avid

If you follow me on Twitter… or if you look to the right of my blog and see my Twitter feed… you may know that at the next LAFCPUG meeting I will be presenting the new Avid Mix and Match feature.  So…in order to do so, I am playing with that feature right now.  Seeing that I don’t have any paying work on an Avid, I took advantage of Avid Media Composer’s great 30-day trial version.  Great way to test things out.

And good, because I am highly skeptical about this.  STILL.  Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it?

Well, I started out by installing it on my laptop.  I’ll get to the tower later, but it is busy converting a bunch of footage for something else, and it should be done by Wednesday.  So, I have Avid Media Composer 4.0 on my MacBook Pro dual 2.4Ghz machine.  I used the Media Composer’s AMA (Avid Media Access) option to import DVCPRO HD P2, AVCIntra P2 and XDCAM EX.  Running from 720p 23.98, to 720p 59.94, 1080p 23.98 and 1080i 29.97.  I’ll be capturing some HDCAM SR at work as DNxHD 145, then again at DNxHD 220.  Then some DV as native DV…and heck, HDV as native HDV because I have the stuff available.

So far…with my initial testing (VERY initial testing) on my MBP with the G-Tech G-Drive mini connected via FW800…it isn’t so smooth.  BUT, I was expecting this.  Avid did say that it relies heavily on the computer processing power, and fast drives, to make this possible.  I just know that a lot of people only use laptops, so I included it in my test.  SO, what I will do next is transfer everything to my Caldigit VR drive and have that connected via eSATA, and that will get me a little over 200MB/s using the AJA Disk test… or more reliably around 150MB/s using the HD SPEED TEST.  I’m sure things will be better…but I am wondering how much better?

More later…