[Carlos E. martinez]

You’re probably talking of a “normal” QT reference export, directly from the timeline. But my timeline was 1440×1080 long gop, because most of my video came from HDV.

So Avid only lets you export that as QT movie. To export it as QT ref you have to mixdown onto two separate tracks: video and audio.

I tried that: converted the video with Sorenson and the wav track onto AC3. Then merged them both as MKV. But the MKV was not recognized as such by my LG BluRay player, that plays my MKVs.

[Carlos E. martinez]

I am mixing footage (on some sequences) in a 1080p/60i timeline: HDV and DV upscaled to 1920×1080.

Even if the DV blow-up turned quite good, and it mixes remarkably well with HDV’s on some cases, it does not in others. So I’m seriously thinking of exporting it all to 1280×720.

I have to export it as a QT Movie (because of HDV’s long-gop), but I can fill 1280×720 when doing so. What I do not know is how to export it as H264.

[Carlos E. martinez]

First obstacle would be that Avid MC does not export as QT Ref if the shots are Long Gop, as mine are.

Second would be that, if I am not wrong, those renderers you mentioned are SD, and I need something that can convert to HD, as I mentioned above.

[Carlos E. martinez]

OK. First of all I’d like a very high resolution video file that I can play from a computer, so I can show it to my client. As such it should play with VLC or MPC.

Later I would need an output that I can put on some HD media, like HDcam or others. I am not too familiar with HD media options, so I welcome any suggestions you might have.

I messed up on my last night Avid export, as it exported the whole time line instead of what I had marked in/ou, probably taking about 12 hours to do so. The timeline was 1h 41 minutes long.

The resulting mov file does not play as it should, so I wonder what I can use to run it.

[Carlos E. martinez]

Just to keep this ball rolling, I must say I may have found the reason of the errors I was having: the video board.

That is the only item I did not follow from Avid’s recipe. My recent upgrade was to a GeForce 9600GT board, coming from a GeForce 7100, which caused me very little trouble while I used it.

Only 7100’s inconvenience is not being able to have full-screen monitoring at full quality, which the 9600GT did have when it was not causing trouble.

As editing got underway and demands scaled up, things must have got complicated and error prone.

That’s my reasoning for now.

I still have one more test, which I will carry out when I finish this editing: using a different driver with the 9600.

[Carlos E. martinez]

Probably a stupid suggestion, but have you tried deleting the two msmXXXX files in the Avid MediaFiles directories?

Then rebooting the program it will remake those files and may get you back what you need.

[Carlos E. martinez]

OK. Nothing against Carol, as there was a great film director called Carol Reed. But my name is Carlos.

Thanks for your tips, Paul. On my try I sticked to Blend 3D Warp and Animatte, but I may try BCC too. First results, for my first try ever, look very promising. But I need to correct a lot of minor details on the matte borders.

How do I soften them so they can blend in better?

As the foreground is grass on the floor and leaves on the trees, that will need some retouching.

[Carlos E. martinez]

This Paint effect looks promising. And yes, the image is static or that would be a real pain if it weren’t.

[Carlos E. martinez]

This will be my first experience with blurring. How do you use it?

[Carlos E. martinez]

Thanks for the honest and realistic answers.

Except for the laptop suggestion, which I do not think might be practical for most location work and because I do not trust firewire interconnection for mobile situations, the others might be the way for me to go.

The firewire interface is also the reason why I do not like portable HDD recording, which is a must for cameras using Panasonic’s P2. Plugging and unplugging that connection is a path for trouble, as I see it, but I might be wrong about it. I only trust locking connectors for serious work.

So unfortunately the waveform option is out.

For the others, except for the light meter, which I haven’t yet tried except for short tests on video work, the viewfinder + zebra + external monitor combo is what I already use. The question is always that of dynamic range, as when I correct down what zebra spots high for me, I may lose detail in the shadows. Which is more critical in HDV than in DV.

And it’s darker areas where less than $1,000 monitors do not behave that well.

When you view it through the B & W viewfinder things seem to be fine, but when you get to the NLE you it seemed a bit “optimistic” too.