I am currently evaluating Avid Media Composer. To do so I have installed it in a virtual machine. Now I have imported an AVCHD movie clip into a sequence and tried to watch the clip in the editor.

My problem: Although I can scroll through the clip quickly and easily without problems, I can't play it back. Only every now and then a new clip image is displayed in the editor. And whenever I pause the clip, an exception is raised "Unable to stop SprngBuf's FillThread".

The edit window is approx. 400*600 pixels wide. Is there an option in AMC to have it work with a scaled down video clip version in the editor and use the full-fledged video when rendering?

I'm afraid I think trying to run MC within a virtual machine is going to be a struggle.

I find running Word to be sluggish, never mind a video editing package.

However there a couple of things you can try.

At the bottom of the timeline window there's a video quality setting which can be full green, half green / half yellow or full yellow. Try full yellow.

You don't say what type of project you're working in or what resolution you've used for your video.

You could try importing at a very low resolution e.g. 15:1 in a standard def project.

Once done you can do a batch import from the same files to a higher resolution.

Even if the timeline doesn't play you can export a movie that will hopefully play.

HTH

Brian

WhiteKnight:

My problem: Although I can scroll through the clip quickly and easily without problems, I can't play it back. Only every now and then a new clip image is displayed in the editor. And whenever I pause the clip, an exception is raised "Unable to stop SprngBuf's FillThread".

Thank you for your help!

Brian Suttie:

At the bottom of the timeline window there's a video quality setting which can be full green, half green / half yellow or full yellow. Try full yellow.

Thanks for the hint! I've just have tried that...

It doesn't help, I'm afraid. Now I get another exception: "DesktopSFConsumer::PlayStreamingFrame premature end of stream.

Brian Suttie:

You don't say what type of project you're working in or what resolution you've used for your video.

I must admit that don't know anything about AMC yet. I'm running it for the first time and have just tried to find my way through the first project in order to be able to run one of my AVCHD Light clips.

Brian Suttie:

You could try importing at a very low resolution e.g. 15:1 in a standard def project.

Once done you can do a batch import from the same files to a higher resolution.

Even if the timeline doesn't play you can export a movie that will hopefully play.

I don't know enought about AMC, I'm afraid. Could you perhaps direct me on how I could do this in a few steps?

This is why I'm evaluating AMC:

I want to switch from Adobe Premiere CS4. AP4 can't edit my AVCHD Light videos on my computer either, even on the real machine. This although I have a top notch 4-core CPU and 8GB of RAM.

I don't have a great graphics card because I need to work at a silent machine.

I hope this doesn't sound frustrated but constructive:

Why don't video editing software automatically convert and use video clips in some low-bandwith, easy-to-handle stream format for editing, using the original, high-quality clips only for rendering the final output? There's no need to work in some high-compression, hard-to-deal-with video format.

Now, after having delivered myself of that...

Is something like this perhaps possible with AMC?

Yes indeed; now the first step to achieve that would be seeing if Your top notch CPU with silent GPU can successfully run MC, and You should really install it at OS level rather than in a virtual machine in order to verify compatibility.

I think Luca's quite right, what OS is your computer running as it's main OS?

regards

Brian

There is no way to get an accurate "feel" for a program as resource and hardware dependent as MC on a virtual environment.  

"Unable to stop SprngBuf's FillThread"

lots of people get this because there system isnt fast enough. ive tested this on an older system and YES IT DOES THIS! when tested on a much faster system with Quadcore and atleast 4gb of ram, the videos will play no problem. and why would u virtualize an os just for avid? that will just kill the performance!

WhiteKnight:

Why don't video editing software automatically convert and use video clips in some low-bandwith, easy-to-handle stream format for editing, using the original, high-quality clips only for rendering the final output? There's no need to work in some high-compression, hard-to-deal-with video format.

Now, after having delivered myself of that...

Is something like this perhaps possible with AMC?

Actually, it is.  Using the "traditional" Avid workflow whereby you import a clip. 

