Hi,

I have some camerawork that involves a slow pan, but still there is a little jerk in the movement.  Is there any way to smooth this in MC?

Thank you,

DC

Hello!

I'm trying to export a sequence to AAF.
I get the following message: Exception ERROR AMediastream::LocateSamples Subclass Responsibility

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this?

The AAF exporitng settings are as follows.

System specs:

• Avid Media Composer 2018.12.1
• Windows 10
  
• HP Z440 | Xeon 6 core @ 3.6 GHz | 32 GB RAM | nVidia Quadro P2000

Thank you all in advance.

Stay safe!

Id like the ability to deactivate from my phone or online somehow in case i leave my house w/o deactivating my main station and want to pick up work on my laptop. 

Possible? Future feature? 

Hi all,

I've got some mov files with 1 stereo audio track. When I right click on one of the clips in a bin or select one and go to Clip > Audio and choose 'Split All Tracks to Mono' it makes a copy of the clip, but both the original and the copy have 1 stereo audio track. In short, nothing happens. I've tried both linked clips and transcoded clips.

If I edit the clip into a sequence onto a stereo track, I can then right click on the stereo track in the timeline and choose 'Split Track to Mono' and it works as expected.

Anyone else seeing this?

I successfully installed Media Composer 2020.6 over 2020.5.

In my Avid Link / Products Avid Link 2020.4 says “2020.4 installed”, “Update” is highlighted. When I try to update, a message appears “Download Error, Update URL is wrong”.

Save 25% on any 1-Year Annual Subscription of Avid Creative Tools Paid Upfront - Offer extended - June 30, 2020.

Go to: https://www.avid.com/special-offers/2020-avid-promo-codes

Discount:  The discount will appear in the checkout summary on shop.avid.com once the promo code has been applied. The discount will only be applicable to the first year of the 1-Year Subscription (Paid Upfront). The regular (non-discounted) Avid Online Store price will apply upon renewal of the subscription. The discount code associated with this promotion can be used for multiple purchases of qualifying products (see below ) and the code applies only once to each eligible product purchased. 

Disclaimer: This promotion isNOT applicable to renewal of a Software Updates + Support Plan for any Perpetual license. 

Products Eligible: The following products are eligible for this promotion: Pro Tools 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Pro Tools | Ultimate 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Pro Tools for Education 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Media Composer 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Media Composer | Ultimate 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Media Composer | Ultimate for Education 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Sibelius 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), Sibelius | Ultimate 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront), and Sibelius | Ultimate for Education 1-Year Subscription (paid upfront). 

Notes: 

 This promotion cannot be combined with any other promotion (only one code can be used at a time) and is not applicable to previous purchases. 

1. Purchasing a new subscription through this offer will not renew or otherwise extend an existing subscription.
2. This limited-time promotion ends June 30, 2020.

On June 16th, 2020, Avid launched a new promotion for students and teachers. Through July 31, they can get a 3-month subscription to Media Composer | Ultimate, Pro Tools, or Sibelius Ultimate for just $24.99 USD MSRP.

• The promotion is available to students as well as educators, subject to eligibility.
• Subscriptions run for 3 months and must be paid in full at the time of purchase.
• At the end of the 3 months, students/teachers can choose to renew as an annual paid upfront education subscription at education pricing.
• Students/teachers can purchase via a participating reseller or the Avid Webstore. 

• Education institutions may purchase subscriptions to supply to their students either through a reseller or an Avid Sales Rep (subject to order quantity requirements)

 https://www.avid.com/special-offers/3-month-education-offer 

Important - Avid Link 2020.6 Now Available - Upgrade Please

Avid Link 2020.6 is now available in customers MyAvid Master Accounts, through the Avid Link application itself and from the Download Center.  

Note in Avid Link:  Once you click Download, the product is downloaded to the Avid Link Download folder, which automatically opens to give you quick access to the download file where you can then run the installer.  If an item has already been downloaded, the status for that item changes to Open.

Fixed in Avid Link v2020.6:  The following has been fixed.

Bug Number: AMPT-9283. All license status shows "Unavailable" in Avid Link on launch. < - this one is a biggie

Bug Number: AMPT-9337. License window - "Activate" button moves during activation process. 

Bug Number: AMPT-9442. Repeated credentials prompt during silent install. 

