David, I wanted to clarify your message #187 where you say "MDEA uses QuickTime native video files, which are easily used by many other software titles... Avid can also export to QT, but... the time to translate... and the resultant quality was not inspiring..."
It's true that if you export from Avid's proprietary (hardware compressed) M-JPEG compressed files to QT using one of Apple's standard QT codecs (such as Cinepak or Photo-JPEG) it is slow to export, there is a quality loss, and it's slow to re-import when returning your video from the other software (such as Adobe After Effects).
As you correctly state, MDEA's (hardware compressed) proprietary file format is "QT native" and they are indeed easily used by many other software titles. An export from MDEA to QT is basically a file copy, as there is no decompression from MDEA's codec and recompression to another QT codec. Thus, it's quick, and there's no quality loss.
You seem to be unaware of the "Avid QT Codec" which has for over a year shipped with all Avid Media Composers, and is available from Avid at no charge. This allows one to export from an Avid to QT as a file copy, with no decompression and recompression, just as with MDEA. It's just as quick, and there is zero quality loss exporting and re-importing. This speed and quality makes the Avid QT codec the ONLY good choice for QT export from an Avid.
Also there is one huge advantage over MDEA -- Avid's QT codec is software based, while MDEA's is hardware based.
When you digitize from videotape into an Avid, you are using the Avid hardware to compress the video into an Avid proprietary file format which is written to disk. When you export with the Avid QT codec you copy the proprietary file to disk with a Quicktime "wrapper", which you give to another graphics application (ie. Adobe After Effects). AE can then use the (free) Avid QT codec to decompress the video using software, running on any Macintosh, with no need for Avid hardware. AE can then process the video, write it back to disk, and then send it back to the Avid for further editing.
When you digitize from videotape into a Media 100, you are using the MDEA hardware to compress the video into a MDEA proprietary file format, which is written to disk. When you export QT from the Media 100, the MDEA codec requires the Media 100 hardware to decompress the video before the graphics application can "see" it. After the graphics application processes the video, it again must use the Media 100 hardware to compress it & write it to disk again so the Media 100 can re-import it.
Thus, with the Avid codec, ANY Macintosh (even a PowerBook) can read, process, & write (native) Avid QuickTime.
With the Media 100 codec, a Media 100 (Mac w. Media 100 hardware) is needed to read, process & write (native) Media 100 QuickTime.
I hope this clarifies the QuickTime situation.
BTW, I have been following your posts on the AVID & MDEA threads with interest, & look forward to your future thoughts. I own many Media 100 systems as well as many Avid systems. |
