Shane Ross
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This type of export…XDCAM 422 MXF export with that audio config, is an option that Avid Media Composer has. Sorry, no clue how to do that with old FCP 7. It’s a newer delivery format, so you’ll have to look into newer options. Hmmm…not seeing how to do that in Resolve…it does the OP1a MXF, but not the audio.
Shane
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[Arturo Glass] ” But now it looks like Premiere’s ability to use AVCHD without pre-rendering footage can be a huge time saver.”
In order to do this, you need a lot of RAM (32GB) and a very good graphics card (4GB to 8GB of RAM on that) that will enable CUDA and the mercury engine. Without those, editing AVCHD native will be a HUGE pain. It takes a lot to decode AVCHD on the fly like that. In fact, even with those options, the more footage you add to a project and sequence, the more difficult it gets and things might still slow down.
[Arturo Glass] “To ingest the footage, dragging and dropping into the Media import window of Premiere ended up giving me some duplicates (because of split video files or something AVCHD does with long takes). So instead I’ve been going to the import menu and importing the folder through there, which doesn’t result in duplicated.”
You talking about the MEDIA BROWSER window? Hmmm…shouldn’t do that.
[Arturo Glass] “Then I have my bin with a bunch of files with filenames like 00000.MTS, 00001.MTS, etc.”
YUP! AVCHD cameras (and many others) restart the names and timecode when you swap out cards. Makes editing VERY difficult…potential to linking to the wrong file, especially in online, is pretty high. Almost inevitable.
Personally I wouldn’t work with AVCHD native. I’d convert it to edit media, DNxHD or ProRes, give each file a unique name, and make those my masters. Use Prelude or Resolve for this.
Shane
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[André Rodrigues] “GTX 10xx “
[André Rodrigues] “NVidia Quadro”
[André Rodrigues] “Blackmagic Deck Link “
One of those things is not like the other. You listed two GRAPHICS cards, and one VIDEO IO card. Two of those output a computer signal to a display so you can see what you are doing…interface with the computer. The other, Blackmagic Decklink…those are for outputting a video signal from editing software to a TV or broadcast monitor so you can view your video full screen and judge quality. THAT is what you need if you want to talk about outputting video from your timeline to view full screen and judge the quality.
You CAN do this with a graphics card..full screen, but you basically need to activate full screen mode…and it’s not reliable to judge quality.
As for a 10-bit signal…the Blackmagic cards do output a 10-bit signal, but know that 10-bit monitors are NOT cheap. and no, I’m not talking COMPUTER DISPLAYS…10-bit video monitors…TVs…broadcast monitors…that’s what gets you the proper color space. THOSE aren’t cheap. I’m not even sure computer displays do 10-bit…do they?
Shane
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How do you plan on onlining the project? In FCP or other? Knowing this is key…you need to make sure converted files you make can relink to the masters when done.
And no, the version of Resolve that is out now, 12.5, won’t work on that older OS. But if you are going to start dealing with newer camera formats and 4K, you are going to start needing to look beyond FCP 7.
Shane
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[Richard Leko] “I was told that i needed to use the “Log and Transfer” tool, in order to have this work (offline / online) when using 4K footage.”
That would be true if you linked to the camera originals, and converted that way. You didn’t…and in fact, you can’t. Because FCP 7 is 6+ years discontinued, and the camera is much newer…it wouldn’t be able to communicate so you wouldn’t be able to use Log and Transfer. If you must do the offline/online workflow with such an old editing app, you’ll need to do what you did…make high res masters, and then low res proxies of them. but MPEG STREAMCLIP is the wrong app for that, as it strips all linking metadata. best to use Resolve for this…or use a newer editing app, like Premiere Pro, FCX…or even try Resolve.
[Richard Leko] “I did read though (as well) that as long as the file names are exactly the same, there shouldn’t be any issues reconnecting the offline edit / proxy footage, to the online edit / 4K footage.”
FCP needs three things in order to link…clip name, timecode, and reel number. If you have two of the same name, but different timecodes, FCP might try to link to the wrong clip, and then report issues with the timecode duration not matching.
[Richard Leko] “All the clips from MPEG Streamclip maintained their name, and when i did reconnect the media, it all worked no problem (after rendering).”
Well, if you tested and it worked, OK. But be warned, it’s not the best solution. But ProRes 4444 files are pretty damn big. If you already converted all the footage, might as well just work with that. But know in the future its overkill…even if the H.264 is 4K, it’s still 8 bit and compressed…and 4444 gains you nothing
Shane
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[Ryan Dundas] “Ok so it looks like there is no way to navigate to each file individually when relinking, like in Premiere or Final Cut?”
Sure there is. Who said there wasn’t? OH… you mean like LINK and then look for it in a window. No, sorry, Avid doesn’t do that. Media is handled differently than PPro and FCP does. The way Avid does it helps it track it better….less change of wrong links
[Ryan Dundas] “All I can do is select what drive I want to search and what metadata to use to search?”
When you relink, you open the bin with the sequence, take the low res media offline…open the AMA linked footage bins (make sure the drives with the linked media is also connected) and relink to all open bins. And yes, Avid will do the rest itself.
