No

Hi guys.....

A little query for you...!

I have captured a whole tape, and have created a few sequences of edited timelines....however...I have just noticed that my captured avi's have some interference/remnants which are noticeable...(not sure how they appeared...but they are there). They are NOT, however, noticeable on the original tape.

So.....

Am I screwed....?!!! Or can I "batch digitise" the whole tape again to recapture everything.

Will this mess up my sequences....and will the original avi be overwritten by the new batch digitise file....?!!

I'm a bit scared to do this....I've spent a good few hours on the sequences....!!!


Thanks in advance

Create a new reel and you can capture it again. As long as you put it in a new reel, it is ok. In fact, that is how you handle broken timecodes. Just put them in a new reel. If you do not, they will overwrite the footage with that timecode in that reel.

Thanks George.....

I do actually want to "erase" the originally captured reel from my drive. I don't need it on there taking space if I recapture the tape again....

Will the new reel then be associated with the sequences I have created then?

If you use scene detection and have it create "sub-masters" then you should be able to simply redigitise any specific clips (i.e. the ones exhibiting the problem).

How much memory do you have? I used to have this problem from time to time until I ugraded to 1GB (from 500MB)

Hi all, I worked for years with In-sync Speed Razor and now I work with Pinnacle Liquid Edition. I'm happy with it but I'm curious about this "total solution" by Avid.
What's your experience?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

Maurizio, Italy.

I have XPro + Mojo. I am pretty happy with the current set up. With complete, you'll also get Pro Tools etc. Basically everything you need for DV productions. Avid FX is Boris Red, which is a nice addition. I think the only weak link is Avid 3D, whick is very limited. For $495, you can get Softimage XSI foundation, although a bit harder to learn, it's much more powerful.

If you have a need/desire to create 3d models on your own, thenAvid 3D is not for you. It's really designed for editors who just need a 3d object they can manipulate. You can download 3d objects, (Thousands of different things) that are ready made to use in your productions and they are ready to go. But if you are creating specific objects, then yes, Softimage XSI is the software for you.

The PT LE that comes with this program is something to be desired. It is ok for video editing but really comes short of having real protools.

Also comes with the digidesign sound board. I forget which model.

pretty impressive :)

afew notable differences.. basically it now supports HDV footage (pretty similar to Vegas ie, HD projects can have a miriad of formats with it, and it will upsample the footage)
It DOES drop frames (even with background rendering, but most of the time its ok.. ) this is still being worked on...

also running a steinberg audio engine, offering 5.1, now tis 5.1 set up is NOT certified by dolby labs, so if you want to make commercial DVD's with the appropriate Dolby Licenses, you can forget it.. this may change in the future though.

2 different views which are switchable between classic and new.. the new looks a lil like a cross between edius and prem pro.
(prem pro is teh pinnacle target market)

Audio mixers were quite impressive but then again, steinberg are prolly one of the best audio developers in teh world so its to be expected.
Keyframing of surround sound cannot be referenced visual elements on screen. reason being is that it opens up a new menu which overtakes teh whole page.. and u pretty much have to guess the positioning of the audio
One thing i liked about it, is that it allows the use of multipl soundcards, you can route front channels to one card, rear chanels to another etcetc.. for the real worl, this wont be needed... BUT if you dont have al these soundcards you dont need it anywyas, as the breakout box has a built in optical/coaaaaaax output for digital output into a surround processer/reciever. Its still outputting raw wav though, not an actual ac3.
I also noticed that you can import VOB files (again like Vegas) which are treated as mpg2, however there is no ac3 audio import support yet.. we were using a beta release but there were menus which i beleive allowed for teh demuxing of imported VOBs... i dont know how Dolby Labs would take this as once a product is encoded, DL dont like it to be messed with, as it compromoses quality.

multicam works a treat, however it is strictly for hard cuts else youd liose sync. set up your video files, and hit play.. watch the footage and click on each respective moving video clip to mark its entrance.
You must then manually import that as a new "clip" works ok, but it still needs some work as there is still alot of manual finetuning required for true multicamming. Prob here is that you you literally cannot shuffle individual clips to sync them by a clapper board or flash or whatever.. maybe i missed something but i didnt see any facilty to line each clip THEN to multicam it.. it was done in a menu..
This makes it hard when one camera is out of sync..

