[John Pale]

Ok…hearing more about how your files were captured, they should be easy to sync in avid. Using the AutoSync feature you can turn them into discrete subclips where the audio and video are associated. Despite the name, it’s not completely automatic, but its easy. Procedure is detailed very well in the Avid help menu.

Automatic Duck won’t help you. All that does is translate FCP sequences to Avid sequences as best it can. Exporting them already synced from an FCP timeline (set in/out around each clip) would also be an option.

[John Pale]

Avid will not find them and sync them on import. You will have to do that after ingest. It may be possible to automate it somewhat using AutoSync, but it’s not going to be fully automatic. Depending on the media, it may end up being fully manual and tedious.

Just a bit of explanation here, as Avid is very different than FCP about ingesting file based media.

There are two methods in Avid. The first is importing…this is the “old school” method, that has been in Avid for many years. Importing works differently than in FCP, as Avid makes a copy of the media in an Avid friendly codec for editing and places the media in the Avid file system. It does not use the original file, as FCP does. If a file is in a native codec (such as ProRes in recent versions of Avid), it will be “Fast Imported”, which is much speedier . The file is copied and simply re wrapped as MXF..no transcoding. The resulting new file is Avid managed media and has good editing performance.

The newer, and mostly preferred method is AMA, which stands for Avid Media Access. You link to the camera files directly. You can do some very simple editing in some cases, but really this stage is all about making selects and transcoding the sections you want to keep into Avid MXF media. A number of workflows are possible, For example, you can transcode to a lower quality proxy, like DNX36 for offline, then after final editing, relink via AMA to the originals and transcode what you used to DNX 220.

To your last point, yes, ProRes is a “native” codec in Avid, as is XDCAM and a number of other popular formats, but ProRes as made in FCP is in a QuickTime container. Avid works much better with media in an MXF container. It is not fundamentally a QuickTime editor. Native codecs don’t need to be transcoded to Avid DNX or any proprietary Avid codecs, they just need to be re wrapped to MXF, which is much faster than transcoding. This is done using the Consolidate command in Avid, after linking with AMA. Marketing makes it sound like editing via AMA linked media is seamless, and it is improved in v7 (as AMA media is now managed in v7), but anyone who uses Avid daily will tell you AMA real world performance is not ready for anything but the most basic sequences. You really need to be working with true Avid MXF managed media to avoid serious issues.

If this sounds like it’s not a good fit for you, you might want to look at Premiere Pro, or even Lightworks, as those editors can use ProRes QuickTime files directly.

[John Pale]

[Patrick Skehill] “I have also read that you can’t relink with .new clips is this true?”

Completely untrue.

[Patrick Skehill] “but I am unable to link to the clips.

I tried AMA link the clips and relinking with them, but this has not helped. It tells me that no clips were relinked.”

First…what frame rate are your original clips and what frame rate did you edit at? If you shot at 23.98 but transcoded to 29.97, you may have made it much more complicated to relink.

Second…please describe your exact steps for relinking in detail. This should work if your frame rates match and you follow the proper steps.

[John Pale]

In v 6.05, you can use AMA to link to QuickTime ProRes files, however, although it is technically possible to edit directly with them, you really need to consolidate them, which will create copies of the files that are re wrapped as Avid MXF media (avid is natively an MXF editor and not really a QuickTime based editor, like FCP).

If you attempt to edit directly with the AMA linked QuickTime media you will likely experience poor performance (or instability) as the sequence or project becomes more complex.

[John Pale]

It’s not my favorite interface, but AvidFX can do what you need.

[John Pale]

Ok. The whole module where the DVD/CD drives go actually slides out. You might try reseating it if you have not already. It’s possible the hinge is broken, but it’s more likely something is just out of alignment. If it’s off by a millimeter the door won’t slide up. Looks cool when it works, but from a user standpoint it’s a bit too fussy.

[John Pale]

“Now if I could just get that 2nd DVD door to close.”

When I had a 1,1 with a stuck door, I found that wedging a small black binder clip from Staples under the rear of the DVD drive (open the side panel to get at it) did the trick. I think over time, the drive sags a bit, making it not line up with the door properly,

[John Pale]

“You could try using stock footage, if it is relevant.”

You mean like this?

https://youtu.be/v2mLAajm7ZY

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[John Pale]

Avid comes with Sorenson Squeeze and interfaces nicely with that. Perhaps you can modify your workflow to utilize Squeeze instead of Compressor, which is more or less, designed to work with Final Cut Pro.

I don’t know if Squeeze takes better advantage of multiple CPU cores, but I do know it can utilize your graphics card GPU to accelerate exports.

[John Pale]

Don’t use a PIP on layer 2. Use a 3D warp to stretch it.

If that doesn’t do the trick, then collapse layer 2 onto itself and see if that works, Sorry, not in front of a system now to test.

This is one of those instances that really illustrates how archaic and cumbersome Avid’s effects paradigm is. No other NLE is this weird about layering.

I’ve been Avid editing since 1998 and I still get tripped up by this stuff! especially after working on other software for awhile.