Shane
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[Ryan Dundas] ” if I decide to edit with low res proxies for better multigroup playback performance, what metadata do I need to be sure is there so I will easily be able to relink back to my high res footage that I linked to transcode the proxies?”
Use Avid to link to the footage, and transcode to DNx36 or 14:1. Edit…and then relink to the masters when you lock.
[Ryan Dundas] “I did a test where I multigrouped 3 cameras together using proxy files. Then I cut a sequence from the multigroup and chose Commit Multicam Edits then tried to relink back to my high res footage and I was having trouble getting it to relink. I was told I need to add a unique Tape Name to every single clip that I make proxies from? Is this correct?”
Yes, you need to add a TAPE ID to the footage after you AMA link it, so it knows what is what. Many cameras restart names and timecode and that’s VERY confusing.
Shane
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PluralEyes can do this.
But what you are faced with is QUITE normal. This is how post on pretty much every TV show you watch is done. From scripted to unscripted. And there are assistant editors who’s job it is to bring it in and group the clips. Or there are companies that deal with digital intermediates who do this. Or at times you have editors who work alone or do this..one at a time.
Plural Eyes will make a sequence out of these…but if you want individual clips with audio and video married, that’s a one at a time thing. Post is tedious…and long…and involved. Especially on the high end, which you are now starting to deal with. Yes, this takes forever, which is why there are assistants and sometimes longer edit schedules. Now you can see why even movies without visual effects take months to edit. There is a lot of time devoted to syncing and organizing…and watching…the dailies.
Shane
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[Ryan Dundas] “Can I just Link the DNxHD codec footage into the avid project and edit with it natively? “
Yes. DNxHD is the Avid native codec. You can AMA link and edit, or link and then consolidate (zero quality loss) to your media drive (this wraps it in the MXF wrapper, opposed to QT wrapper…zero quality loss).
[Ryan Dundas] “I am going to be multigrouping 2-3 camera shoots, and I have been told it is unwise to make multigroups with linked footage because it will result in poor performance.
“Well, you’ll get poor performance when trying to play back 3 streams full res unless you have a very fast RAID. That is one thing you’ll need if you intend on full res multiclip. But yes, consolidating and making MXF might help a bit with performance…but the people who told you that mainly refer to other shooting codecs not meant for editing, like H.264, AVCHD, RED…and so on.
[Ryan Dundas] “I figured the best workflow for DNxHD footage would be to Consolidate the footage into MXF files in the Avid MediaFiles folder”
Yes…exactly.
[Ryan Dundas] ” but then I have the consolidated footage on my server and I have to backup the camera masters. So in other words I have to have space for 2 versions of all my footage on my server.”
In the wise words of my post super…”Footage doesn’t exist unless it is in at LEAST two locations.” We archive the camera masters themselves in to locations…and THEN have the media we work with in another. And it would be VERY wise not to have the camera masters and the work media on the same server. Lose that server, lose everything. Archive the masters on another server, or get bare SATA drives and a drive doc and archive them to that (pretty cheap)…and MIRROR them so you have two drives with the archives. Or back them up to LTO. When you shoot tapeless, it’s more risky than having tape…hard drives die.
[Ryan Dundas] “If this is the case then I guess there really is no direct to edit workflow with Avid? If I can’t work with the Linked footage then the only benefit I get from shooting in DNxHD compared to ProRes is that I can consolidate instead of transcoding which is a quicker process?”
Well…you can. You can AMA link to the QTs and edit those…the codec is fine. It’s mainly that you’ll need fast drives if you intend on doing that. BUT…DO NO EDIT THE CAMERA MASTERS! Meaning…don’t edit on the ONLY COPIES you have. Back those up…two locations, remember? This is why it’s wise to Consolidate…then you have two copies. NEVER edit from your only copy of the camera masters. That is never advisable.
Heck, you can even keep shooting ProRes and consoldate in Avid. Avid supports ProRes…can even convert to ProRes MXF (pardon, re-wrap).
Shane
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Log and Transfer is used when you want to import from the actual card. It’ll convert the footage after linking. But you already converted…that’s done. Just drag and drop into the project, or simply import…log and transfer is not needed at this point.
Then you say this…
[Richard Leko] ” I’m editing a 4K music video that was shot on the Canon 1D @ 50fps for slow motion,”
Followed by this….
[Richard Leko] “I’ve used MPEG Streamclip to convert to ProRes 4444 4K “
Converting the 8-bit H.264 format the Canon 1D shoots to ProRes 4444 is a major waste of space. You’ll get the exact same quality at ProRes 422. You don’t gain any quality converting to 4444…all you gain is file size. The compression already happened…the damage done…compressing to H.264…that’s 8-bit MPEG 4. Going to 4444 won’t add quality back. Also…4K? That camera doesn’t shoot 4K…why convert to 4K?
[Richard Leko] “as well as a 1080 Proxy version for my offline edit (all maintaining the frame rate of 50fps).”
OK…TEST THIS before you go further. What proxy format did you convert to? ProRes Proxy? And you cinema tooled those too, right? OK…edit a small thing with those files, like 5-6 clips, and then take those offline and try to relink to the larger files and see if FCP will. Gotta test this out. MPEG STREAMCLIP isn’t the best converter, as it doesn’t keep some metadata, so linking like this MIGHT be problematic.
Shane
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