[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

Did you completely uninstall any previous Avid versions prior to installing the new one? If not, uninstall then reinstall. That will often fix the types of problems you’re running into.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

The 1200A will play out 720p/24 as 1080p/24 just fine, provided you have 24 frame trilevel sync available (it must be fed from an external generator) and set the menus to select 24 as the base frame rate (I’m going on memory here, but I think it’s setting #20, but check the manual to make sure).

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

Asking here won’t get you your answers. You need to talk to your client and the lab/transfer facility to find out what they are planning to do, and what they are capable of doing.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

One possible way to do this is to use some tools from the Red world. Assuming you’re on a Mac, and are able to read the DVCPro Quicktime files, download a copy of MetaCheater (look it up in Google). This tool will allow you to create an ALE file from a folder full of Quicktimes. Since you’re making a 720/23.98 project, you’ll have to check the “NTSC Film Project” button in Metacheater to allow for a 24->60 conversion, since Avid still thinks in video format terms (720/24 doesn’t exist as a video format, only 720/60 does). Generate an ALE, import it into a bin, and duplicate the Start TC into the TC24 column. Now you’re all set. Highlight everything in the bin and go to Clip->Batch Import (in XPress Pro, you can find it under the hamburger menu at the bottom of the bin window). Highlight everything in the Clip Name column and click on Set File Location. Select the first file in the list and Batch Import will fill in all of the remaining source file names. Set up the Import Target settings. For 720p/24, you can select DNxHD60, DNxHD90, or DVCProHD. If you select DVCProHD, it should do a fast import and rewrap the QT files back to MXF form. The bad news is that you won’t be able to see the images on anything other than your computer monitor without either rendering or transcoding to DNxHD. The good news is that you can walk away while your existing files are imported and when you come back, you’ll have all of them ready to go, along with master clips, in Avid form. This is probably the easiest and best way to get Quicktime material into an Avid program without going to tape and redigitizing.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

>take objection to Mike Most’s observation, as he now lives in Florida, and about 90% of the facilities in >Florida have become FCP facilities

Bob, Bob, Bob.
Did you actually READ my observation? To quote myself:

>My guess is that you don’t generally work on network television programs and/or studio features, >where what you say is absolutely not the case.

I would point out that out of 3 studio features and one film based studio television series (made for a cable network) done in Florida this year, all were/are cut on Avid systems. Two of those projects were at 14:1, and the other two were done using Avid DNxHD 36. How do I know? The facility I work for did/does the front end work on all of them. My statement is absolutely true if you don’t try to twist it and imply that I was talking about markets other than network television programs and studio features.

As for living in Florida, while that’s true at the moment, the fact is that I’ve been in Florida about 2 years. I lived in Los Angeles for over 30. That’s where I grew up in the business, and that’s where my mind still is regarding these things. And I keep in touch with just about everyone I know to make sure I still know what’s going on. I don’t make these things up, I just report facts. You’re lumping devices like Final Cut in with devices like Pablo and Nitris DX – all of these products are intended for very different markets and price points. What you’re doing is comparing the single user, DIY world with that of the high end facilities. That’s foolish, as these are different environments with different requirements, different expectations, and, yes, often different levels of expertise. That’s not putting down those who don’t work in high end facilities, it’s just an observation that not everyone WANTS to do it themselves, because not everyone believes that’s the best way, and not everyone believes they have all of those talents, at least not in equal amounts to those that specialize. So in the markets I described – network television and studio features – the DIY way is not the way it’s done, regardless of where you happen to live, and regardless of how many systems you’ve installed.

And by the way, at least 50-70% of the facilities that were in Florida just a few years ago are now gone. So much for facilities “switching.”

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

>This is what has changed drasticly as a result of Adrenaline alone.
>FCP is quite the norm now and it’s a trand that is RAPIDlY tapering off Avid products from the >professional vidiot world.

My guess is that you don’t generally work on network television programs and/or studio features, where what you say is absolutely not the case.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

1. Open the file in the Source window.
2. Pull down “Modify->Timecode” in FCP.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

>The file specs in Quicktime… DVCPRO HD 720p60 fps 23.98

DVCProHD 720p60 is the name of the codec. The frame rate is 23.98. The fact that a frame rate is included as part of the codec name is a source of confusion for many. The same problem exists with a number of other codecs. For instance, if you use the Kona 1080 Uncompressed codecs, the codec name will be 1080i, even if you are recording progressive. This is also true with DVCPro, which leads many to believe that you can’t have 1080p/23.98 DVCProHD files (because the codec itself is called DVCProHD 1080i).

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

Thanks, Gary.

I tried using a Tiff and that worked.

[Mike Most — account bouncing, bad address]

Your mistake was in not investigating what it would take to maintain the cadence information in the original recording. You can record uncompressed in 720p/60 from a Varicam, but you have to record the entire vertical interval and maintain the VITC user bits when you do it. This is what the Varicam uses for its “frame flags” that allow automated recovery of the original 24 frames in post. Without it, you’re forced to figure it out on a clip by clip basis. If you were compressing to ProRes “on the fly,” then you were recording with a Mac based device by definition. If you were doing that, you had some type of capture card in the loop, and if THAT were the case, you should have been able to remove the pulldown frames as you were recording. That would have been a much better approach, as among other things, it would have required less storage.

There are far too many formats out there today, and there are far too many pitfalls in each one. When you decide to kludge a new approach, you need to do your homework – ahead of time – if you want to be able to post it efficiently and accurately.