[Frank Spencer]

Thanks Glenn

That is all very interesting – if a little scary.
I’ll start saving up for Saphire.

Frank

Media Composer 5.5, Win 7
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

Hi Glenn

Thanks for that. Most of my work is stright documentary, so sfx don’t have too much interest here. I had looked at Sapphire, but at $1,600 it’s a bit much for me at the moment. I will continue to experiment with glows etc as you suggest.

I am also interested in your comments about legalizing filters. I have always used the Avid native filter for this. Does Sapphire/Boris offer significant benefits. That might make the difference for me..

Thanks

Frank

Media Composer 5.5, Win 7
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

I have not finished these programmes yet, but it is now progressing smoothly. I tried transcoding (not consolidating) as I am working on an Adrenaline which isn’t quite fast enough with the full XDCAM EX (35Mbit/sec) AMA clips – even on local media drives. DNxHD is faster to edit with on my system but takes a lot more hard disc space than the XDCAM EX footage (files are around 5 times bigger at 145Mbit/s). This combined with the time it takes to do, means that it is not my preferred option right now.

On the other hand. I use quicktime reference files a lot to get work in progress out of the system and onto the web (via squeeze). This is a real pain now. You can’t make QT refs with long GOP timelines – so I first have to transcode anything that is going out. It is really slow and painful – stops me editing. I’m hoping this might improve with MC 5 and better quicktime support – but I don’t know if it will.

Frank

MC 3.5
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

You’re right.
Two big adavntages for us – no ingest and no tape costs.
By consolidating early in a project I loose both advantages – it slows me down and costs of storage go up.

But I’m still experimenting with linking consolidated clips to original media. I can’t seem to get it to work, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t.

It would be useful for a few reasons here (useing other CODECs in mixed media SD/HD jobs and stuff). But I can’t contemplate it until I find out how to link back to the original media, or my backups would be useless.
I wonder if I have to upgrade to MC4 (for now I’m waiting for 5)

Thanks again for your help. I’m getting there.

Frank

MC 3.5
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

Thanks Andy

This is very helpful, it seems a simple and robust workflow – It just wasn’t working for me. I have now realised that not everyone has the same problems with AMA as me. I have just upgraded from 3.5.4 to 3.5.9 and the problems have gone. I can now edit with AMA footage the same as MXF footage. It seems 3.5.4 did not implement AMA properly.

The question of when to consolidate seems to be a matter of choice. A lot of people are consolidating near the start of a project to improve system responsiveness, but surely this looses any link to the original ‘rushes’ files. I read somewhere that each clip carries a unique number and it can be re-linked. Is this possible? I am used to being able to re-build consolidated timelines from tape – why not files too?

Frank

MC 3.5
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

Thanks for that Kris

I understand that this is possible, and it would solve some of my problems, but it seems a backward step (ie fits my tape based view of the world) and not what Avid are recommending. Everyone else seems to be using AMA and lovin it.

I think it comes down to one major obstacle for me;
I can only get my Avid (3.5.4 + Adrenaline, PC) to give me ONE video channel with AMA footage. Putting AMA footage on V2 or putting the viewer on to V2 (or any other channel)above the media shows ‘Media Offline’, viewed on channel V1 it is fine – but I am limited to only one channel?!?. Consolidating, transcoding, importing solves this but I loose most of the AMA advantages (as in my previous). I want to avoid delay, double copies (original + MXF wrapped), loss of metadata, duplicated clips, automatically renamed clips, loss of linking to original footage etc.

Does everyone have this problem or is it just me?

I am using Sony EX1 OR 3 XDCAM EX, 35Mb, BPAV folders on local drive.

Frank

MC 3.5
PAL, UK

[Frank Spencer]

This is a real weak spot for FCP, I can’t find anything quick and efficient for everyday work. Livetype is way to comlex and fiddly for just doing stationary builds over picture (some great animations though). Title 3D has nowhere near the functionality you ask for. Currently I build everything in Photoshop and work on the layers directly in FCP, but it is slow and repetative.

If you find a solution let me know.

frank

Edit 6
Targa 2000
PAL UK
Combustion

Dual 2Ghz G5
2Gb RAM
Cinewave 4.8
FCP 4.5 HD
QT 6.4
PAL, UK