This IS the Avid L2: Re: [Avid-L2] Don't see MXF in ama plugin choices?

Friday, February 12, 2016

Re: [Avid-L2] Don't see MXF in ama plugin choices?

Maybe someone from Avid lurking can comment, but is it possible that the AMA plugins are cached for quicker startup? If you add or remove manually, it would have unpredictable results, as the program is not loading them directly but really from the cache, which has not been cleared. I know I have run into this with MacOSX, troubleshooting kernel extensions. Sometimes, manually removing the offending kext will not fix the problem, as you need to clear the kextcache or the OS will not even know it's gone. If there is an AMA plugin cache, then maybe something needs to be done for it to be force rebuilt. In your case, the plugin cache was not rebuilt initially, so the problem persisted, but when the cache was rebuilt later for some reason, the problem seemingly spontaneously fixed itself. Of course this is pure speculation and may be complete hogwash. Thanks for bringing another weird and puzzling, yet strangely entertaining issue to light.

On Thursday, February 11, 2016, bigfish@pacbell.net [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

In light of another thread today I went back to fix once again my missing mxf ama plugin choice. I found if I emptied the ama plugin folder and only put in the Avid auto installed mxf ama plugin it would show up. I added a few more of the existing ama plug ins and it still showed up. When I added the avid auto installed AS02 ama plugin the mxf choice in the ama plugin pulldown menu disappeared. This was repeatable several times.

I then uninstalled Avid and reinstalled after emptying the ama plugin folder. After reinstall which put the mxf and AS02 ama plugins back into the ama folder the mxf showed up. I then removed the newly reinstalled AS02 mxf ama plugin and put back in the previous problematic version of the AS02 ama plugin, both are the same version according to the file info. Now the original problematic AS02 ama plug in no longer nukes out the mxf choice in ama plugins. So WTF? Just when I thought I had narrowed it down it starts working again. If the past is still any indicator in a few weeks it will disappear again. The only thing common now is the actual Avid 6.5.4.7 installer.

This again falls into a category of computer voodoo. How does the file that just caused the problem repeatedly now behave? My brain is really starting to hurt. At least now it seems when it happens again if I just remove the AS02 ama plugin the mxf will reappear as a choice without a reinstall. Unfortunately if I need the AS02 plugin it seems only a reinstall lets the two coexist, at least for a while. Once again WTF if computers want to break why don't the stay broken or better yet just stay working?

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

That's what I did last time. The last time the correct one reinstalled automatically but now it's gone off the reservation again. All your points are valid they just don't apply here because I've been through this three times and each time I stripped the ama plugins folder bare and reinstalled and it started working. And by reinstall I let Avid install the mxf by itself on the install. Something seems to keep going south. I just don't notice it right away because I rarely use ama on my system where I have to force it to mxf manually. I'd like to think I've fixed it but I thought that the last two times so it's still a mystery. I compared the info dates on the mxf that had been working and the one in my backup folder and they were identical. Something is rotten in Cyber Denmark but it's really a subtle thing. I find it hard to believe I have the only system that this has happened to. I'm not that unique even if I think I am.

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

Some versions of MC (prior to some point) required you to download and install a MXF AMA plugin. Perhaps you have different versions of the MXF AMA plugin (one you download and one that gets installed automatically). You can only have one, so it's likely the one you had was the wrong version for that version of MC. By dumping it and reinstalling MC, it now has the right version of MXF plugin. That plugin is tricky - and it will not be overwritten if it's wrong. Diligent documenting for your folders is crucial if you want to run multiple MC versions, as you seem to do. Get it running on MC version x.y.z, then backup that AMA folder and name it accordingly.

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 11:56 PM, bigfish@... [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Just following up on this old thread as once again today I found the choice of mxf missing in the ama link autodetect pulldown menu. Don't know how long it's been gone as I don't use it except when I want to check and XDCam 50 export file.

I checked the ama folder and the mxf msp file was there. I replaced it with one I had saved into a protection folder and restarted Avid still no go for the mxf choice.

