Saturday, August 22, 2015

RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 

What you are saying makes sense about adding a tape name but that is not supposed to be needed in XD Direct's batch import workflow.  They also have a "batch capture" mode which adds tape names to the material as part of the ingest automatically.  But the "Batch Capture" workflow is for when you have one of the XD Cam decks and end up capturing with deck control like we would have with tape.

Clearly there is something we are doing wrong or there is some aspect of Ver. 6.5.4 that is problematic.  I wonder if there is anything with the ama preference about legacy XDCam support being checked or not that might interfere with this process.  I'm pretty sure the AEs tried working with both choices and still could not get a proper decompose.

When you say, "You can decompose xdcam clips fine.  Avid treats it just like it would a tape." does that mean I can AMA link to an XDCam disk then transcode to an offline SD resolution.  Edit in the SD offline 23.976 project and then take the sequence into an HD project, modify the format to HD, and then decompose to end up with the shorter clips with handles?  Assuming all that is correct then for uprezzing I would think I could ama link to the original XDCam and relink the sequence and then transcode with handles.  In this scenario it seems like I wouldn't even need to decompose first as I could transcode with handles.  The fact that you say, "Avid treats it like tape." is what I've been under the impression of from all I've heard the past few years.  The one difference is that there is no tape name on the XD Cam clips right?  And I've been under the impression that adding a tape name to the XDCam clips will defeat the ability to batch import later.

Have I misunderstood about the ability of XDCam to selectively import just the sections used from an XD Cam with handles?  Perhaps I've confused this with transcoding a relinked sequence with handles?  I remember early on with XDCam the selective clip import was painfully slow but I thought that was ironed out years ago.  Am I wrong about that?

Unfortunately I have not worked on many projects that shot XDCam and those I have the uprezzing was done by AEs and I didn't have any dealings with the exact uprezzing of the material.




---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <kwikpasta@...> wrote :

You can decompose xdcam clips fine.  Avid treats it just like it would a tape.  Decompose captured and imported or just imported and you will get clips that relate to your sequence and not the entire master clip.  Like I said, I've seen this problem happen before (and coincidence or not, it was also in 6.5.4) and the way to fix it so you don't decompose and just get full length clips is to show reference clips on your sequence before decomposing and add a tape name.  Then decompose and you should only get short clips which relate to the sequence. 

Andi



To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:01:11 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Honestly I missed that part of your post or forgot about it because according to the rental house specialist you can decompose then using there "batch import" workflow.  This was demonstrated to the AEs in a demo but now back at our production house they can't seem to get it to work.

My limited experience/knowledge with XDCam material is that it was one of the first formats that truly allowed for a proper workflow that would not import entire clips so I'm surprise Avid isn't decomposing those clips.  I know Avid use to decompose with handles standard imports and that would screw them up.  Now I'm not sure if Avid is protecting us from that kind of screw up that had been allowed in the past.

I'm pretty sure we've done something wrong in setting up the XD Direct settings or there is something about our Avid settings that can be fixed.  I can't imagine the rental house would be unaware of this major problem.  I do know they said to decompose the sequence before batch importing.  I would have thought it would have been an ama linking to the master material and relinking the sequence to that and then a transcode with handles but more will be revealed and I'll post what the solution is.



---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <kwikpasta@...> wrote :

John, did you read my previous email where I mentioned this problem?  Adding a tape name to the reference clips will allow you to decompose without it trying to do the entire clip.

Andi




To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:55:59 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Another thing came up with our testing  of XD direct.  After ingesting some test XD Cams the AEs cut a small sequence and no matter what we've done Avid 6.5.4 wants to batch import the entire XD Cam clips not just the sections that were used with handles.

We tried decomposing the sequences, which scared me but was recommended by the rental house as the proper workflow, and when we tried to decompose Avid just created decompose clips that are the length of the entire original XD Cam clips.

We tried decomposing both captured and imported clips and got the above result.  We tried decomposing only imported clips and got the same result and when we tried decomposing only captured clips no clips were created.  So clearly Avid knows these clips are imports.

