[Michael J c]

Yes, I have the same problem…

Floh seemed to suggest that buying the upgraded Boris FXs will solve the issue. See here: https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=4&postid=856791

What video card and system are you on?

I’m on a G5 Dual 2.7, and have an ATI Radeon X800XT video card

[Michael J c]

**Oh, and the boris filters are as follows:

Graffiti 3.0 filter ver. 3.02.041202
FX 6.1 filter = ver. 6.1.1.504

I don’t know how that all works, but they’re the same versions as the keyframers.

[Michael J c]

[Floh] “[Michael C.] “(I have had problems with the screen drawing in the Boris apps when launched via M100HD, but it doesn’t crash… I just have to guess at the buttons).”

This is some sort of OpenGL problem as far as I know. Do you have the newest versions of the Boris products you?re using?”

My Graffiti 3.0 keyframer is version 3.0.3.041202

My FX 6.1 keyframer is version 61.1.1504

It happens in both programs… It doesn’t happen when going into the keyframer directly by double clicking.

[Floh] “[Michael C.] “Does this happen randomly and while doing nothing? Or are you usually engaged in some sort of task?”

That’s the problem. It happens randomly, especially when playing back long timelines. But I still did not find a way to reproduce this.”

What about playing a bin clip in the source window? Or only when the timeline is scrolling? Maybe that is a clue? Just a thought…

[Michael J c]

I’m with you… I’ve gone through their site looking for places to report bugs… Best I can come up with is: customerservice@media100.com . But I’ve never gotten a response.

So I just post them here. Whatever…

If you get the top-of-the-line media composer with DNXcel for hte mac, do you still have to buy all of avids hardware? or can you use your existing xserve raid and keyboard and cinema displays?

No, you don’t. You can still use any keyboard and monitor you want. I know Xserve should work for SD, and I’d assume for DNXcel (but I don’t know). We just got a 6TB Terrablock ( https://facilis.net/24D.htm ) and I know it works great with Avid and FCP… And so far it has been great with our uncompressed 10bit M100HD stuff too.

Now that Avid’s released their flagship editor as SW only, you don’t *need* any hardware. In truth, you can still get Xpress Pro (now with a SDI mojo) and have a very capable Avid System (Standard Def) for about $4,000 (you’ll still need a CPU obviously, but it will work on what you got). To get a highdef system, you’ll need the Adrenaline hadware with a DNXcel card. That system doesn’t do uncompressed HD *yet*, but the DNXcel codec is pretty versatile and looks great. I was always a M100 snob about picture quality vs the AVID… They finally got it right with DNXcel though. And since it is Avid, most broadcasters have no issues with the Avid HD output. I think you may have a rare instance of, say, PBS that REQUIRES uncompressed HD, no questions. In that case, it is seamless to move it to an Avid Symphony bay to “up-res”. Or, with a bit more work, move it to the M100HD for online.

It made me pause for a while, but I’ve found that more people trust DNXcel then I’m worried about. And I still got my uncompressed HD M100HD system if it was ever an issue…

…but this reminds me of my “lossless” discussions with clients. LOL

[Michael J c]

Does this happen randomly and while doing nothing? Or are you usually engaged in some sort of task?

I have seen something similar… sort of. While exporting clips from the edit suite, IF I leave M100HD and go to the finder, when I come back I sometimes loose some textures in the program and the program will almost always crash on the export. (And I’ll usually start hearing the audio portion of what it was trying to export).

On long exports, I used to go to other apps… Can’t do that anymore with confidence.

But I haven’t see the issue exactly as you described. (I have had problems with the screen drawing in the Boris apps when launched via M100HD, but it doesn’t crash… I just have to guess at the buttons).

[Michael J c]

Hmm… I tried that and it just opened the new project to be saved window. Maybe that’s what you meant by “most of the time”… lol

But I like having it remember the last project opened, because that’s the usual workflow for me. I guess I’ll just keep using the work around when I want to open a different project. Thanks though!

[Michael J c]

Hi Floh…

These are classic films originally in the 1:33 Aspect ratio. They’re coming over on tape with pillar boxes on the left and right so as to preserve the entire image.

