Avid Cinema 1.0: Issues and Workarounds

TECHINFO-0020614

TOPIC

This article describes some issues with Avid Cinema. Some are mentioned in the Avid Cinema Readme file and some are not.

DISCUSSION

From the Read Me File

Avid Cinema & Apple Video Player

Recording A Channel From The TV Tuner Card

• Start Avid Cinema.
• Open the Apple Video Player and choose a channel.
• Close Apple Video Player.
• In the Avid Cinema Bring Video In tab, choose TV Tuner from the Video Source menu (in the Movie menu).

Apple Video Player & the Avid Cinema Extension

Delrina Fax extension

Can't Import System 7 Sounds

QuickTime error

To fix the problem:

1. Open your computer** according to the instructions in your Macintosh User's Manual.
2. Seat the card securely in the connector on the system board.
3. Securely connect both ends of the ribbon cable.
4. If your model computer requires a screw to hold the card in place, screw the card down tightly.

** If you do not feel comfortable opening your computer, contact your Apple Authorized Reseller for help connecting the card and ribbon cable.

Largest Unused Block

PC Compatibility card

Don't Play Music CDs

"Inserting this clip..." Message

1. You capture a shot between two shots that have an effect on them.
2. You get a message saying "Inserting this clip here will remove an effect. Do you want to do this?"
3. You click Cancel.

To avoid this problem, click OK to remove the effect and recreate it later.

The Following Issues Are Not Mentioned In The ReadMe:

Avid Cinema Extension shows an X through it at startup

There are several reasons why the Avid Cinema Extension won't load:

• Virtual memory is on or RAM Doubler is installed. Note: If you are using Ram Doubler 2.0, Avid Cinema 1.0 help may mistake virtual memory for RAM Doubler and try to walk you through turning virtual memory off.

• QuickTime 2.5 or later isn't installed. QuickTime 2.5 or later must be installed in order for the Avid Cinema Extension to load.

• For some reason the Avid Cinema Extension loaded before QuickTime 2.5. Avid Cinema Extension has a degree character in front of its name to force it to load after QuickTime 2.5. If this character is removed or changed so that the extension appears before QuickTime, it will not load.

• The Avid Cinema card isn't installed or isn't seated properly. Follow these steps to reseat the card:
  1. Open your computer** according to the instructions in your Macintosh User's Manual.
  2. Seat the card securely in the connector on the system board.
  3. Securely connect both ends of the ribbon cable.
  4. If your model computer requires a screw to hold the card in place, screw the card down tightly.

  **If you do not feel comfortable opening your computer, contact your Apple Authorized Reseller for help connecting the card and ribbon cable.

  The Video "Stutters" During Part Or All Of The Movie

  There are several things that could cause the video to stutter:

  • Applications running in the background may cause the video stutter. For best performance, quit other applications.

  • Projects on slower media (like a Jaz drive) with lots of single frame clips combined with audio may cause the video to stutter. Move the project to a faster media (like a hard drive) or reduce the number of single frame clips.

  • Drive fragmentation can cause the video stutter. Use a hard drive utility to defragment the drive or move the project to a different drive.

  • If the media clips are on a Jaz drive and the Disk Cache is set greater than 96k, the video may stutter. Open the Memory control panel and set the Disk Cache to 96k or lower.

  • When viewing the movie preview, parts of the movie (especially those with titles) may appear to stutter because the movie hasn't been fully rendered yet. This stuttering will disappear when the Send Movie Out function is performed.

  Miscellaneous issues

  • Importing QuickTime from other video editing programs has not been fully tested and is not supported. For best results, make sure the imported movie is saved at 320x240 pixels at 30 frames per second.

  • When saving video to tape there appears to be noise at the top and/or bottom of the video.
    • This is video head noise from the source video and will not show up on the final tape.

  • With an Audio CD playing in the background, if you switch between tabs the CD playback cuts out and becomes jerky.

  • When you switch between tabs Avid Cinema must switch sound channels. This will cause any playing sound to cut out momentarily. This is considered normal behavior.

  • Avid Cinema 1.0 supports the NTSC video format but does not support the PAL video format, which is widely used in Europe. A future version of Avid Cinema will support the PAL video format.

  • A QuickTime error may occur when the internal video hardware is not ready to record. Clicking OK and recording again should work properly. This should be corrected in a future version of Avid Cinema.

  • Record and Stop buttons are grayed out in Bring Video In window even though the image appears.
    • Check to see if Apple Video Player or other video digitizing applications have the same problem. If so, a video input hardware failure may have occurred. Have the system tested by an authorized service representative.

  • The project media folder and project file must reside in the same folder and their names shouldn't be changed. Otherwise, Avid Cinema may not recognize them as being part of the same project. If the names need to be changed, the media folder should have the same name as the project file with the string " Media" after it. For example, if the project file is called "Board Meeting", the project media folder needs to be called "Board Meeting Media".

  • When attempting to view Apple Video Player in 256 colors, a black screen or a screen with a still picture will result. Also, switching to 256 colors with AVP already launched causes a fatal error in AVP to occur and the application quits. If you need to run AVP in 256 colors, turn off the Avid Cinema Extension using the Extensions Manager control panel and restart.

    Note: Apple Video Player should normally be used in thousands or millions of colors because clips captured by AVP are saved in thousands of colors and playback quality of these captured clips is poor in 256 colors.

  • The Undo feature is limited within Avid Cinema 1.0 to text Undo's in the Titles subtab. Future releases will add more functionality to the Undo command.
  • The Avid Cinema card should only be installed into the top PCI slot on the 5400/6400 logic board to allow room for installation of other cards.
  
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