Chris Magid
Forum Replies Created
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It comes with both Xpress Pro and Adrenaline. This is a DNA only product.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
Yeah, not really clear from the post. But basically you should be using BOTH the EDC and the n750XGL. One drives the bin monitor and gives you the OGL acceleration on that screen for Marquee and such. The other takes care of the edit monitor and overlay.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
This just happened to me. It was the external drive. Most of those come from the manufacturer formatted FAT32 for cross platform compatibility. It has a 4GB file size limit.
Even if your final file is smaller than 4GB, Premiere Pro 2 may try and temporarily cache an intermediate uncompressed file on that drive.
Also, 512MB of RAM is mighty thin for this sort of application.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
Well, Avid does provide video output via the BOB through After Effects. It does so by installing a plug in called EMP (external monitor preview).
It probably would be somewhat easy for Avid to code a similar version for Combustion. But, they would have to want to do it.
You may still be able to get video out of one of your other firewire ports via a plug in and converter.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
Well, interesting you would mention that. I did upgrade QT as soon as I noticed Premiere Pro 2 is caching a temporary uncompressed QT to create the FLV from. I also noticed that this general error is similar to one you might have when you are running out of disk space.
Then it occured to me that the external FW drive I was trying to save this FLV to was formatted FAT32, which is going to limit file size and crashed the process when the intermediate QT exceded 4GB. The QT is cached here on the destination partition, not where PP2’s scratch disk is set.
Easy fix, I am using a NTFS partition to complete the process without issue.
A very basic computing problem, which bit me in the tail.
Thank you for your reply.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
Avid does not support premultiplied alpha. You will need to use straight alpha in your render settings.
Chris Magid
RTVF -
Think I found a solution.
Turn off video accleration in the TOOLS>OPTIONS>PERFORMANCE menu in WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER.
I think this is a conflict with Nvidia card resources. It may also be specific to the newer 1400 card Adrenaline systems ship with. We never had this problem on the older 980XGL or 1100. But we upgraded, and voila…AN ISSUE.
Seems to fix it.
Whatever you do, do not turn off accleration for the core Nvidia driver in your desktop display properties by accident. The Avid hates that.
Chris Magid
RTVF
chris@gortvf.com -
More info:
After a reboot…and WITHOUT EVER LAUNCHING ADRENALINE…the file also plays back perfect.
Still no good…want to be able to a quick peek at the WMV right after it is created.
Chris Magid
RTVF
chris@gortvf.com -
I would second the above.
Color correction is the first step. Most clients we work with agree. Interesting though that we reduce the dynamic range of video to make it feel like the increased dynamic range of film. It is certainly a trick. Crush the blacks, blow out a few highlights, etc. If it fits your program, take your color correction in a direction of a “look” by using a color wash like the agency favorite “blue-green” wash or the warmer look you would see on CSI Miami. This is sheer “slight of hand”.
Second, newer Avids do a great job imitating the 24fps + pulldown feel of film to video transfers. This is the FluidFilm effect Michael mentioned.
The combination seems to satisfy most clients and we have used it very succesfully to cut video footage into predominately film originated pieces.
Personally, I think adding grain is overkill…unless you want the clip to feel like an effect. Most digital formats when pushed through color correction will develop slight artifacts or noise. This feels enough like film to me. Obvious grain would be an indicator of poorly exposed or shot film. The idea is to go low grain.
IF you like the grain thing…make sure you find a workflow where you can apply this grain before any motion effects. You want the grain moving at your simulated 24fps+pulldown too.
Chris Magid
RTVF
chris@gortvf.com -
The Avid vs FCP thing has been beaten to death. Metaphors have been tossed around like…well…like something that has been tossed around a lot. Neither is going to be all things to all people. Yes, editors are people too.
My take:
FCP is the value leader. Very cost effective and very flexible. It does support more formats and more codecs than any Composer based Avid product. Cheap I/O options deliver up to uncompressed DUAL LINK HD. Great huh.
The software is a jack of all trades. A Swiss Army Knife of sorts. By the way, why is that such a big deal, what has the Swiss Army done lately?
There are effects and compositing capabilities which Avid editors dream of, with the exception of color correction.
HOWEVER! The above does come at the cost of performance, media management and workgroups.
MEANING, FCP realtime is not like Avid realtime. You will do a lot more rendering in FCP. FCP realtime is more like pre-viz. To get to tape, you need to render to make sure all is well.
SO THE BOTTOM LINE: I think FCP is an excellent fit for the project studio workflow. One machine, one editor. The project starts and ends on the same box. Best if it is an all online affair, with no need to re digitize material. FCP can be used in other ways, but this seems to be the least problematic. The sweet spot.
Avid is more of an industrial strength solution. A somewhat restricted bag of tricks, but easier to manage in workgroups, more flexible in project management and more predictable real time performance. Troubleshooting, parts replacement and other issues seem to be easier to solve due to all components being OEM.
FCP vs AVID, really depends on what you are aiming to create and the way you are going about your work. The editor is the most important part of either system.
Chris Magid
chris@gortvf.com