[Matthew Bradshaw]

I think Rafael is right. The “50” is the bit rate, i.e. 50 Mbit/s.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

Thanks again Andrew. That must be it. It shouldn’t really do that though should it? If I had no audio tracks at all it wouldn’t automatically create any so I don’t see why it needs to when I have a stereo track. Anyway, onwards and upwards.
Thanks again, Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

Hi Andy. Thanks very much for that. Regarding the tracks, that is how I thought it worked and how I would like it to work but not how it seems to work. If I have a timeline with, say, a stereo track disabled and I have a clip with, say, 2 mono tracks enabled it creates 2 new mono tracks and edits in the audio! I don’t want it to do this and it is a pain to have to disable the audio tracks for each source clip. See below for before and after images. I am sorry about the double post by the way.

BEFORE

AFTER

I Guess this must be a function of stereo tracks as it doesn’t happen with mono tracks. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

If you are sure you want a regular interval you could place one clip on V1 the other on V3 and on V2 a clip made from alternating black and white sections (you would have to make this). Then right click on the clip on V3 and choose composite mode travel matte luma.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

What a brilliant idea! So no codec problems then. Oh hold on a minute, that would mean there would be 80% less posts in this forum.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

I was using Media Composer 3.5 today. No codec issues.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

Just going on personal experience of post production in London where Avid seems to be far more common than FCP. It is is also less than half the price, much less demanding on equipment (it runs on my 7 year old PC quite happily) and I am afraid to say far easier to get illegally. I don’t agree about the assistant thing either. In my experience of broadcasting in the UK there is no such thing as an assistant editor. I haven’t had an assistant since they were called tape-ops and that includes working in high-end facilities. In Avid I just choose my frame dimensions and frame rate then click 2:1 compression and off I go. There are less posts about codecs in Avid because it just isn’t an issue.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

It just seems a shame to me that soooo much time is spent by soooo many people struggling with codecs and codec settings/mis-matches etc. Recently I have been back on Avid for 6 months and so have been checking out the Avid board more often than this one. I may be wrong but it does seem striking to me how few posts there are on that board about codec hell, audio drifting out of sync due to mis-matched settings etc. There are far fewer posts full-stop despite there being many more Avids out there (is that correct?). FCP is great, but I know many people find it ability to deal with so many formats gets in the way of creativity rather than the other way round. I know this is a tech forum so I shouldn’t have used the geek word or the nerd word for which I apologise.
Matt.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

Not “pre-editor”, preditor.

[Matthew Bradshaw]

How do you guys know he isn’t a great editor who just happens not to be as into the geeky side of things as you? I have worked with many talented “preditors” who would really rather not spend their time nerding about with codecs when they can get somebody else cheaper (me) to sort it out for them.
Matt.