[Rhewitt]

So, not a problem with Avid then? More a problem with your video card driver – and that is what the error means.

[Rhewitt]

If you follow Avid’s recommendations, you won’t have problems.

Editing video is a very demanding task for any PC. To allow for the flexibility that Avid systems gives you, you need the hardware that can do it. There is a big difference between a home or shop built system and a professional workstation built by DELL or HP.

Sound cards are a good example – most motherboard sound cards are designed down to a cost and are totally unsuitable for professional audio use.

Video cards – Avid uses OpenGL and hardware based video overlay to give realtime, frame accurate video monitoring both on the PC and output to a monitor. Most ATI cards do not work this way and are not suitable for this application. NVidia FX cards are designed for professional applications, not video games and provide the right hardware for the Avid editing applications to function.

You have to remember what you are dealing with here. It is a professional application designed for professional use, in a similar way to AutoCad. Professionals are used to paying for quality tools that enable them to do there job. If you’re editing a feature film for example you are talking about an end product worth millions. You wouldn’t use a home computer to do that – even if most of the time it ‘may’ work.

Avid is the editing system of choice for the vast majority of feature films and TV programmes around the world. Without a professional, reliable and supported hardware platform, it wouldn’t be where it is today and cheaper semi-professional applications such as FCP and Adobe Premier would have a bigger market than they do now.

If you can’t afford the hardware to run it on, then you’re looking at the wrong application for your budget. We’d all like to drive around in a Ferrari but our budget and requirements mean we have to drive around in something more closely matching our real needs.

[Rhewitt]

A few possible causes:

1. The dongle has failed
2. The Sentinel driver is corrupt, missing or not running
3. USB port could be faulty – try another port

[Rhewitt]

Got caught with that one too.

1. You need to uninstall PPro and the RTX100 drivers (X.Tools)
2. Install PPro as per the installation manual
3. Install the RTX100 drivers (X.Tools)

The reason for the install order is that X.Tools installs in some of the PPro folders and hooks itself into PPro.

[Rhewitt]

Is the logo to be static over a moving background as in a station ident or are you trying add a logo with the effect of having the same lighting as the background video?

[Rhewitt]

Windows XP Home is not supported for any version of Media Composer. See required specs below:

Media Composer – Windows
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
System memory: 2 GB minimum, 3 GB recommended for HD or high stream count SD projects.
CPU: Dual 3.06 GHz Xeon

[Rhewitt]

This is more likely a problem with your video card/driver.

Are you using the latest supported driver for your card?
Is the card supported by Avid?

Have a check on avid.com for the latest driver update details.

Media Composer and the other Avid editing apps don’t redraw the screen quite as quickly or in the same way as other Windows apps and with a less than optimum driver, screen redraw problems can exist. Avid apps also give a higher priority to media processing than screen redraws, which can often leave some stray parts of windows not updating but again this is driver specific.

[Rhewitt]

Get the Avid guys in.

It’s all too easy to install and screw-up your existing workspaces and you won’t be thanked for that!

The Avid support engineers do this type of install all the time and money spent now will save you a packet if a DIY install goes wrong.

[Rhewitt]

I am an Adobe fan but seeing FInal Cut Pro 2 studio and the intergrations I am leaning the Apple Mac route now as it offers all the formats support as well.

And that’s Adobe’s problem – to busy with application integration and a ‘pretty’ interface rather than add the professional features the application needs. Apple has a good interface and many of the features, Avid has all the features but the interface?…well you kinda warm to it after a while.

[Rhewitt]

Ooops, forgot to mention that using an external reference forces the VTR playback head/drum motor to lock to the ref signal and ensuring greater stability of playback.