Once again I removed everything from the ama folder and then uninstalled and reinstalled Avid 6.5.4.7. Once done there was only the mxf msp and the AS 02 ama plugin in the ama folder and then Avid show mxf as a choice for ama linking. I dropped back in all my other ama plugins and everything is right again but it clearly is only a matter of time before this happens. I have run the same config on my home system. Mac OS 10.8.5 Avid 6.5.4.7 without this issue. WTF would make my work system drop the mxf choice in the pulldown menu seemingly arbitrarily when the mxf msp plugin clearly exists in the ama folder.

The only remedy has been a reinstall of avid but only after I've removed the existing mxf msp from the ama folder. It's like if it stays in there Avid doesn't reinstall it automatically. and Manually replacing it doesn't work either. It had been suggested to make a protection copy folder of all my ama plugins which I did but that doesn't seem to work in this case. Only a complete reinstall with a virgin ama plugin folder. Very annoying as this is the cleanest install I've had in years.

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

I found my mxf ama plugin choice missing again today after fixing this a couple weeks back. Today I first reinstalled Avid with no success. Then removed the existing msp_mxf ama plugin from the avx 2/ama folder and reinstalled and trash .avs, mc state and site settings still no good. Finally I removed everything from the ama plugin folder and reinstalled a third time then it came back. The Avid install gave me two items in the ama folder the msp_mxf and msp_ AS02. With just those two I had a choice of auto, mxf, avchd and quicktime for ama plugins. I then put back in the other ama plugins and everything is fine.

WTF is this going to be a weekly routine. I've had some Adobe updates and Apple Pro Video during the last time I fixed this. Could there be an interaction? The msp_mxf was in the folder but not being recognized. Anybody else see this?

---In avid-l2@yahoogroups.com, <bigfish@...> wrote :

I pulled the MSP MXF Plug-in out of the avx2/ama folder then uninstalled Avid and reinstalled and now I have mxf as a choice in the ama pulldown menu. I did confirm that a install did in fact install the msp mxf plugin. I wonder if the existing version in the ama folder was not allowing a new install. Weird given this is a fairly clean new install on the computer and I don't think it ever had pre 6.5 installed. Oh well now that this is working I'm checking the .mxf XDCam OP 1a file and finding the levels are off like it was expecting RGB but only got 601 levels. the setup is high and washed out and the peak white is low just like an RGB 601 miss match. I'll have to check the Adobe Media Encoder for more settings.

---In avid-l2@yahoogroups.com, <bigfish@...> wrote :

Here is the ama plugins installed:

ama_listplugins
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AMA PLUG-IN NAME COMPANY NAME VERSION
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AVCHD MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.2.6205
AVCHD MVP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.3.2.6205
QuickTime Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.2.2.7195
MSP_MXF Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.9.2.7195
MSP_SonyXDCAMEXMP4_64bit Sony Corporation 1.6003
MVP_CanonXF64 CANON INC. 2.0
MVP_MSP_ARRI_MXF © 2011-2012 Hamburg Pro M
AS-02 Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 1.1.1.7195
IkegamiGFCam Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 3.6
PanasonicP2 MVP_MSP Plug-In Avid Technology, Inc. 2.6
MVP_MSP_SonyF65Raw_64bit Sony Corporation 1.0
MVP_MSP_SonySRDeck_64bit Sony Corporation 2.1006
MVP_SonyXDCAMEX_64bit Sony Corporation 1.6003
SonyXDCAM_64bit Sony Corporation 2.3305

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

I've been asked to bake an XDCAM 50 OP 1a file. I've done this out of Avid on my home system but at work I decided to try Adobe Media Encoder. I baked a file and now I want to check it in Avid. The problem is in my experience I have to manually select the MXF plugin in order to ama link to an XDCAM 50 mxf file. On my work system I don't see MXF as a choice in the ama plugins pulldown menu. I've reinstalled Sony XDCAM 2.33 on my MacPro 12 core OS 10.8.5 SNDX ver. 6.5.4.7 but still don't see MXF as a choice. I listed the ama plugins in the console and I see MSP_MXF Plug-in Avid Technology, Inc 1.9.2.7195. It is my understanding that as of 6.5.0.1 the MXF ama plugin is automatically installed so there is no reason to download an ama plugin for mxf.

I remember there were some ama plugins that relied on the presence of other ama plugins. Perhaps it was Canon needed the AVC HD or some such thing. At any rate what must I be missing to not see MXF in the ama plugin list of choices?

John Moore Barking Trout Productions Studio City, CA bigfish@...