captured to my drive, what’s he doing with these files in HIS drive. The plot thickens…

“Where are you located? I’m between jobs right now and could do the job (right) for you… :)”

Very kind of you. But what are the odds we’re even in the same country? I appreciate the offer but I’ll put it off for now.

Thanks – SGM

[Kenton Vannatten]

I didn’t think about the “international implications” when I offered… lol :)\

The bigger trouble is that since he’s only provided you with .mov’s that you have to now import is that you lose ALL of your TimeCode info from the original tapes. You did say that you were wanting to use this footage for logging, but without TC how can you do that? Much less, be able to create an accurate EDL, or even re-capture the footage for an online/up-res process.

By capturing the footage in FCP and giving you the resulting .mov’s he’s basically screwed the future of this project. Sure it’s fine for just viewing some clips, but down the road is where I bet you will see problems.

Kenton VanNatten
Avid Editor (for hire)

[S. Marcotte]

Hello again,

Well there you have it. After dropping useless tips on me (the kind you get at start-ups) they finally stopped returning my calls. I can’t seem to get any more information with regard to their catpuring methods. It’s a big company, too. I guess they don’t like to bother with the little guys. I’m thinking of posting their name and location, not in a spirit of defamation, but just as a “heads-up.” I’m not sure how cool that would be, though. There happens to be a great deal of industry activity, both American and Canadian, up here in Montreal. It might do more damage then it’s worth.

In any case, short of the info I need regarding the capture, I’ll keep barking up the codec tree for a while. Like every one says, that might be a big waste of time, but it’s all I got to go on until I save up for another capture. Maybe I’ll look into Xpress Pro, without the HD (I know a guy.)

Thanks – SGM

[Kenton Vannatten]

As I mentioned before, just find a rental house that has a deck that will play DVCPRO tapes, then you can do the capture yourself.

Kenton VanNatten
Avid Editor (for hire)

[Garyl810]

Unless you capture with Avid, it has been my experience that importing clips is a very sloooooow process.

Premiere however, imports them almost immediately.

I would be very curious to see how Premiere would handle the files…

Of course, if the “engineer” at the post house didn’t import the files properly to begin with, then all bets are off.

[S. Marcotte]

I actually did try it with Premiere Pro 1.5. No good. Always the same result: Good sound, white screen. Time code is there. I’ve come across a dozen “white screen” problems on as many forums. One guy solved it by turning off DirectDraw in Quicktime. Another guy solved it with Mainconcept’s DVCPRO codec, as opposed to Avid’s. Another guy solved it by… well, you get the picture. There appears to be as many solutions as there are cases of it. Unfortunately, none of them apply to mine. Seems to be very, very case-specific.

Thanks for the interest – SGM

[Chin Yew]

Hi.

I’m currently encountering the same problem.

My footages was captured using FCP.

Now I’m at PC; when I open the mov, it’s only flat white,
with no audio.

I’ve searched everywhere in the internet for solution,
but nothing happens. Still white and only audio.

I’ve tried installing ACE Mega Codecs that comes with
Matrox Dvcpro50 codec. I’ve tried disabling the directDraw
from Quicktime.

And I’ve tried everywhere to find the codec dvcpro50
for download, no luck. MainConcept’s dvcpro codec
is too expensive to be purchased.

Have you solve your problem? Got any pointers for me?

Thanks.