Actually, I have a couple of questions. First, I've noticed a few times where I parked the cursor on the green dot effect, hit the render button but after render is done, the green dot is still lit up. Even several renders didn't fix it. Any ideas here?

Next, I'm a little confused about how to get the best quality export of my video. Is transcoding from DNxHD145 to DNxHD220 the same as re-importing all clips at the higher resolution? Since I need to clear this project out, what master formats would you recommend? I made a 1:1 copy which was 42gigs for a 27 minute film. What else should I make?

Thanks!

Let's tackle the second part of your question first. Transcoding something that was imported as DNxHD 145 to DNxHD 220 is not the same thing as re-importing at DNxHD 220. While you've increased the bitrate, you've not actually gained anything (except losing space). If you need it at DNxHD 220, import and relink the sequence.

As to the first problem, what version MC are you using, and what's the format of the media (I'm presuming it's the aforementioned DNxHD 145)?

And regards to rendering:

this sometimes happens.

if it plays back in realtime, just ignore the problem.

sometimes deleting the effect and re-applying works.

worst case scenario: video mixdown of this portion of the timeline.

Thanks, Dave S.

I've probably asked this question before, but haven't done an up-rez in a while so I am a little nervous. I'd like to list out the steps I intend to follow and then maybe you could point out the mistakes?  Here goes:

1. Go to hard drive where all media is stored and change the name of the Avid Media file to something like "Hidden.Avid Media Files". Go into folder, delete two MSM files.

2. Open Media Composer, open the project, go to sequence, make duplicate, load timeline. All media should be offline.

3. Hit "Batch Import", selecting DNxHD220 as the format.

Not altogether sure about effx, titles, etc. How do I up-rez these to 220?  Will going through this process give me a better theatrical file and a better blu-ray? Just want to be sure I'm not wasting my time doing this.

Thanks for your help.

Maybe you should also make sure that the higher quality is there to begin with?

what camera/codec was the piece shot on?

Effects and titles are easy.

strg+5 for Media Creation settings, set render quality to DNx 220ish, titles too.

right click timeline ->Clear renders in/out -> render again -> coffee break

titles: clip menu -> recreate Title media

Shot with a Panasonic GH3 set to 1080P 30fps, .mov at 72mbps. Original clips look great to me, but its a bit subjective, I suppose. 8 bit color is probably the biggest limitation. I wanted to re-import all the clips to highest rez before attempting color correction on the show.

Thanks for your reply.

Even though its Youtube, you can get an idea here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ-XST8aO3s

Just trying to squeeze all the quality I can out of the original.  Thanks.

hmm, 72mbit .mp4 to 145 DNx sounds like an edge case.

220 might look a bit better, might be visually undetectable.

maybe try your most complicated shot, trees, water, import as higher res, eyeball for differences.

Staking 145 and 220 and adding difference effect can also be enlightening.

At 72mbs, you're using the all I-frame setting for H.264, so you're not going to get interpolated frames; each frame is encoded separately (which is about as good as the GH3 gets). But it's still just a 1920x1080 progressive image at 30fps. Unless you're pulling a lot of fast moves, or explosions etc., there may not be a great bit of difference going from DNxHD 145 to DNxHD 220. As Lukas says, import the most complex scene you do have in both codecs and see if you can find a noticeable difference (try zooming in on edge details).

For whether or not it really is rendering, make a change to a piece where the green dot isn't going away, and then change it back to what it was. Now re-render that piece and note the time on the computer. If the dot is still there, go to the Media tool, select the option for current project, and select the option for precomputes for rendered effects and deselect the rest. Look to see if it created media at the time you noted.