[David Braswell]

I’d try bumping title creation to 1:1 uncompressed. DV compression is an awful thing to do to titles if you don’t have to.

[David Braswell]

The preview feature is semi-useless, but I’ve had good results with the plugin itself. Assuming your audio levels were “good” to start with, try the default settings. I’ve noticed that you can generally be a bit more aggressive with good software compressors vs. hardware comps. I often wind up with settings similar to the following:

between 3:1 and 4:1 compression ratio
10-50 ms attack, kept short for transients and plosives
-15 to -24 threshhold – again, quite a bit more agressive than a typical analog setting
150-400 ms release – set longer than the attack to prevent breathing
+1 to +3 gain to bring overall level up

With these settings I’m typically peaking around -14 on my Adrenaline, and averaging between -7 and 0 on my Beta deck’s meters. These are just suggestions, of course, let your ear guide you 🙂 Perhaps one day Avid audio will be more like Premiere’s mixer. But the ‘Suite does work… just clunkily.

[David Braswell]

First, you don’t have to consolidate to export an OMF file. If you choose “Avid 3D audio” in the export settings, you can easily export OMF1, OMF2, or any number of file formats.

Second, you refer to consolidating projects. Actually, you consolidate clips or sequences. Consolidating will merely copy all media used by the clip or sequence you choose. A typical way to consolidate is to hi-light a sequence and allow the consolidation command to duplicate it and relink the new media to it. You will have to use another tool (or two :->) to delete the unused media. Research using the “select unreferenced clips” command located in the bin’s hamburger menu. There are also third-party softwares that can be used to locate clips used in a project.

[David Braswell]

If he’s rendering to AVI this is correct behavior. Avid’s have a 2 Gig file size limit for AVIs. Perhaps your friend can try something from the Quicktime family, or even better, try using a QT Reference movie.

[David Braswell]

I see. AVI is not generally considered a streaming format. I’m not real savvy about IPTV per se, but from a streaming perspective, you’re going to have to get your bit rates down to something your network can manage. I suspect this is one reason you may be losing A/V sync. Surely Cisco’s product has a manual with recommendations and a best practices section? At a guess, I’d think you’d be looking to export some kind of mpeg format, or possibly M-JPEG.

Regardless, your bigger problem is not knowing how to change export settings, or possibly having a corrupt Avid install. In the settings window of your Avid, click the “hamburger” menu (bar-shaped button left of your name) and make sure “All Settings” is checked. This should show you a variety of preset export settings. If you don’t see that, it’s time to contact your friendly Avid dealer. Know that you can change these settings. I suspect you’re only seeing the Base Settings or Selected Settings, which may explain why AVI seems to be the only available format. Double-clicking on the word “Export” by a setting will allow you to customise that setting. Give it a whirl!

[David Braswell]

It might help to know a bit more about what you’re doing with the movies. Are they for web playback? You watching them locally on a computer. Avid Xpress offers several export formats by default, and exporting to Quicktime Reference movie offers more possibilities.

[David Braswell]

It’s possible that you’ve set your Avid’s import settings incorrectly. Avid alpha channels work opposite of Adobe Premiere’s and other editor’s alpha channels. If your Targa clip has an alpha channel and you import trying to preserve it, check that you have selected “invert alpha” in the Avid’s import options dialog. Alternatively, if you don’t require an alpha channel in your footage, select “ignore”. This saves considerable import time.

[David Braswell]

Training for Xpress Pro will indeed familiarize you with MCA. I cut on MCA at work, Xpress Pro at home. Excepting the RAID array, a couple of grand in third-party effects, and a few missing features at home, the workflow is pretty seamless. Unless you can afford formal training (classroom, or Avid’s own CD series), I suggest spending time with Xpress Pro’s tutorials.

[David Braswell]

Sounds like you need to do a search for photomosaic software. I know I’ve seen some. Photoshop isn’t especially suited to do this. At least I’m not aware of it being used for it.

[David Braswell]

John, I posted an answer to a young lady a couple of months ago that might benefit you. Search my posts.