Apparently, you know what you are talking about and must have many years of experience. When you can, you could do a tutorial on how to work with SRT subtitle files. In other editing programs it is very easy, but it seems from the comments I have heard that it is very difficult in Avid. greetings
Hi @juanlagos2125 honestly I have never worked with SRT files in Avid; the only projects I've dealt with them at all on were in the distribution stage with the film already locked and the SRT files created in a separate program for the distributor. If I have a moment at some point in the future to play around with SRT in Avid and feel like I have anything useful to share about it I'll do so but no idea when that would be, if ever. It's just not something I've had to deal with, working mostly on the creative editing side in indie world where we're still figuring out the story and haven't been worrying about subtitles.
Depends specifically what they're asking for. If it's an MP4 you can set the bitrate so match their request. For ProRes or DNx families, the various flavors will have specific bitrates so choose the one that best matches their specs. ProRes 422 is pretty common as it yields VERY high quality but not as massive files as 444
@@filmprofmark Thank you for your answer. I have an older version of avid -not the one you use in this video- and I can't find how to change the overall bitrate (that's festival's definition, they want it at 3 Mbps), only the sound bitrate is placed in sound settings, on export as qt mov window .Is there any other place I sould check or is perhaps another definition used for it on Avid?
Good question. If file size isn't an issue then just go high; if you're trying to keep it relatively small you may need to do some tests (export like 5 second clips in some different bit rates) to see what quality level vs. file size you're comfortable with for the particular use (i.e. sending someone a very rough cut of something for story feedback doesn't need to look as good as the finished version of something). If you want an actual calculation, you can do math on these to determine a bitrate, particularly if you're trying to hit a specific file size, for instance for upload to Vimeo or somewhere else where you may have size/total upload limits depending on your plan, or you want something a particular size to be relatively easily downloadable. (This is an issue we used to have to deal with all the time in making DVDs and Blu-rays - you know how much space you have for the video and want to maximize bitrate within that). The math is easy to work out, but short version is if you have a video that's M minutes long and want it the final file to be no larger than X (in MB), do X*133/M and you'll get the maximum possible bitrate in kbps. (in reality you'll need the bitrate to be slightly lower to accommodate the audio, but that gets you in the right ballpark)
not sure what you mean @juanlagos2125 - you can adjust the bitrate in the export settings for any export on either Avid or Premiere. You can even use a variable bitrate to achieve a desired total file size so that static scenes/shots use less data, saving more for the busier / faster-changing points in the film. Calculation is still the same for the average bit rate, just in that case some sections of the video will be encoded with a higher bitrate than the average and some with a lower one.
Amazing, amazing explanation! But what's the _purpose_ of having a choice of containers? Is it just to force a particular 3-letter extension on a file? Is it to signal which video player software should (might?) be able to play it?
In the case of just plain audio/video media, largely the latter; your computer uses file extensions to know which program should be used to open a particular file (you can change the extension without changing anything about the file, and it would still open properly in the correct program if you forced it to, but by default would try to open in some other program). There are some differences in how the containers function in terms of what metadata is in them and how they're coded, but more or less if you export (for instance) a H.264 video file as an MOV or as an MP4, it's essentially the same video data though perhaps wrapped a little differently. But if you wanted, say, a video in DNxHD or ProRes codec you can't export that in the MP4 form because those codecs aren't supported by that wrapper. (though I would bet - but haven't tried it - if you exported that as MOV, then changed the extension to .mp4, then tried to open in VLC it would still figure out what was in there and play it). Of course, not all the export options are the same thing or can do the same thing - for instance an AAF can conatin audio and video but is not a "movie" in the same way as an MOV or MP4 export, it's like a bunch of separate clips and data about how to put them together. So that's also part of why there are different export options, because there are different types of things you need to export. But my main message here was that the "container" you put it in doesn't really tell you much about what's INSIDE the container. Heck, an .mov (Quicktime) wrapper could include audio and video, or just video, or just audio... and any of those in a variety of codecs, some of which Quicktime player will natively handle and some it won't.
Hello! I can't read video saved in DNxHR codec. I want to output my work in this codec with preserving high quality, but my player says that the file is encoded. I think you mentioned this problem. Could you help me? What do I need to upload or download to get the video to play?
You'd need to download and install the right codecs on any computer where you're trying to play them outside an editor (like in QT for example). Here's a link, current as of Sept 2023: avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE But note this will only impact the specific computer you download them on, still doesn't mean if you send that file the person on the other end can easily read it. DNx family is really an "intermediate codec" family designed for WHILE working in post more than for final output / archive. I'd suggest something more universally playable like high-quality H.264 or H.265 for sending to people, or if you really want to keep a massive file size and max possible quality Apple ProRes family can upload to YT or Vimeo and share that way (though then it goes through their compression/transcoding too and who knows what comes out the other side).
