[Timothy Miller]

Some funky mpeg 4 disguised as .mps that I can only open with Quicktime AFTER having changed the extension to .mpeg.
Upon trying to import these clips, AVID says “This type of Mpeg file is not supported” therefore the need to use Mpeg Streamclip to transcode it.
One thought though, I have been transcoding directly to Avis 1×1 10bit before importing in Avid. Will try transcoding to dnx, import and then consolidate to 1×1.

Will keep you posted!

Just tried ama linking. None of my plugins support those files.

Thanks for your answer.

TImothy

[Timothy Miller]

But you use the shortcuts for ‘more detail’ ‘less detail’ ‘show entire sequence’ which are in the timeline bottom left hamburger menu (respectively cmd ] cmd [ and cmd /) or you can patch them to any key of your keyboard using the command palette you find in tools (cmd 3) activating ‘menu to button’ reassignment.
I personally have these three mapped to f1 f2 and f3 as I constantly use them. So while my right hand is dealing with the mouse, my left hand is positioned over the keyboard resizing the timeline as need arises which happens to be very often.
Mapping commands to the keyboard (using shift enables you to use a whole new set of keys) really transforms your work and makes things much faster. But you probably know that already…
Cheers,
Timothy

[Timothy Miller]

No offense made !

Of course, if I held an ‘only-half-as-impressive-as-yours’ blog you might have known.
Over here such blogs aren’t so common and I have to confess I don’t really have the time. What between my work, my kids, my life…
I really don’t know how you manage and, to say the truth, I am pretty admirative.

Keep on the good work and bravo for your involvement !

Best,
Timothy

[Timothy Miller]

Dear Shane,
Don’t get me wrong, of course I consider a company -namely Avid- is out there to make a profit and is entitled to make us pay for upgrades that only exist because of costly r&d. What I was pointing out though is the feeling of buying a lottery ticket each time I upgrade – too early or too late…
I am a very enthusiastic Avid user and have been so from the start as I was associated with the company which bought the second MC system here in Paris in what was it, 1990? At that time and for several years on, not only was I thrilled with the possibilities of the machine -was it already eight audio tracks ?- which really offered the perspective of a second editing life after ten years of cutting on 3/4 inch and spending hours in 10 k a day online suites but, as many others, I turned into a passionate Avid promoter and would-be salesman. I can remember the long sessions during which I would convince production managers of the pros of paying something like three to four times the price for the offline…
Maybe you were doing the same thing at that time?
Ever since then I have been keen on MC improvements, have became an Avid workshop trainer and have remained an advocate and fan!
But, I remember for instance Avid-stamped hard drive pricing policy – much similar in my opinion to Apple’s ram and ssd pricing ; I remember the time when Avid was sitting on their laurels and had us all in their grasp ; I remember when Avid dropped the Mac only to, thank god!, continue to support it ; I remember how FCP thankfully spurred Avid into climbing down from its laurel mattress and addressing our demands ; and most recently, I remember my dearly paid Mojo sdi becoming obsolete overnight…
So, much as I am willing to pay for improvements to my NLE system of choice and much as I would be happy to pay even more for more improvements, I feel a healthy company / customer relationship is based on sound commercial practices (hope that is the correct word, my english is kinda’ rusty!). Not knowing whether the early bird upgrader will be advantaged or penalised is not, I think, a sound commercial policy.

Just to reassure you, hiring me with my equipment is not the same as hiring me without it. But just because I am in France, my equipment only just pays for itself… Which is fair enough as my business is editing not running a post house and at least I have the pleasure of owning and often working with a very nice set-up.

All the best to you in L.A.

Timothy

[Timothy Miller]

Yes Shane but !
We’re always facing the ‘upgrade dilemma’ :
• don’t want to upgrade too soon and enter bugland
but then early upgrades sometimes come cheaper so why wait and pay more later?
• and in this case, if you’ve upgraded too early, pay next upgrade full price…
Of course, as you pointed out, we’re talking of the income of roughly a day of editing or so, but in the end it’s that extra day that makes it into your pocket or not!
Don’t you agree?
Wouldn’t it be nice if one knew what the logic behind upgrade pricing policy was?
Like “the early (commited and ‘risk-taking’) buyers always get the best price’ for instance?

You kindly answered a queery of mine a few weeks back about wether I should buy a nitris dx or not.
In that particular matter (i.e. having bought a mojo sdi at well over 2k then, a few years later, a mojo sdi at well over 4k here in Paris because there was nothing else at that time that would decently run hd with mc. Only to learn a few months later that Avid was opening up to much cheaper third party i/o hardware, and then a couple of years later that mojo sdi was no longer supported!) so, in that particular matter, I really feel ripped off…

Best,
TImothy

[Timothy Miller]

Whatever the misplaced window, click on it to activate it or type its shortcut, in this case cmd 4, and then go to ‘windows’ menu and select fourth line i.e. ‘Home’ or shortcut cmd ‘ . This will replace the window in a less tricky position.
Best,
Timothy

[Timothy Miller]

Many thanks Neil for your advice which will definitely tip my decision.
Just one further queery : how noisy is the fan on the Kona?
Do you think I can work comfortably with the Mac Pro just under my editing table?
FYI, I find the fan in the Mojo Dx slightly, but only just slightly, annoying!
Best,
Timothy

P.S. Went to have a look at your site. Interesting read indeed!

[Timothy Miller]

Dear James,

Thank you for your reply.

I already have a Mojo DX and unfortunately a condemned Mojo SDI and am running both MC 5.5 to keep the SDI Mojo functional as well as Symphony 6.5 with my Mojo DX.
Capturing SD is a hassle as I have to reboot, recable and the lot toward my Mojo SDI.
I’ve understood that I can continue this way – at least as long as MC 5.5 is compatible with Symphony soon-to-be 7 – or that I can buy a cheap SD I/O solution, Matrox or other, but that still means going through the cabling gimmick each time I need to input SD.

So the question is : do I dump both my Mojos and get a Nitris DX or get an AJA which would be cheaper even with converter.
Does the AJA perform as well as Nitris DX?
I don’t really need closed captioning options for the work I do and over here in France we do not require universal mastering as much as you do in the States…

Don’t really need support although my question might reveal not-so-perfect technical savviness!

Thank you for your suggestions.

Best,

TImothy

P.S. If you work at/for AVID, I would have a few suggestions for improvements to the software and would love to know who to send them to. I mean, someone who would actually read them!

[Timothy Miller]

Dear Shane,

Thank you for your reply and your constance es I think I remember you answerinfg a previous question a few months back.

The bottom line question is : ” Is Nitris dx the best I/O hardware I can get ? ”
or ” Is it worth the 5k I will have to pay to get it ? ”

Thank you for your time!

Best,

TImothy

[Timothy Miller]

Thank you Michael for what seems like an early morning reply.
Would you know if there is a dramatic performance improvement in using Nitris dx rather than Mojo dx?
Best,

Timothy