Important:   The first bug -AMPT-9283. All license status shows "Unavailable" in Avid Link on launch - is an important fix for all Creative Tools so anyone using Media Composer | First, Media Composer or Media Composer | Ultimate or any Pro Tools or Sibelius products as well should be encouraged to update to Avid Link 2020.6. 

UPGRADE PLEASE !!!!!!!

ReadMe:  Feel free to check this link for more info.

Marianna, Tope and Raff

I just got a 2019 Macbook Pro 16" and was trying out MC 2020.5.0 on OSX 10.15.4. For the most part it's running great, but I noticed that every time I add a quick transition it causes the whole interface to choke. I am unable to start playback at any point within the sequence, even though I can move the BPI. I've messed with this a bit, and even after removing the transition I'm unable to work so I close and restart Avid. Once the process of reopening Avid begins I will normally have a crash. Opening it a second time works though. If the transition is still applied then I will have to option open the project, otherwise it will crash.

My sequence has a few dissolves in it so I've been able to save those to a bin and apply them that way, which doesn't cause any issues, but this seems like a pretty big issue. I don't believe it has anything to do with my configuration, this is a brand new computer and I have very little additional software on it.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I'm working in animation.  I am getting files as pngs for each frame of a shot.  I have my import settings set to automatically detect sequentially number files, etc.

My issue is that each shot is in it's own folder:   Seq_010_shot_10, Seq_010_shot_20, etc.  Is there a way to import or even link multiple shots from their separate folders.  

Right now, I have to open each folder select all the pngs then import them.  There are over 1100 shots -- that's going to be time consuming.  

I've tried linking but it brings in each png as a separate file rather than as a sequence.

I get new batches of shots daily (sometimes more often).  It would be great if i could select the folders which need to be imported and have them come into avid as sequences.

Thoughts??

Mc2019

2KDCI Flat 1998x1080 1.85:1 24p

Ever since I installed 2020.4 on a clean install of Windows 10, I've been getting the "Domain resolution failed!" error:

Domain resolution failed!  Please send this data to Avid Engineering:
(left SW_ViewerTee [out Hw_Domain_OGL], right SW_ViewerTee [in Hw_Domain_Host_Generic]
[e:\ws2\workspace\MC\Release_Installer_Git\Win_Build\coresw\ame\src\player\match.c:6817]

Is there a way of embedding a video fill in Titler+ as there is in the Title Tool? I tried cuttting in video on the fill track but it didn't work, instead it replaced the background video.

Any advice? I am working in a 4K project.

Thanks

Hello everyone!

Having edited with Avid for quite a while - I can't help the joke "I'm over 21" -, I've passed through several plattform eras, like 68k, PPC, Intel... Windows... several competitors, like Discreet Logic Edit, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Premiere... I elected Avid's Media Composer and Pro Tools... and Mac -  eventough I dumped Apple a few years ago, for sticking with the so called trash can and not being fond of a lot of their philosfies.

My experience with the Mac - cosmetics aside which became worse and worse, since Yosemite - is much more seamless, allowing me to work faster and be more productive. Just to be clear, I don't work for Apple.

Presently, I work in a hybrid Mac+Win environment, which gives me this perception.

Bottom line: My best system is a Media Composer, running on a Mac.

That said, I'll need to acquire a new desktop Macintosh in a 6 to 12 month timeframe. So, I carefully watched WWDC 2020 keynote and related John Gruber's Talk Show, with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak, where rumors became real news, regarding the transition from Intel to ARM.

This makes me a little (better to say a lot) causcious... because... I've gone through this before, when Apple moved from PPC to Intel. At that time, I needed urgently to buy a system... which ended up being discontinued 3 months later... right!... and limited by the lack of software support. Although the machine was powerful, it was rendered precociously obsolete.

Then there's the question on what will be Avid's response to this move. How long will take to release a Media Composer version compatible with ARM? For how long will Intel be supported? In which will Media Composer perform better?

Some would say it is too soon to consider all this. However, this time, I want to avoid history to repeat itself. I need my investment to last. Many has to be known, many doubts will have to be clarified, but, right now, they all come down to one simple question - which might not have a simple answer...

As Apple is yet to launch a last batch of Intel Macs, what will be the best option:

- The latest Intel Mac
- The first ARM Mac

I would like to know your insights.

Thank you all very much for reading.

