Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Avid Media Composer Corrupt HDV files

  • Corrupt HDV files

    Posted by Ken Pugh on January 13, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    I have some HDV 1080i footage I successfully edited in FCP7 but in Avid 6 when I link via AMA to the folder, some of the clips play fine, others are extremely corrupt, sound out of sync, blockyness all over, Green flashes – freezes – the lot! Is Quicktime HDV a problem with Avid 6 – do I need to convert all the footage – or are there possibly small errors in the clips that FCP coped with, but Avid has trouble with? Checked back and played the clips in Quicktime again and they look and sound fine.

    Be grateful to know if this is a common problem as I’m just starting out learning Avid, Cheers,

    Ken.

    Lion 10.7.2
    8 Gigs RAM
    8 Core early 2008 Mac
    SATA 8T RAID
    FCP 7.0.3

    Ken Pugh replied 14 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Ken Pugh

    January 13, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    UPDATE: I transcoded one of these ‘corrupt’ HDV clips using Avid into the DNxHD codec – and it plays fine. So the problem I guess must be AMA and HDV?

    Best, Ken.

  • Shane Ross

    January 13, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    HDV imported via FCP means that it has been encoded with a proprietary codec that only works if you have FCP installed on that machine. Same with XDCAM QT. And because of this proprietary-ness, even if you have FCP installed on the same machine as your Avid MC, the QT acts funky. Most footage accessed via AMA that you try to edit native will have some issues…which is why it is best practice to use AMA to ACCESS, but always transcode.

    Yes, transcoding is the solution.

    Shane
    Little Frog Post
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Ken Pugh

    January 13, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    Thanks for this. Are there any codecs that can happily be shared between FCP and Avid – ProRes maybe? And if I may ask another – do you advise the correct workflow then as using AMA to preview and trim legacy codec material, then transcode to DNxHD at the first edit assembly/rough cut stage?

    Cheers, Ken.

  • Ken Pugh

    January 13, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    Oh, and I assume that HDV and XDCAM and other non-Avid codecs that HAVEN’T been through the FCP edit system – these will be OK to edit under AMA, or should they be converted too?

    Thanks a ton, Ken.

  • Shane Ross

    January 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    Well, XDCAM comes in two flavors…those from a BluRay XDCAM disk…that needs to be captured like a tape…and XDCAM EX, that is tapeless. Avid AMA accesses the EX tapeless format natively, and you can transcode then…or consolidate as there are XDCAM settings in Avid (this makes them MXF files). HDV is mainly tape based, so that means you’d capture it in Avid MC via firewire…and that will come in as Avid HDV MXF. I know that some HDV cameras shoot some form of tapeless HDV…not sure how Avid handles that. And the JVC camera that shoots XDCAM or HDV shoot it in the FCP only codec…which means you need FCP on the system for Avid to even see it.

    Shane
    Little Frog Post
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Ken Pugh

    January 13, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    I see – I’m beginning to understand it all now – that’s been really helpful, thanks a lot Shane.

    Best, Ken.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy