Does anyone have a favorite 3rd party utility for media management  

I found one mentioned in a creative cow tutorial, but that was for PC, and doesn't seem to exist anymore anyway.

Thanks in advance

THe fully downloaded installer for 8.5.3 on Mac won't launch. It goes into "Verifying "Install Media Composer"..." part of the Mac's security and privacy settings. It doesn't matter what the settings are (App Store only, App store and identified developers or everywhere) the installer won't launch. That verifying process never ends.

Anyone else ran into this?

I was home nerding out about shooting and editing with a family member at my mom's birthday party. It turned out we both use Avid MC on our shows. He works for a cable network news program and I edit a syndicated cable show.

I unloaded all the troubles I've had with Avid lately and really almost since I switched to it two years ago. (Granted some of those problems were solved by learning curves and reluctantly accepting that all footage must be transcoded but now I'm just dealing with bugs). These are the headaches I'm dealing with in the the current point releases of Avid MC:

8.5.3 - After a few days a Memory Leak opens up and it makes exports stall out and the only way to get the timeline to export out is to reinstall 8.4.5

8.4.5 - After about a week of usage the timeline bogs down eventually slows to a crawl so every move of the timebar stalls the system for 5 to 15 seconds. Only way to fix is to install 8.5.3 and work on the project till the memory leak rears it's ugly head then reinstall 8.4.5 to export.

8.2.8 (or whatever is the latest) - Error on install refuses to complete installation so haven't been able to use it.

I told him that I'm thinking of moving my show back to premiere because Avid is next to unusable after a few days of editing. And I'm spending almost half my time tending to Avid problems instead of editing.

He was surprised to hear I was having so much trouble. And I said, "you don't have these kinds of problems on your Avid edit bays?" He said occassionally but not to the extent I was describing. And I said how long have your bays been up and running their copy of Avid? 

And he said their IT department does a complete wipe and reinstall of the OS, Avid and all plugins every night on all 8 bays. And I was like wait what?!

Is this really how Avid is supposed to work that it needs to be reinstalled every night? And not just Avid but the entire OS. In my experience that would probably fix my problems but I'm a two man band and don't have a tech team to do this nor do I want to spend the extra 90 minutes a day doing it when I've already added so much time to my workflow with transcodes and mixdowns being added which I didn't need when I was on premiere. 

Has Avid code grown so unstable that's it's become this late game Jenga statue that needs all the help it can get to stand up straight these days? It feels that way to me.

And I really like Avid, I think you have such great people giving the best customer support available for any editing software out there right now. That's why I've hung in so long. But after hearing that reinstalling the entire os and all programs nightly is how corporate news keeps their avid bays stable, I've decided to start experimenting with moving my show back to premiere. Because I just don't have the time or inclination to add one more time hungry step to my workflow just to stay on Avid. 

How many people work for companies who's policy it is to do this nightly Avid bay wipe? This was a subdivision of NBC that my family member worked for.

The one ray of light I'm hanging on to is that after talking to someone that had talked to some Avid engineers, they said that the engineers believe Avid 8.6 is going to be a premiere killer. I don't know what it means or what features or bug fixes are in the pipeline but I guess the engineers really feel like they have something exciting in store for us with 8.6.

I hope so I was ecstatic after using 8.5 for a few days but seemed like there were performance regressions in the following point releases and that the memory cache didn't work as well in the following point releases and then the memory leak became an issue. I was expecting new point releases by the time I got back from my trip yesterday since they seem a bit overdue especially when the memory leak in 8.5 seems to be pretty widespread. But got home last night, checked the forums 1st thing and still no new point releases. And got the notice today that the new premiere releases are out. So downloading those now. Believe me I'm no adobe fan boy. Their customer support was the worst when I used it and premiere had just as many bugs at the time. But right now I'd rather have some new problems than keep grinding away dealing with the current Avid point release problems. 

hi there, am getting the following error message:

Assertion failed: dvc.IsValid()

File:/Volumes/Data/Snapshots/relengmaverick3_1449185824/coresw/ame/src/msm/DIDReader.c,Line:5043

And then when I click continue, I get this:

Exception: FATAL_ERROR, msgFile:/Volumes/Data/Snapshots/relengmaverick3_1449185824/coresw/ame/src/msm/DIDReader.c,Line:5043

I am trying to relink a sequence back to its original AMA files, and then this error has come up. I can't work.

