[Frank Cervarich]

Your suggestions are right on target. However, part of what I’m trying to do is to get this client’s stuff off my drives so I can use them for other projects and generic in-house footage available for any client who might come through the door.

I will check out the additional manufacturers you suggest and would welcome any other advice, particularly if it was as sage and on-target as the advice I have been getting so far.

[Frank Cervarich]

Vince –

I agree with you that LTO is a more stable and more durable medium for long term storage of footage. I have not priced the cost of a recorder and whatever else is required to get the field material and masters to LTO but I think the front end cost is going to be much more than my client wants to invest for this benefit. That is why I am talking about hard drives. I will, of course, advise my clients to ‘spin’ the drives every month or so to increase longevity and encourage them to update these drives every few years. I think that is about as far as my client would be willing to go. Short and middle term budget expenditures means more to them than the long term health of their video, I am sorry to say.

[Frank Cervarich]

Thanks Peter

The link you provided gave me good, solid information. Looks like I should buy the Quadra 4000 to optimize my system. Down the road, it looks like I should buy a PC rather than Mac when it is time to purchase a new desktop or laptop for editing.

Thanks again.

[Frank Cervarich]

Thanks to Michael Hancock I have resolved my problem. I plugged a set of speakers into my AJA board and, trumpets please, I heard the audio of my clip in MC 6.0.1. Now I will have to rethink my edit setup since I use audio for other software and the internet.

Is there a way that we can encourage Avid, in a future update, to fix this problem? I think it would be merely a matter of allowing the software to recognize other configurations than it now does.

Again thanks to all. I really appreciate it.

[Frank Cervarich]

Thank you so much. I will try this out tomorrow. Have to run to a meeting now. I’ll let you know how it works out. And thanks again.

[Frank Cervarich]

Okay. Here are the specs on my setup.

I am using a MacPro running OS 10.7.3. The processor is 2 X 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon. The memory is 12 GB 1066 MHz DDR3. The Avid Media Composer version is 6.0.1. I have an AJA Kona LHI board. I do not have a mixer. I listen via Sondsticks, Apple speakers. I had been editing with FCP up until late last year but have, for a few clients, put together pieces using Avid (at least five years ago).

I bought Avid 5.5 late last year and opened it long enough to see and hear various things that I pulled into the edit software. I then updated to 6.0.1. I am only just now trying to do a shakedown cruise by editing a short piece in 6.0.1. When I tried to do that I found out I could not hear the audio, even though I could see the video and the meter reading audio just above the timeline.

The audio that I have been referring to is an AVCHD interview clip (1080X30)that I recorded on a low-end Sony camera I bought last year. I pulled the same clip into Premiere Pro (I decided to try that software as well) and I see and hear it just fine.

Back in Avid, I pulled in a QT file and was unable to hear it either. I could see the picture just fine. The AVCHD clip I pulled in is 16 bit and Avid is set to recognize 16 bit.

Does this shed light on possible solutions to my problem? Do you need more specs? If so, which ones?

Thanks for your continued support and suggestions.

[Frank Cervarich]

I checked to make sure the speaker in the Audio Tool was not ‘off.’ It is not ‘off.’ I checked in the settings tab and discovered that 16 bit audio was selected. I recorded 16 bit audio in the field.

After your post, I had one that suggested maybe playback is going through my AJA Kona LHi card. Since there is no audio hooked up to the card, I would hear nothing even though I would see the audio meter indicating audio is playing. I’m checking that out now. Cross your fingers.

And thanks for all of the suggestions you have given. I really appreciate it.

[Frank Cervarich]

I have a Kona LHi card. I will check to see what the story is on it. Thanks.

[Frank Cervarich]

I have been in and out of MC several times. And I have powered down my system several times as well. I AMA’d the file about a week ago. It seemed to come up clean and fast. As I said, I see video just fine and I can see the audio meter moving. The clip is an interview. I brought it in to Premiere Pro just to make certain the audio really is there and it plays fine in PP.

[Frank Cervarich]

Thanks so much for the suggestion that I may have muted my track. I did not make myself clear. I don’t hear the audio when the file is in the source monitor. Is there a way to see if mute is on while the file is in the source monitor?

I did make an edit and no gold ‘M’ appeared in the timeline.

Any other suggestions? I hope.