[John Pale]

I’m a big fan of FCP, but the Adrenaline had dedicated hardware for its effects. FCP is a software solution…the third party hardware is for capture only and does not accelerate rendering (except with DVCPRO HD, where AJA’s Kona card handles scaling, which frees up the host processor for effects).

If render time is important to you, Adrenaline may be better for what you do.

FCP is more versatile and scalable, and also has its strengths…but it may not be right for your shop, in its present form.

[John Pale]

https://www.avid.com/onlineSupport/browse.asp?productID=0&topicID=404&browse=

All Avid codecs, new and old are on this download page.

[John Pale]

Also it takes much much longer to use the “Export to Compressor” option than it does to just export a Quicktime reference movie and “manually” import it into Compressor.

The reason is that if you use the “Export to Compressor” option, all the effects in the timeline are re-rendered directly to MPEG-2, instead of using the render files you created in editing. This can make things take an enormously long time, though it can produce a slightly cleaner encode….but in many cases the difference is not noticable. I only use this option if I am unsatisfied with the results of the other method.

[John Pale]

Ummm…

I gotta ask…why would you want to do this?

BTW, you can load any clip into the viewer, then select “Timecode” from the modify menu to change its timecode.

[John Pale]

The latest Avid codecs Version LE 1.20 install 5 components into Library/Quicktime

Remove the following components:

AvidAVdvCodec.component
AvidAVpkCodec.component

FCP will now launch normally.

AvidAVdvCodec.component is the Avid DV Codec, which probably conflicts with the Apple DVCodec, which FCP uses.
Not sure what AvidAVpkCodec.component is for. I am able to import all Meridien resolutions and DNxHD resolutions

[John Pale]

Just installed the older Meridien Codecs. FCP launches just fine.
It’s only the new Avid Codecs that cause the problem.

[John Pale]

[Tom Matthies] “Hmmm…
I currently have the Avid Merdien codec installed and it seems to behave just fine.
Is it only certain Avid codecs that can cause problems?
tom

“

This is not the Meridien Codec. This is the latest Avid Codec (dated Sept.27 2006) on Avid’s site, and available here.
https://www.avid.com/onlineSupport/browse.asp?productID=0&topicID=404&browse=
The new Avid codec supports many more resolutions, including the DNxHD codec and the Avid DV resolutions.
I have not tried the older Meridien Codecs. I will try them again. In the past, they would not prevent FCP from launching, but they did have erratic behavior, and false “out of memory” errors.

[John Pale]

The Avid Codecs and a few other third party codecs (Media 100, also) cause this problem. Just do as Wes says, and remove them from Library/Quicktime.

This only affects FCP, so you can temporarily install the codec to use with Compressor. Just convert your Avid files to something else using Compressor, then remove the Avid codecs.

[John Pale]

[ron moody] “Prior to outputting the movie, I have used the command D keystroke to render all clips and transitions”

Make sure all the items are checked in the Render Menu, including the light and dark green bars.

[John Pale]

You are not saving yourself any quality by bringing the MPG files into FCP and rendering. Just making the edit needlessly inconvenient.
When you render in the timeline, you are essentially converting it to whatever codec the timeline is. What is your timeline codec, anyway?

I would use MPEG Streamclip to convert them to Apple Uncompressed 8 bit. Make your FCP timeline an 8 bit Uncompressed one, and edit away, without rendering.