Craig Hirshberg
Forum Replies Created
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Matthew,
I’ve heard that the Quantum drives are “MXF aware.” I’m not entirley sure what this means, but was that a factor in your purchase decision over any other regular (and possibly less expensive) tape drive?
Curious what the benefits of that are.
Craig
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We have the same problem and I have yet to find the perfect answer out there. As far as being “slow” do you mean on import or actually editing with the footage? As far as getting it into our system (and by the way, we never just import straight to the system off the P2’s like the folks at Panasonic like to show you because it makes it look so fast and easy, we copy from firewire drives we had in the field), we’ve opted out of using the “Import P2, Import P2 media) because, even without a transcode, we found it took about 3 times longer than simply copying the MXF files straight to the editing drives into the AvidMediaFiles folders (folders 1,2, etc), then just opening up the media tool and dragging the clips into a bin. I would suggest making a new numbered folder for the project, or per card if you want to keep things straight.
There is another great option if you plan on purchasing the HPX3000 or 2000 for future use – PROXIES. We don’t do it here because our HPX500 doesn’t have this option, but the 2000 and 3000 have it. If you look into the Contents folder of the P2, then the Proxies folder, you will find low res mpegs of what you shot that have matching timecode (I think) You can import the low res, edit, then later online it with the full-res HD.
I’ve heard that producers can even email or upload the proxies to a server from the field via blackberry, then editor downloads and begins cutting almost instantly. Pretty cool. You should look into it to see if it fits your workflow.
Good luck!
Craig
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I have noticed that 3 daisy chained drives seems to be the max. But at times, I run into problems mounting just one drive, on a completely different PCI card than the integrated one, which I use soley for the Adrenaline box or MOJO, depending on system.
It’s really annoying having to turn drives on and off all the time. And the most annoying thing is that it’s completely random, making troubleshooting very difficult. Too bad you have same problem on a Mac, I was hoping that was the answer.
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I will have to get back to you on that one. We’re still in the learning stages here at Cluster#%*! Productions. We have two offices in two different states, and I’m not in the one with the Adreniline that has the new HD board. This was all digitized by someone else before we even had the board, and I’m not sure what the capabilities are for upconverting with the Avid, and whether or not the board makes a difference in that situation.
If it’s possible to upconvert the SD footage, I’d love to do that, and hope it would look good. What is your experience with this? Does the upconverted SD footage look OK? I’ll be using ESPN X-Games footage shot on Beta, so it’s at least starting out as a high-quality product.
It may take a while to get back to you on this, is there another way I could contact you down the road? Or can I just respond to this post again?
Thanks!
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Jeremy, as of late, I would never assume that I know what I’m doing. Our company’s just now making the switch to HD, so we’re open to suggestions.
Right now, I’ve brought the SD Beta footage into the Avid at it’s native dimensions, but “force-digitized” it at the same frame rate (23.976) into it’s own separate project. Then I open that bin up from the HD project and go from there (for an offline). Also requires me to resize the footage to 4:3 dimensions – I foresee issues with this later…
As far as what to do later, I’m completely open to suggestions. Figured I’d jump that hurdle when I got there.
I’d love to hear the “correct” answer to this problem. I’ve done research on it before, but haven’t received any solid, definitive answers.
Thanks,
Craig
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720p/23.976 shot with Varicam
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Thanks guys for your input and positive coaching! I’ve been playing around with a couple things, I like the lines and empty boxes ideas, as well as keeping the eye candy secondary. That’s enough to get me going and out of my rut. I have a good eye for design, but always need ideas to make it happen.
Anyone else, please feel free to add your ideas too. (The main theme to this video I’m doing actually is about how anyone can have ideas, kinda ironic that it blocked mine…)
Appreciate your help!
Craig
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I think I answered my own question with the DNxHD codec. After experimenting, it worked fine in After Effects.
Encountered something strange though: when viewing the QT on the desktop, it would appear as a black screen until I moved the QT player over to where it straddled the dual monitors (CRTs set at 1280×1024). Only then would the footage appear in the QT.
Almost the same case for a Same as source. Black screen turned to white screen when straddling the monitors, but no footage. SAS did not work in After Effects though.
I’m assuming this is a graphics card issue of some kind.
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As they say in the Guiness commercials, “Brilliant!” Didn’t realize you could add effects to blank tracks, oh the possibilities…
Thanks everyone for your help, this makes a huge difference!
Cheers,
Craig
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Thanks! I kinda feel like an idiot for never trying that – I just assumed all along that the Audio Mixer was for clips in the timeline only.