what else.. umm dvd authoring is pretty much the same..

theyve also gotten rid of the atrociaous pinnacle start button garbage and working within a real windows environment.

umm..

what else was there..

afew new Hollywood effects..

teh background rendering still exists, btu i dont think theyre refined the file system issues..

oh one thing, i asked about the breakout box. they didnt have one to demo however it IS powered, so if ur on a laptop, youll need another power supply for the box alone. Even if your runnigna desktop, you will need to feed power to it..

thats about it really..
theres alot mroe to the audio aspects as it allows for vst and dx effects, but theyre not automatable.. and applying effects (from what i saw) are on a track level, not a clip level..
Audio bus routes are also provided, but its not as "live" or streamlined as Vegas.
from waht i saw, aaudio was treated as a seperate entity run by a different series of menus. I hate menus, and for video its essential to SEE what your hearing.. especially for surround work..

effects and filters for video are taken straight from Vegas Camp, being that there are 2 levels of effects. Individual Clip effects, and Track Effects.

but thats about it really.. theres prolly alot more there, but as it was a beta, half teh audio elements werent working, and may not b included for the launch date..

either way its an impressive upgrade for 5.5 users and for 400 bux AU, (upgrade price) its a bargain

cheers
P

its official!

Liquid 6 due for shipping this coming monday..

in Aus, upgrade from 5.5 to 6 are about $400 if you bought your liquid prior to Sept 1. If you purchased it after Sept 1, its $110

the Pro (with breakout box) will be going for abotu $1500, and the breakout box WILL NOT be available to purchase on its own.
Also, in Australia, we wont be getting an LE version of WaveLab... pity

oh and the proggy as an outright purchase is $999

all these prices are AU, but itll give u an idea of what to expect

And if you are bored, you can read the 948 page manual found at this link
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docsupport1.asp?division_id=8&langue_id=7&product_id=2452&product_name=Liquid%20Edition%20version%206&page_id=282

hmm.. very snazzy lookin unit i must say..
this unit will sell for the breakout box on its own...

im not a pinnacle head by nature, but this unit IS a nice lookin unit and comes with a lil stand... one thing abotu it though was the build of teh soockets to the chassis was quite poor with uneven and tilted sockets..

the software itself is very simialr to the original but its runnign 5.1 etc etc.. ill be lookin into this on teh weekend when i get a chance so more to follow..

I got my non-Pro last night.

i havent had a chance to set it up in the studio yet, so im fiddling with the box and seeing what practical ways it could be used..

for now, all i can fathom is the component inputs and outputs for broadcast work.. whether it captures in RAW format, (i digisuite-eque) i hevent tried..

as an output, i can see component being useful for monitoring, and teh optical in/out is a nice touch... pity optical leads are so damn short..

i gotta fly the wife is caling me.. lol

I used the multicam feature last night. It has already paid for the upgrade! I can see doing 10 minute syncs in less than 30 minutes. It was taking me a couple of hours before.

one thing i dont like about the multicam is teh fact that it ditches ALL the audio on every other track except the master..
it also doesnt allow for a slight shuffling of the clips in case one is slightly out of wack..

I usually use a flashgun ot set sync but sometimes we cant do that, so i use timecode.. and literlaly sync the clocks on the cams. Some cams i hire to work with my own cam rigs arent set right (my bad) and i have to reshuffle the footage a lil to tighten the sync, which L6 doesnt let me do..

Ive bought this to Pinnacle and hopefully theyll crete a timeline system where all teh chosen tracks are put within a scene and u can drag the clips to sync, THEN run multicam

Also multicam doesnt have the ability to set a crossfade transition, as it only has straight cuts from trimmed footage, so u can even strecth the clip to overlap to create a transition later.

Im still tweaking and learning but im focussing more on audio right now..

one thing about multicam i REALLY like is clickin on each respective screen really REALLY clever..

