Dennis Kutchera
Forum Replies Created
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Try “Avid Made Easy” by Jaime Fowler. Lots of little details.
Dennis
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In addition to that free plugin (that contains adware), you can also do transfer modes with Boris Red or FX. I think it is also available in some of the Continuum plugins, but my memory is not giving me the answer because I use Boris Red for transfer modes in Avid.
Blessings,
Dennis
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Yep, you missed something. I was pulling my hair out over too this before I figured it out. I just hope you have more left than I do!
Here’s the scoop – Avid makes a big deal about being able to render DV material at 1:1 and mix resolutions, and that’s great to maintain the highest quality when you are laying the program back to tape, but when you are trying to make a DVD, you’ve created a nightmare for yourself by mixing resolutions.
Unless the program is really short, exporting by Quicktime reference is really your only choice because there is a 2 gig file size limit in Avid. Think about what a quicktime reference is for a moment…it appears to be a single quicktime clip, but it it composed of every audio and video clip in your program. If you have DV25 at 720 x 480 with 4:1:1 colour and no setup and 1:1 at 720 x 486, 4:2:2 colour and setup at 7.5 IRE (This is NTSC, PAL specs differ), then what codec is Quicktime supposed to use? Well, the short answer is that Quicktime gets confused by this. The result is exactly what you described.
I had all but given up on Avid for DVD and used to dump the program to tape and then digitize it back in with Windows Movie Maker (that has no 2 gig file size limit) and then use these files to make my DVD with no problem. So what was the difference? Although one was a quicktime and the other an avi, I concluded that the biggest difference is that there is only a single codec in the Moviemaker file. So rather than keep doing this stupid workflow of going out to tape and back, I tried doing a video mixdown to one codec and to be safe, I also did an audio mixdown to avoid any funky plugin issues and I sent that to Sorensen through the “send to” under the file menu. Lo and behold! It worked. No more jitters and pixelization.
Now, I knew the jitters were a result Sorenson rendering out only a single field. There is a setting in Sorenson to deinterlace the video and it is on by default. At first I thought that was the problem, but no matter how I set this, the result was always the same mess. It was the mixed resolution that I seemed to always end up with in my Avid sequences. The mixdown was the answer, as long as you remember to turn off deinterlacing in Sorenson.
I hope that helps. It take a bit more disk space to make a mixdown, but heck, hard drives are so cheap now, I am packing well over a terrabyte where 7 years ago we were impressed when someone had more than 144 gigs of storage.
I hope this explains what is going on for you.
Blessings,
Dennis
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Also see the post below about Adobe Encore. Follow that workflow to get to your DVD app. The pixelation you described is likely caused by the quicktime reference because of mixed resolutions in your sequence.
Dennis
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This is an excellent summary. Another alternative that I often do is output to tape and then capture it in the DVD App or with Windows Movie maker. This is if the app is unhappy with Quicktime. The reason to do either of these work flows is to avoid multiple resolutions on the Avid sequence because it will confuse the heck out of quicktime when you make a qt reference. Everything is going to be at one resolution when you mix down. It also avoids possible clip reference errors.
Dennis
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Listen, if IRE is beyond your knowledge, then you are going to have to make it your knowledge. We do not live in an AGC world. Go to Tektronix or Videotek’s website and look for educational material on signal levels and scopes. This kind of documentation exists. You need to know this stuff to be able to understand problems like this.
I can only speculate that your footage is coming in through the Mojo from analog. You probably need to turn on “NTSC has setup” in the General settings. But if you are dealing with DV, this needs to be off. And to understand why and what this means, you need to learn all about IRE.
Another thing – how do you know your monitor is set right? Presets usually are wrong. And how do you know your output is right? or dor that matter, your input? I would at least set input to preset first if you don’t know how to adjust it.
When you export to DVD, there are more complications with levels. There is no setup on a DVD and it may well look darker if your source was analog.
I know I am not specifically answering your questions but I don’t know enough details. But I can’t emphasize enough that you need to learn about video levels. It can be troubling at times for even those who understand it.
Dennis
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I have looked around there. Lots of talk of CPU overload, but no resolution. The fact is that you are using a dual Xenon, I am using the lesser P4 XW4100 (also certified), but sans multiple bus segments. I suspect that is where the problem may be – the software is annoyed by some kind of traffic on the PCI bus. But what? I don’t know about you, but I have no time to tear down a computer and chase my tail. I just need software that works with the same certified configuration from version to version.
And yes, 4.6 is quite elegant as long as I didn’t use the Mojo.
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Perhaps it does not like making a file over 2 gig in size and a 3 min video at 1:1 might be a bit over that.
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I think Avid will offer you a trade-in value if you are buying an Adrenaline. It will have all the tools you are used to and more. XpressPro will be missing a few tools, but not very many compared to MC 7.x.
Dennis
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There is no problem working with Betacam or timecode, including broken timecode – something other NLE manufacturers used to choose to ignore at the peril of the editor.
As far as Titlemotion is concerned, there is a version available as an Avid AVX plugin. How well plugins work varies by developer. I don’t know anyone using Titlemotion with Avid though. I contacted Inscriber when it was first released for Avid to do a review of it here, but that communication never amounted to anything and I did not pursue it further. I could be proven wrong, but I don’t think it is a big seller. It’s biggest audience is probably amongst the Edit*tor refugees who fled to Avid use it.
Avid now includes Marquee with Xpresspo – another pig to learn, like Titlemotion, but possibly more capable and completely integrated. I have not yet taken the plunge into Marquee, but it is beckoning me.
Dennis