[Ross Spears]

So, you are saying that this would be a risky thing to do — maybe even a bit foolish? — to upgrade from 4.0.5 to 7.0 MC in the middle of a long project with so much invested? You are suggesting that, yes, something might go terribly wrong? Did I get that right?

Thanks very much for your help!!

Ross

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks so much for telling me about the different versions! I really appreciate it. What I need to know is how risky is it to change Versions of MC in mid-project. I have 100 hours of footage digitized for a three part series we are making. Would I be jeopardizing this work if I changed versions of MC in midstream?

Thanks very much!

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks very much. That brings up the next question: whether to upgrade or not. The late Larry Rubin, whom many will fondly remember, told me that MC 4.0 was the most “stable” of all the AVID media composer version, and that it would do everything I needed to do on my project. So, since I am smack in the middle of a longterm project involving many hours of digitized footage, I am still using MC 4.0.5. What would be your reaction to that situation? How “dangerous” is it to upgrade in the middle of a big project?

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks for the suggestions. And yes, I admit that this is relatively new to me, as AVID, computers, and filmmaking in general keep shifting. I started making films back in the late 60’s using a pair of rewinds and a moviescope, graduated to a movieola, then a Steenbeck flatbed, bought my first AVID in 1998 and used that until 2009 (an offline AVID for $50,000), have now graduated to an $5000 AVID that will do HD, etc. It’s been fun to try to keep up with the vocabulary, the models, the workflows, the outlets, and all the ways to capture and organize words, music, and images! Believe me, if it weren’t for helpful experts like you and your colleagues at CC to talk me through all the problems, …. well. I am very appreciative!

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

What about installing two more internal drives in the Mac Pro? There are slots for them. If so, would you recommend any particular types?

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks for the info. I have been transcoding all the “native” footage from the SxS cards and things are playing well again. But I am rapidly running out of Hard Drive space.

I impulsively bought a 6 TB external drive at the Apple store, with a Thunderbolt to firewire adapter, but now it won’t show up on the screen. Actually it won’t even power up. Looking online I am now wondering whether Thunderbolt drives will even run on a Mac Pro computer!? Does anyone know?

I will look at the CalDigit RAID 1 drives now.

Also, how does LTO tape backup work?

Lots to learn! Thanks.

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks very much! That’s very helpful indeed. I do have all the camera originals backed up on multiple hard drives. Would it be better to back up to tape?

I have been advised – via Larry on this Forum — to keep my project going in AVID 4.0.5 because it is the most stable and that it will do all I need it to do. Would you agree?

Also, what kind of external drives do you recommend for use with this set-up? And by the way, what is ISIS?

Thanks so much.

Ross

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks very much! OK! We will begin transcoding the files. What is the best way to transcode a large amount of material? Can we do it in batches? Should the native files then be discarded after they are transcoded? Is the transcoded file larger than the Native file? Will it make a space problem.

Also — two more questions: 1) Should we move files out of the drive that is almost full? 2) Do you think that the AVID will be able to handle another internal drive or two? The computer is set up for two more internal drives.

Thanks very very much for your help!

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

Thanks for your reply. Here are answers to your questions:

Size of biggest bins — We have a total of 60 bins, most of them not very full. Our largest bin, however, has 1100 shots! Most often, the bins have less than 200 shots. They are a mixture of shots from our HDV camera tapes and our HD SxS cards. None of those shots have been transcoded to the AVID codec.

How are the drives connected: They are both internal drives.

How full are the drives: The original drive in the computer has a capacity of 639 gigs. There are only 19 gigs are available. The second drive, which we added in 2011, has a 4 TB capacity altogether, and there are 835 gigs available. We have been thinking about adding another internal drive with a large capacity.

What messages are we getting? They are follows: 1) AMA Mapper::GetSampleTemporalOffset() Unexpected AME status [-2147483645] 2) Exception: DISC_TOO_MANY_OPEN, filename: TREESHDVVO1.51719516.51F820.mxf 3) Exception: std::exception, what: “Bus error” in Thread ‘AdoptedThread’, at address 0x0

After this last message the AVID freezes and we must force quick. We very much appreciate your assistance!!

Thanks!

Never Give Up

[Ross Spears]

OK, I have tried that but it doesn’t seem to work. I am wondering if this could be a problem: When I first connected the EX-1 camera to the AVID, it immediately found the footage on the camera and would play it on the screen. The shots immediately were put into a bin and showed up there too. When I checked where it was located in the bin statistics, it showed that the footage was in “Camera.” Could it be that because it has been absorbed into AVID in that way, that it will not allow me to now put the same BPAV folder into a Harddrive and find it there instead? Should I delete all the shots from the first bin and start over?

Thanks,

Ross Spears

Never Give Up