[Dino]

Seems like a lot of work. Are you intending to finish from the Media Composer or is there a separate online in HD?

The EX 3 has SDI and timecode out. The SDI can play out an SD downconvert. Timecode is on a BNC, you’ll need to adapt to XLR. Audio will have to be through the analog RCAs, you’ll need to adapt to XLRs. Have the camera operator bring his camera in and capture live in the Meridien. Provided of course the media can be put back on cards (it is possible). This should be the fastest and most reliable workflow. If the clips have continuous timecode a card will play out as 1 clip. If it’s time of day code, the Avid will stop on each break. Just cue up the next clip and start a new capture. I miss the Meridien systems. I don’t miss OS 9.

[Dino]

Stop messing with all the individual settings. Just use Easy Setup: HDV – 720p60. Hopefully you haven’t messed up any of the standard presets. If that doesn’t work it is most likely a setting on the deck. Is it set to downconvert the output as DV? That or perhaps your tape is not in the format you think it is.

[Dino]

Okay. First question 1080 or 720?

The DVCProHD tape format has no provision for 24P. 1080 is always interlaced at 59.94i*. 720 is always progressive at 59.94P. 23.976P can exist in a computer or a file but there is no equivalent on tape.

I have no direct experience with the 1400 but have put in a good number of hours with the 1200, it’s predecessor. Your suspicions are correct on the 23.98 on the deck. It is playback only for material recorded at 720 as 23.976 over 59.94 on a camcorder such as the Varicam. This mode outputs the signal over HD-SDI as 1080/23.976P. As there is no equivalent frame rate for 720 in the video spec, the deck has to uprez to 1080.

Now, from the Avid, my experience with an earlier version of the software (2.6) leads me to believe that you cannot output from 23.976 over firewire (as 5994P). Avid will only output from projects that match the native frame rate of DVCProHD tape. Therefore, you must output over SDI. I don’t know if the functionality of this has been expanded on MC 3 (which I have to assume you are using as you mention the Nitris DX). Unfortunate for those of us still sticking with Avid, Final Cut has no problem with this.

If you are in a 720P project, the SDI out should be automatically converted to 59.94P by duplicating frames. If this is not the case, I’d really like to know so I can add that to the list of things I will yell at Avid about. I’m not kidding.

If you are in a 1080 project, you should be able to add pulldown to the output to make it 1080/59.94i. Unfortunately, I don’t know that it works, I don’t have access to a system with the new software. It worked on the DS Nitris but not on the Symphony Nitris. I am refering to the old Nitris and not the new Nitris DX. DS Nitris and Symphony Nitris, 2 products from the same manufacturer on the exact same hardware doing similar things and each would do things with that hardware that the other wouldn’t, frustrating.

I only know that it should work if Avid expects us to take their products seriously (I’m trying to).

I guess the answer is really just no. you cant output this to DVCProHD tape. Your only real options are HDCam, HDCam SR and HD-D5.

* Is it better to say 59.94i or would you folks rather I use 29.97? I know that no matter which I use, I have to the qualify with the other. I’d really like to meet the person that came up with this additional befuddlement of a completely mature and understood concept and wring their neck.

[Dino]

Select quarantine next time. By ignoring it, it’s still there every time you start up, thus the re-scan with error. Quarantine will move the bad media into a “quarantine” folder in the media folder. You can delete that folder whenever you wish.

As the file is corrupt and being ignored, you would have seen it offline already. Chances are it is just a render and not missed.

I’d like to add a comment on this post and many others. Give us a little info: software version, operating system, hardware, type of storage, etc… You may not think it relevant to your problem, but perhaps it is. And in the larger scheme patterns may emerge of certain problems on specific configurations. No one of us on the Cow can have a hundred test systems but by the fact that we all share information allows us to gain insight into setups we don’t have access to. Further, a post for help that contains very little data can turn into a guessing game. If I want to play a game, I’ll invite some friends over and have them bring a 6 pack and a pizza. That is, if you cant be bothered to offer a detailed description of the problem and the situation it occurs in, why should I bother crafting a reasoned, descriptive answer. Paul, sorry to pick on you. Your post certainly isn’t among the worst. Those questions I don’t bother responding to at all.

[Dino]

Yup. Not yet a feature in 2.5. If you have it in 2.7 then that is where it first showed up as it is not in 2.6 either.

