Drive formatting using ExFat works great (Read/Write) on both platforms with no filesize limit. Limitations are: PC – XP or above; MAC – 10.6.5 or above.
Also, if you use MediaFour MacDrive, about $40 for each PC on which you need to read/write, you can then format all drives for MAC, OR as input from above formatted NTFS
ExFat is a great format that can be used read/write with both PC (XP, Vista, Win 7) and MAC (10.6.5 or greater) without any additional software or file size limitations. The issue we have found has been with people’s MACs not having OS 10.6.5 or greater.
I guess it depends on your DVD App. We edit 720p 60fps a lot, I simply send a QT ref., native dimensions to Adobe Encore for DVD (SD) and have never had quality or aspect ratio trouble. I can’t speak to any other DVD app – DVD by Sonic for Avid never worked great for me.
This is a side question to help my understanding …. if you click “native dimensions” and it is a SD project, will it not always default to the native “4×3” anamorphic? I have always struggled and since SD always appears to be 4×3, either anamorphic or not, I always must use sorenson to “unsqueeze” the 4×3 anamorphic so QT will always display correctly.
Avid always looks from the upper most video track down to the base track, V1. If you want to see your background, it must be on V1, and all tracks above that, V2, V3, etc. must have alpha’s or be keyable, allowing you to see through/past them.
AMA is very processor intensive. You are correct in that Avid likes Avid media. I would just set to import and go fishing then return to edit. A lot less frustration with something you have no control over. Sorry I can’t be of real help, others may comfort you more with some real solid advice. 🙂
I would carefully check everything. I have never seen Encore add that much extra. It appears there is something being transcoded. I would go to the file folders, checking each one of the for size and see where the extra data resides – this might give you a clue as to what is happening. especially check the transcodes folder.