Traditionally decomposing imports is a no no but Avid would allow you to do it.  Now I don't know if our inability to decompose these clips with handles is an Avid thing where is trying to protect us from screwing up or if there is something about the XD Direct that is prohibiting a traditional decompose of the XD Direct clips.  I'm figuring it's something we are missing either in XD Direct settings or an Avid setting we haven't found yet.

I was thinking that the XD Direct SD 23.976 clips for offline would allow for an uprez that would just be ama linking to the XDCam master disk and the online sequence would just come online or perhaps require a relink to selected clips in open bins.  Then we could do this for each disk needed and transcode with handles to make the online rez clips.  I'm not sure if that will work as the suggestion is a batch import after decomposing the online sequence and that does not appear to be cooperating at this point.  I'm sure with the proper guidance from the rental house we will sort it out.

__._,_.___

Posted by: bigfish@pacbell.net
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this is the Avid-L2

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RE: [Avid-L2] problems transcoding GH4 4K footage

 

This sounds a lot like the problem we used to have transcoding GoPro h.264's on version 6.5.  Similar scenario - very short clips would make it through but longer clips would crash out and I'm pretty sure it was the same error message that I used to get to.  A point update fixed the issue for us although it was still very slow.

Avid seems to really hate h.264 material.  I've had some success transcoding problem clips in the background rather than using foreground transcode.  If that fails, I just go to Resolve.

Andi 


To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:34:57 -0700
Subject: Re: [Avid-L2] problems transcoding GH4 4K footage

 



On 2015-08-22 11:13 AM, Job ter Burg (L2B) wrote:

I hate to say this, but you do realize you are trying to get this 4K thing to work on a machine that is 9 years old technology, right?

AMA'd GH4 4K footage (3840x2160p23.98) very troublesome  

Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon,

This is a Westemere machine, from mid-2010, so more like top-of-the-line Mac from 5 years ago, unless I'm misunderstanding you.  Multi-core benchmark is I think comparable to the 8-core trashcan Mac.

It copes with transcoding Epic R3D files from 4K and 5K, and likewise can handle F55 4K footage.  It is specifically the GH4 that bogs it down, and it's not like H.264 quicktimes are a new-fangled file format.

Do you have a setup that handles the GH4 4K successfully? 

I have an 27" 3.5GHz quad-core i7 iMac, and could load it with MC 8.x.  That would certainly be a newer setup, but apart from it's video card it benchmarks lower than the Westmere, and it has less RAM. 

Suggestions appreciated,
--Michael

__._,_.___

Posted by: Andi Meek <kwikpasta@hotmail.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

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RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 

You can decompose xdcam clips fine.  Avid treats it just like it would a tape.  Decompose captured and imported or just imported and you will get clips that relate to your sequence and not the entire master clip.  Like I said, I've seen this problem happen before (and coincidence or not, it was also in 6.5.4) and the way to fix it so you don't decompose and just get full length clips is to show reference clips on your sequence before decomposing and add a tape name.  Then decompose and you should only get short clips which relate to the sequence. 

Andi



To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:01:11 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Honestly I missed that part of your post or forgot about it because according to the rental house specialist you can decompose then using there "batch import" workflow.  This was demonstrated to the AEs in a demo but now back at our production house they can't seem to get it to work.

My limited experience/knowledge with XDCam material is that it was one of the first formats that truly allowed for a proper workflow that would not import entire clips so I'm surprise Avid isn't decomposing those clips.  I know Avid use to decompose with handles standard imports and that would screw them up.  Now I'm not sure if Avid is protecting us from that kind of screw up that had been allowed in the past.

I'm pretty sure we've done something wrong in setting up the XD Direct settings or there is something about our Avid settings that can be fixed.  I can't imagine the rental house would be unaware of this major problem.  I do know they said to decompose the sequence before batch importing.  I would have thought it would have been an ama linking to the master material and relinking the sequence to that and then a transcode with handles but more will be revealed and I'll post what the solution is.



---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <kwikpasta@...> wrote :

John, did you read my previous email where I mentioned this problem?  Adding a tape name to the reference clips will allow you to decompose without it trying to do the entire clip.

Andi




To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:55:59 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Another thing came up with our testing  of XD direct.  After ingesting some test XD Cams the AEs cut a small sequence and no matter what we've done Avid 6.5.4 wants to batch import the entire XD Cam clips not just the sections that were used with handles.