[Dino]

What you are trying to do isn’t supposed to work. the MXO2 is codec agnostic and leaves all the processing and encoding to the host computer. A dual core laptop just doesn’t have the horsepower. It might do DVCProHD. This is one of the greatest tragedies of this box. That is, what seems to be the most interesting workflow for using it, isn’t.

I know the unavoidable comparison with the MXO2 is the IoHD from AJA. The MXO2 looks like a winner on all fronts, especially the cost. the thing is, with all the limitations that AJA box has, it contains one feature no one else does: a hardware codec for ProRes. And that is why it costs more than anything else it can compare to. That is, it can’t be compared to anything else.

If you are stuck with this workflow, capture in shorter and shorter chunks until you find the duration that doesn’t fail out. If you bought this configuration with the blessing of your reseller for just this use, get your money back and put it towards an IoHD.

You don’t get to save the aborted capture. Final Cut has always worked this way (in contrast to Avid).

[Dino]

Yea, what’s a student to do? Poor kids having to shell out $700 for software. What are they supposed to run on their shiny laptops?

No, I really feel for the poor kids today. Back in my time all I needed was a pair of VO-5850s and an RM-450. Pocket change. At least I only had to pay $22 for a 20 minute tape.

Get a grip, Final Cut Express or just steal like everybody else. I promise, I wont tell.

[Dino]

Hear hear. I agree with and thank you for everything in your post. I too am astounded at what has been an 8 year battle to move media between Final Cut and other applications. The idea that at this point there are still problems with most any workflow, unacceptable. QuickTime help create the desktop revolution. Now it seems to be the source of much frustration. Unfortunately, I think it has become baked into the process. I see most people pay it no heed and just accept what ever ends up in their timeline.

When it actually becomes a problem for someone I am then stuck with the difficult task of explaining to them (probably with their client in the room) that they have been wrong all along and need to convert the files in After Effects, maybe add a gamma adjustment. Oh, but they don’t know how to use AE!

This is one of those areas that I have to give the nod to Avid. the Avid process is inherently more time consuming. The upside being the results are generally proper. Plus, Avid provides realtime support with embedded alphas. the only way I can even get an embedded alpha into FCP is with a codec that will give me a gamma shift, plus, I have to render. I’ll take the import and export time on the Avid side.

Now wait, this isn’t just Apple bashing. Avid sucks in all kinds of ways too. It’s just, when Avid is right on something, it’s usually a big something. Ideally for me, both programs would end up awesome and moving between all the different tools I use would be seamless. Chances are though, a big part of that would be through the use of QuickTime. If Apple could just finally come up with a valid framework to deal with identifying and adjusting any of the RGB and component structures…

Actually I’d like to see a lot more from QuickTime. Why isn’t there a universal metadata framework that all the apps use? Things such as timecode, frame-rate, pixel aspect, tape name, etc… these should be accessible and editable. Easily. We are past the point where proprietary should force a platform choice. Everything now is both proprietary and universal. It does me no good if there is a ‘more right’ codec as chances are I will have deal with five or dozens of formats and codecs on any one project. Lets have it so that all of them are right.

Peace.

[Dino]

The 1800 is an HDCam deck. HDcam has never offered 720P functionality. the deck is not to blame. Furthermore, there is no actual video format for 23 or 24P at 720. It exists only in a computer. That we have to deal with this is the fault of Panasonic, not Sony or Avid.

Open a new 1080/23.976P project. At the finder level, copy the sequence bin from your 720 project and place the copy into this new project. Avid will play 720 as 1080 in real time. 72o projects seem limited to only 720 media. Output to the 1800 as 1080/23.976P. If you need 59.94i you have two options. 1) If your deck has the HKDW-104 board, digitize the tape back into a 1080/59.94i project by adding pulldown to the output. Output to a new tape at 59.94i. 2) Get a dub to a new tape with pulldown added.

It is the fault of Avid that there is no reasonable way to add pulldown on output. Avid is still trapped in their single frame rate view of the world. My hope is that 2009 brings us Media Composer 4 and the end of this limitation.

[Dino]

It’s a network thing. As long as you are all Mac or all Windows the path to the media is the same so Quicktime always sees the referenced files. Crossing platforms breaks the link as each OS has its own way of seeing network volumes.

Now are you saying that the QT file referenced media local to your Avid system? Perhaps if you set up sharing on the Avid system and exported ref to the public folder of your user. If you grabbed it from there with the compression machine, the links might be preserved?

If you find an answer I would really appreciate you posting it here.