I have trashed all the databases on my harddrives, I have now upgraded to 8.4.4 (hoping it was a bug that would go away), I trashed the AMA folder in the application folder  none of this helps.

any advice?

merry christmas.

Hey guys & girls.

I've got a lot of GoPro and C300 material that I need to sync up.

My normal workflow, is to link, consolidate (relink), and then manually sync all the clips, used Plural eyes before but that dosen't seem to work with 8.5. 

A side note, the gopros seems to get off sync randomly after a while, is that because of the camera or? - At the beginning it is synced perfekly but after maybe 2-5 minuts its out of sync.

Is there any chance that there is an easier way to do this?

Generally liking the MC 8.6 Source Browser but having issues with P2. I can't see a way of linking to an entire volume (card already copied to a disk) as we could with previous versions. I can drill down to the Video sub-folder and select all clips but often I don't get all the associated audio (which I know exists on every clip). Even messier with spanned clips. Is this a bug or am I missing a simple method to do this? The old Input Media>Link option has gone - the Source Browser seems to be the only option.

Hi people. I have AMA linked in a red camera clip (B047_C001_0101D4) and need to add the full name (B047_C001_0101D4_RDC) to the tape column, however i am unable to do so and not sure why. currently the tape column is blank.

Im using the trial version of avid 8.5.1 on Windows 10 PC. ALso tried to do on MAC

Hello,

I'm making the round trip from Resolve to Media Composer. My grading is done, exported an AAF in MXF Op-ATOM. Import the AAF in Media Composer, and everything works fine. My problem is with the video level.

My export from Resolve has been done with the Video/Data Level at « Video 64-940 ». Once in Media Composer, if I want my timeline to look like it was in Resolve, I need to change the « source settings » to:

-       Source color space: REC 709

-       Color Transformation: Levels scaling (video levels to full range)

Without that, everything is, of course, more flat.

Am I right to do that? Or is it just the way the "viewer" in MC display the image ?

I need to provide a Quicktime for broadcast use and want to be shure I'm giving them the right thing. Thank you!

Thank you!

I am editing in a 720 59.94 project.  All of my footage started in a 1080 23.976 project (it was all transcoded to DNXHD 115 MXF), then I opened the bins into my 720 project (the format that my piece will air in).

When I scroll around fast in a long clip, I get the spinning rainbow ball.  Sometimes I crash, sometimes it just takes some time to catch up.

What is making my system less responsive?  

I have the latest version of avid and Apple OS X.  I use a promise pegaus R4 drive with thunderbolt 2 and an aja io4k output device.  64 GB RAM.  Mac Pro Late 2013 - 3 GHz 8 Core.  AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB

I created new user settings and threw out my old ones.  Anything I can do to help?

MbPro 10.11.5 with new MC 8.6.0, instlled with out any problems over MC 8.5 which ran fine on 10.11.5

If I use the new 8.6 source browser on GoPro .mp4 material I get a "Cant be linked" in the plugin column, and a "couldnt be loaded into source monitor" when clicked upon.

However right click the file and select link with Quicktime the file loads into the source Monitor and I am able to link into my target bin, from where it runs fine. Shown as H264 in bin video column

Then looking back at the source browser, that ( now linked ) clip again shows "cant be linked", but it already is, we know better ;)

What files can source browser display and can they all be linked?

Avid is pleased to announce the release of Media Composer | Software v8.6.

HOW TO GET:
The latest update to Media Composer is available worldwide as of June 30, 2016 from the Avid Download Center or through the Application Manager.

The ability to launch Media Composer software is dependent on the status of the customers Upgrade and Support Plan on the date this software version was released.

 - Please read the How to Update Your License page before upgrading to this release.

 - More detailed information is also available on the Upgrade and Support Plan FAQ page.

 - The FlexVersioner, as has been stated in the past, is no longer supported for this release.  See the Support Upgrade article for instructions on how to upgrade your dongle based  or SW licensing based System.

NEW FEATURES:
New in this release includes:

- Source Browser: Allows you to navigate to and import or link your file-based media from a single window. You can also preview your file-based media in the Source Browser window before you commit the clip(s) into a project.

- Native Support for Panasonic AVC-LongG: Media Composer now provides native support for the Panasonic AVC-LongG format.