We tried decomposing the sequences, which scared me but was recommended by the rental house as the proper workflow, and when we tried to decompose Avid just created decompose clips that are the length of the entire original XD Cam clips.

We tried decomposing both captured and imported clips and got the above result.  We tried decomposing only imported clips and got the same result and when we tried decomposing only captured clips no clips were created.  So clearly Avid knows these clips are imports.

Traditionally decomposing imports is a no no but Avid would allow you to do it.  Now I don't know if our inability to decompose these clips with handles is an Avid thing where is trying to protect us from screwing up or if there is something about the XD Direct that is prohibiting a traditional decompose of the XD Direct clips.  I'm figuring it's something we are missing either in XD Direct settings or an Avid setting we haven't found yet.

I was thinking that the XD Direct SD 23.976 clips for offline would allow for an uprez that would just be ama linking to the XDCam master disk and the online sequence would just come online or perhaps require a relink to selected clips in open bins.  Then we could do this for each disk needed and transcode with handles to make the online rez clips.  I'm not sure if that will work as the suggestion is a batch import after decomposing the online sequence and that does not appear to be cooperating at this point.  I'm sure with the proper guidance from the rental house we will sort it out.

__._,_.___

Posted by: Andi Meek <kwikpasta@hotmail.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

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Re: [Avid-L2] problems transcoding GH4 4K footage

 



On 2015-08-22 11:13 AM, Job ter Burg (L2B) wrote:

I hate to say this, but you do realize you are trying to get this 4K thing to work on a machine that is 9 years old technology, right?

AMA'd GH4 4K footage (3840x2160p23.98) very troublesome  

Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon,

This is a Westemere machine, from mid-2010, so more like top-of-the-line Mac from 5 years ago, unless I'm misunderstanding you.  Multi-core benchmark is I think comparable to the 8-core trashcan Mac.

It copes with transcoding Epic R3D files from 4K and 5K, and likewise can handle F55 4K footage.  It is specifically the GH4 that bogs it down, and it's not like H.264 quicktimes are a new-fangled file format.

Do you have a setup that handles the GH4 4K successfully? 

I have an 27" 3.5GHz quad-core i7 iMac, and could load it with MC 8.x.  That would certainly be a newer setup, but apart from it's video card it benchmarks lower than the Westmere, and it has less RAM. 

Suggestions appreciated,
--Michael

__._,_.___

Posted by: Michael Brockington <mbrock321@gmail.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

.

__,_._,___

RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 

Honestly I missed that part of your post or forgot about it because according to the rental house specialist you can decompose then using there "batch import" workflow.  This was demonstrated to the AEs in a demo but now back at our production house they can't seem to get it to work.

My limited experience/knowledge with XDCam material is that it was one of the first formats that truly allowed for a proper workflow that would not import entire clips so I'm surprise Avid isn't decomposing those clips.  I know Avid use to decompose with handles standard imports and that would screw them up.  Now I'm not sure if Avid is protecting us from that kind of screw up that had been allowed in the past.

I'm pretty sure we've done something wrong in setting up the XD Direct settings or there is something about our Avid settings that can be fixed.  I can't imagine the rental house would be unaware of this major problem.  I do know they said to decompose the sequence before batch importing.  I would have thought it would have been an ama linking to the master material and relinking the sequence to that and then a transcode with handles but more will be revealed and I'll post what the solution is.



---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <kwikpasta@...> wrote :

John, did you read my previous email where I mentioned this problem?  Adding a tape name to the reference clips will allow you to decompose without it trying to do the entire clip.

Andi




To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:55:59 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Another thing came up with our testing  of XD direct.  After ingesting some test XD Cams the AEs cut a small sequence and no matter what we've done Avid 6.5.4 wants to batch import the entire XD Cam clips not just the sections that were used with handles.

We tried decomposing the sequences, which scared me but was recommended by the rental house as the proper workflow, and when we tried to decompose Avid just created decompose clips that are the length of the entire original XD Cam clips.

We tried decomposing both captured and imported clips and got the above result.  We tried decomposing only imported clips and got the same result and when we tried decomposing only captured clips no clips were created.  So clearly Avid knows these clips are imports.

