[Andrew Mckee]

Unless you get used the smart tool? Which could be tempting for someone coming from Final Cut. If you’re gonna learn Avid with the hope of getting gigs in post-houses, its probably still worth learning to trim without it. I’ve seen the same thing of many places still running 3.5 or 4. Thankfully there are very few left on 2 because AMA must have been a big draw.

Andy

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

[Andrew Mckee]

Im guessing its the Timeline window you’ve lost. Go to Tools -> Timeline. Or press Command-0

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

[Andrew Mckee]

I would be surprised if it wasn’t out by the end of the year, but like the others I would think it will be cheaper to crossgrade now and then upgrade later.

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

[Andrew Mckee]

Can i also point in the direction of my own tutorials. First one here;

https://vimeo.com/24923226

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

[Andrew Mckee]

I’m assuming this CD has given you Avid media to work from. The trick is to put the MXF files inside a folder structure on the route of your media drive the goes Avid MediaFiles -> MXF -> 1
When you start Avid it looks in this directory for every connected drive and scans it for media. It then creates a media database for all that media so it knows where it is. A master clip will usually just link if Avid has a matching media file in a loaded database. If not, right click on the clip and select relink. Point it to the drive that the media is on and it should link based on tape name and timecode.

Andy

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

[Andrew Mckee]

It would create them if you didn’t have any audio tracks. The rule is, if you select a source track that is unpatched, it will create the relevant sequence track to accommodate it.

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

[Andrew Mckee]

I believe that the ability to import .mts files in AVCHD format was added in V5. You simply create a project which matches the footage and File -> Import. Now, the important thing to know about Avid, is that an import is not an import in the traditional sense. On import, Avid will recreate media in one of its own codecs (transcode), to the Avid Media Files folder on your selected media drive in the MXF format. You will have to choose, which Avid codec to transcode to. For HD footage like this I would recommend DNxHD (would be 120 for a 25p project, not sure of the data rate for other framerates).

Native access to footage is done through AMA in Avid. At the minute it supports XDCAM, AVCIntra, DVCProHD, REDCODE any quicktime file that you can open in quicktime player (although different codecs will give varying results). It may be worth a try using one of the 3rd party software application that can rewrap .mts into .mov to see if this will allow you to link via AMA and edit natively.

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

[Andrew Mckee]

What is happening here is that you have a stereo sequence track which only stereo source material can be edited to (you can change an audio clips properties by right clicking it and selecting modify if it was erroneously set up to be mono on capture). Because you have two mono source tracks but no mono sequence tracks, it is automatically creating two mono sequence tracks when you edit. The best solution would be to create two mono tracks manually (right click in the timeline) and deselect them before making your edits. If you don’t need them, you can delete them when your done (just deselect everything else and hit delete with the timeline active). Hope this helps.

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

[Andrew Mckee]

Matthew,

Source tracks decide whether the video or audio is sent when you edit. Sequence tracks decide whether the video or audio is received when you edit. To make a series of video only edits simply deselect the audio sequence tracks, load up each clip and edit it in. Whether the source tracks are selected or not will make no difference.

As for the capture, you can only capture through Firewire, a Mojo, Nitris or AJA I/O Express directly into Avid 5.5. Otherwise you are right in thinking you have to use 3rd party software. Any codec that you can open in quicktime will be able to be imported or linked to via AMA. I would think that for something that originated on DV would makes sense to use DV Pal. Although Avid does have it’s own flavour of the DV codec, the standard DV codec should work fine for editing.

Andy

[Andrew Mckee]

I’m assuming you are coming from Marquee rather than the title tool. When you save your second title, just tick the box that says use settings from last time and it will match the bin, media drive and resolution that you chose for the last title.

Andy