Avid HD to FCP for layoff

Hello,
I built a project in Avid Media Composer 3.0 using footage from a Sony XDCAM EX. The problem, I have no way of laying back to tape. My Mojo (I/O device) only supports SD. But I've got this fancy FCP station with a decklink card. So I want to transfer the finished program from avid to FCP so I can layoff to a Sony HDCAM deck.
My question is, what are the best export settings? Sony XDCAM EX shoots in 8 bit, so I don't need a 10 bit codec. So I'm looking for the best 8 bit codec settings out of avid and into FCP.
My idea is to export as an HD Quicktime with the animation codec in RGB color space. Transfer the enormous files via firewire drive. Then, transcoding to ProRes 422 (HQ not needed, only doing 8 bit) and importing into FCP for layoff.
Is that the best possible settings for the cleanest possible show? Am I missing anything? Would an uncompressed Quicktime export be better? Should I forgo the transcoding to ProRes (I'm not sure if my RAID can handle the data rate)? Should I look into an image sequence instead?
Thanks for your help
Chris
PS - If anyone knows how to add closed captioning to this project, let me know. I know I cannot create closed captioning in FCP, I just need to inject the captioning file (.scc) into the video.

NO you can't, but I just had to point that out.
I have no suggestions for this workflow, I just wanted to point out that little tidbit. Trying to take a fully onlined show on a different NLE on a different OS platform and output that with FCP isn't something I recommend. It is something I discourage actually. If you must output with FCP, then you need to recapture with FCP. Offline on Avid, Automatic Duck the EDL to FCP, recapture, output. Getting the full res media from one system onto another for output is very tricky...and will add steps of compression.
Shane

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Avid NewsCutter to FCP

Searching (yet again) for a method to import tracks from Avid NewsCutter into FCP. My young client using NewsCutter in a television newsroom says there are Avid-provided codecs that do allow her to view her Avid tracks in a Quicktime player. Here's the Avid knowledge base article:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE-2-3-8 ?popup=true&NewLang=en&DocType=1450
So, if I can play the Avid tracks, can I export the tracks in .MOV to get them into FCP?

Very.
Go to Avid.com and download the Avid codecs:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Compatibility/en350875
Restart the computer. Then you should see them. You will have to convert them before you edit though. FCP doesn't really work with Avid codecs in real time.

Is FCP X the end of FCP for pros? Has Apple abandoned us? No longer can open my older files?

It looks like FCP X is a useless app for any pro application. With no capture from or to tape (Which is still widely used in the pro industry) and we will no longer be able to open a version of our edit from any previous FCP project. The exports and imports have been severly limited. What is Apple doing? Why make FCP more like imovie? Obviously the changes were designed by guys in suits and designers who have no experience in the industry. I guess it's time to switch back to Avid or even Adobe Premiere. I know my company is selling 40 of their Mac work stations and switching to PC and Premiere. Something I don't want to do but if I want to contine working in the industry it may not be a choice.
BAD MOVE APPLE.

>Is FCP X the end of FCP for pros?
Yes ... at least until FCPX is much more muture and robust than it is now.
>Has Apple abandoned us?
Yes.
>No longer can open my older files?
Correct.
>What is Apple doing?
Making money.
>Why make FCP more like imovie?
Because that's where the market is most profitable for them.
>I guess it's time to switch back to Avid or even Adobe Premiere.
My plan as well.
-DH

Sequence Settings - LiveType & FCP for widescreen

I am creating a project using text clips created in Live Type to be played on widescreen monitors (I assume they are HD but am not positive). Clips are only white moving type on black background. no images.
What would be the best setting to use for project in Live Type? I know I have to use the same sequence setting in FCP. I have tried a few different things and don't seem to get it right. (having to render in fcp when I edit clip) I did watch the video on "Editing non-standard FCP codecs. But I want to start with my LT clips being optimized for the final output.
Thanks.