Avid, until AMA was introduced, would always create its own MXF media files of any footage that you imported or captured.  Avid then managed these media files for you using media databases. 

When you Import or Capture footage, Avid offers you a dialogue box where you can tell Avid what compression to use when creating the MXF media files.  In an SD project, you get SD compression options.  In HD projects, you get HD compression options.  If your HD footage is shot at a frame rate that has an SD project type counterpart, you can save a lot of space and taxation on the system by editing in SD.  When you've finished the edit, just flip the project to HD and Batch Import or Batch Capture the Sequence and you will be prompted to re-load the sources that were used in the finished version. 

Some people have argued that by Avid creating its own media is counter-productive in a file-based environment such as AVCHD.  The source files and the Avid media end up using more space together.  But, personally I find extra storage a small price to pay to get a solid workflow.

If the AVCHD files can be accessed via AMA, you have some extra options. 

You can Link to the AVCHD files via AMA, preview the footage, make notes/selects etc, then Consolidate or Transcode the files.  This will save you from having to import everything first just to work with it. 

If you choose to Transcode the footage, you can choose a higher compression codec and save some space when the Avid MXF media files are created.

Thanks for those overwhelmingly many and valuable replies.

Let me follow-up on each of them:

@Luca & Johnlucas88:

I have installed AMC on a virtual machine because I'm evaluating the software. 2,000 Euros is not spent easily... And as you perhaps know, uninstalling such a big software package doesn't take place without trace and restraints. It's most save to evaluate software within a virtual machine.

Another advantage of using virtual machines: Installations of different software packages don't interfere with each other. If some software is not working, it's the deficiency of the software, nothing else. That makes it easier to argue with support.

@Brian:

I'm running Windows 7/64 on both, the host and the virtual machine.

@TVJohn:

I understand. But that's not what I'm striving for at the moment. I also have a dual core laptop where I want to install AMC, too. So my virtual machine at my desktop host should be powerful enough to handle AMC, otherwise my laptop's host OS won't neither.

@Kenton:

Thanks for trying to help!

I've just tried re-creating what you have suggested. I seem to fail the first step: Changing a HD project into an SD project. I'm not getting offered any other options than those:

White Knight:

While I understand your need for testing, you must understand that Media Composer has some very specific system requirements. If your virtual setup does not meet them, especially as it pertains to the choice of graphics card, you will most likely experience problems with video playback.

WhiteKnight:

I have installed AMC on a virtual machine because I'm evaluating the software. 2,000 Euros is not spent easily... And as you perhaps know, uninstalling such a big software package doesn't take place without trace and restraints. It's most save to evaluate software within a virtual machine.

Rather than running virtual machine, (because I know that's the first thing that any Avid tech support rep will tell you could be causing a potential issue) I would recommend you get another hard drive and install the OS and Avid trial on that.  If you boot into this extra drive then you are not running vitural machine and you're better able to evaluate the software without need for uninstalling or worrying about conflicts. 

As for switching to SD, you're project type doesn't have an SD counterpart, so you will have to use HD.  I would then recommend, Consolidating the footage you have in order to allow Avid to re-wrap the files as Avid media files (.mxf)

wats the point of evaluating if you run using the lowest performance? its like evaluating a ferrari and not knowing how to drive...how will u ever experience the full power?

The point is that I don't care about performance at this stage. I'm not interested in hardware-demanding software. I'm interested in getting results with the hardware I own or even less. There's no better way to evaluate things than using a virtual machine. On the host OS I cannot guarantee that AMC will always be the only software running. By evaluating within a virtual machine I can recreate the every day work on my host OS.

Plus, I will be able to extend my evaluation period until I know that I can achive my goals with AMC.

"...  There's no better way to evaluate things than using a virtual machine ..."

Unless it just doesn't work.

"... I can't play it back. Only every now and then a new clip image is displayed in the editor. And whenever I pause the clip, an exception is raised "Unable to stop SprngBuf's FillThread ..."

"... Now I get another exception: "DesktopSFConsumer::PlayStreamingFrame premature end of stream ..."

I'm just sayin'.