Looking at Avid images on a Mac powerbook

[Dan Salzmann]

I've just gotten through a pretty large shoot and the images which were shot on 35mm have been digitised and organised into trim bins on an Avid.

I would like to transfer to and watch these images on my G4 powerbook.

Apparently the production facility is unable (or unwilling) to master the rushes to DVD.

Is this possible and how is it done?

[Keith Mottram]

I've just gotten through a pretty large shoot and the images which were shot on 35mm have been digitised and organised into trim bins on an Avid.

I would like to transfer to and watch these images on my G4 powerbook.

Apparently the production facility is unable (or unwilling) to master the rushes to DVD.

Is this possible and how is it done?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

unwilling is the answer. there arte many ways to view the rushes on your PB, but the options depend on spec. The simplest way would be to ask them to stick the takes onto a timeline and export this to quicktime in SD DV format. You'll have no problem playing them back off your hard drive or an external.

 

Keith

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> unwilling is the answer

 

Not necessarily so. D'you have any idea how much effort goes into mastering a DVD? At the very least there's a lengthy encode, or at least a realtime operation to produce a very nasty low-quality DVD on one of those domestic recorders. Likewise, creating a DV stream is a renderable process which will tie up the equipment for a while. On high end gear, there might not even be such an option.

 

I had this off a client the other day - "Can you make me a CD?" "No problem, but there is a mastering fee associated with that." "What?" Well, it's going to take half a day and I have to run it several times to get the encoder profile set up or you'll be griping about the image quality...

 

That's why.

 

Phil

[Mark Allen]

I've just gotten through a pretty large shoot and the images which were shot on 35mm have been digitised and organised into trim bins on an Avid.

I would like to transfer to and watch these images on my G4 powerbook.

Apparently the production facility is unable (or unwilling) to master the rushes to DVD.

Is this possible and how is it done?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Depending on the codec being used on the AVID (and if it is decent quality enough), you can just get that codec and take the footage directly. I used to watch meridian codec files all the time on a G4. Then you could transfer some footage over for yourself.

 

Ask the editors what the codec is and check for it on Avid's site or http://codecs.onerivermedia.com/

 

Other options. Where the images never transfered to tape? A dub to DV is a pretty standard thing, lots of places would do it.