There are presets for livetpe and for fcp that are 16:9.... some are HD, some are not... but in any event you should be using the same in each program. Also you'll have to render any livetype animated title in FCP... even if the sequence settings match. OR you can export a QT movie of the livetype animation and import it into FCP for the edit, then the "render" will have been done via the export of the QT movie. The best would be uncompressed HD, however this would take some very serious hard drive speeds (think fibre channel array) to play the files back with.
Jerry

What is the best compressor setting to use ... when exporting a 720p timeline from FCP for a project that will only be played back in a standard def monitor?

What is the best compressor setting to use for DVD StudioPro ... when exporting a 720p 30 timeline from FCP for a project that will only be viewed in a standard def monitor?

Update: The iBook can play any 480p video and higher if I encode them with DivX and in AVI format. But of course this is not compatible with my iPhone 4. At least I can shrink my library now and get away from the full MPEG-2s. I don't get why I can't use Apple's h264 though. There has to be a setting I am missing. The sample Apple h264 videos from the days of Tiger worked flawlessly on my iBook when it was new so the CPU must be capable of decoding it. I really can't understand this.
Also, since I made my videos in English for my family, I had to create soft subtitles for my wife's Chinese family, and I can't get players like QT with perian or MPlayerX to sync them properly to an AVI encoded with DivX, they only sync well with the iPhone 4 m4v/mp4 formatted files I made. This is a real pickle.
So now I may need three or four copies of each video, LOL. I need to hardcode the subtitles if I want to use AVI to playback on older machines, and keep the mp4 file for the iDevices too, while keeping higher quality h264 videos for my American relatives...
If h264 is compatible with my iBook, what is the proper encoding settings? Must I dramatically lower the settings or frame rate? I can settle on 2 copies of each video that way. One iBook/G4/eMac compatible video that syncs correctly with my srt soft subs, and another version that works well with my iPhone 4 and iPad.
All in all, I will end up with more than 3 or 4 version of each video. On my late G5 dual core I have the full 720-1080p uncompressed master files. On my i5 iMac I have the h264 compressed versions for distribution, and lower versions for my iDevices. Now I need to keep either full MPEG-2 files for the iBook to play, or convert to older formats like DivX AVI for our family's legacy machines. I am running out of hard disk space quick now, LOL.
Is there an easier way?

Exporting from FCP for use with PC

Hey all,
Trying to deliver a high-med quality 8 minute video from FCP for use with a PC. I've tried exporting both a .mov and .avi using DVCPro50, but neither are readable through the PC. Best I can get is sometimes audio will show up. Does anyone have a good solution for exporting from FCP for use with a PC?
Thanks again for your help!

I don't think DVCpro50 codec is available on a PC. I think panasonic has a special license with apple only, so you need to try a different codec for the avi.

FCP for PC

Can I purchase FCP for PC's?

Is joke, yes?
No, Final Cut Pro and the Suite are Apple products for Macintosh only.
If you want to use FCP, you get to have a Macintosh.
bogiesan

AVID HDV to Quicktime for FCP

I have a client who's shot and edited in HDV on an AVID (not sure which version but I believe it's newer). He's now trying to export a quicktime so we can load it into Final Cut to export to HDCam through our AJA Kona card.
He's used the AVID DNxHD Codec to export the files. I've imported the files into Final Cut and during the render on a timeline to an AJA codec, I am always getting "General Error". I tried exporting the same files straight from Quicktime to an Uncompressed 8-bit codec but the files fail there as well.
He exported the files to his local hard drive and then copied them to a firewire drive. I've copied the files to my local disk before trying to render or export.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Should he be using a different codec during the export? Could the actual files be the problem? Thanks for any help.

