Seeking Avid MC workflow for good quality dailies

[Scott E Wilson]

Hello all. I have a very basic question. Can you suggest a workflow that would allow me to create a good quality video/audio file output of about 60 minutes of HDV footage using only Media Composer 5.5.3.
I have done several short projects (music videos/shorts) in which I created a 'Lossless Animation' file from AVID. Then used a third party application (MPEG Streamclip) to convert this file to a high quality mp4 using a quicktime wrapper. This two step process looked excelent (for HDV) but took most of the day to render however. I did it this way because when I used the codecs inherent in Quicktime and created (send to) a quicktime movie in AVID the result was a very washed-out look. I am hoping to find a relatively quick way of rendering about 60 minutes of audio/video that can be delivered in a file form and viewed on a PC. ( Windows Media perhaps?)
I would greatly appreciate any workflow with detailed instructions that you could suggest.

Thanks in Advance,
Scott

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

If you are using an intermediary codec in your workflow, it will always require a two-step rendering process. Either edit native and render directly to your final format, or use a hardware encoder or render farm.

Same pain, but it'll get over quicker.

[Chris Medico]

There is no fast way to do what you are asking for inside MC. The fastest way to get good results is to use the newest version of Squeeze with a QT Reference file from MC. v8 of Squeeze will use your graphic card to render the video. As an example I had a HD timeline that was about 7min long. The export to a 1080p file for the web took 45 min directly from MC. The same export done in Squeeze took 4 minutes.

Depending on the export format you need a program that takes advantage of the power of your graphics card can be a real workflow time saver.

Edit: The washed out look can be controlled via the RGB/709 settings in Squeeze. If you are going for a computer display choose RGB. If you are going for a TV display choose 709. There is no way to make one that looks good in both worlds at the same time. To optimize my computer display exports I tweek a color correction and play with the gama setting to make it look more pleasing to the viewers.

[Bill Ward]

Scott:

Also, in MC when dialling up your export settings (ditto for Squeeze) you can drop the luminance level a click or two and raise the contrast another couple of clicks. This will help the washed out look significantly.

Just pick a 5-10 second piece of representative video (usually something with an interview) and make a few settings changes...export it...tweak and export again. Goes pretty fast and eventually you'll have a template that works for most of your projects.