I have a machine with Avid Express on it and the Boris EFX that came with it.

When I apply effects (Boxes, chyrons, ect.) and then add a fade effect I get a green tint to the picture for the frames with the fade or dissolve on it.

Any ideas why?

I use XpressDV Pro and Boris, no problems. You might want to log on to the Avid Xpress forum for more user input. Be sure to post your system specs.

www.avid.com

I have a Canon XL1s connected by firewire to a Canopus ADVC 1394 card running Avid Express Pro, and for the hundreth time of trying every time I attempt batch capture on the Avid it rewinds the tape then stalls telling me that it cannot find the preroll point.

It is driving me somewhat mad.

When it captures the last two digits of the timecode are not numbers but are hyphens. There is some problem reading numbers here, but as I cannot btach capture I need to record as I go which is laborious, or record the whole tape which eats hard drive space.

Has anyone solved this, or do they know of this problem.

Many Thanks
Martin Richards

Martin,

very few Avid users on this board. Might want to ask at www.avid.com

Sounds like you might want to check your preroll settings in the deck setup.

no offense, but your priorities are scrambled.

hard drives are a lot cheaper than having to send the xl1s in for service on the tape drive... and it's a lot quicker to simply capture the entire tape and cut out what you need.

that said, try trimming the preroll numbers down to zero, see of that helps... and it can be difficult to have the first capture point right at the beginning of the tape.

Is anyone going to the AVID HD Bash Wednesday night here in Manhattan?

Can someone explain in explain to me in english what Avid's DNxHD encoder (and does it require special hardware) is, and what the big advantage is of using this versus let's say aspect-HD, canopus, or luminere, etc.

Thanks

DNxHD is their compression codec for HD footage, not HDV. It allows storage of HD footage at SD data rates. Xpress proHD will also be able to cut HDV as well as HD, SD and DV - From the FAQ

: In 2005, Avid will provide the industry’s best support for HDV, in both 720p and 1080i varieties, as part of an exceptionally flexible HD workflow.

We begin with native support for HDV. Contrast this with other products that require a time- and disk-consuming render to an intermediate format before editing can even begin, force video and audio files to be handled separately, and manage the entire process with cutlists created in an external application. Instead, Avid Xpress Pro HD will support fully native HDV MPEG media, edited frame-accurately with effects in real time.

Like other digital camera formats that provide outstanding images, HDV is not a format optimized for compositing and animation. Avid DNxHD, on the other hand, is a mastering-quality HD format that is engineered from the ground up for the rigors of post-production, including multi-layer and multi-generation composites, titles and graphic animation, in the same storage and bandwidth as uncompressed SD media. As a result, Avid DNxHD can be combined with HDV in the same timeline, in real time – even for playback on most laptops.

In fact, you’ll be able to mix HDV and DNxHD with a wide variety of formats inside Avid Xpress Pro HD, including DVCPro HD, DV50, DV25, offline film resolutions, uncompressed SD and more – on the same timeline, in real time. That means you’ll be able to use archival footage in new projects, as well as footage acquired from multiple cameras and sources. Instead of being forced into a specific workflow before you’re ready, you’ll be able to make a graceful transition from DV and SD production to HD production. Nobody else will be able to offer an HDV story that’s anywhere near this complete and this flexible.
Look for HDV support as a free upgrade for Avid Xpress Pro HD customers in mid-2005.

Ok, I am assuming that it does not require any special footage. But am I also right that it will either be a separate codec that can be purchased or will it come bundled as a feature of xpress pro HD. And for those in the know, how is it positioned to stak up against canopus new liquid edition and canopus' hdv card (for overall performance), as well as the Aspect or prospect HD (Note I am aware that it is all just theory at theis point as it has not yet been released, but if what I am readng is right, some of you have already seen it demo and can give a heads up. David (Cineform) I noticed you don't usually chime in on these other product conversations (possibly to not seem biased), but your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

OK Dwight,

Avid DNxHD is built for compressed HD workflow in place of HD uncompressed. The idea being that a digital intermediate format can be optimized for post production, allowing for higher performance, and better quality for effects work (typically the domain of uncompressed only workflows) and much lower disk space/bandwidth issues. Uncompressed HD is typically done using 10bits per channel processing; 10bit compressed codecs are rare so there was a market opportunity. Avid DNxHD has 8bit and 10bit full HD 1920x1080 variants.

