GPI Video

Avid won't start, why not?

2008-03-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

Anyone out there use Avid Express Pro or Avid Media Composer? I thought so. Has anyone had a time when the software won't load properly? You click the icon, it starts loading, and somewhere after loading the "audio" subsystem, it just goes away?

I recently had that problem, and I searched high and low for an answer. I did a google search, and found that many others had this problem, but no fixes. I searched the Avid forums, and again found many users with this same problem. the best solution they offered was this - re-install Windows and Avid, and that should fix it! But four hours later, it didn't fix anything. Maybe it was the video card not being an "NVidia" card? I had an ATI card that worked properly for several years with no problem, so that couldn't be it. Maybe a bad Windows update? I didn't install any.

So here I was, with a project that had to get done, and a broken computer. At this point, I figured that I would copy all of my project data to another drive, borrow a friend's Avid system, get the project done, and probably have to get a new computer. Definitely not what I wanted to do.

But then, the problem hit me like a ton of bricks! As I was copying the data files, the computer gave me an error - "corrupted file". As I continued to copy, I found two more corrupted files. I was able to move one of these files to another place, to use for a test later. I then deleted all of the corrupted files that I found, copied the good data files back to my computer, and then tried Avid again.

It worked! as a test, I moved the corrupted file back to the data folder, again tried Avid, and it crashed in the same place as before. Removing the file again fixed it. I wish that Avid could have told me this, and saved me many hours of grief, but oh well. Anyway, I fixed it, it works, I finished the project, and I'm happy!

Maybe this tip can help some of you out there in video land - when Avid won't start, check for corrupted data files!

See Ya Soon,

Captain Video

Tape Or Hard Drive....That is the question.

2008-03-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Tape or hard drive - which is better?

Tapes are plentiful, and relatively speaking, inexpensive. "Direct To Edit" (DTE) hard drives can be very expensive. They both have advantages and disadvantages. With tape, you can keep shooting as long as you have more tape, and you can keep getting more tape. The downside is that you have to then capture and "digitize" the video before you can edit.

DTE hard drives capture the video directly to a digital file when it is shot, which means that it can be edited immediately. But when your hard drive fills up, you must transfer the files to another hard drive before you can continue shooting. When you run out of drive space, you either have to buy more drives, or delete files.

I think that both have their place, but I propose another solution - how about using both, but in a different way? My idea is this - what if digital video tape was really "digital"? you know, ones and zeros? Where the tape was a "backup type tape instead of video? This would allow a few benefits. First, you could still shoot to tape, with the advantage of inexpensive, easily replaceable tapes, and you would then be able to copy the digital file to a hard drive for editing without having to digitize it. I know, not much difference here.

But here is where it gets interesting. You could shoot to a DTE hard drive, and edit immediately, but when the drive filled up, you could copy it to a "digital" tape (remember the ones and zeros?). you now would have less expensive storage, and in my opinion, the best of both worlds! this should satisfy the "tape users" and the "tapeless users" alike.

I don't know how feasible this really is, but I know that alot of things that were "impossible" in the past are now commonplace. I'll leave it to the engineers to figure out the details.

Until next time....

Captain Video

The Video Geek, Hard At Work!

2008-03-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

What's up out there in video geek land?

You would not believe how much work it is to be a big time video geek, what with playing with big video cameras, audio mixers, and all the computer toys that are needed to bring you cool show like "American Idol" and "Survivor". No, I didn't do those shows, but I'm sure it's still a lot of work (and Fox and the other networks will be calling me soon for my input!).

Anyway, I have been very busy building this site, along with help from my fellow geeks, and rounding up lots of new information for you from the video world. I just need to sift through all the stuff I saw and experienced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, (I know, that was three months ago), and there is A LOT of stuff through.

I'll be back soon, and we'll get this party started right!

Captain Video - The Video Geek

Welcome to GPI's Video Production Technologies

2008-02-17T13:22:00.001-08:00

Welcome! Here is where we will discuss video production technologies