Traditionally decomposing imports is a no no but Avid would allow you to do it.  Now I don't know if our inability to decompose these clips with handles is an Avid thing where is trying to protect us from screwing up or if there is something about the XD Direct that is prohibiting a traditional decompose of the XD Direct clips.  I'm figuring it's something we are missing either in XD Direct settings or an Avid setting we haven't found yet.

I was thinking that the XD Direct SD 23.976 clips for offline would allow for an uprez that would just be ama linking to the XDCam master disk and the online sequence would just come online or perhaps require a relink to selected clips in open bins.  Then we could do this for each disk needed and transcode with handles to make the online rez clips.  I'm not sure if that will work as the suggestion is a batch import after decomposing the online sequence and that does not appear to be cooperating at this point.  I'm sure with the proper guidance from the rental house we will sort it out.

__._,_.___

Posted by: bigfish@pacbell.net
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this is the Avid-L2

.

__,_._,___

Re: [Avid-L2] problems transcoding GH4 4K footage

 


I hate to say this, but you do realize you are trying to get this 4K thing to work on a machine that is 9 years old technology, right?

AMA'd GH4 4K footage (3840x2160p23.98) very troublesome  

Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon, 

__._,_.___

Posted by: "Job ter Burg (L2B)" <Job_L2@terburg.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

.

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[Avid-L2] Avid Forums down

 

The Avid Pro Video Community Forums are currently down. Avid is aware and working on it. If you try to access the community.avid.com site it won't load and you'll get an error message. Pro Audio Community and Sibelius Community are not affected.

- Oliver

__._,_.___

Posted by: Oliver Peters <oliverpeters@oliverpeters.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

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[Avid-L2] problems transcoding GH4 4K footage

 

I'm finding AMA'd GH4 4K footage (3840x2160p23.98) very troublesome to transcode in a Mac MC 7.0.4.  Are other people having more success with this?

The actual video files are H.264 quicktimes (@ 100 Mbps, I believe), so AMA can link them fine, although they seem to put a huge demand on memory.

When I try to transcode these files to Dnx36, the process typically fails quickly, typical error:
      "Exception: AMAProducerTask::Execute: AMA Plug-in Unable to Provide Sample"

  I have a bin with say 24 clips for a total of about 9 minutes of footage.  When transcoding an assembled sequence, it gets through one 35 second clip before the error comes up.  If I select multiple clips in the bin (3 clips say), and try to transcode, it will again error out after transcoding at most 1 clip.

Transcode settings have compatibility 'on' to bake in the HD framesize, colour transformations unchecked to leave them live (although these clips have no LUTs applied in any case.)

If you are able to transcode clips like this successfully, I'd be curious what software version and machine you're using.  If you're using a different application to transcode this type of footage, again, would be curious about your workflow.

Thanks,
--Michael

System specs:
Media Composer 7.0.4, Symphony option, Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon, 24 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB, OS 10.9.2

__._,_.___

Posted by: Michael Brockington <mbrock321@gmail.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

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__,_._,___

RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 

John, did you read my previous email where I mentioned this problem?  Adding a tape name to the reference clips will allow you to decompose without it trying to do the entire clip.

Andi




To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:55:59 -0700
Subject: RE: [Avid-L2] Anybody using or familiar with XD Direct for mass ingest of XDCam material?

 
Another thing came up with our testing  of XD direct.  After ingesting some test XD Cams the AEs cut a small sequence and no matter what we've done Avid 6.5.4 wants to batch import the entire XD Cam clips not just the sections that were used with handles.

We tried decomposing the sequences, which scared me but was recommended by the rental house as the proper workflow, and when we tried to decompose Avid just created decompose clips that are the length of the entire original XD Cam clips.

We tried decomposing both captured and imported clips and got the above result.  We tried decomposing only imported clips and got the same result and when we tried decomposing only captured clips no clips were created.  So clearly Avid knows these clips are imports.

Traditionally decomposing imports is a no no but Avid would allow you to do it.  Now I don't know if our inability to decompose these clips with handles is an Avid thing where is trying to protect us from screwing up or if there is something about the XD Direct that is prohibiting a traditional decompose of the XD Direct clips.  I'm figuring it's something we are missing either in XD Direct settings or an Avid setting we haven't found yet.

