Can't find advice on A1/AVID 24f

J

Jimmy Visser

New member
Hi folks,

Looking for some fairly urgent advice on something that I've scoured this world wide internet thing for and come up empty-handed.

I've rough cut a whole bunch of timelines in FCP 6.0.1 and am about to give them to our editor, who's using AVID, by exporting EDLs for him and handing him the tapes with our A1 as the capture deck.

However, I'm starting to panic because we shot in 24f. I've seen a couple of scary posts that casually mention AVID can't import 24f at all.

My questions are: is this true, and how serious is this problem? Is our project screwed or is it a minor annoyance?

Cheers in advance!
Jimmy
 
Avid does not support 24f. Can you import through the component cables on the A1 into a Avid HDNX codec? not sure if that would work. Also, a high end converter like a terenex (sp?) would help I guess.

I have had to switch to FCP for this very reason.
 
Thanks Daddy. I've got even more confused since posting the initial message.

On one hand: found this at the avid site - http://www.avid.com/content/10637/Liquid_Readme V7_2_EN.pdf - which says that avid has support for 24, 25 and 30F modes.

Also, having gone around to my editor's place this morning, he successfully used the EDLs I created to compose a 24p timeline (although he didn't attempt to digitise and link the media as yet). He has his own capture deck so won't be using the A1's firewire.

BUT then I realise that I've been looking at Liquid. Further investigation leads me to realise that the Avid product range is scarily complex. I think what I need is a really basic rundown of the Avid range - does anyone have a link or some easy ways to classify which product is which?

Cheers again
 
Also, the last comment in this thread asserts pretty strongly that 24f doesn't make much difference for Avid:

http://dvcreators.net/discuss/showthread.php?p=48443

If you don't want to follow the link:

"The A1 ALWAYS shoots in 29.97. 60i, 30f, 24f, it's all 29.97.

If that is confusing, think about a video timeline with a series of still pictures each lasting one second.

This is NOT "1 fps" video! It is still 29.97!

The editing software still considers it 29.97 regardless of whether an image is repeated for many frames or not."

If this is true, should I be getting the editor to work with 30fps timelines?
 
I have never tried it, but did post a few time on the Avid forum and also received the same answer "no support."

I can try a clip and see, but I think the pull down is different. You can also ask in the avid place on this forum. Like I said, I switched to FCP and might not be looking back.
 
You can capture with HDVSplit (which captures 24F as progressive) and then use Mpeg Streamclip to transcode it to DNxHD 1080p. Both are free but you do need the Quicktime MPEG component, which costs like 20 bucks.
 
Wow - having had a look around, that looks like a pretty decent solution. Have you used this process successfully?

The only problem is, I'm really trying to avoid putting the editor through any more hassle. He's doing us a really great deal and getting him to jump through software downloading hoops is not great for the amount of time spent actually editing.

How much of the process you describe can be done by me, using my Macbook? Preferably within the original workflow described above ie I give him a bunch of EDLs and he uses them to batch capture only what is necessary.

If I saved the DNxHD files onto an external hard drive would he be able to use those in conjunction with the EDLs? I guess I'm confused about which parts of the process can be done by me with FCP, and which have to be done by him and Media Composer, and whether they can work together.

Are you able to shed any light on that?
 
My method works ok if you're ingesting straight into Avid from that point. There is no 24F support from Avid so there's no way you're getting the rough cut you have now in FCP direct to him with an EDL.

By the way, you can also just transcode the files from within FCP to HDNX, which is probably easier at this point (you would just need to download the AVid codecs). Maybe you can do that and then relink to them as offline versions maybe and then do an EDL? I don't know but it seems messy no matter what.
 
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