You asked whether there is an advantage to Avid DNxHD over other workflows, really they are for different applications. Avid DNxHD wasn't designed for HDV, but I sure it would be excellent for that purpose, particularly for effects, multiple layers and if mixing multiple HD sources. Avid DNxHD is just a codec, on its own it will not do much for you. It is how you use it that matters.

A question may be why Avid DNxHD over another digtial intermediate codec. Both Aspect HD and Prospect HD use the digital intermediate approach, but instead of DNxHD it uses CFHD. CFHD has 8bit (AHD) and 10bit (PHD) variants and supports full res 1920x1080 HD ( i.e. similar huh?) CineForm (being small and nibble) got the head start in the compressed digital intermediate world, our codec has already been used to online a feature film (out in April), but we have to maintain our small lead through innovation. Avid is a huge player, but their might is not because they have the best technology, but they certainly have the Name. There are advantages to most workflows -- what is most import is what you want do, and try and ignore the hype.

<<<Nobody else will be able to offer an HDV story that’s anywhere near this complete and this flexible. >>>

Based on the description, the Canopus Edius NX and Edius SP already offer all of these features and more, a full six months before Avid says they'll be ready to do it. Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6 also offers most or all of these features, and is also currently shipping.

Ok, but does the canopus or pinnacle options use a similar intermediate form to achieve HD editing on an SD system (and what is the type of codec used)? BTW David thanks for chiming in. Also note I am always thinking about price versus value. Most of what I currently do is strictly dvd work, but I am shortly going to be doing work for a mix of distribution formats, including going back to film. I want the best workflow I can get, and ease of compatibility with industry standards. One of the problems was that it has taken the hdv format almost two years (except for Cineform) to get anything useful in the market. Now that the big guys are wading into the fore, I am looking at what should be my next camera and NLE option. As an aside, I am awaiting the specs on the new Sony hdv cam slated to come out next year (is it really going to be 24p.....Sweet). But right now my next purchase is going to be either avid, canopus or cineform (I will learn all three, but I have no desire to currently buy all three, though I am sure I eventually will do just that).

Hey all - I was searching around google for AVID screenshots and noticed that I never saw a similar timeline to this. This is what happened when I tried to import 24p *.AVI footage captured with VEGAS into AVID. The 29.97i project that I created with the included AVID tutorial movie files didn't look like this and only had the TCI line. (by the way, I had renamed the first Audio Track to AUDIO when learning some of the basic features)

http://www.DefiningFilms.com/screen.jpg

Well this is also a bit of a cont. of the other thread regarding AVID performance - I now have 1.5 gigs of RD ram to run AVID and at an initial bootup, my 24p project worked correctly but then after some intentional gaming and internet use, it went back to stuttering video. Is it just that AVID might be so sensitive that running internet or gaming programs just weren't meant to be done on the same system and if I want to use AVID, I should do a clean boot first and avoid any internet or misc. use other than editing? Thanks to all those who replied to the other post, I made sure the DMA on IDE drives were on (it was) and some of the other performance checks that were mentioned.

Bryan,

Did you check "Show All" on the timeline menu?

Avid doesn't reccomend "gaming" on your editing system, as many graphics card drivers/setting conflict with the best one for Avid. Internet use is fine, but it should not be "Online" while editing, nor should you have a screensaver running in the background. Often, the screensaver or browser will search or interupt your flow, firewalls will scan media files, etc.

Richard - hmmmm, interesting. The difference was that my 29.97i project only had the TC1 track to display for the default showing all while my 24p footage by default on show all had the numerous other tracks I guess for conversion or frame splitting information.

I'm definitely not a "gamer" but the demo to Unreal 2k3 is free and a nice break from editing monotony. It's the only one I play but I'm starting to think I might need to keep it off my AVID system.

Richard - thanks so much, I'm sending you a short email as well with a quick question.