Export problem in Avid Xpress

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Yesterday I got to an almost final version of a 50-minute video I am editing.

I thought it was time to have a view at how it looked on DVD in my living room 32" TV.

So I followed the procedures to do an avi export, so I could go on from there.

I am facing two problems:

1) I do not get audio, even if the settings ARE for video & audio.

2) After about 6 minutes of file export I get the following message:

Exception: maximum size of AVI file has been reached. Resulting output
may not be complete.

But there's no place I could find that lets you set Avid Xpress for avi maximum file size, as on programs like WinDV. Does anyone know where you set that value?

Is this export procedure I am following the one that gets me the best quality? What other could I follow?


Carlos

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Apparently there's not too much people here using Avid Xpress, for I got no response.

Anyway I could find an answer to my question through a friend of mine: the best export routine from Avid Xpress is using the Quicktime Reference option.

Apparently it involves no actual file conversion and it only requires that the export is done on the same machine where you edited it all.

It's fast and it preserves the original quality, so what else do you need?



Carlos

[Richard Alvarez]

Carlos,
Do you have a copy of Sorenson Squeeze? That's what ships with Avid XpressPro and I THINK Xpress, (unless you have a student version)

You will need a compression program like Sorenson, or TMPgenc or such, to encode your movie to Mpeg2 for your dvd,

For a quick tip sheet, click on

http://www.videoguys.com/XDVtips.html#squeeze

Otherwise, go to the Avid Forum on www.avid.com and check on the 'tips and tutorials' under faq in the forum.

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Richard Alvarez

Carlos,
Do you have a copy of Sorenson Squeeze? That's what ships with Avid XpressPro and I THINK Xpress, (unless you have a student version)

I don't seem to have it. Where do I get it?

You will need a compression program like Sorenson, or TMPgenc or such, to encode your movie to Mpeg2 for your dvd,

In my case I used Canopus to make the Mpeg2 conversion and TMPGEnc DVD Author to do the vob files. But I am getting some strobe effects on movements and pans, which is not neither on the originals nor on the m2p converted files. The (limited to 2GB) avi file I could export directly from Avid as a test is fine too.

Carlos

[Richard Alvarez]

You might have to play with your compression settings a bit.

Sorensons site http://www.sorensonmedia.com/solutio...d/comp_win.php

The Videoguys run great deals

http://www.videoguys.com/

http://www.videoguys.com/sorenson.html

[Robert M Wright]

If you are generating uncompressed avi files in this process, you should be using hard drive partitions that are NTFS formatted. FAT32 partitions limit file sizes to 4GB.

[Robert M Wright]

That 2GB limit is probably a legacy avi limit (for compatibility with software that can only read legacy avi files). I don't use Avid, so I don't really know how to set it, to tell it not to generate files for legacy compatiblity.

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Robert M Wright

If you are generating uncompressed avi files in this process, you should be using hard drive partitions that are NTFS formatted. FAT32 partitions limit file sizes to 4GB.

Of course all my HDs are NTFS formatted. Things go much quicker than on FAT32 and apparently do not need defragmenting. So there's no limit from there to file sizes.

In fact I import things using WinDV, which is set for much larger AVI files, and it works alright.

Originally Posted by Robert M Wright

That 2GB limit is probably a legacy avi limit (for compatibility with software that can only read legacy avi files). I don't use Avid, so I don't really know how to set it, to tell it not to generate files for legacy compatiblity.

Apparently it does not, though it should.

[Robert M Wright]

You don't want to generate AVI files to be legacy compliant (to be compatible with older, mostly obsolete, software). That limits AVI file size to 2GB.

There are two potential size limiters on AVI files. The hard drive partition format, and compliance with the original (basically obsolete) AVI specs. "Modern" AVI files, stored on an NTFS partition, are essentially unlimited in size (limit is probably somewhere into the terabytes, rather than gigabytes).

I still use FAT32 quite a bit. I prefer using Win98 machines to connect to the internet, because so many viruses are designed to attack WinXP vulnerabilities, yet leave Win98 machines unscathed.

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Robert M Wright

I still use FAT32 quite a bit. I prefer using Win98 machines to connect to the internet, because so many viruses are designed to attack WinXP vulnerabilities, yet leave Win98 machines unscathed.

I would be doing the same if it wasn't because most editing and video programs demand 2000pro or XP to work. Only when I entered the video world fully did I get into XP. No virus problems until now though.