media composers media and format issues

[trikolad]

I have been asked to edit a tv show in avid media composer 8.
I am used to premiere and I am facing these issues to get started properly:

1. Importing video with alpha and sound forces me to do double import - one matte, and one video with music,
And only in the timeline I can dress the matte clip with the sound clip. It seems awkward to me.
2. For some reason some png sequence are not loaded and googling showed that it was because they were created not as rgb but as cmyk and when I tried to convert in Photoshop it worked but the process was complicated and tedious.
But sometimes it does load without conversion. weird.
3. The png sequence and almost everything else I have in the timeline does not playback smoothly. Even in "yellow" quality. my computer is not new but Premier handled the same media easily and avid is slow and stuttery even with transcoding. specifically in this issue maybe I need to use a better transcode method? the source is 1980p 25fps mxf and final product should be xdmam 50i xmf and I used 1-1 mxf transcode.
4. Link to media not working with mxf videos. Just import. Not critical problem but annoying.
5. I do not like that all the files are encoded to the MXF / 1 folder because then I have no control over them. I solved with a simple software that defines any folder I choose as a drive. still annoying.

I would appreciate some assistance.

[smrpix]

I have been asked to edit a tv show in avid media composer 8.
I am used to premiere and I am facing these issues to get started properly:

1. Importing video with alpha and sound forces me to do double import - one matte, and one video with music,
And only in the timeline I can dress the matte clip with the sound clip. It seems awkward to me.

What are the specs of your clip -- codec, bit depth?

2. For some reason some png sequence are not loaded and googling showed that it was because they were created not as rgb but as cmyk and when I tried to convert in Photoshop it worked but the process was complicated and tedious.
But sometimes it does load without conversion. weird.

Color space adapters can be added in Frameflex, but Avid definitely prefers RGB as an input source.

3. The png sequence and almost everything else I have in the timeline does not playback smoothly. Even in "yellow" quality. my computer is not new but Premier handled the same media easily and avid is slow and stuttery even with transcoding. specifically in this issue maybe I need to use a better transcode method? the source is 1980p 25fps mxf and final product should be xdmam 50i xmf and I used 1-1 mxf transcode.

What are your import specs? Try something like DNxHD 145 or 175. 1:1 or 4:4:4:4 will slog down all but the most powerful systems.
Forget Premiere. The graphic engines are different. Avid is more concerned with log term stability.

4. Link to media not working with mxf videos. Just import. Not critical problem but annoying.

Again, depends on your sources. What codecs are in the mxf container? Make sure you have the necessary AMA plug-ins installed.

5. I do not like that all the files are encoded to the MXF / 1 folder because then I have no control over them. I solved with a simple software that defines any folder I choose as a drive. still annoying.

Not sure what software you're using, but be careful. Avid's rock-solid media management is one of its greatest strengths. If you don't understand what it's doing, don't mess with it. There is rarely any good reason to have "control" over individual media files. Most of what you need to do can be dealt with in the Media Tool.

Bottom line, Avid and Premiere work very differently. Both are excellent, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Trying to drive one like the other without allowing for a learning curve will result in a lot of frustration.

Best of luck

[trikolad]

As I said the codec format bitrate for the a-roll videos is - 1980p 25fps 48krz, and it is an mxf file.
the alpha with sound videos are mov files with same specs

I will try DNxHD to see if it betters the playback smoothness. though the png sequences, and matte + audio seem to make the most sluggish parts.

what is the process to add color range to frameflex that you described?

what ama plugins do I need to download for these files?

the software I am using to remap folders as drive letters is:
visual subst

[smrpix]

mxf is a container, not a codec.

Some of the codecs commonly contained in mxf are:

AVC-Intra
DV
IMX
XAVC
XDCam
DNxHR
DNxHD

and many others.

It's still not clear what you have.


And again. Be very cautious about virtual folders with Avid. It's not worth it. You can create an Avid Mediafiles/MXF folder on any drive and create additional numerically folders under /MXF if you want to keep media separate after capture.

[trikolad]

media info - aroll
what settings sgould the project be whrn I start working with this file?
and what is the best transcode method for this file if my target is xdcam 50i mxf file?
also linking option to this file doesn't work.

mediainfo - banner with alpha and sound
problem - have to import twice - once as video with sound, then as matte, then use both imports in timeline and replace the video from the video/audio clip with the alpha matte. very annoying method.

mediainfo - first file from png sequence
problems - not always importing, sometimes I need to convert cmyk to rgb which is a long process in photoshop and sometimes it works without conversion with no reason.
also when in timeline even without any other layer the computer struggles to playback. can this also be a transcode issue?

mediainfo - subtitles
problem - this file is very big so I tried linking and I get a black screen with white subtitles and the alpha works on the text instead of the background so I can see the text changing colors according to layers below and a black background.


edit: I am trying now transcode to dnxhd 185 and everything is much smoother!
no 175 or 145 option in my avid version.
there is still the alpha with sound issue having to import twice and all that, still subtitle problem.

