Archive for category Avid
Network Rendering with MetaFuze
Posted by Dylan in Avid, High Definition, RED, Video/TV on February 4th, 2010
Avid MetaFuze is a tool from Avid Technology that converts various video formats (most notably DPX and RED RAW) into native DNxHD media that can be used with Avid’s editing products. The product ships with two interfaces – a GUI for direct transcoding, and a command-line version more suitable for scripting.
A small number of modestly powered computers can be put to work transcoding media from a large pool in a shorter time. However this isn’t something that MetaFuze will handle natively and must be managed.
Networking
The most important part of distributing the transcoding over a number of network computers is making sure all the client computers have access to the source files.
To achieve this, the easiest thing is to create a network share on the ‘Master’ computer which contains all the source files for transcoding. Once the share is created, you can then map this to the same drive letter on all computers, which will ensure that file paths are consistent on all client computers.
In this case, we’ll assume that your local desktop PC (called ‘WORKER’) contains all the source files in E:\Video\REDMedia – create a network share for the E:\Video folder, which will then be accessible as \\WORKER\Video on the local network. On all computers (including your own desktop) you can then map that network location to the drive letter Z:
Job Setup
MetaFuze doesn’t natively provide any method for distributing job instructions to multiple machines. All transcode jobs are stored in a single file. To address this I’ve created a tool called BatchFuze Extactor which will take the XML project file from MetaFuze and split it into single files for each source file.
To create these job files simply follow the standard procedure for creating a transcode batch in MetaFuze, save the project, then open that project XML in BatchFuze Extractor and choose where to save the output files.
For the purposes of networking it is important that all file paths be accessible to all client computers, so even if the source files reside on a local drive on the computer that is running MetaFuze it is important that the source files be accessed with a network path. Following the basic sharing method above this would mean it’s important to location the files through the Z: drive.
If the files are to be rendered back to a network drive, it’s equally imporant that the target location for transcoded files also be available on all client computers. If you’re planning to render to the local client machines then the path must be valid on all client computers (create E:\Video\Transcoded on all rendering computers, for example).
Whatever file locations are shown in MetaFuze when you create the Transcode batch are the ones that will be referred to by the client computer when transcoding.
Distributing The Work
Once you have a collection of individual XML batch files you could simply roughly divide them on to the client computers, and get MetaFuze to process each batch in turn. This will require a simple batch file.
Alternatively I am currently developing an application to manage this process across a network. One computer operates a server, distributing the batch jobs, and the remaining computers run a client which communicates with the server, receives jobs and passes those jobs on to MetaFuze for processing.
This application is currently at a Beta stage, if you’re interested in testing it, please get in touch with me by email: batchfuze -AT- dylanreeve.com
Downconversion in Media Composer
Posted by Dylan in Avid, High Definition, Video/TV on December 6th, 2009
In a recent thread on the Avid Community Forums there was some discussion of the quality of Avid’s downconversion from HD to SD. I have used various downconvert methods from within Media Composer in the past and have never had any serious problems with any of the results, but I figured I might be able to conduct some vaguely reasonable tests. Read the rest of this entry »
Horses for Courses – Avid vs. FCP
I am an Avid editor really. I know Avid, I use it every day and I am totally at home with it. But I’m not afraid of FCP, I can operate it, feel pretty comfortable with it, but it’s not my ’safe place’ and I’m not as quick or effective.
But one big issue for me, not being as familiar with FCP as I am with Avid Media Composer, is where are the strengths and weaknesses of each system. What jobs suit which system best. So I’m appealing for feedback from those better acquainted with the two systems.
Avid editors who’ve switched to FCP, or vice versa, or even better people who are using both systems actively.
Supposing you have both Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro at your disposal, cost is not a factor, what jobs end up in what system? And why?
My overall impressions are that FCP is strongest overall in situations where you’re doing it all in one, capture, edit, finish and output. While Avid is much stronger for offline/online workflows. Also, I consider Avid a much stronger contender for multi-editor networked work, with Unity. While FCP requires a very careful approach in the same situation to avoid media management problems.
Where are the real traps? Anything that you think should be totally avoided in one system or another?
Have you shifted a regular job from one system to another? Why? What have been the pros and cons of that shift?
I’m keen to hear comments about this, but I’m not really interested in any comments that can’t at the least acknowledge that both systems have genuine strengths and benefits. Fan-boys need not apply. Would be good to know the type of work you’re doing, and what version or generation of each system you’re most familar with (ie. are you making your judgements based on Xpress DV from 2004?)
XDCAM EX Workflow in Avid
Posted by Dylan in Avid, High Definition, Video/TV on February 23rd, 2009
NOTE: Since this article was written Avid has introduced AMA into Media Composer (from version 3.5) which greatly simplifies the workflow with EX material. From Media Composer 3.5 onward working with XDCAM (SD, HD and EX) and P2 in Avid is incredibly simple and immediate.
I’m a fan of XDCAM EX. I like the format and think it offers great quality given it’s bitrate and cost. The cameras are good the SxS media is pretty decent. I have my general reservations and concerns about Solid-State recording, but assuming you have a reasonable process for managing backups you should be fine.
When EX first came out there was no EX support. It was added in Media Composer 3.0.5 I believe. Shortly after that happened Sony released version 2 of their Clip Browser software which had a ‘Avid AAF’ export function that made it a lot easier to get EX footage into Media Composer. Avid even posted a tutorial about the process.
Essentially this feature unwraps the MP4 XDCAM EX files and re-wraps them as MXF Op-Atom (Avid’s mediafile container) and places those files directly into one of Avid’s media directories (such as F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\2) and then creates an AAF file that contains a clip describing that shot (basically the easiest way to get the shots into a bin). This process is simple and reasonably quick and works fine… Or so I thought.
What is lacking in this process in Metadata control. When Clip Browser generates the MXF files it’s creating files that lack some of the metadata that Avid would normally use to relink a clip to media. Most obviously there is no Source or Disc Label associated with any of these clips. What this means is that Avid cannot relink this media. So if the Avid MXF file you create from Clip Browser is lost at all it cannot be relinked. Even going back to Clip Browser and re-exporting the same clip or clips to the same media directory will not create media that Avid will reassociate with existing clips or sequences.
Basically if you import clips this way you are absolutely locked in to those specific media files. No backup short of storing the actual files as they are created in the Avid MediaFiles directory will allow a recovery or relink.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is actually to use the older process. Using Clip Browsers ‘MXF for NLE’ export setting. This will create OP-1A MXF files that you can then import into Media Composer (the Avid will rewrap them as OP-Atom and relocate them to it’s media directory). It is a slower process, but as it’s a standard import process all the necessary Metadata will be stored with the clips to allow a Batch Import later.
Ideally this will soon not be necessary if Avid incorporates EX import directly into Media Composer, cutting out the Clip Browser middle-man.
Dylan’s Templater
Because I needed something to do the job, and I’ve been rediscovering Windows application programming, I created a simple application to make it easy to create Avid project templates.
It’s a pretty simplistic application, but seems to do the job, there’s more detail on the Dylan’s Templater page (linked above).