Gotta recapture. You can't just take files from another editing platform and expect them to work perfectly fine in another. While the Avid codecs MIGHT work, often they don't...like now. So if you offline with Avid and online and output on FCP, you need to export the OMF from the Avid, then use Automatic Duck Pro Importer to import that OMF into FCP, then recapture from the source tapes.
Shane

EDL list from FCP for AVID

Hi,
My client wants to edit with me and then export the EDL with time code to take to an AVID editor who will remake the same piece just with digibeta source tapes. Is this possible? If so, where can I look to figure out the details which seem to be many.
Thank you kindly.
Steve

You can export an EDL and if it is a simple edit with no real effects and speed changes and such it should work
File > Export > EDL...
Leave most of the settings at default. Pull a seperate EDL for each video layer. Under EDL notes, uncheck all of those options. Start time 01.00.00.00. Audio mapping depends on what you have done in the edit.
And definitely do a test to the Avid and hand check the EDL before sending it over. As the above poster said, Automatic Duck is the way to go but it costs $$, you've already got EDL functionality in FCP. EDLs are old technology and don't transfer much information so check, test, and recheck.

ISO BOOK "FCP for AVID editors (3rd ed)" by Diana Weynand!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

This book doesn't seem to exist within the whole expanse of the internet, even though I know it was printed and a number of people own it. I've tried 5 different websites and noone has a copy or lies that they do and then send me a refund a week later...crazy!
Does anyone out there actually own this book and is willing to sell it to me and ship it to me. I'm willing to pay top dollar for this to happen within the next day or so! Please help! If you have a printable ebook file that would be fine too!
I live in the Los Angeles area!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Pro-Training-Final-Editors/dp/0321515390/ref=sr12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263859461&sr=8-2
this one???
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Training-Final-Editors/dp/0321515390
Message was edited by: Ian Hunter*

Avid DNxHD crashes FCP

I have recently been editing a sequence in Avid's DNxHD codec on FCP 6.0.4 and am having some render issues. FCP will only render for about 15 seconds or so before crashing, so I have been babysitting every render by hitting "cancel" every 15 seconds, and hitting "render" again. Loads of fun. Then, FCP will not export to Quicktime without crashing. I have to use Quicktime conversion and reapply the same settings which, unfortunately recompresses the whole thing again. Still, the resulting Quicktime looks beautiful and so far, is the only HD codec that our machines can play back in realtime, so I would love to keep using it. One issue of lesser importance is that the exported Quicktime is slightly brighter than it was in FCP. Any input from cross-platform users, codec tweakheads, FCP geniuses or Avid gurus would be much appreciated.
Cheers!

What is your source footage comprised of? Is it also DNxHD or are you using that only as the intermediate and mastering codec.
You might find it a better workflow to edit using ProRes422 as your intermediate ... this is in many ways Apple's version of the DNxHD codec and is certainly going to be much more stable / better supported than using Avid's codec as such . That should alleviate your interm render issues at least, and then you can of course still master out to DNxHD if need be.

Avid bins to FCP

Does anyone know how to import either the project settings or bins from an AVID to FCP. I am transferring a project from AVID Express pro 5.5.1 to FCP 5.1.1. I purchased Automatic duck pro import and imported the sequence just fine, but I need my bins. I overlooked this small detail when preparing for the transfer. I have well over 100 bins in AVID with several clips in each one, captured from 214 hours of footage. Any help would be much appreciated.
G5 Quad 2.5 2.5 GB SDRAM and a G4 Dual 1.25 1.75 GB SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

New Discussions ResponsesThe new system for discussions asks that after you mark your question as Answered, you take the time to mark any posts that have aided you with the tag and the post that provided your answer with the tag. This not only gives points to the posters, but points anyone searching for answers to similar problems to the proper posts.
If we use the forums properly they will work well...
Shane

Importing Avid Media into FCP

I am taking media from an Avid Adrenaline system and want to bring it into FCP to cut. However, the disk w/Avid QTs won't appear on my desktop. It plays fine on the Windows-based Avid (XP, I believe), but my Mac won't see it. I've tried downloading Avid codecs and putting them in my Quicktime Library as recommended by the Avid website, but that doesn't seem to work. I've been told I should try exporting out of Avid using Sorenson or H.264 codecs. Anyone with experience on this so I quit wasting time?
Thanks
IMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) FCP 5.0.1

