Oakmozart
Forum Replies Created
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If you’ve got the money: Ultimatte Advantedge is the best, by far. The industry-standard, too. I use it almost daily. Got $1700? You do? Get it! You don’t? Move on. https://www.ultimatte.com
Boris Continuum Complete: very good included keyers, plus over a hundred more plugins. A must-have addition to XPro. $800 https://www.borisfx.com
Primatte Keyer AVX by Red Giant Software: killer keyer. One of my favorites and has been a staple in my After Effects toolbox for 5 years. $500. https://www.redgiantsoftware.com
zMatte by Digital Film Tools: something like $300 or so, and is another excellent keyer. https://www.digitalfilmtools.com
This should give you something to chew on. Try the demo’s first before buying.
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Xpress DV is a joke. If you plan to edit professionally (which I’m sure you are), I’d go with Xpress Pro and Mojo.
All Avid systems use OMF media files natively. Don’t waste your time with AVI in Avid because it can get to be a headache.
The feature set between Xpress Pro and Xpress Meridien is actually pretty much the same. Xpress Meridien 6 had Timewarp/Fluidmotion effects, while Xpress Pro only has Timewarp templates that cannot be manipulated. I would expect full-Timewarp/Fluidmotion in Xpress Pro in an upcoming release, but that’s speculation.
Avid doesn’t appear to sell the Xpress Meridien system anymore, since they no longer advertise it on their webpage. In all seriousness, I’d probably just go with Xpress Pro Powerpack + Mojo, or get Xpress Studio HD. Then again, with the price you would likely have spent on a new Xpress Meridien, you’d probably be getting close to the ballpark price of a new Adrenaline. You might look into that as well.
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Well, as much as I b*tch about Mojo–which really IS a joke, especially what it does vs. cost–it does a couple of good things: 1) External Monitor Preview (EMP) with sync support is wonderful. 2) The RT capabilities it adds is incredible. 3) The ability to use 1:1 media in your projects is killer…especially for graphics/titles. The inability to only use ONE STREAM–regardless if it’s video or graphics–is infuriating!!! 4) The RT downcoversion (on-the-fly) of HD/HDV footage to SD for viewing on an SD external monitor is sweet. Problem is, now you can’t really use it for true “finishing.” Then again, you can’t really use XPro to “finish” anything in a “professional” manner. Avid’s made sure of that. Long live Adrenaline and the new Symphony Nitris and Avid’s way-overcrowded product line! Oops, squeeze it in, folks, ‘cuz here comes Pinnacle!
If you could use Mojo, then just buy it. I have a funny feeling I’m going to be an old man before Avid ever gives us a Mojo w/10-bit hardware, XLR and SDI…which we all know is what it should have featured in the first place. IF they ever did come to their senses and update Mojo, you could always sell your “old” (existing) Mojo on Ebay and do quite well, I’m sure.
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Those of “us” who can’t afford a Mojo are doing it the same way you are. If you can spring the cash, get a Mojo. Otherwise, the way you’re doing it is the way to go.
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Dude, check this out: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=302342&is=REG
I almost bought one a few months ago, when the price was nearly $700…it’s dropped over $200 in the past few months! It’s a great-looking monitor, but it uses the P22 phosphors and not the pro-quality SMPTE phosphors. While many pro’s turn their noses up at P22 phosphors, I’ve had great luck with them for color-correcting in the past. Just make sure your monitor is calibrated properly. You also might try looking at B&H’s used products section as well.
Look around on Ebay, too. There’s lots of great deals on there too, if you know what you’re looking for. I just recently purchased a Sony PVM-14M2U and it’s in great condition. Look for good feedback, high-res pics and full-spec listings. If you see something you want but aren’t sure if it’s good, post the link here so others can check it out.
I’d just buy the new Sony via the link I sent you, dude. That’s a killer price on a decent monitor. You can always buy better in the future.
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Good point, bro. I agree heartily with you that Avid needs to make faster advancements in the upper-end products to not only advance the Avid product line, but to also allow for more development in the lower-end products (XPro, mainly). XPro NEEDS secondary color-correction, for example, yet not even Adrenaline has it. I’m not asking for something unrealistic here, because all of XPro’s competitors have it (even Premiere Pro, for Pete’s sake!!!)…all for under $1000.