- Audio Ducking: Quickly and easily create an audio mix by automatically reducing the audio level of one or more audio tracks against other audio track(s) –  like “ducking” the volume of music or natural sound under dialog, and then ramping it back up again.

- Nested AudioSuite Effects: Stack AudioSuite effects and step in and out to manipulate each individual effect – just like with video effects.

OS SUPPORT:
This release is supported OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks), 10.10.5 (Yosemite) and 10.11.5 (El Capitan).

NOTE: To those users upgrading to El Capitan for the first time, please deactivate & uninstall Media Composer FIRST, upgrade the OS, then reinstall Media Composer.  If you use Avid Artist DNxIO, you must also uninstall the Desktop Video software and reinstall it after the OS upgrade.

README:
The README & "What's New" documents for 8.6 are available here.  The README for 8.6 can also be found attached to this post. As always, please read the docs before upgrading to understand any known issues.

FEEDBACK:
If you have any comments or questions regarding the installation of this version, please post it here.  For other bugs or questions, please start a new thread.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on the following.

We have received some media back from an external grade as op1a AVC-intra100 mxf

This can be AMA linked and consolidated onto our storage, no problem so far. The problems arise when we cut in some of our existing AVC-intra media such as opening titles etc. Although Avid can play the sequence back, once a new op1a mxf file is created (via Marquis Medway) The resultant file cannot be opened by Avid, Switch, QT player or anything else.

It would appear that the file contains two slightly differing codecs within the essense?...

Our current work around is to AMA link to the Quantel mxf file, transcode to DNxHD185X, then Transcode back to AVC-intra.

I believe the files are coming from a Quantel Pablo, We are using MC8.6.0 on Mac. Any help greatfully received.

I am a Pro Tools guy who runs a DX peripheral (MojoDX or NitrixDX) for video output. I want to remove the DX drivers as part of a troubleshooting effort. The DX driver provided in my Avid account is v5.9. The uninstaller included with the 5.9 installer package is v4.04 and is broken. I have downloaded the package twice. When launched the uninstaller responds with "Avid DX Driver Uninstaller is damaged and can't be opened. You should eject the disk image."

Do you know how I can uninstall? Google search has not been helpful, although I now know how to uninstall an mBox (which I do not own).

Posting a little tip that corrects a little annoyance with Mavericks and Yosemite.  It is no longer possible to preview DNxHD Quicktimes (and all other QTs in codecs other than Prores ou H264) with the space-bar.

It turns out that the old behaviour can be recovered by "transplanting" the quicklook components that handle quicktime files from a copy of OS X 10.8.5.  It works fine - although you need to redo the steps when you update the OS, and you need access to a machine with 10.8.5 to grab the files.  

On a machine with Mountain Lion installed take a copy of the following two files/directories:

/System/Library/QuickLook/Movie.qlgenerator

/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/PlugIns/Movie.qldisplay

Put them safe somewhere (Avoid FAT32 formatted USB keys as permissions may be lost - zip them if in doubt)

On the machine with Mavericks/Yosemite, take a copy of the existing files/directories in these locations and replace them with those copied from 10.8.5.  Be careful to only replace these files (not any part of the directories that contain them - doing so will create major headaches)

Run the following commands from the Terminal to repair permissions (you need to have a password set on the account):

sudo chmod -R a+x /System/Library/QuickLook/Movie.qlgenerator

sudo chmod -R a+x /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/PlugIns/Movie.qldisplay

sudo chown root /System/Library/QuickLook/Movie.qlgenerator

sudo chown root /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/PlugIns/Movie.qldisplay

Enter your password when prompted (nothing will appear this is normal)

Reboot.

The Space bar will now preview DNxHD files and QT reference files as before.

This should also work with El Capitan, but you will probably need to deactivate System Integrity Protection to replace the files (boot in Recovery mode (Cmd+R on startup), Launch Terminal and type csrutil disable), reboot, replace the files then you can probably reenable System Integrity Protection (csrutil enable in recovery mode) - I have not tested this.

Janusz

Hi All,

I was wondering if there was a super-quick way to create multile sublclips in one go?