[smrpix]

media info - aroll
what settings sgould the project be whrn I start working with this file?
and what is the best transcode method for this file if my target is xdcam 50i mxf file?
also linking option to this file doesn't work.

Make sure you have the plug-in installed. It's small and free:
http://www.nablet.com/products/plugins/avid-media-composer/xavc-xdcam-ama-plugin/

You should be able to link and then transcode. As a rule of thumb, link and transcode is a better option than straight importing but obviously it's not always possible.

mediainfo - banner with alpha and sound
problem - have to import twice - once as video with sound, then as matte, then use both imports in timeline and replace the video from the video/audio clip with the alpha matte. very annoying method.

No way around that. Not sure why. That said, audio imports are very fast. Import the matte and video in the first pass, then audio-only in the second pass.

mediainfo - first file from png sequence
problems - not always importing, sometimes I need to convert cmyk to rgb which is a long process in photoshop and sometimes it works without conversion with no reason.
also when in timeline even without any other layer the computer struggles to playback. can this also be a transcode issue?

Here again check your import settings. Looks like you've done that based on your edit of this post. .png is probably the most Avid-friendly graphics format, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Bit depth or png interlacing are possible issues, but I'm just guessing. If you want to upload a few sequential frames I can try to analyze it further.

mediainfo - subtitles
problem - this file is very big so I tried linking and I get a black screen with white subtitles and the alpha works on the text instead of the background so I can see the text changing colors according to layers below and a black background.

There is an "invert" button on the import alpha settings under the image tab. Avid works "backwards" from every other NLE and graphic program in this way. It's odd, but easy enough to deal with once you know it.

edit: I am trying now transcode to dnxhd 185 and everything is much smoother!
no 175 or 145 option in my avid version.
there is still the alpha with sound issue having to import twice and all that, still subtitle problem.

[trikolad]

I installed the plugin and still can't link to the mxf files:
error message


all the rest is more or less solved or at least I understand the software limitations.

one more thing,
someone told me today that it is better to use media encoder rather than the built in export.
So we tried to create a quick time reference with these settings but when I put it in media encoder and export (to any format) I get only audio with black video.

[smrpix]

Under the link settings you can enable legacy XDCam import and just import it if it won't link. Be sure you are importing/linking the entire file structure and not just individual files.

As for your output. You can expoort directly to XDCam50 using either AMA Export or Avid Media Processor export depending on your version. (It's moved around in the last few versions.)

If you use quicktime reference you will need Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017. The latest version does not support the legacy quicktime framework. (Even Apple doesn't support it anymore.)

[budwzr]

smrpix: Yo, a shoutout.

[smrpix]

smrpix: Yo, a shoutout.

Hey. Hope things are going good for you out there!

[trikolad]

thank you
everything is solved or understood except the virtual drives.
for some reason avid used to recognize my virtual drives but now it doesn't. I tried different tools for masking folders as drive letters but avid ignores the new drives existence.

[smrpix]

thank you
everything is solved or understood except the virtual drives.
for some reason avid used to recognize my virtual drives but now it doesn't. I tried different tools for masking folders as drive letters but avid ignores the new drives existence.

Glad things are coming together for you.

But as I suggested in my earlier post, stay away from virtual drives with Avid, there's really no up side.

Good luck. Post back with any other questions.

[trikolad]

I'll try to work with drive c for now to store in its avid MediaFiles banners/stripes/graphics, and the external drives each one with his aroll / broll. I work with a laptop with only two usb ports available for external drives, so it is tricky cause sometimes I work on a few projects together and this means drive c's avid MediaFiles gets the graphics for several projects unless I swap mxf/1 before each time I open a project. and I get new graphics all the time so importing everything in advance is not possible. that's why I wanted the virtual option.

another new problem I am facing is during export. when I export xdcam op1a mxf hd 50mbits 24 I get sound only from the first two audio tracks even though I have 6 tracks. what am I doing wrong?
If I export qt reference to media encoder then its fine, but this process takes much longer then the native avid export for some reason.
(there is almost no option to make configuration to xdcam preset in avid which is annoying too but it also means I don't know what i'm doing wrong with the audio)

[smrpix]

In the AMA File Export dialogue box under audio click on "Direct Export" to keep your audio tracks discreet.

At the bottom of the box there's a "Save As... " button that allows you to save your settings as a preset.

[trikolad]

thank you it worked!
before this I tried to just export and not the ama export so this did the trick