[Andrew Mckee]

I had a similar experience to this when I only used Avid. Bashing of other programmes and platforms is almost always self serving. Even FCPX bashing is to a certain degree just a defensive manoeuvre. I actually like a lot of its features and for web based delivery of DSLR shot footage it would be the fastest solution out there. For editing a feature, not so much. My solution is just to learn and have access to as much as possible. I have Avid and for features or anything long form I push for that. But I get a lot of little jobs where the client wants FCP because I can give them an FCP file at the end that they can take to the hundred other FCP editors they know, if I’m not available next time. It’s a piece of mind thing. And if a client comes to me wanting me to edit on FCPX, and it will work for the project, then I will.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

No. Its not a matter of the connection. Its the signal thats the problem. To get a video signal out of Avid you need either

1) A Matrox MXO2 Mini
2) An AJA I/O Express
3) An Avid Mojo
4) An Avid Adrenaline
5) An Avid Nitris

They go from cheapest to most expensive. Matrox only works on V5 and up. AJA works only on V5.5.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

No, a computer graphics card will never give you a true TV signal for colour correction.

Yes, the Quaddro should speed up renders and increase realtime playback of effects (although I’m uncertain if its accessing the CUDAness of the card like some other software does).

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

You’re, at the very least, going to have to move to Marquee for this one. Even then, it’s gonna be a fairly manual process. I would suggest After Effects for this type of thing.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

There is no need to convert DSLR footage in another application. Here are 2 ways to get footage into Avid.

1) FIle -> Import – This will import the original movs and convert them to Avid MXF files in chosen resolution.

2) Link to AMA Files – In version 5 or above this will bring in the native files but performance will depend on your system (definitely get better performance than FCP7 though). Most likely you will need to then transcode which will convert to Avid MXF files (although marginally faster than the import option)

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

Sorry, dynamic trimming isn’t all that coveted generally. Its just the ability to play a cut point and then pause to move it to the new position using JKL (so to watch in realtime whilst you adjust the cut). I was just pointing out that its only tiny things that tend to make people go one way or the other.

I would recommend you find someway of testing these out before buying. In terms of system, they both require similar things so maybe buy that first, download the trails and take 30 days to figure out the best one for you? But from what you’ve said I would expect Premiere is going to be your best option.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

If you require good integration with After Effects and the ability to use lots of already owned 3rd party hardware then Premiere is probably the way to go. You can possibly even open FCP5 projects, or at least XMLS from FCP. Personally, I’m an offline editor and Avid just feels the most seamless to the way I like to work. It also has the ability to dynamically trim an edit (which Premiere and FCPX do not), and I couldn’t live without it. But in terms performance and workflows, Premiere is an attractive option.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

Right now, memory won’t make any difference because Avid is 32bit. The vast majority of the effects do use the GPU however. Basically there used to be lots of non realtime effects in Avid, then each release they move more and more of the effects processing over to the GPU and make them realtime for playback, so there are very few blue-dot effects left. GPU should improve the number of effects you can playback and the speed of your renders so I would go for that and upgrade your ram when you get MC6. I believe the Nvidia Quadro line still work best with Avid, but hopefully someone can suggest a specific model for you.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

It’s not something that is generally written down anywhere (except the official Avid 101 course book) because its so camera/footage specific. But heres a quick guide.

1) Create projet that matches timebase, res and raster of footage.
2) Connect camera/deck (either into the computer or the mojo/adrenaline)
3) Deck configuration (add port (OHCI for direct computer link), then add deck – your model (don’t autoconfigure use HVR-Z1))
4) Media Creation Settings
5) Audio Project Settings
6) Capture Settings
7) Open Capture window
8) Capture

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Andrew Mckee]

I have captured HDV footage from Z1s and Z5s countless times into Avid without problems. If there are no timecode breaks, it should just keep capturing. If there are timecode breaks then you can just turn the “capture across timecode breaks” option in the capture settings. I’m not sure why you are running into problems. Mostly when I have seen students run into problems is when they set the raster to 1920×1080 instead of 1440×1080 or have missed something in the setup stage (which is much more involved than FCPs Easy Setup). Avid also has the option to detect start and stops on HDV and DV footage and can create subclips or add markers. The setting is in the Capture setting, under DV&HDV and is called Scene Extraction.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net