With my new Mac being Mojave only I am forced to export Quicktimes that require the new codec pack. 

How can I make a conversion (posibly using external software) to the older codec format so my clients can use my files? 

The conversion must again happen on my Mojave system.

Is this posssible?

SOLVED: It was resolved for all customers last night. The problem was triggered by the changes with the Avid 2019.6 update.  NewBlue were however to fix it retroactively from their server. 

Because the fix is coming from the server, we believe the fix should all be automatic and everybody should be good now.

If not, customers should run the NewBlue activation / appmanager and log out / log in.

One down.....

Marianna

------------------------------------

I installed the NewBlueTitler software (vs. 5) that was in my account. The entry in my account mentions that no serial is required.

However, every title I create carries the red dotted cross indicating that the software is not activated. When I try to activate via the NewBlueTitler Application Manager it doesn't work due to a 'failure to communicate with AvidELF'. 

Is this a tempory failure? Or am I missing out something else?

My first impressions of Titler+

- Wow great at last, over 20 years after Unicode became a standard, we at last have a modern Title Tool, rewritten, with a modern(ish) interface.  So I can add titles in all scripts, with diacritics, in Cyrillic, in arabic…. No more fiddling around with photoshop, exporting, importing. Hurray!

- Toolbox nicely laid out. Not too many bells and whistles which are unnecessary most of the time.  For fancy 3D titles I’ll use another tool - here we have a modernised replacement for the old Title tool, usable for lower thirds, simple static text and end-credits (the primary uses of the Title tool) with the possibility for soft discreet shadows which are very important.

- It is directly accessible from within the timeline, no second window, no plugins, it is integrated.

Great work…

But then I started to use it….

OK, now I expect a few issues after all this is a first release (but not an alpha version), a few unforeseen use cases etc….  What I found to be honest disappoints me greatly. Certainly my expectations were high, expecting not only a slick, easy to use welcome update of the >20 year old Title tool for the final year of the decade, but with the niggles with the old title tool sorted out (that came up very frequently and well known amongst seasoned editors and AEs), namely:

1. Possibility to add left, center and right justifying tab-stops allowing two column rolling titles (for end-credits).  

2. The possibility to copy and paste images into rolling titles (used to work reliably a long time ago…)

3. The possibility to export all titles on a track as text with timecode (as is possible with subcap) for reports required by production (would be fantastic)

4. Full Unicode ie. accented / non-latin character / right-to-left support.

5. Or maybe even something amazing like importing an RTF file making a rolling title with tabs, images, fonts…  or constraining vertical movement in rolling credits to a fixed number of pixels to avoid flicker… I digress… :-)

The impression I have is that it was not thought out from a user perspective, the result is nowhere near as intuitive as it should be for software today. 

In a sentence, Titler+ -  it is a bit like a sliding door with a pull-handle and a sign saying Push…. ;(

So here we go : 

a) You click in the monitor, a caret appears, you can type.  Double click a dotted border appears, so far so good.  All is nice and works as expected.  A good start.  It has an ugly black drop shadow that I’d prefer off by default, but I can turn it off. Fine. Looks good so far.

b) Click on the T in the Titler+ « toolbox », you get a square - You type and the square doesn’t change size, the text overflows - no wrapping….  No means (that I found) to have a text area that will wrap, not that it’s that important but the UI leads to expect that behaviour.  Resize the square and the text changes size, but the square is still smaller than the text???  Can’t change the size of the square without deforming the text.  It turns out the T creates a text layer (zone) not simply allowing text to be added, this is unclear….. hmmm it’s starting to feel a bit quirky……

c) Playing around with it I understand that there seems to be two types of ‘object’ - a ‘layer’ = zone that is created in the safe area that you can resize, resizing all the ‘child’ objects ..  and text created by clicking, making ‘child’ objects of a layer….. Phew…. Seems far too complicated and unclear - problem with nomenclature and UI.  Maybe reduce opacity on all other layers other than the selected one to indicate the current layer, but still UI badly thought out.

