[Lindsay Simpson]

I would start by simply opening a project, let’s say in 1080i. Go ahead and import your P2 media via AMA or direct import,your choice. Your bin window should give the info you are looking for in terms of frame size and video format. Then if need be, you can simply change the project’s format to what it needs to be to match your P2 video. It should be pretty obvious if it doesn’t match the format you choose for your project originally. The images will appear distorted if you open them in the source monitor.

Good luck,
Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

I have had similar issues exporting H264 or really anything for that matter other than ‘same as source’ directly out of Avid. The work around I’ve come up with to create H264 files for the web is to ‘File’>> ‘Send To’>> ‘Sorenson Squeeze’. When the prompt box opens for sorenson, I click ‘options’ next to ‘Sorenson Squeeze Export 1’. In these options you can set your H264 parameters, kbit rate etc. After clicking ‘ok’ Avid will start exporting, just be sure you know where your new file will be saved. When it’s done Sorenson will open with the H264 file loaded. I close Sorenson ASAP, and grab my H264, usually saved to the desktop, and transfer elsewhere.

Depending on what type of media you have in your sequence, you might require video/audio mixdowns before export. Any time I have long GOP media mixed with something else I find a video mixdown often save headache when it comes time to export.

I’ve tried these exports on Squeeze too, but the application seems to fail no matter what I’m attempting to squeeze.

Good luck,
Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Hi, thanks for your response. I think I’ve got the issue solved and am waiting on a new power source from Avid. It should arrive this morning and hopefully be operational. It was great last week they sent me a replacement part that was dead on arrival.

1) Windows XP
2) Not sure what kind of electrical, rewiring etc.? Yes everything is unplugged from the wall
3) Yes unit purchased new from Avid
4) Yes we do have remote management set up, but weren’t’ able to utilize this feature due to the construction.

Do you happen to know if it’s possible to utilize this ‘Avid’ raid as storage for systems/software other than Avid?

Thanks again!
Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Thanks for the reply Ricky. You are spot on and I came to a similar solution myself this morning. I dumped all the remaining media on cards to an external drive. Each card was dumped into its own folder then those folders grouped into one folder. In avid I linked via AMA to the top folder holding the individual card contents and voila!

I made some feeble attempts before the above success to ‘Import P2’ but i think my system was so out of whack at that point it didn’t work, but I’ll keep that in mind for the future when I don’t necessarily have the storage space to dump an entire shoot on to one external transfer drive.

Have a great weekend and thanks for your feedback,
Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Good to know. I was replacing a full card with the camera running, but another colleague relayed a similar situation where all media was lost because of that particular pracitce. I do believe the camera was a prosumer panasonic using SD cards rather than P2 media, and I suppose that makes sense.

In the future I will continue shooting continuosly as I did on the occasion in question. Thanks for confirming.

Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Yep that definitely makes sense. I just wish Avid (I’m a former FCP user, and now regrettably only use it for freelance!) would recognize a portion of a spanned clip as an individual file, but rather will show any portion of a spanned clip as offline unless it reads the other required files or half of the spanned clip.

I solved the problem by dumping all of my cards and previosly dumped content to one location on an external drive. I pointed AMA to the top directory and voila!

Thanks!

[Lindsay Simpson]

Hmm, I’m currently having a similar problem with AMA P2 import from an external drive. I have been sucessful with that workflow, copying the ENTIRE P2 card contents and telling Avid to point to the specific folder on an external drive.

Are the clips you are trying to import long/short etc? I think my current issue may be related to length of of the clips, as I basically continuously recorded a 6 hour training, replacing full P2 cards with reformated cards as one filled up. Over the lunch break I dumped 2 of my 4 cards to the external, reformatted the two cards dumped and used those to record again in the afternoon. It seems the HPX170 camera doesn’t create a separate clip on a new card but rather spans a single clip over more than one card if it’s too long. I can’t seem to get these long clips to connect to each other and I think that may be related to the AMA problem, but at this point it’s not just hte external drive, but the P2 cards read from the camera as well…ugh…

Any progress on your front?

Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Just in case anyone’s curious, I found a solution to the Ikegami import problem. It requries the plug-in at the link below. It’s a little bit pricey, but seems to be the only option out there.

https://www.mainconcept.com/products/apps-plug-ins/plug-ins-for-adobe/codec-suite.html

Among other things I attempted, which all failed, was to pass it through Media Encoder first, but neither AME or PP had hte capacity to link the audio and video mxf files stored on the GFPak.

The plug-in allows PP to do so, and media may be imported using the Media Browser. While PP links the audio and video it does not hide the file structure like it does with P2, just giving you a thumbnail image. You need to be sure to pull your clips from the ‘Video’ folder. The audio will come right along with upon import, have no fear!

Happy to say I only really struggled with this for a solid day with the help of my IT staff . I thought it would have taken much longer to find a solution.

Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Hi,

I enjoyed your description of the two media management systems. I have just started recently working with Avid primarily MC 5 Nitris DX after years of working with FCP. One of hte biggest humps I’ve hit comes down to these system differences. I liked the user control allowed by FCP, and being an organized person was able to develop an almost foolproof system to avoid media offline. Reaching this organized state took many early mistakes though!

I have been wondering if there was any way in Avid to import tapeless media and name the clips along the way, like Log and Transfer. Am I correct in thinking this isn’t possible, at least not yet?

I find it perpetually frustrating that all of my clips are imported with generic ‘MyClip000#’ etc. This is especially challenging as we anticipate development of a HUGE stock footage library which will need to be carefully and effectively organized. While I understand taht I am able to rename a clip in a bin once it is imported and off AMA, since the original master clip retains the generic title it seems impossible to catalogue using somethign like CatDV in an effective, efficient manner. I am in the process of tyring to establish our new Cache-A archive system, which uses data tapes to store media and has its own manager. Ever heard of it?

Does anyone have any suggestions for an efficient, effective way to catalogue large amounts of footage with Avid?

Lindsay

[Lindsay Simpson]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I would love to try out that app you created for detecting corrupt clips. And yes I currently have a good clip that I would like to keep, but appears to be corrupt. It would be great for you to take a look at it. I am curious myself, and it is no fun to toss good video.

On second thought, maybe there’s an alternate solution. You mentioned that GFcam format is native and shouldn’t need to be transcoded. When the clip in question is loaded in the monitor and played from the GFPak itself before transcoding and relocation to our avid storage, the clips plays back just fine. What is your process for importing and storing of GFPak clips?

This equipment is new to our organization, and I came on board shortly after it was purchased and established. My colleague apparently had significant difficulties at first importing GFPak clips and after hours with phone and other tech support was instructed to transcode all GFCam clips. It was noted that this would reduce corruptions.

Thanks for your interest and advice,

Lindsay