Abandon all hope for Xpress Pro 5.7 HDV out?

[Tom Kaminski]

Jiri, it worked! Thank you very much for doing Avid's tech support job in lieu of that company's exceptionally lame response.

I say you were basically right for only one reason. Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 permits one to add black at the beginning of the timeline, but not at the end! At least that's what the help tells me, and efforts to do it failed.

It wasn't easy. Xpress Pro as often as not did not recognize the Sony M10U deck's signal input, even though I could control the deck with Avid and see the images in Composer, the deck monitor, and my external monitor. So I registered the buffers (regsver32 DVBuffers.ax) and tried again. Error missage: "Export to HDV Device - DIODeviceManager::NewDevice DIO_VideoOput failed."

Bailed out of Avid, opened Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and easily sent HDV back out to tape on the Sony M10U. Closed Premiere, re-opened Avid, and Jiri's solution worked. The key seems to be the insertion of black at the beginning of the sequence, assuming the proper settings et al. One other key, of course, is getting Avid to recognize the deck.

Why does it always have to be so difficult with Avid? The old "let them eat cake" attitude has not gone away in terms of the prosumer market, and I wonder why the company is so intent in having a position in it. Rather than doing the simplest things, I waste ridiculous amounts of time trying to get the software to work.

Let me just add three things: (1) I'm refraining from relating some mind-blowing information that a tech support person inadvertantly provided. I don't want that individual to be tracked down and fired. But you should have no doubt that when it comes to tech support, there are fewer -- if any -- companies that are more irresponsible to their prosumer-level customers than Avid. "Let them eat cake" is no exaggeration. It is an understatement.

(2) I obviously ain't too bright. Started messing with editing around 1999-2000 using MCXpress. Finally moved to Discreet edit*, a terrific improvement. You know what happened to Discreet. Dongle burned out well after Autodesk quit supporting the program, so I went back to Avid. The guy who talked me into it is no longer at the company. Arrgghhh! Tom, you idiot!

(3) Again, Jiri, thank you very much for your help. You said the information you provided wasn't well documented. Where in the Avid literature is it documented at all? Especially the bit about black at the beginning of the timeline?

Now I'm wondering whether tomorrow I'll have to export from Premiere Pro before I can get Avid to work....

[Jiri Bakala]

Glad it worked, Tom.

I personally never found any detailed workflow instructions, so it's mostly trial and error method. The black at the beginning of the timeline is necessary because otherwise during the export to tape the first few frames don't get recorded. As for the black at the end, that's another case. The easiest way to do that is to take a few seconds of audio (any) and splice it at the end of your timeline. Then turn the levels all the way down. Done!

You shouldn't have to go through Adobe Premiere to do this. Just make sure that your deck is connected and powered BEFORE you launch AXP. It should recognize it. If not, in your preferences select "Deck Preferences" and there select you model. Sometimes you may have to clear all settings and start from scratch.

[Vito DeFilippo]

Originally Posted by Jiri Bakala

The easiest way to do that is to take a few seconds of audio (any) and splice it at the end of your timeline. Then turn the levels all the way down. Done!

Actually, I find it easier to add an edit on an empty audio track and trim out to add as much black as you want.

[Jiri Bakala]

Good idea, I have to remember that...:-)