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Connecting Sony Z-1 (SONY HVRZ1E) to AVID or any other system

Sony HVR-Z1E (HVRZ1E) (or just Sony Z-1) is an old camcoder which was kind of popular some time ago. I haven't expected I'm going to capture from it again but it happened. And my Avid didn't want to see it at all. I searched the internet how to understand if the camera is connected but with no result. In my case it was bad cable. Here are some tips how to understand if Sony Z-1 is properly connected to your computer.



If camera is connected you should see "'HDV/DV in" on the screen:

Subtitles in Avid - How to prepare and import

Step 1. Create subtitles. For me the best soft to create subtitles is Subtitle Workshop, v. 2.51 or the new one: v.6 (you could find it on Sound Forge here). It is easy to use and has many export options. After creating subtitle file, export it is as SubRip (.srt extenstion). Subtitle Workshop can't export the format Avid needs. 

AVCHD workflow for Final Cut Pro 7

As you know Final Cut Pro 7 doesn’t support AVCHD/MTS files natively.  There are few ways to get them in Final Cut Pro 7.

1.     With Log and Transfer tool in FCP

IMPORTANT: You should keep SD card folder structure to be able to import files.  You should copy and keep all folders from your card or camera, not only folders with .MTS files.  That is how file structure looks in Sony cameras:

Short tip: graphic files for DVD Studio Pro

DVD Studio Pro unfortunately doesn't have any positioning or sizing controls for images. So all images should be properly in created before they are imported in DVD Studio Pro.

Right dimensions for the full screen images (like backgrounds or slideshows):
PAL SD: 768 x 576, resolution 72 pixels
NTSC SD: 720 x 534, resolution 72 pixels

Important! The size is different then we're used to. Normal PAL dimensions are720 x 576, but because video uses rectangular pixels images has to have the size mentioned a
bove.

How to easily hardcode (burn in) .srt subtitles to video file on PC (free encoder!)

There are different options to burn in your subtitles. You can do it through your editing software (like with Avid) or use some external soft.
I use Any Video Converter to hardcode subtitles into the film. It's free.
The older version (3.3.1) works better for me than the recent 5.5.5 as it shows subtitles preview (which helps when you have subtitles in different strange languages, as my Georgian example).
Below you could find simple step-by step instruction how to do it.

Corrupted XDCAM file structure and import to FCP or AVID

Problem: you can't import files to Final Cut Pro 7 or Avid MC because file structure was changed: clip names, folder names, some folders were deleted..

Solution: 
In BPAV folder there are 2 files which are database files CUEUP.XML and MEDIAPRO.XML - here all information about files is stored and it was recorded during shooting.
Put missing folders back, change names back and delete database files.
After that open XDCAM Clip Browser from Sony (you can dowload it for free) and browse to folder you are trying to repair. XDCAM Browser will re-create database files again and you will able to import all your media files.

PS. And never change structure of xdcam or other cards!!!

Avid MC or Symphony: Exception:MSM:Unknown directory

Problem: After system has crashed, I can't import media to the bin getting an error: Exception:MSM:Unknown directory. Seems it's all about corrupted media.

Solution(s): What I found as possible solutions on Avid forums you can find below, but what actually helped me was much more simplier:
I've deleted media files (.mxf) in Avid MediaFiles directory which I suspect to be corrupted and it worked again!
In my case these were the last files I've imported and actually during this import system crash happened. So it should be the first thing to try. If you have no idea which files are corrupted, you have 2 possible solutions below:

Adobe Encoder crashed on startup - what helped me

Problem: Abobe Encoder CS6 was crashing on startup, after Vignette.aex plug-in. But actually it turned to be not a plug-in problem. These were corrupted preferences. 

Solution: After searching on forums, this is the solution I found and which helped me: 
Delete all files in the C:\Users\{your user name}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Media Encoder\6.0
(the same goes witth Encoder CC - just open 7.0  folder).

Georgian subtitles - encoding and workaround

It happens to me to add subtitles in rather unusual languages. This time was Georgian.

Don't even try to guess what encoding it uses - the fact is that there is no Georgian encoding! All you have to get is Georgian font, which will "translate" your letters into Georgian letters. Try to copy/past some text with other font than Georgian, it will show you something like transliteration of Georgian words.

Premiere Pro: Warp stabilizer and speed can't be used in same clip: Workaround

Here the good video tutorial by Michi Leber how to use Speed and Warp stabilizer in Adobe Premiere for the same clip. The main idea is to use nested sequence and apply Warp stabilizer to original clip, and Speed to nested clip.

How I solved problem with blurry jittering text in rolling titles in FCP

I've prepared TIFF file with all my final rolling credits and logos in Photoshop, I've got TIFF with LZW compression as it is usually recommended and with dimentions 1920x1080 as soon as I have HD project.

But after rendering and exporting titles from Final Cut they looked awfull - pixels, blurry and having these interlace lines.

What helped me (maybe it will not work for you). I've entered my Sequence Settings (in Final Cut - Sequence => Settings or cmd+0).

In General I've changed Quality to Best. 

In Render optiongs I've changed Field Dominance: None (I had Upper by default)
The way it looked in my case you can see on the image below.

Arabic subtitles for DVD Authoring in Adobe Encore

Problem: I had .srt file in Arabic language made in Subtitle Workshop 6.0 which after trying to convert to Adobe Encore subtitles (.txt) had bad encoding and impossible to convert to normal view. And I needed to import it to Adobe Encore to use as an language option. Encoding in Subtitle Workshop was Arabic. By the way, in Subtitle Workshop 2 the text wasn't shown properly.

Reason: Subtitle Workshop usually doesn't use proper encoding when saves files (not Unicode which is usually required to show all the letters properly).

Soluion: To convert subtitles to Unicode I usually use Subtitle Edit which opens and saves subtitles in different formats. There is a possibility to choose encoding.
In this particular case when I opened my .srt file or .txt file with subtitles in Arabic, it showed me some scribbles.
To avoid this problem I opened subtitles via File => Import subtitle with manual chosen encoding...
and then choose encoding Arabic. Then File => Save as - choose format you need (for Adobe Encore I used Adobe Encore w.line .txt). It should import to Encore without any problem!

P.S. Sometimes if the problem still there it's better to change font to Arial Unicode or Adobe Arabic.

Great video tutorial on Adobe Illustrator by Khalid Ali: How to Create A Simple Film Strip Logo

Premiere Pro CS6 - bloating and project size

I'm editing 30 min. documentary in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. Previously, I've edited few short films with it.

First few weeks everything was perfect and I was fascinated with what I've got - possibilities to work with AVCHD and h.264 natively, great stabilize effect...

But I've encountered the first serious problem. Once I was starting the project and it just haven't open. I saw Load project window and very slow loading. Than it just stopped in one place and no movement in next half an hour.

The problem is in a project size. When it reaches some limit, it loads very slowly (so there is a chance it will open - but it could be in few hours or days). It's a bug Adobe knows about, but there is no fix for now.

Some people tell using warp effect increases size, but there are people who had 5gb projects without any warp effect. My project reached 400mb and after 1h of waiting I resined.

One of the solutions is to import project in a new project. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes not.

I just started to check project size after saving it (but not closing it!). it's more often happens that Auto-saves are huge, so just control your saves by yourself. And at some point it's good to make reserve copies. So if something will happen tomorrow, you have do to again only what you have done for that tomorrow. 

If the problem is critical -it seems it's possible that Premiere will open this large project - but after long-long-long time. I have never waited, but maybe somebody will.