import footage to MC6 without further conversion

[Shane Ross]

Sorry for replying to this late.

Now, because of you lack of familiarity with Avid, you are painting yourself into a corner. First off, you have a very very old version of Avid that doesn’t deal with the media type the FS7 and Alpha 7 shoots, and the plugins for dealing with them aren’t compatible with that version (Nablet plugin). Later versions of Avid can deal with those formats.

But then you shot yourself in the foot again by converting the footage to H.264. First off, that isn’t a codec that’s well suited for editing, and second, that old version of Avid can link to it, but really can’t play that back smoothly. H.264 takes a lot of processing power to play back in real time. SO…because of that, Avid is wanting to convert to media that it can work with, which is the one you are running across. But the issue is, you are converting to a highly compressed format, then to a high quality editing format…two steps that take a long time, and compress the image in a manner you might not want.

Unfortunately, to deal with this footage, you’ll need a newer machine and more recent version of Avid, one that either deals with this footage or can use the Nablet plugin. OR…you need to use an application that can convert the footage to a type that Avid can import easily, and with little compression. Handbrake is not it. Not sure what would be viable, until I know what machine you are using, and how old the OS is. It might prove to be a very tricky thing, depending on these factors. Shooting with current, high end formats, but editing with old hardware and old software.

[Shane Ross]

So, bottom line…you need to find an app that is compatible with your current OS and computer (what are those, by the way? What computer, what OS?) that can convert the files to a type that Avid Media Composer 6 can import. If you have an older OS, this will be tricky as those are more modern cameras and formats.

[Bjørn Rosewig]

Hi Shane, thanks a lot!

Yes, I´ m aware of the fact, that this is an old version. But I worked in the audio departmend for years now an I trie to “expand” to video editing. One of my favorite customers uses MC6 until now. So that is a good compromise to get started with MC6. (Cheep version that runs on my system) I am absolutely aware, that this is nothing for future like this is now. This is just for teaching myself.
I have a dell xps 420 with an intel quad core 2.4Ghz q6600 and an amd HD4890. and 8GB Ram. Yes this is an out of date machine, but when the step into that section is successful I buy an up to date machine. But now i am more in the situation of getting experience an learn to know what equipment I will need in the future and what not.

I was thankful for getting that amount of stuff. so, ok, once again, I have to learn. 264 is not good for editing, what shall I take better? 265? What do you think in my momentary situation, how shall I convert that 4k stuff in a way that my mc6 could cope with that? Ideally with AMA, so that I can skip “import” or transcode.

Thanks

[Glenn Sakatch]

I would see what version of Resolve you can get to run on your box. MC6 is so long ago, it would take some experimentation, but you should be able to use Resolve (free) to transcode, with proper timecode, to a better codec/format. Perhaps dnxhd, or mxf op1a, which is the same thing that Avid would create if you were to use the import function, or mxf opAtom, if MC6 can ama to those files in the first place. Im assuming Dnxhr would not work with MC6…but again, been a long time.

If you can get op1a’s created, there are plenty of tutorials around telling how to get them into the system.

[Bjørn Rosewig]

Thanks Glenn,

well yes I tried resolve but I have some problems. I installed down the versions to 12.5. That version works with the system, but there is one big problem.

The stuff I import to transcode in resolve is 4k. Resolve answers by draging sth in the time line to transcode with „gpu memory is full“. Ok, I can go further but by clicking that away. The thumbnails resolve shows me are in colerful snow and when I transcode the file I have that snow mixes with pink and purple silhouttes of the content in my file. Nothing I could use in that way. I‘m not sure whether I did sth wrong or the problem is with resolve. If resolve would feed that damn footage, that would be a briliant solution. I tried mxf op1aand it does not work with ama, but it worked with import really fast.

[Paul Carlin]

Shane Ross summed it up pretty well. Your hardware limitations have boxed you into a corner. You need to ask yourself, “What is my time worth?” In the Time, Money, Quality triangle you can only pick two. You are trying to have all three. If you pick time and quality, then you are going to need to spend some money and upgrade your hardware and software. Perhaps you can just upgrade the GPU until you can afford a new system?

Converting to DNxHD is going to be the best choice for importing into Avid. If your system is really old, you may need to convert to Avid Meridien Uncompressed and work in letterboxed SD. This codec can be “fast imported” into the Avid if you select the 601/709 option in the Import Settings dialog box and import the video as 1:1 OMF into an SD project.

[Per Scaffidi]

Without knowing all the details, I agree with everyone above. You’ll need to find software that works with your system to transcode to Quicktime DnxHD, which MC should be able to fast import. <font face=”inherit” style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>I would recommend these options depending on what your </font>situation<font face=”inherit” style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”> is: </font>

<font face=”inherit”>1) Did your MC6 come bundled with Sorenson Squeeze?</font>

<font face=”inherit”>2) Adobe Media Encoder</font>

<font face=”inherit”>3) Shutter Encoder is a </font>great<font face=”inherit”> little app. Haven’t used it to transcode to DnxHD though.</font>

[Glenn Sakatch]

You don’t AMA to op1a files. As i said in my original post, there are plenty of topics around telling you how to use op1a files. They would probably work best for an older system.

Is your Resolve project set to 4k or HD? I would set everything to HD, set your scale settings to full frame crop, and output HD op1a’s…again, if your system can handle resolve.

You could also try some of the free encoders out there, like shutter encoder, but I don’t know that you will maintain your timecode.

[Bjørn Rosewig]

I found a way to convert the footage from 4k to hd (mpeg4), than transcode to dnxhd185. that works good with ama.

Yes you are right. My system is out of date and that causes a lot of problems. I´ m just planing and calculating an new maschine. I just wanted to wait for that moment that I am good enough to be book from my customer for the first jobs (on his system). So I have a real reason to spend money for a new system.
I guess I will be so far in 1 or 2 weeks.