vegas 8.0 to avid
 

hi folks,

i've got a 76 minute feature that was edited/graded all on Vegas 8.0 in native .m2t.

I need to get it to a post house for transfer to HDCam & Digibeta - they're running Avid.

They suggested a .mov with the DnXHD 185x 1080 50i

I have Avid Xpress DV and the test fles I've outputted do import ok, the only thing is that it creates mxf files when i import which takes ages. can Media Composer or the other high-end Avid products import the files directly without having to convert? is there a more friendly format/codec that i can output from Vegas? i had a quick go at outputting an mxf file but Avid Xpress wont import them at all.

MXFDomain_INIT_FAILED
MXFDomain: Failed to open AAF-MXF I/O file for reading

since i'm paying by the hour at the suite the longer it takes the more painful amount of cash it's going to cost and this was a no-budget film!

any advice would be most welcome.

cheers,

baldwin

Download the free DNxHD codec from the AVID site. Install it on your PC. Export a DNxHD .MOV file from Vegas. Hand off to your client. Done.

avid xpress pro and symphony compatible?
 

thanks perrone. yes that's exactly what i did. did a couple 20 second tests and the files imported fine into my Avid DV Xpress Pro but for some reason the post house could only see the top half of the image when they imported into Symphony... Not sure why, they're investigating next week, sounds like something wrong at their end orperhaps corrupt download.

in the meantime i'm exporting 1440x1080 50i (progressive, fields blended on vegas) Ratio 1.3333 uncompressed .avi then i'll import into Avid DVXPress and let it do the conform to MXF DNxHD 185x. Quicktime .movs seem to take about 4 times longer to render than .avis in Vegas even when using the same codecs or as uncompressed. the HD uncompressed is going to be a mean 600gigs or so but is going to make my life easier in the long run.

Theoretically (or rather hopefully) all the post house will have to do is open the avid project and play it back from my external hard drive (it's got firewire 400/800 and ESATA). They're on Avid Symphony, am i correct in assuming that it should just open the Avid Xpress Pro 5.7.2 project?

Cheers,

Baldwin

The only time I've seen this happen is when people encode progressive footage to DNxHD interlaced. Make sure you are not selecting one of the interlaced rates and that will mess things up.

thanks perrone. the originating footage was HDV interlaced UFF so i outputted interlaced UFF. i wonder if the post house had selected progressive at import in avid.

have decided to blend fields at this stage now whilst outputting from Vegas to save a step when in the post house. am rendering at the moment from vegas. i used magic bullet which i half regret now as it slows the render down enormously and i probably could have achieved the same effect using less processer-heavy FX built-in to Vegas...

will let you know how i get on. a more sensible workflow than m2t native editing will be called for next time i edit a feature! i think outputting to uncompressed for the grade next time will be the best and i'd treat the native HD picture cut almost like a traditional 'offline'. with storage now so cheap i should buy a new SATA drive for any big projects.

cheers,

baldwin

Uncompressed will need RAID. MUCH better to work in Cineform of the native HD 422 MXF format Sony has. And then export DNxHD when you are ready to hand off to the post house.

And yes, I avoid Magic Bullet at all costs. I still use it, but prepare myself for overnight renders.

Read all this carefully, as it sounds like it might the issue you and the post house are facing.

Important - Professional Editors DNxHD Codec Compliance Issue - Avid Video Community


HTH.

Very important. Thanks Peter.
I try to check for new Avid codec updates about every six months or so.

Cheers.

thanks Peter. yes it was exactly the issue the post house was facing. they upgraded the codecs and the DnxHD file imported fine. also, in answer to my own question about going from XpressDV to Symphony, this also worked fine and they actually recommended me to go with this method. I uploaded them a zip of the project folder, the AvidmediaFiles folder and the OMFI files folder and they opened it up fine.

cheers,

baldwin

update - from vegas to avid xpress to avid symphony
 

so i zipped up the OMFIfiles, AvidMediaFiles and the Avid Project folders from my Avid Xpress Pro and uploaded the zip to the post house and it opened up fine on their Avid Symphony which is good news.

i've finished rendering the whole film as uncompressed .avi 1440 x 1080 50i (since it was acquired HDV) 1.3333 ratio and am importing them into my Avid Xpress, then will send them the Project and Media files.

i've set up the Avid Project as 1080 50i. on the Avid Import settings Image Options I *think* I should I be using the following:

Aspect Ratio: 601/709 (why doesn't avid actually say the pixel ratio numerically so I really know what I'm dealing with or let me adjust it manually!)
Color Levels: 601/709 (I graded in Vegas with StudioRGB levels so this should be right)
Field Order: Odd (Upper Field First) this should be right as it was HDV and i rendered the avis as UFF.

I've chosen DnxHD185 which is what the post house prefer.

My output is to HDCam SR which is 1920x1080 so my question is: will avid's MXF file be resizing the 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 so that playback to the HDCam SR deck will be right?

cheers,

baldwin

p.s. i'm also rendering a DnxHD .mov out from vegas for the post house just in case as a backup.