Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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You’re in a tough spot. Capturing in FCP for Avid will give you numerous problems.
One, the import times will kill you. You may as well capture to tape and bring that to your Avid systems (or run your cameras through a distribution amp and run it into your FCP system as well as a VTR).
Two, you’ll lose all timecode, if that’s important. I guess if you’re capturing directly to your SAN you won’t have tape to come back to, but it may be something to consider. I read yesterday that Avid will support timecode import/export in the next release (not point release), but who knows when that will be.
At this point, I’d say either replace the older Avids with FCP and hope your editors can struggle through, or replace the FCP systems with new Avids.
If this footage is ultimately going to Avid, is there a reason you can’t take a Mojo or Adrenaline and capture directly to Avid, like you’re doing with FCP? That way you’ll have an Avid workflow from start to finish. Or, get a distribution amp and run your camera into both systems so it won’t matter what you need to cut on. Granted, this will double your footage, but you’ll be doing that anyway when you import the FCP Quicktimes into Avid.
Can you give us more details about how everything is setup? What are you shooting with? SD, HD? How much footage are you looking at? Are these still seperate facilities (buildings), or can you have a mobile capture station that floats between them on shoot days?
Michael.
Michael.
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[Steve Cohen] “The other issue is that their 2 systems don’t even work together properly. As I said they have an Avid Adrenaline Media Composer version 2.8 and an Avid Meridian Media Composer Version 12.1.2. I believe the problem there is 1 is OMX and the other is MFX.”
On your MC 2.8 systems, go into the Media Creation settings and set your capture type to OMF. The footage will be transferable, then. Just make sure you’re only capturing in the 2.8 version to a resolution that’s available on the older MC 12 systems.
Michael.
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[Shane Ross] “It captures as OMFI..the new Avid software captures as MXF. The are about as incompatible media wise as you get.”
On the new Avid’s you can choose to capture OMF or MXF. It defaults to MXF. Just go to your Media Creation settings and switch your new Avid to capture to OMF.
That said, though, you’re wanting to go way back version wise. There may be resolution compatability issues, and even getting the footage from one system to the other, as Shane noted, will be a pain.
Michael.
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Avid can’t export a quicktime with timecode. I believe, once it’s exported, you can add a timecode track in Quicktime Pro, but as far as exporting with Avid’s timecode–no can do.
Michael.
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You should be fine then. The files will be huge, and it may take a while to import them, but they should be fine. When you get the files, try to open them in Quicktime. If they open and you see the video, you’re good to go. If you see a white screen, you’re missing the codec, but I don’t think that will happen.
Michael.
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What codec are the FCP Quicktime files in? That will determine what will or won’t be readable in your Avid.
Michael.
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They were probably rendered out using the Avid codecs, which you don’t have installed (hence the white screen).
Download them here, install them, and your quicktime should play:
Avid Codecs at Bottom of the Page
Michael.
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Pan and Zoom sucks up your RAM resources rather quickly. If I’m using P&Z, I set my keyframes, watch it to make sure I like it, then render it. This way Avid references the Render file instead of loading and holding the image in RAM. Less problems that way.
A reboot typically solves it, or even just shutting down the software and starting it again. There’s also a Clear Memory option in your Project Window, under the Usage tab I think. I don’t how well it works–I just render or reboot.
Michael.
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Nope.
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You really should be using the Media Tool within Avid for this.
Open the Media Tool and choose to show Media Files. Select some shots in your bin that you no longer need, then go to your bin’s Fast Menu and choose to Select Media Relatives. It will select all the media files in your Media Tool related to the clips you selected in your bin. Delete it you don’t need them.
Otherwise, select some shots in your bin you no longer need and hit Delete. Choose to delete the Media only (don’t delete the master clips–you may want to have the option to recapture them later).
How big is this project? Can’t you just buy 1 or 2 terrabyte drives and consolidate to those?
Michael.