The whole layer / text object concept is very unclear in use - should be straightforward and evident.  I create a text object and that should be it, they have an order that I can change. Rather than have confusing layers (this is an implementation detail that should be hidden from me), allow me rather to group objects together, with safe-area guides as before.  I should be able to group and ungroup text or graphic elements and reorder them at will.  Or keep all objects independent as in the old Title tool.  The parameters in « layer » - position, scale, rotation, skew should simply apply to the current object or group, with the possibility for global positioning/scaling.  Simple and easy to understand, and closer to the way much other software operates.  No need to have layers, particularly as the UI has no window showing the hierarchy of objects and what layers exist (justified in eg. Photoshop but not here).  Something reminds me of TitleDeko with less UI... hmmm...

d) Can’t get rolling titles to work for the life of me…. That is to say…. No vertical scroll bar.   Rolling titles are used 99% of the time for end-credits, which are typically 10-20 times the height of the frame.   I can see the rest by moving the position in the clip and selecting ‘effect mode’ in the effect editor, but then I can’t edit.  And « Effect mode » in the effect palette this doesn’t mean anything at all!! I am in effect mode..!!  This is misnamed.  « Preview » maybe?  And there is no none, just Crawl, roll etc... Not clear.

e) The relationship between the effect palette and the titles is unclear.  Eg. Select a few characters, layer/scale has no effect as it only applies to layers (zones) (no visual cue as to which parameters apply), Layer/Add Text adds a new independant Text Layer, not text within a layer…. Should be named Layer/ Add text layer…     I understand the principle, but there is a problem of organisation and naming, making it very unintuitive (related to c)

f) The mixture of parameters that apply to the currently selected layer and operations‘select layers’, ‘add text’ in the same place is misleading and seems poor design.  Effect palette should be essentially for parameters and related operations, especially as there is a dedicated toolbox window with this effect for everything else - much more convenient (great that they this is the first AVX2 effect with a dedicated interface - everything does not have to be shoehorned into the effect palette). Also no means to add a tracker as was possible previously.

g) Accented characters can not be inputted from the keyboard.  É, ç à from the keyboard are ignored.  This wasn’t tested it would seem with non-US keyboards (I’m on MacOS 10.12…6, with a French keyboard).  But you can copy and paste anything you like including non-latin and right to left scripts, which is great news.

h) Selection of text.  Every text editor, be it in Word, Photoshop, Title tool… changes the background of selected text…. Here, you get a confusing rectangle, making you think that you have created an new object….  The difference between a click creating a new object and selecting an existing object is not always correctly handled -> there should be an arrow tool for selecting and a text tool for creating/editing and a way to make the caret disappear.  Feels quirky.

i) No means to select and align multiple text objects (left, right, center), a) with respect to each other and b) within the frame.  Multiple object selection impossible via Cmd+click or Shift+click.

j) Select previous/next layer icons look like alignment icons….

k) Resizing of rectangles should be unconstrained by default, and aspect constrained with shift.  The opposite is the case.

l) No polygons (often useful for basic lower thirds), or lines (there is a convention in France to place a large full frame cross 240f before FFOA - line tool useful).

m) Tools/Avid title+ refers merely to the tool palette, allowing you to find if it is hidden behind other windows.   This is not clear.  Does nothing in Src/Rec mode.

n) To create a title you need to drag+drop from the effect editor, add title in the timeline doesn’t always work (either no response or ERROR: unable to add an Avid Titler+ effect) - impossible to create a title as the only thing in the sequence as you can’t create the space in the timeline to drop the effect.

o) Alt+Cmd after Cmd+L to move around doesn’t bring up the hand cursor (but still works - this is a minor issue)

p) The two icons in the top-right of the effect palette (drag points, select areas) are identical, wasn’t able to figure out what they do. Related to (f) - if is changes interaction with the objects in the monitor it should be in the toolbox.

q) With my developer hat on, under the hood, looking at the AAF, for interoperability... doesn't look amazing... some of the data (text/font names) is hidden as "Private data" in a proprietary binary format (seemingly confirming some TitleDeko heritage...), the rest is as AAF Constant Values, with many repeated property names.  Maybe just use XML as a text value, that other downstream software can parse and use.  Avid (and other companies) uses XML elsewhere in AAF (and MXF for that matter) where things don't easily fit in to the AAF datamodel. Interoperability is what sets Avid apart and where other systems fall way short.  AAF is documented - everything is there, once other manufacturers properly implement import (not always the case) - a clear interface that is easily parsed reduces bug probablity elsewhere. 

