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Avid Meridien & FCS2
This was brought up in a previous thread but never resolved.
I’m changing everything over to my new Mac Pro and FCS2 on my home system. I have a number of animations that I use that were outputted from AE using the Avid Meridien codec. The clips will not play in FCS2. I get the usual white screen if I play them in Quicktime player. I’ve transfered the Avid Quicktime components from the older machine onto the mew Mac Pro but they don’t seem to work. I’ve been searching the net for a few days now with no good results. Is there a solution to using Meridien files within FCS2? As a work around I’ve been converting the Meridien files to Animation with alpha files. ti works but I have lots of older files scattered among many projects. It’s difficult to find all of them, convert them and relink the new files. Possible but not much fun…
Running FCP 6.0.2 under Leopard on a 2.8 Octo. Not sure of the version of Quicktime from memory, but I did all of the software updates while setting up the machine so it would be whatever the current Quicktime version is.
Thanks in advance,
Tom -
14 Replies
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You say you transferred the Quicktime components from the old machine, but have you tried simply reinstalling the Avid codecs?
You may want to try that to see if they how up. Something may have been missed when you transfered them from the other system.
Michael.
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To install the codecs it’s a metter of unzipping the codec package and simply dragging the various Avid codec components into the Library>Quicktime folder. They are in the Quicktime folder on the new machine. Since it was a new machine and a new OS I downloaded a new set of codecs from Avid’s website, unzipped them and placed them in the Quicktime folder. The Meridien codec doesn’t seem to work. I even restarted the machine just in case. If I play a Merdien file in Quicktime, I get the usual white screen you’d expect if the codec was missing. I them tried copying the codecs from the old machine just in case something was different. I know that they work on the old system. When I play a Merdien file after copying the old codecs…same result.
Is it possible that the Merdien codec isn’t compatible with Leopard perhaps? Or this version of Quicktime? Something else going on, yes?
It’s not a big deal either way. Just a matter on convenience when editing older projects. I can always convert the files in the old G5 when they come up, but space is tight in my edit room (who’s isn’t?) and I’d like to take the G5 off line eventually.
Tom -
Well, I can tell you that Avid isn’t designed to run on Leopard yet, or with the latest version of quicktime (7.3 is as high as you should go on an Avid), so it’s very likely that Quicktime or Leopard is the culprit. I’m putting my money on Leopard, because there are Avid folks who installed Qtime 7.4 on a PC and the Meridien codecs work fine.
Are there any programs that can search your hard drives and read the metadata of quicktime files to find all the Meridien renders on your system? If such a program exists you could just run a search, move all meridien quicktimes to the G5, do a batch conversion, bring them back and move the G5 out of the suite.
Sorry I can’t be of more help. Good luck, and let us know if you find a solution.
Michael.
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I don’t have Leopard yet so I can’t say whether this is the answer, but it’s worth a shot!
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Video Photographer / Avid Editor / Final Cut Neophyte -
To install the codecs it’s a metter of unzipping the codec package and simply dragging the various Avid codec components into the Library>Quicktime folder.
No. The latest Avid codecs are in an installer. You run the installer, no more unzipping then you manually put them where they go. Sounds like your codecs are not up to date.
The file you will download from here will be called “AvidCodecsLE_1.8MAC” and when you unzip it you will run “AvidCodecsLE.pkg”
— Wes Plate
Automatic Duck -
Thaks Wes.
I did run the installer on the new Avid “LE” package first of all when trying to play the Meridien files. It didn’t work properly. Thats when I tried copying the Avid components to the Mac Pro from the older G5 it was replacing since I know that the Meridien files worked on that machine. I had the same results-white window in Quicktime.
I finished loading the rest of my software on the Mac Pro tonight and have a number of issues to deal with. I can’t get the machine to mount my FirmTek SATA external enclosures with the new IOGear eSATA card. Might be a driver issue. Also Entourage from my older Office X software is crashing like a demolition derby at the county fair. Lots of work to do yet…
Tom -
You clearly have issues, but the issues could be on your end. I use the Avid Codecs on Intel-based Macs and I play back Meridien media.
— Wes Plate
Automatic Duck -
Tom,
Wes is correct. I use the Meridien codecs all the time in a Leopard machine when using AE and rendering out for an AVID system on another machine. The codecs work in Leopard I always check the renders and they are perfectly fine. Sounds to me like you’re coming from a G5 which may have had PPC versions of the codecs and those same versions are not being replaced in your Intel machine with the new codecs. I’d run the uninstaller application for the AVID codecs (just type in ‘AVID’ in spotlight and you should see the uninstaller) Then I’d go into both Quicktime folders (user and main library) and make sure that all AVID files are removed from them. Then reinstall with the link that Wes gave you.
Good luck -
I’m about at the point of just giving up on this one. Ran the uninstaller and got rid of all of the Avid codecs. Downloaded the fresh version of the LE packare (dated Jan of 08). Installed that. Checked that the codecs were in fact in the Quicktime folder like they should me. They are. Opened a Meridien file in Quicktime and got the usual white screen. RATS! No video at all. I’m also wondering whether the Avid codecs should be available in the Export menu of Quicktime as well? They aren’t.
I’m entertaining the idea of just wiping the HD and starting from scratch on this one. It’s a brand new machine that I copied my User folder to from the G5 it’s replacing. There are enough things in this machine right now that are squirrely and shouldn’t be happening. Might be time to cut my losses (three days of loading software…sigh) and just start from square one with a clean install without doing a migration from the old machine. Gee, it worked flawlessly last time…
Tom -
Went to the Quicktime Preferences>Advanced>Show legacy encoders and checked the box.
Now all of the Avid codecs are online. My old Meridien movies are finally playing back! Yippie-Skippie!
I was just about to wipe it all out and start over….
It’s always some stupid thing…
Just happy it’s working.
Tom
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