The other problem with XPro–which is a problem in one way and a benefit in another–is that large amounts of the upgrades in XPro are “trickle-downs” from the higher-end products (almost ALWAYS scaled-down versions at that…think XPro’s laughable “timewarp” effects). Rarely does one see NEW innovations being included. What do I mean by “new innovations?” Avid’s FluidFilm, DNxHD and SpectraMatte Keyer are recent examples. XPro and the entire Avid NLE product line could use some SERIOUS refinements to the user interface, such as the ability to loop sections of the timeline continuously while being able to tweak an effect/color correction, etc. Also, I’d love to see them abandon their modal interface, allowing all tasks to be done in one mode. The Effect Editor is frustrating, as is the associated “Step-In/Step-Out” methodology one must use when applying more than one effect to a clip. Pretty much all other applications I’ve used allow you to simply drag-and-drop a new effect to “stack” them one right on top of another. Look at After Effects: one can drag and drop as many effects onto a clip as desired, and then tweak all the parameters in the Effects Tab…all the effects “stack” on top of each other in the Effects Tab, so you can tweak all your parameters quickly, with a minimal amount of keystrokes and no having to “step-in/out” of a clip/effect to access others that are underneath. How much longer must we wait until Avid wakes up and gives us the Transfer Modes that we need? Yes, I know there’s a plugin that will allow me to do this, but why must I use a plugin, when it should be BUILT RIGHT IN TO THE TIMELINE!? How about background rendering and better multi-processor support, particularly in RENDERING!? Hell, about inclusion of scroll-wheel support so we can use our handy-dandy little scroll wheel to scroll through the timeline, bins, Effect Editor, etc. That’d at least get Avid’s interface back into the early ’90’s, where its competitors have been for years!!
Can you tell I’m frustrated? I love Avid, but I’m getting SO sick and tired of hearing their BS with no results whatsoever. When I do get them they fall flat of what Avid said they would be. I always thought I could expect more of the industry leader whom I’ve given so much money to (though not nearly as much as Mr. Magid or others). Then again, maybe Avid will wake up and smell the coffee when their “inferior” competition surpasses them and Avid finds themselves no longer the industry leader. Heck, come to think of it, they lost the industry lead a few years ago. Now they’re just hanging in there with the crowd and seem to have lost their desire to push the innovation envelope.
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What’s even more wild is that you can pick up a DS Nitris Editor for around $75K. It has more features than Symphony Nitris (even though it’s missing the Effects Tree, 3D compositing, and a few other features), yet costs less. With a computer and storage, you’re coming in at just under $100K or so, which I suppose makes it a HAIR more spendy than a Symphony Nitris. This might be your answer for now, Grinner, if you don’t want/can’t afford a $150K DS Nitris system.
You’re right though, when you say DS Nitris is a wild product. It is. And it just keeps getting better. I’m a little surprised that we didn’t see an 8.0 version this year…what they added in the .6 update is pretty impressive for a “dot-release.”
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Agreed. Avid is a hardware company first and foremost. They build their software to run with their hardware. They are not interested in forging relationships with numerous companies, they do everything themselves (or when they have formed partnerships, it’s been with one specific company, such as Pinnacle, for example). This is why you do not see Matrox RTx.100 being offered for Avid, like it is for Premiere.
With DNA, Avid is making everything themselves. They will keep it this way.
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Most definitely. Get a Nvidia card (certified or not). I’d also try reinstalling XPro first, to see if that fixes your problem or not.
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No, it’s probably the video card. Read the Avid specs!! They give you only a few specific NVIDIA (NOT ATI or MATROX!!) cards that are certified for use with XPro, namely the Quadro 280 NVS (pretty weak, don’t waste your time), QuadroFX 500 (what I have, great card, inexpensive), Quadro4 980 XGL, QuadroFX 1100, and QuadroFX 1300. Just about any mid-range Nvidia Ge-Force card or other Quadro-series card will work. Also make sure and read the XPro 4.6 readme for specific Nvidia driver information.
Ditch the ATI, they’re not meant for use in Avid (or numerous other NLE/graphics programs), despite what ATI says!!
Make sure you have either an ADS Pyro or SIIG 1394 firewire capture card. Also, make sure your video display settings are set to the best (there’s a little button on the bottom left of the timeline, oval-shaped. It will either be yellow, half-yellow/half-green, or green. Green means it’s at the highest display settings.)
Do you have enough RAM? Min. 1 GB for software-only, 1.5 GB with Mojo.
Do you have Windows XP Service Pack 2? It’s not absolutely necessary with 4.6, but you should have it nonetheless. If you upgrade to XPro HD 5.x, you MUST have SP2.
One last thing: what kind of media are you capturing? Are you trying to capture uncompressed via Mojo? If you are, you’ll need faster hard-drives, either SATA or SCSI. If you’re just capturing standard DV25 media over firewire, you should be okay with your Maxtor IDE drive.
Go here for more info: https://www.avid.com/products/xpresspro/specs.asp