Settings Galore

The Media Composer just keeps getting more flexible and powerful. But with all this flexibility comes complexity. And good as Avid is at making the machine do whatever we might desire, it often fails when the time comes to explain those capabilities. Without the explanation, the power isn’t worth all that much.

I’m starting  new show with Adrenaline machines, using the latest software, Quad-core G5s and Unity. First impressions — very fast. Probably the most responsive Avid I’ve ever used. And a far cry from the early, and very buggy, Adrenaline machines I’ve used in the past.

But there sure are a lot of settings to pay attention to. Many are hidden. Most are unexplained. Here’s a basic example: Media Creation. When you digitize you can now create MXF or OMF files. MXF is the default. Want to make OMFs? You need to do a little searching. Turns out the choice is in the Media Creation setting pane — in two places. First use the last tab to select your “Media Type.” Then select your actual resolution in the Capture tab. And if you want to create AIFF audio files instead of WAV, you’ll need to locate another setting: “Audio Project.”

Then there are the “Film and 24P” settings. I can guess what they mean, but it sure would be useful to actually know what they mean. The help system tells us little more than to select the settings you want.

Defaults and settings have been a bugaboo of the Media Composer since the early days. They’ve been responsible for a lot of problems. If you set up your project incorrectly you pay for it later.

Avid needs to add some explanatory text to these settings panes — text that is vetted by real editors to make sure it conveys the meaning intended. A little money invested here might save a lot of money on customer support.

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