[Chris Wade]

Thanks for the response. I asked him, and he responded that the MXF files I have now were created with manual settings made to resemble the preset. It didn’t create an AAF.

When that didn’t work, he manually created an AAF from the timeline and sent me that new AAF through dropbox.

This last time he a full export with the preset, which created a new AAF and new MXF files. He then sent me that AAF file, but I still have the MXF files from the original export. Next step will be to have him mail me another hard drive with the new MXF files, and I’ll try again.

Thanks!

[Chris Wade]

Just played a 3 minute sequence from beginning to end. By the end, the audio was almost 7 seconds ahead of the video due to stutter.

This is despite having changed the format to a 2K preset, turned proxy on to 1/16 (512×272 resolution), and adjusted the display resolution of both monitors down to 2K.

CPU utilization during the entire clip was 100%. Temp peaked at 100 degrees C. Not good, especially on a system with an $800 custom water cooling setup on it.

I removed all overclocking on the CPU and saw an improvement in performance (makes me think the guy who did my OC work didn’t know what he was doing). Audio was only 1.5 seconds ahead of video by the end, but CPU utilization and temps still hovered at 100 each.

Even with nothing running and CPU at 1% utilization, my CPU temps are hovering at around 74 degrees C. Something’s not right.

I never would’ve started digging into that without your questions, so I appreciate it. Apparently I have a PC issue. May need to re-seat the CPU. I’m going to do some hardware troubleshooting.

Thanks again! At least it’s not my Avid! 🙂

[Chris Wade]

And wait, with the basic color correction he’s doing, I can import the DRP directly into Avid? What sorcery is this!?!?

[Chris Wade]

Thanks so much for your help (and for everyone’s help!) I found the issue I was having with the DRP export, I thought I had the latest version, but he was running the 12.5beta and I was running the latest official release. Once I updated to the beta, everything worked.

The only issue I ran in to was, when trying to export the AAF roundtrip, it would render out all of the files but then would error saying something like “unable to find C:\Users\Clay\Desktop\blahblahblah.aaf. Export failed.” And then it wouldn’t export the AAF file I would need to finish the roundtrip.

Worst case, i could export everything out in a DCP sequence or something like that, but having the roundtrip would help tremendously.

Thanks again!

[Chris Wade]

Closer to number 4.

1. Start in resolve, create lo-res MXF/DNxHD.
2. Import MXF/DNxHD into Avid.
3. Avid back to Resolve via AAF (so timeline cuts transfer).
4. Relink lo-res DNxHD files to original DNG image sequences.
5. Output from Resolve via AAF using high-res DNxHD files.
6. Open in Avid and export to final.

I’d originally intended to export from Resolve to final and skip step 6, but unfortunately any clips I add effects to (such as image resizing) don’t make the trip back to Resolve, only transitions do. Of course, if the project doesn’t have any extraneous effects, that may be the way to go.

I’m more than happy to use a different workflow if I’m doing something wrong, this was just the workflow everyone else was using in Premiere, with a few alterations to make it work with Avid. But I have to start in resolve because Avid can’t work with 14 bit DNG Raw Sequences (or at least, I don’t think it can.)

[Chris Wade]

Ok, that worked somewhat. If I have the reel name be populated in Resolve using the path/character string and then export MXF files and import the msmMMOB.mdb into Avid, the files come into Avid with the correct tape names. I then cut my rough cut, exported an AAF file and brought that back into Resolve minus the media files and boom, relinking.

Then other problems arose that I think may be related to your question about new vs old AAF files. I exported a new AAf with relinked raw footage as 1080p DNxHD 220 files and reimported it into Avid. Sometimes that footage comes in as missing media, which I’m guessing is because the footage is named the same as the original files. I then tried exporting out of DaVinci into a seperate folder, tried deleting existing MXF files from Avid and then reimporting, I tried a dozen different things. Finally one of them worked, but to be honest I tried so many variations I don’t remember what I did differently. But at least something worked, so I opened up the timeline and it was the new color corrected high res footage.

Unfortunately one of the clips had weird banding at the top. I figured it was an issue with an export error so I re-exported that MXF file from Davinci and tried to bring it back into Avid and it immediately said “Media Offline.” So I shut everything down before I put my foot through it.

I can tell that once I get the workflow figured out in a step by step process, everything will work wonderfully. But unfortunately I can’t find any walkthroughs where someone is shooting 5d Mark III Raw Footage, and roundtripping that footage Davinci=>Avid=>Davinci=>Avid=>Final Output. For some reason everyone using 5d Mark III Raw Footage seems to be using Premiere, and the workflow just doesn’t translate.

I have over 1TB of 5d Mark III Raw DNG files headed my way to edit out, and I thought I would take some sample footage and test it to make sure I could make it work first on a test run, and nothing is working right.

I’m gonna take a break. Thanks so much for the help, guys. If I ever get this working it’ll be because of the awesome folks at creativecow.net. 🙂

[Chris Wade]

You sir, are my hero! That did the trick. After moving my monitors with differing resolutions above the other monitors, Avid ignored them. It will take some getting used to, having to bring my mouse “Up” to go to the monitor that is down and to the right of the monitor beside it, but I can deal with that, at least until I can replace my monitors without matching resolutions.

When I built my PC, I built it to run Premiere Pro, and it does that flawlessly. Now that I’m trying to transition to Avid, I realize I need better video cards, but cost is an issue.

My PC is a 64-bit Quad-core processor, 8GB Ram, and dual video cards, an nVidia GeForce GTS 250 for my main processing, and an nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS, pretty much just for the other two monitors. So far the machine has run Avid with no problems, I’ve only dropped frames when watching full res 1080p video, full quality, on 9 overlying tracks, all with keyframes and unrendered effects. And even then, it only dropped 1 or 2 frames. The cards seem to be holding up fine, it’s just this issue, which apparently is more due to the mismatched monitors and resolutions, because now it is completely fixed. Still, new monitors and dual quadro’s will have to make an appearance when next I’m able to afford it.

Thanks again. I really appreciate the help. Now let’s see if I can learn to use this thing! lol

[Chris Wade]

Anyone? It may be a driver issue, unfortunately there’s not a driver for my graphics card(s) that I can find which is both Windows 7 (x64) compatible AND Avid MC 5.0 compatible. I updated to the most recent, but that’s probably going in the opposite direction. Also uninstalled the newest Quicktime and installed version 7.6.6, but it didn’t help.

Thought I was going to put my fist through my monitor this morning when I switched from the Source/Record Toolset to Color Correction Toolset, not realizing it was going to mean having to spend another 10 minutes just FINDING the timeline, since Avid shifted it way off into space (had to stretch the Avid window into the third monitor to find it), lost half of my bins and made the timeline three monitors wide, and 1/4″ tall. Workspaces don’t work. Toolsets don’t work. Drivers don’t work. Once you get it set up, it works find, as long as you don’t need to change toolsets/workspaces, move anything, rearrange anything, stretch anything or close/reopen the program.

Avid is supposed to be one of the most advanced editing system in the world. You’d think it would be equipped to deal with the most popular OS in the world (since Windows 7 has officially outpaced Windows XP).

Had hoped to figure this out in time to spend Easter with my little girl, but now I’m hoping to figure it out before she graduates. I’m going to go and head-butt a brick wall.