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Export to AVI
I admit it, I’m clueless.
Yesterday I turned out my first 30 minute TV show, but it was far from painless. This is my first project on the Mac and also my first major one in FCP. Here’s the problem.
Since I use a Newtek VT4 to export to Beta SP…
And since the VT4 doesn’t speak quicktime…
And since I’m a lot more comfortable at this point with AVI than quicktime anyway…
I used the File/Export/Using Quick Time Conversion, then chose AVI/DV NTSC, and set the various parameters.
Here’s where it gets wierd (I’m skipping a whole lot here).When I export a thirty minute project, all the PC’s say it’s an unreadable format.
When I set the in and out points to half the project, it’s still unreadable.
But when I narrow it down to a third (ten and a half minutes including a bit of an overlap), all files are readable. That works out to between 2.18 and 2.27 gig. Since I am outputting to a linux server running Samba and the PC’s all see and use the same server.SO
I turned out three files, each with about thirty seconds worth of overlap (the middle one with thirty seconds on each end). All three worked fine. I then imported the three files into Premiere, wrote a single avi and dumped the avi to tape via the VT4.
If I didn’t know better, I might have thought that there was some issue related to file size (like when I used FAT on Windows, prior to NTFS), but that can’t possibly be the case, can it?
There was one other issue but because I don’t want it to get confused with this one, we’ll wait.
signed: Dazed and Confused
Ron Moody
Maui -
7 Replies
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Ron,
Sorry I don’t have an answer, but I am having the same problem when exporting AVI’s from FCP 5.1.2 to an external drive. I can export 5 minute AVI’s & they play fine on a PC in Windows Media Player, but like you said anything in the 30+ minute range gets strange. On a PC I can get a 30+ minute clip to play in Quicktime, but not in Windows Media Player. I also imported the AVI back into FCP, and even though it was not optimized for FCP, it played back in the viewer. We may be missing something very basic, but I hope someone has some insight.
Best,
NathanH
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At least I know I’m not alone.
thanks
ron -
I discovered an answer but I don’t like what I found.
I realized that I had gone to Creative Cow before I looked into Apple support archives. What I found there saddened me greatly.
While quicktime can read very large avi files, it can only output a readable avi to about one gig. In other words, while you may have a file that reports the six or so gig that a 30 minute avi should be, only the first gig of it is readable (if that). That works out to about four and a half minutes.
My own experience varies slightly from that, I was able to write files of about ten and a half minutes; slightly over two gig.
The only option as directed by Apple is to output in either mp4 or quicktime format.
Not at all what I wanted to hear. No other option is given. Sounds like a done deal.
I just read that Adobe is going to release Premiere for the Mac again. I wonder if they will get around this limitation somehow?
Sorry, but that’s it.
ron from Maui -
Hi Ron,
I don’t know much about AVIs files (thanks God y work in QT), but as long as I can read in the MPEGStreamclip Help documment, the AVI 1.0 files are limited to 4Gbs size. That means less than 20 minutes if they are DV.
salud,
rafael -
I’m not sure I absolutely understand your message, but let me clarify mine.
On the mac, Quicktime can only output (by Apple’s definition) roughly 1 gig avi files. In my own experience, I was able to output about double that, slightly over 2 gig, all usable, totaling about 10 and a half minutes. Since I had deadlines, I did not experiment to see what the actual limit was, I was unable to use the fifteen minute files but able to use the ten minute ones. Good enough for me in my moment of need, so I broke my edited project into three overlapping pieces and joined them up on the PC side.
As to avi’s in general, there is (to my knowledge) no hard limit to file size. I’m sure there is one, but I’ve never hit it. I’ve created avi’s of 60 and 90 minutes, topping out at roughly 20 gig with no problem (on the pc). I wouldn’t recommend it, Premiere gets pretty sluggish at those sizes, but it usually works as long as you save frequently.
This is also assuming that you’re using the NTFS file system rather than FAT. Under fat all files are limited to two gig, irregardless of file size.
At one point, I thought it might be something related to my linux file server or conflicts between Mac, Linux, and XP OS’s or file systems. Troubleshooting as I did, it became pretty clear that the problem was related to file size. And once I found the apple listing of this wonderful quicktime ‘feature’ of limiting avi output to a gig or so, it all seemed to come together.
Kind of makes you wonder what other ‘features’ might be lurking in the shadows.
Clueless no more, in Maui
Ron Moody -
The absolute easiest and most direct path is to get a PC and use that microsoft freebie app to encode the AVI to whatever specs you need. You can suck the DV in over a network on the fly or coy the file to the PC.
Or invest in a breakout that will work directly with your Macintosh to your Beta. Not cheap but eventually a far better tool if you are going to be using FCP in our shop. Someday you will be free of the anachronism that is AVI.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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Sorry Ron if I mixed you up. I just picked some information from the manual of a prgram call MPGStreamclip. This is very commonly used to export MPGs as QT, AVI etc. In the Help of the application says that AVI 1.0 files have a limit of 4Gbs.
Nothing else.
Salud,
Rafael
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