[Oliver Peters]

[David Battistella] “aybe it is just all daughtercard accelleration?”

David,

No there is no daughtercard acceleration. Mojo enables some of the mixing of resolutions but really more as a dongle, than anything else. There are onboard chips to handle some scaling, A-D/D-A, a/v sync and codec support. Pretty much the same in MCA. You get true hardware acceleration with the Nitris boardset which is on DS and soon Symphony HD.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[David Battistella] “Here is a question. Is the AVID capturing all of these formats in a their native codecs? Because if I use one FCP preset I can capture any format I want to that preset.
……I’ll put a 8 or 10 bit frame from FCP against any AVID for picture quality alone.”

David,

If we are talking about uncompressed, then it is 8-bit uncompressed SD on Xpress Pro or MCA. If we are talking about DV25, then it is native with an Avid file wrapper. DV50 and DVCProHD are imported via FW and rewrapped with an MXF wrapper. If you want the best HD image today in an Avid product, then Avid DS Nitris would set the standard and would look as good as anything out there.

It’s pretty silly to talk about raw image quality, since few images go through a system unaltered in some way. Since FCP does such a poor job of effects processing compared with some of the other top-end systems out there, you have to look at the total results, not simple raw image versus raw image. Forgetting about price, the scaling image quality of Nitris hardware versus FCP motion effects is pretty significant. Even if you look at software alone, the scaling in Motion is much worse than in AE or Boris.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Rich Rubasch] “That was exactly one of my biggest beefs with the Mojo…no SDI, and worse, no digital audio input. I think it now has a SPDIF input.”

Rich,

This has been a prime topic for the Avid guys, but I think it’s unfair to compare Mojo to AJA Io, Kona 2 or BMD Decklink. Avid never intended it to be that. Xpress Pro and DV are targeted at the DV videographer. Mojo was added to give them a bit more capability, such as adding uncompressed graphics to a DV timeline and output to an analog format, like BetaSP, VHS, etc. In addition, it functions as a monitoring device during laptop work and for Unity-attached Xpress Pro clients. Mojo performs these task well, so I doubt Avid will make it into anything more, since then it moves into the space where Adrenaline is positioned.

One cool Mojo trick, though, is that if you are running with HD footage on Xpress Pro HD (PC for know), you will get downconverted preview output to an NTSC monitor. This timeline can contain mixed DV25, uncompressed SD, DV50, DVCPRO HD and Avid’s DNxHD and all will play in RT as well as be downconverted to NTSC in RT on the output of the Mojo. This includes with RT effects, like transitions and color-correction.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

If you read pages 294-300 in the larger manual that comes with Xpress Pro HD, there’s a lengthy description of behavior with single-layered and multi-layered Photoshop files. One issue, not mentioned so far, is that you should be using Photoshop 6.0 or higher when these are Photoshop files, as opposed to PICT, TGA, etc.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[J Smith] “Make your alpha with a visible background color that will mesh with the video you’re putting it over. Need a white font with no black fringing? Make the alpha with white behind it. There will be slight fringing, but being white it will match.”

J,

Sorry to be a nudge, but this simply isn’t true. Also the way in which Avid reacts to an embedded alpha, such as a Photoshop transparency value or an embedded alpha in a PNG is different. I’m not quibbling with the pre-multiplied part, but merely the results you describe. The way Avid keys does effect the level of “fuzziness” of a soft edge or the opacity of a see-through shadow, but that’s basically a minor tweak. You won’t get EXACTLY the same result as you see in Photoshop, but it will be pretty darn close.

I tend to get very clean results on my keys in Avid – far better than in a linear bay, where your advice would tend to hold up correctly. We’re talking about RT alphas, not a separate matte & fill graphic.

Again, none of this is pertinent to the ORIGINAL problem, which – as described – is far worse than the result of incorrect blending.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Alex Udell] “Is there an option in the avid import to disable pre-multiply?”

Hi Alex,

Good to hear from you. Yes, you’re right that this is what it sounds like, but I believe what is being described is far coarser than this sort of error. In any case, Avid has no settings for this. It has import settings for size, color space and alpha polarity but nothing else.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

The differences between Smoke and DS are mainly subjective. DS Nitris will give you true hardware-assisted RT effects, while all Smoke effects require rendering. This may affect your turnaround time for color-correction. This will also vary whether we are talking Smoke (on IBM with Linux) or Smoke DI (on SGI Tezro). Remember that to get the kind of tracking info (like edge numbers) in Smoke, you will have to get Smoke DI which is more expensive than Smoke on Linux or DS.

I have tested an FCP sequence to Smoke and basic transitions come over. I have moved Avid to FCP and had similar results. I have moved Avid projects from Xpress to DS and nearly everything came over as desired. The same would be true for Adrenaline. If you want the most seamless integration in edit information then you’ll be best off with an Xpress/DS or Adrenaline/DS combo. You really have to get a demo of both DS and Smoke to see which best fit your workflow.

The whole DI business is largely a roll-your-own approach these days, so there is no “best” or “fastest” method right now. Since your checking things out, you should also look at Quantel eQ, Assimilate Scratch, Silicon Color Final Touch and even an all Adobe Premiere Pro system.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Sorry, but I haven’t done any testing between Compressor 2 and BitVice with HDV-originated footage to tell you. Try a short test between the two yourself and see what you think.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Hmmm…. It sounds like you are doing it all correctly, but the symptom you describe is typical of when a layer effect is not merged. When you create the file, do you delete any invisible layers, which have the raw effect?

For example, create a graphic with 3 text layers above a blank transparent BG. Add a drop shadow to each text layer. Now above each, create a blank new layer. Link it to the layer below and merge. You now should have 3 layers in which the text has been rasterized and the shadow is married to it. Any other layers should be deleted (I think merging gets rid of them anyway), so you are left with three layers over a blank BG. If you now import this into Avid with alpha inverted, you should get three keyable layers as well as a small sequence with the titles on separate video tracks. These should all be cleanly keyable.

What about bit- depth? These should be 8-bit RGB, not 16-bit, not CMYK. What about layer blend values.? These should all be set to normal, not overlays, screen, etc.

One other thing. Do you have render-on-the-fly enabled? What are your RT settings? How does it look when you render the effect in Avid? You might be seeing this because you don’t have the RT enabled.

Good luck.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Fongaboo] “But does PNG allow for 256-levels of alpha?”

Yes, a PNG file is an Adobe format that is a compressed 24-bit file with embedded 8-bit alpha information. On your previous test file, are you using the Photoshop transparency values or are you creating a separate alpha? If the latter, what does the alpha channel look like in Photoshop? Does it have the feathered edges?

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com