Actually, my experience was that it was QT 7.1.6 that broke the version of the Avid codec I had been using before, not a particular FCP update. I have not tried the codec linked to earlier in this thread.
I have noticed a unique color shift in both luma and chroma when importing Avid codec clips. It takes two color correction filters to correct for this, but I have saved this pair as favorites, and can apply them at the end of the edit.
I would much rather import the clips than recapture, as we're talking about days of recapturing, as opposed to a couple hours of importing. If I can get the codec supported, and I know how to correct for the color shift, I have no qualms about using the Avid media. My question has more to do with whether I will be able to see individual clips in the finder to attempt to import, or whether the media files will be in some format QT and FCP will not recognize, and if so, whether there is anything I can do about it. I don't expect any of the Avid logging info to come along, and I know that even if I were to have Avid editor export a batch list, a reconnect would likely be impossible, and I'd be looking at recapture.
If it were a question of simply creating new QT wrappers on the files, we'll be up against another shortcoming of FCP - the Batch Export process does nont allow the creation of reference movies...
Anyone know about what the Avid media folders look like in the finder?
Thanks much -
Max

Final Image Quality in Film, Avid vs. FCP

Hello all,
I'm heading up post-production and editorial for an independent feature film in pre-production. There are some potential producers that are interested in the film, but they're saying that (from their experience) the films they've cut on Avid have turned out to be visually superior than those cut on Final Cut Pro.
Now, I have no specifics as to the exact post-production workflow for either of the films, but I feel as though this statement is incorrect, as it is my assumption that give the same post-production workflows, the image quality would be the exact same.
I, for one (as the editor attached to the project), am for using a Final Cut Pro workflow, specifically because I already have a system set up:
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad
5.0 GBs RAM
Final Cut Pro 5.1.4
Kona LHe
Cal Digit HD444 6 TB RAID
Toshiba 26" HD Client Monitor
1402 Mackie Mixer
DSR-1500 DVCAM Deck via SDI and 422 machine control
Personally, I have no issue with editing on either system, as I am well versed in both Avid and Final Cut Pro. However, this is an independent feature, and saving money is key. So why cut on Avid and have to rent a bay when we could cut on mine for free?
As far as finishing is concerned, we're planning on cutting back to the original negative (using Cinema Tools as our aide).
Can anyone give me a possible reason for why cutting a feature-length on film in Final Cut Pro would not look as good if it were cut on Avid, assuming the post workflow is the EXACT same?
Thanks!
Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz / 5.0 Gigs RAM / GeForce 7300 GT / 2.0 TBs internal SATA Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Specifically, the producer in question noted that in
the past, when using FCP to cut a feature, they had
issues in the sound mix.
In my experience, I've never encountered a sound
mixer that's had a problem with an OMF export from a
FCP sequence when they create their ProTools
session.
Additionally, they pointed out that only Avid offline
projects would translate to a Da Vinci DI suite, and
FCP wouldn't work as well. Is there any truth to
this? I find this hard to believe...
It sounds as if your Producers don't truly understand the details of a post-production workflow for a professional film. They either only know the brands that they paid for, or they tried to unrealistically accomplish too much with too little resources and facilities on prior films, and hung their hats on the lesser of two evils. If the sound was edited, mixed, and somehow mastered on AVID or Final Cut only...without going into sound design/final mix/mastering in their respective stages and facilities...either one has an equal chance of sounding crappy...and that's a good chance. As long as the editor knows what he/she is doing and how to prepare their work for the next steps, a final mix/design can be just as good coming from a film edited on FCP as from AVID.
FCP offlines can translate just fine for AVID online/correction and what have you as long as this is planned for, researched, and understood from the outset. Basic things like knowing not to repeat frames if you're going back to film negative unless someone's willing to pay for the interpositives/dupes and such...apply if you're preparing for onlining. Same goes for sound and knowing that the final mix is where things will really take shape. the post supervisor needs to make sure that the editor and online/color correction facility (if different) are in perfect communication with eachother, and that the editor will know how to prepare and export their project to be compatable with the Davinci or whatever. The people who perform this work should generally be very open to your questions and attention, because it makes their job easier and more accurate when they're getting things well-prepared, rather than having to redo things that should be in place already. I've prepared simple EDL's which have worked fine for onlining and correction...but I made sure, step by step, that I was delivering what they needed, rather than just making it and shipping it out, and I was there with them for the whole process in case something was missing or confusing. Went without a hitch.
For sound design, I only do a basic edit during picture edit for sync work and music selection/editing/matching, or a rought mix that will approximate the final results, but I won't use that for the actual design except for perhaps a scratch reference. The rest...EFX, ambiences, foley, etc. is done in Pro Tools, and I can simply bring the project in to a mix house and open it on their system.
I guess you could hypothesize that there's a smaller, younger, and less-experienced pool of talent using primarily FCP than those using AVID, since AVID's been around longer and is still the "standard''. And a well-established, fully AVID-based in-the-can to on-the-screen facility will be more capable than a single FCP suite. But that's not FCP's fault. As long as we know the steps that have to be taken, FCP is fully capable of performing perfectly in its step on the ladder, and moving the project to the next.
So again, it seems like the producers are inaccurately attributing their disappointments to machines, instead of workflow and compatability that can and should be controlled by people who understand it. It's ususally the Post Supervisor's job to make sure of that. Of course, not every production will have the right budget for this, but the producers need to understand where the money for post goes and what things (along with the people, of course) need to be paid for in order to get the quality deserving of a professional feature film. That's the producer's job...at least one them.