In some cases (downconverts to SD), we will use the full frame. In HD pieces we would like to reformat the 4×3 space in to a nicely composed 16×9 image (via a resize). This way it plays seamlessly when cut next to a more modern widescreen film.

[Michael J c]

We have actually been using an Avid Express Pro bay (with attached Mojo) for any of our projects that were OK to deliver in Analog component (or worse). I’ve been waiting for the day that Avid looked to re-dedicate itself to supporting the Mac in a meaningful way… And that also meant bringing HD to the Mac Adrenaline. The finally did that and had a great showing at NAB I thought.

Going to Avid is a huge change for a M100 editor. The system really does make you think in a completely different way. It is actually pretty frustrating at first because some of the simplest things that you’ve done in the M100 are done so differently in the Avid. So, it takes a bit of time to get used to. But it is so much more versatile than the M100 in features, compatability and (eventually) speed of individual tasks. You can totally map your avid keyboard to work exactly like your M100 does… and then learn a few (a lot) more tricks and you’re an even faster editor.

I made the switch in my head while cutting the same short film side by side on both a M100 and an Avid. For narrative work, the Avid is light-years ahead of the M100. It was so much easier to cut on the Avid. For montages, I’m still faster on the M100, but quickly catching up on the Avid. And in the end, my Avid montages look better because the effects and plug-ins are more readily available and integrated. Just last night I spend way too much time trying to get the M100 to speed up a section of a shot to fit perfectly in between two fixed out/ins of the same shot. On the Avid that’s a drag and drop away.

I think you’re safer in dulling the learning curve by going to FCP. You can still think in the same way as you do when editing on a M100. And FCP still is a similar match in features to the Avid so I wouldn’t say one is “better” than the other. But in the end, I decided to go with the system with the longest professional history and the one I think will work the best for what I do.

The big price drop on the Media Composers was a bonus to me. You can now get the software only version of Media Composer (thanks Media 100!?? lol) for $4,995. And an SDI mojo (i/o box) attaches to that for another $2500-$3500 I think… If you want HD (DNXcel actually) and the Adrenaline instead of the mojo (for better i/o and hardware accelaration), it is about 18k.

I’ll still keep my M100 forever… I’ve edited on it since ’96… There looks to be some potential with the Boris aquisition. But I just don’t get the feeling that, in the big picture, there are as many people paying attention to the future development of THIS system as there is over at Avid or Apple/FCP…

Did you figure out any solution on the HD reference import bug?

[Michael J c]

I did just this exact thing.

For the color correction we did exactly as Floh describes… And actually, we were supposed to go tape to tape in the CC bay, but they ended up loading it on their system. But we did give them the EDL and they were able to CC cut for cut.

I also got rid of my dissolves at the end of the clips and gave handles into black where I could. That way they could color correct the entire shot.

But to tell you the truth, I don’t think we did much of anything in the Color Correction bay that could not have been matched exactly here in the M100HD (especially if I had someone who knew a decent amount about CC). Unless you have stuff you really need to correct (or you’re know as little about being a colorist as I do), I’d save the money.

The audio is a bit more frustrating. No omf support means we export each track as an un-mixed AIFF file with reference levels and handles. I got lazy in the creating of visual sync pops at the begining and end of each program, and we did spend some time re-syncing… (my bad there).

[Michael J c]

I’ve tested this with SD clips and the M100HD imports the reference .mov files fine.

I tested exporting a ref HD clip and then importing at SD. It has to render (obviously), but it ends up giving me an SD standalone clip. (Although I get a field dominance error?!? when re-importing, but the footage ends up looking right once it is in. Playing on the Quicktime player there are field issues.)

But, as you say, it doesn’t look possible to import a HighDef M100 reference file back into M100HD. The system wants to re-render its own reference file. Probably a fixable bug, I’m guessing.

Quicktime seems to handle the HD ref file just fine, and I can take it into AE with no probems… Just not into the application that created it… 🙁

Good luck w/ your FCP if you go that way… In the NAB demo they showed doing just this exact “feature” in their demo.

I’m actually moving to Media Composer & Adrenaline…