For example, when using autosync, I can put all my video & sound media in a bin, select it all and, using autosync, MC will create subclips of the combined media. Brilliant. Here's the thing. We've had a day of filming where I have more than 400 clips that are MOS, so I don't have any sound to use autosync. I still want to create subclips though so that I can alter the file names for my editor without disrupting the naming convention (for online/conform purposes) and also just to keep the workflow consistant.

Is there a way to create the subclips "all at once" i.e. like how you could select all in the bin, and cmd+drag in to another bin and it would duplicate the clips in that new bin. Is there an equivalent for creating subclips? Or some sort of menu command somewhere? Or is it simply a matter of loading each clip in to the monitor, using my subclip shortcut, and going through them one by one? That's by no means a disaster, but if i Could do it in 30s rather than 30 mins, that would be great. 

I'm using MC 8.6

Cheers!

it seems, that there is a small bug in this new feature: the audio file has to be analyzed before the video file. Perhaps it depends on the duration and/or quality of the audio in each clip. The analyze process starts with the first file in the list view, so you can easily influence the order.

I am transcoding AMA linked 3840x2160 23.976 SLOG 3 footage to 1080 for a more stable workflow/system.  Before transcoding, I go to source settings and add a LUT to the clips, so that they look good (not flat).  Then I transcode the footage (I am in a 1080 23.976 project).

The transcoded footage has ugly banding in it (which I can't get rid of).  

If I look at the orginal AMA linked clip, it also has banding in it.  However, when I throw that linked clip onto the timeline, I can render it and the banding goes away.  Unfortunately, when I render the transcoded clip, the banding is still there.

I have my render settings set to 16 bit.

Is there any way to transcode clean (non banding footage)? 

I have the latest version of AVID.

I have a client that shoots a lot of 60 fps footage on a DSLR.  He wants to change it into slow motion.  I know how to do that in AVID and ADOBE PREMIERE, but I was hoping there was a third part application that could just conform a bunch of 60 fps video clips (treating them as 24p clips -- thus creating good looking slow motion).  I just want a program that can do this quickly outside of AVID (just rip through a bunch of clips at once).  Any ideas?

Thanks!

I have a huge project with a million bins.  Everytime I open a bin, it pops up ontop of other windows.  Is there a way to make the bin pop up in a spot on the screen I can designate?

Also, I've used tabs before and that keeps everything in place, but that doesn't make a lot of sense in a project where I have so many bins.  I could read the bin tabs because there are so many of them.

Thanks!

We have been working on relinking a very large project after recreating the offline media.  The project was injested and offlined on Media Composer 8.5 at an offsite post facility.  Online finishing was then done in MC and Symphony 6.5 at our facility.  For that process we had no issues moving bins and media between versions etc.  We are now working with Media Composer 6.5 to recreate and relink the offline media and have a number of timecode and relinking issues that have come up.

One very interesting issue involves our FS7 bins and the start timecode on the clips.  When we retrieve a bin from the backup that we were delivered from the offline and open it in its own project we can see that all clips have proper start timecode. When we bring that same bin into a project we have been working in to relink the project and timeline we see many of the clips reset their start timecode to zero.  When the matching card is AMA linked we can see the proper start time code exists there but we are left unable to relink because the starts do not match.  If we alter the zero start timecode on the master clips in the original offline bin to match the start timecode on the AMA clip (this is the same timecode the master clip held before opening it in the relink project) we can successfully relink.  That is great but presents a problem because we would need to change the start timecode of thousands of clips to fix this issue.  Additionally bins contaning groups or other instances of the master clips being opened will set all the clips we changed back to zero and the media goes offline.  We have tried doing this all in another project independent of the relink work and in different versions of the software seeing as the original bin was created in 8.5 and we are running 6.5 on most of our machines.  Even with connected media and proper start timecode the timecodes reset to zero and the media goes offline when the bin is brought into the relink project.  Any ideas on what would make a start timecode change other than modifying it manually?  Any way we can stabilize our relink project so that this doesn't continue to happen when we try to edit and are matching back etc?  

Our other problem is related to media that was originally AMA'd from quicktime files.  Many of these clips will have matching start timecode and durration but will not relink until a matching tape name is inserted.  Again this fix isn't ideal because there are so many clips and as far as we can tell the metadata is there to properly relink without having to do it. The good news is these links seem to remain as we move into other bins etc.  Unlike the FS7 clips described above. 

Any insight would be appreciated.