[Job Ter burg]

I’m surprised it even plays anthing at all without the Meridien hardware boards attached.

If you want to train, why not download the 30-day free trial version that will run on most any modern computer?

[Job Ter burg]

Two ways for speeding up.
One is the traditional motion effect. It’s in the command palette.
The other is the Timewarp effect you will find in the Effects Palette under Timewarp. This one you can modify at will, with keyframes and anchor points to perfect motion changes. It has various render types of which Fluid Motion is the smoothest (but the longest render as well).

AS for deinterlacing, the easiest is to apply a (100%) timewarp where you set the source to interlaced and the output to progressive. Choose Blended Interpolated or FluidMotion as the render type. You could go with single field, but that means tossing out half the vertical resolution.

[Job Ter burg]

I’m not so into FCP, but yes, in a way AMA is like L&T.

[Job Ter burg]

You would only need to have FCP on the same system if you want to use the mov-files that you have created in FCP, as they will have been created in the (very incompatible) Apple DVCPROHD codec, rather than Panasonic’s (very compatible) one.

Is this double system (meaning: was sound recorded separately)?

If not (sound has only been recorded on the P2 camcorder), then indeed, bring all the original P2 files into Avid. You can keep them at DVCPROHD or you can transcode them into DNxHD (anything over 100 will do). As this is long-form, don’t keep these clips in AMA, consolidate or transcode them into the Avid’s media structure.

Decide which sequences you need to bring across.

Either use an EDL and see if you can make that relink, or use Automatic Duck to convert the FCP sequence(s) into (an) Avid one(s). Then try to relink.

The relinking process may be difficult. Avid will need a source tape and source timecode to match in order to be able to relink.

If you do have double system sound, it all becomes a little more complicated.

[Job Ter burg]

Actually, I was in that same situation. It took us a few days to get things sorted out. Then we worked on Avid for around 4 weeks. And since it was file-based, no other conform was needed, so this was “online” as well.

Well worth it, to me, back then. YMMV.

[Job Ter burg]

Also, yes you can export XML from FCP, but you cannot import XML into Avid.

EDL’s could work, but my cause headaches because of EDL format limitations.

Automatic Duck translates sequences from one to the other. But it is meant to bring across complete sequences, not to bring across projects mid-stream.

[Job Ter burg]

An entire project? No.

You may have some luck using Automatic Duck to convert sequences from one to the other.

Source clips you could re-import and relink afterwards. Possibly.

But this is not as easy as any one of us would hope it to be.

You are basically looking at restarting an entire project, hopefully being able to bring some work across.

[Job Ter burg]

I’ve been in a similar scenario 2 years ago. I was the editor preferring Avid in that case. An added challenge was that that project had double system sound, so every clip had been synced up in FCP.

Turned out to be a lot of hassle.

We imported all P2 originals into Avid, converting them to DNxHD120.
Imported all the BWAV’s into Avid. Synced everything up in Avid.

Then we took two important versions of the edit that had been made, and we rebuilt them in Avid. Part with the help of Automatic Duck, part with EDL’s, and all sound manually (so it would refer to the sync clips rather than the BWAVs).

Also note that the clips you have converted to Quicktime have been compromised, as FCP/QT change the gamma of these clips. If you take the originals into Avid, you’ll have the original quality of the clips.

But yes, in theory you could work from those QT’s. I just wouldn’t recommend it.

[Job Ter burg]

OK, that should run fine.
Can you post your system specs? You mentioned the GeForce card (which is not supported by Avid), but what about the rest of the setup?

[Job Ter burg]

If you open them in Quicktime player, and hit CMD-I (Mac) or CTRL-I (PC), what codec does it say the file is in?
Quicktime is just a container format, and it can contain a variety of different codecs.