I was thinking that the XD Direct SD 23.976 clips for offline would allow for an uprez that would just be ama linking to the XDCam master disk and the online sequence would just come online or perhaps require a relink to selected clips in open bins.  Then we could do this for each disk needed and transcode with handles to make the online rez clips.  I'm not sure if that will work as the suggestion is a batch import after decomposing the online sequence and that does not appear to be cooperating at this point.  I'm sure with the proper guidance from the rental house we will sort it out.

__._,_.___

Posted by: Andi Meek <kwikpasta@hotmail.com>
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this is the Avid-L2

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Re: [Avid-L2] My movie is finally coming out!

 

Hi Steve,

It's getting some good word-of-mouth here in Baltimore.  I was invited to a view War Room as part of a group.

Good luck,



Paul Sulsky


From: "Steve Hullfish Steve@veralith.com [Avid-L2]" <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com>
To: "Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com [Avid-L2]" <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 6:33:30 PM
Subject: [Avid-L2] My movie is finally coming out!

 

For those not saturated from my Facebook or Twitter account:


I was on the red carpet for the premiere of "War Room" in Atlanta last night.

I started editing this movie on-set in June and July of last year. Then transitioned to cutting with the director for the next 7 months, through February. We used two brand new iMacs running v7 MC with matching RAIDs using transcoded media from Resolve.

"War Room" is being released by Sony/Tristar around the country August 28th. I hope you can check it out. We're obviously looking for a big opening weekend. See if you can spot more than the main "Editor" credit for me!

I hope to write up a workflow for the movie for provideocoalition.com soon. I need to get with the DIT and the on-line house to wrap up both ends of the workflow with particulars.

Steve Hullfish


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Posted by: paulsulsky@comcast.net
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this is the Avid-L2

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Re: [Avid-L2] 30i Ntsc footage to 1080p25 - advice needed

 

I take it you are mixing it with other 25 fps material?
Otherwise, just deinterlace and make a 30 fps DCP
Next, if it's SD material, your quality will suck big time compared to the rest. Either don't care as it is 'archive' material,
of do care, but in that case use a high quality standards conversion on the source material. Input I for better motion prediction, deinterlace the uprezzed footage.
(Uprezzing is also something that can be done in a huge amount of ways, depending on the kind of footage you choose one.)
You probably want to outsource this. I have not yet seen a a good and affordable software product to do this.
 
Of course the best way to do it is to slomo it a bit so you have a 1 : 1 frame relation. (Avid can nowadays do so without problems)
Then, you need to compensate your sound (pitch shift the speed change).
But it highly depends on the content if you will get away with this.
 
hth,
 
Bouke
 
VideoToolShed
van Oldenbarneveltstraat 33
6512 AS  NIJMEGEN, the Netherlands
+31 24 3553311
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2015 10:53 AM
Subject: [Avid-L2] 30i Ntsc footage to 1080p25 - advice needed

 

Advise needed.

I have som 30i NTSC MJpeg (.avi container, I believe it is lower field dominance) footage and I need the footage in a 1080p25 project.
What would you suggest is the best way to handle the footage within Avid. 


My best result so far is the following, but I am a bit unsure if I treat the frame conversion and deinterlacing the best way.


- amalinking in a 1080p30, adjusting the source settings to correct the aspect, applied lower field dominance. Transcoded.
copied the bin into my 1080p25 project, added the clip to a sequence, promoted the motion effect, applied source to interlaced and output to progressive. 


I do not plan to online this particular footage in the end and I would prefer not to make new master clips before ingesting into Avid - here by meant an ordinary framerate conversion and a proper deinterlace. This is due the quality of the footage, the amount of it, and as usual the economy of the feature.
The end product is a feature documentary on DCP (25fps).

I hope some of you can guide me wether I am on the right path, or if I should compl etely rethink the process.


Thanks 


Tina Hedegaard | Post supervisor | Postyr Postproduction, Denmark

Avid Mc 8.3.1, Mac os x 10.9.5




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This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
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Posted by: "Edit B" <bouke@editb.nl>
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this is the Avid-L2

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