Apparently, you know what you are talking about and must have many years of experience. When you can, you could do a tutorial on how to work with SRT subtitle files. In other editing programs it is very easy, but it seems from the comments I have heard that it is very difficult in Avid. greetings
Hi @juanlagos2125 honestly I have never worked with SRT files in Avid; the only projects I've dealt with them at all on were in the distribution stage with the film already locked and the SRT files created in a separate program for the distributor. If I have a moment at some point in the future to play around with SRT in Avid and feel like I have anything useful to share about it I'll do so but no idea when that would be, if ever. It's just not something I've had to deal with, working mostly on the creative editing side in indie world where we're still figuring out the story and haven't been worrying about subtitles.
Great analysis! I have a question some festivals demand specific overall bitrate. Witch one is this?
Depends specifically what they're asking for. If it's an MP4 you can set the bitrate so match their request. For ProRes or DNx families, the various flavors will have specific bitrates so choose the one that best matches their specs. ProRes 422 is pretty common as it yields VERY high quality but not as massive files as 444
@@filmprofmark Thank you for your answer. I have an older version of avid -not the one you use in this video- and I can't find how to change the overall bitrate (that's festival's definition, they want it at 3 Mbps), only the sound bitrate is placed in sound settings, on export as qt mov window .Is there any other place I sould check or is perhaps another definition used for it on Avid?
Hello, and how is the target bitrate calculated for longer projects?
Good question. If file size isn't an issue then just go high; if you're trying to keep it relatively small you may need to do some tests (export like 5 second clips in some different bit rates) to see what quality level vs. file size you're comfortable with for the particular use (i.e. sending someone a very rough cut of something for story feedback doesn't need to look as good as the finished version of something).
If you want an actual calculation, you can do math on these to determine a bitrate, particularly if you're trying to hit a specific file size, for instance for upload to Vimeo or somewhere else where you may have size/total upload limits depending on your plan, or you want something a particular size to be relatively easily downloadable. (This is an issue we used to have to deal with all the time in making DVDs and Blu-rays - you know how much space you have for the video and want to maximize bitrate within that).
The math is easy to work out, but short version is if you have a video that's M minutes long and want it the final file to be no larger than X (in MB), do X*133/M and you'll get the maximum possible bitrate in kbps. (in reality you'll need the bitrate to be slightly lower to accommodate the audio, but that gets you in the right ballpark)
And wouldn't it be better to adjust the bitrate in the final export as Adobe Premier or Avid doesn't have that option?@@filmprofmark
not sure what you mean @juanlagos2125 - you can adjust the bitrate in the export settings for any export on either Avid or Premiere. You can even use a variable bitrate to achieve a desired total file size so that static scenes/shots use less data, saving more for the busier / faster-changing points in the film. Calculation is still the same for the average bit rate, just in that case some sections of the video will be encoded with a higher bitrate than the average and some with a lower one.
Amazing, amazing explanation! But what's the _purpose_ of having a choice of containers? Is it just to force a particular 3-letter extension on a file? Is it to signal which video player software should (might?) be able to play it?
In the case of just plain audio/video media, largely the latter; your computer uses file extensions to know which program should be used to open a particular file (you can change the extension without changing anything about the file, and it would still open properly in the correct program if you forced it to, but by default would try to open in some other program).
There are some differences in how the containers function in terms of what metadata is in them and how they're coded, but more or less if you export (for instance) a H.264 video file as an MOV or as an MP4, it's essentially the same video data though perhaps wrapped a little differently. But if you wanted, say, a video in DNxHD or ProRes codec you can't export that in the MP4 form because those codecs aren't supported by that wrapper. (though I would bet - but haven't tried it - if you exported that as MOV, then changed the extension to .mp4, then tried to open in VLC it would still figure out what was in there and play it).
Of course, not all the export options are the same thing or can do the same thing - for instance an AAF can conatin audio and video but is not a "movie" in the same way as an MOV or MP4 export, it's like a bunch of separate clips and data about how to put them together. So that's also part of why there are different export options, because there are different types of things you need to export.
But my main message here was that the "container" you put it in doesn't really tell you much about what's INSIDE the container. Heck, an .mov (Quicktime) wrapper could include audio and video, or just video, or just audio... and any of those in a variety of codecs, some of which Quicktime player will natively handle and some it won't.
Hello! I can't read video saved in DNxHR codec. I want to output my work in this codec with preserving high quality, but my player says that the file is encoded. I think you mentioned this problem. Could you help me? What do I need to upload or download to get the video to play?
You'd need to download and install the right codecs on any computer where you're trying to play them outside an editor (like in QT for example). Here's a link, current as of Sept 2023: avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE
But note this will only impact the specific computer you download them on, still doesn't mean if you send that file the person on the other end can easily read it. DNx family is really an "intermediate codec" family designed for WHILE working in post more than for final output / archive. I'd suggest something more universally playable like high-quality H.264 or H.265 for sending to people, or if you really want to keep a massive file size and max possible quality Apple ProRes family can upload to YT or Vimeo and share that way (though then it goes through their compression/transcoding too and who knows what comes out the other side).
ok.