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Slow AMA playback with Alexa ProRes 4444 footage
Hey, guys. I’m working with some Alexa footage that we just shot and trying to cut with AMA like I usually do with Red footage however my AMA playback is extremely slow and choppy. I tried changing the playback setting at the bottom left corner of the timeline to the “yellow” or “yellow/green” settings to make a lower resolution, but even when i do this the playback is slow and choppy. I just downloaded this Alexa plugin but it didn’t seem to help either: https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en435111
This problem is the same with 2K and 4K footage so I’m guessing it isn’t the resolution (especially since my AMA works so well with Red 6K footage) that’s causing this problem? Is it the ProRes 4444 codec? I know Avid never really seemed to like ProRes files back in the day, but I had hoped that changed by now.
Does anyone know how to make the proxy settings even lower res? Or will that even work considering I tried to go down to NTSC and it STILL was a bit choppy?
Is there any solution other than transcoding? Does anyone know the best setting to shoot with an Alexa Mini for a post workflow with Avid and Davinci? Or is there no way to read Alexa footage via AMA at all?
So many questions, sorry guys. I await your geniuses anxiously, thank you so much!
– James
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7 Replies
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What hard drive is this on? ProRes 4444 is a VERY high data rate.
Shane
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I would guess that the culprit is that these files are being linked via Quicktime. Which is a dog.
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On a Lacie 4Tb usb 3 one, here’s a link for it: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lacie+4tb+usb3&tbm=shop&spd=7622032990251087817
I’m even having trouble transcoding now 🙁 I’m in a really bad spot here… don’t know what to do :/
I heard that other Alexas can shoot straight DNxHD but I don’t think the Mini can, as far as I know…
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How do I link them any other way?
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Also, do you think shooting at 422 or even 422HQ would greatly help the problem?
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expecting perfect playback performance on 4k material might be unrealistic for many systems. If you are using this same drive for R3ds, I’m surprised you are not seeing issues with that as well, unless you have the debayer set quite low.
As there are many posts talking up the virtues of transcoding, I will skip that suggestion.
You ask if there are other shooting formats that would be easier to work with? Yes there are. You’ve named them in your post.
There are 4k file types out there that are much easier to work with than others.
Always a good idea to do some good testing when working with camera formats you (or your system) are unfamiliar with.
Glenn
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