You sort of get used to how it operates, but it is very very quirky.  The Avid design team should put someone who has never used the Title+ tool but with experience of editing software as a user and observe how they get on without a manual - a lot would be learned….   It practically breaks most UI rules in the book…. Poor affordance, hidden hierarchy, no feedback from some user operations, unconventional behaviour.  Yet it was certainly beta-tested…  (eg. with respect to the accented character issue reproduced on two machines - no French beta testers???)

Maybe I’m a bit harsh, but I do think that the first impression that you have on these sorts of things is the right one.  It is possible that some of the things I was unable to do, are in fact possible - but this is the point, it should be intuitive - the manual should not be necessary, not for something as straightforward as this.   I teach in a film school and using this, I’m thinking, this is going to be a fun one to explain to first-time users….  :-(

It is a pity that with this opportunity to rethink things from scratch we didn’t get better than this.  Should be clean, well thought out and elegant.  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m testing out the other features of 2018.12 and so far very impressed, not least the possibility to make a multigroup from a sequence AT LAST with cameras that start and stop whenever!!! Super work Avid!!  but this titler….. :-(

Curious to see what everyone else makes of it!

Janusz 

When I click to open Media Composer it says "This software was released past your contract expiration date (1/14/2019).  Please go to Avid Support Website for more details".  I go to Avid Support and then I have no idea what to do next.  Media Composer won't open for me.

There used to be an option in H264 exports to choose multi pass or single pass which I don't see anymore, and I can only assume it defaults to multi-pass since H264s take forever in this new version. Does anyone know if the option to choose single pass still exists and, if so, where?

Edit remotely and more creatively with advanced capabilities

-Cut together more compelling stories with up to four (4) video and eight (8) audio tracks

-Put edits together quicker by dragging and dropping multiple clips to the timeline

-Fine-tune audio levels with per-segment audio gain

-Extract and lift segments easily from sequences

-Gain more control over audio and video dissolves

And more!

Editorial graphics 

Journalists can now embed high-end graphics into their edited stories from within MediaCentral. The graphic templates are stored in MediaCentral so that journalists can search, retrieve, populate with content and preview the graphics while editing their stories in MediaCentral. Once ready, the edited story —including the graphics —will be pushed for both linear playback based on Maestro | News, FastServe or third-party playout systems, as well as social media publishing based on MediaCentral | Publisher.

Find media faster 

With more control and options for search (including new Boolean operators, public saved searches, live searches and more), and expanded filtering (including by metadata, dates, and favorites), users can get the right results faster and improve collaboration.

View and edit time-based metadata more easily 

The new Storyboard view enables users to see time-based metadata together with clip thumbnails in a unified screen. Now users can view, edit and delete Production Management asset markers and restrictions, view the strata and segmentation of Asset Management assets, and hide the metadata or thumbnails to see just one view.

Boost production efficiency

New support for Python scripting for further customization—and transcoding assets, to multi-platform distribution and archiving content (including files from FastServe | Playout). 

Manage platform remotely with ease 

The new version of MediaCentral enables administrators to see who is logged in, from where, and terminate a session remotely, providing better security.

Documentation can be found here: 

 https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/ReadMe/MediaCentral-Asset-Management-v2020-4-Documentation  

Questions, let us know

Raff and Marianna

I am currently building my first editing suite at home.

At the moment I am having 2x normal monitors for timeline and bins and an EIZO CG279x as colour accurate preview monitor.

For sound I got two Genelec monitors set up.

I know that a professional post house is most likely to use a video interface like the Avid Artist I/O to connect the computer monitors and other devices using SDI cables etc. However my budget got its limits.

I would be very thankful if someone who has experience with I/Os could answer a few of my questions:

1. Do I need 2 interfaces. One video interface like the Avid Artist I/O and another audio interface like the prism lyra to connect everything or is there good interfaces for both at once, which is a better option / better deal for the money?

2. Which interface would be a good pick to connect 3 monitors to it and does it improve integration of my video monitors with software like Avid Media Composer and Davinci Resolve?

3. What benefits do I get from having the Avid Artist I/O if my computer already has good specs for editing. (Is something of the processing done by the interface (like these Afterburner cards Apple is selling in the new Mac Pros now)

4. Do video interfaces like the Avid Artist have a long life time?
I think I read something in another forum where it sounded like they will break every 2 years which got me worried because I would not want to invest a lot of money in it if it is something that breaks every 2 years and is therefor only suited for post houses that have the budget to change them that often.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this. :)