Avid Mojo with FCP

Hi,
I work for a broadcaster which predominantly uses Avid products on PC's.
I've managed to buck the trend and have ordered a 17" MacBook Pro to use with FCP (and possibly Avid DV Express).
I will have access to an Avid Mojo to import my Beta SX rushes, has anyone had any experience of using this with a mac before? Will it even work?
Thanks for any assistance...
Mac Mini, G4 iBook, G4 Quicksilver, G3 Powermac Mac OS X (10.4.10)

John
Sorry to do so much avid stuff in this forum but the avid site, (like many FCPro v Avid issues) is much less easy to use. IMHO
I also run avid and FC. The mojo is of no use to FC ( I'm happy to be corrected on this point). But there are a few other Avid things you need to be aware of.
1. the mojo needs its own firewire bus. you cant have drives on the same bus as the mojo. The power book only has one firewire bus, several connectors, but one bus. I think the mac book pro is the same. This means you can either have the mojo or material drives connected to the laptop. Not both. (it will drop every other frame on record or playback). I even bought a PCIMCA firewire card for the powerbook but this still uses the same bus.
I understand that you can get a PCIe Sata card for the Macbook pro which can be used to run sata raid drives leaving the firewire to the mojo.
2. Avid say you must turn off software update. This is true as the latest qt has caused problems for avid. The way I run my G5 and MacPro desktop is to have FCStudio on the main hard drive and a second hard drive which is a boot drive loaded with the avid. This is kept for avid only. I then have a pcie firewire card to run the mojo so disks go on the built in firewire. That works fine but I have now upgraded to external sata raid drives so thet the firewire problem goes away.
3. You may know this but only the mojosdi has sdi in/out. the light grey MOJO does not.
I tend to use the avid only for jobs which have been started on an avid. Then I copy the digitised rushes to my system and send the pjoject or an avb bin back to the main system for output etc.
Hope that helps avoid some of the costs I needlessly incurred.
John

Avid HD to FCP for layoff

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