Hi there,
I've been exporting mxf clips from a Sony EX1 and then importing them into Avid Media Composer for years... always worked well and happened pretty fast.
But I have an hour-long clip (an interview) shot with my new Sony PMW-200, and it's taking forever to import into Avid (v.6.2) Does anyone have any suggestions?

A bit more info, in case it pertains:
I first exported the clip (MPEG2 HD Long 35Mbps) from my SxS card to a hard drive (attached to my MacBook Pro, which has an ExpressCard slot). I did what I've always done before, which is to export: MXF for NLEs...

The export (this is using Sony's Content Browser) happens very quickly (faster than it used to with my EX1 clips), but, as I've said, the import of this clip into Avid doesn't seem to want to happen.

There are some others settings I can use to export the PMW-200 clips (using Content Browser). The full list is:
MXF for NLEs...
MXF for XDCAM HD
MXF for XDCAM HD422

Would one of those work better? Or... any other suggestions? How is it that something that used to happen so nicely isn't working anymore?
Thanks for any advice... Malcolm

Don't import it. Instead copy the full contents of the card (bpav folder) into a folder on your hard drive and do an "AMA link to volume". You can edit away with the AMA files or you can consolidate them into the media library. You will need to create a folder for each card on your hard drive. You can not combine contents of multiple BPAV folders together.

How I do it is create a folder for the project then a RAW video folder under that. If I shoot multiple cards I'll normally name the folders with the shoot date and card number.

Project Name > RAW Video > 01-20-13 - Card 01

You select the RAW Video folder when you open the dialog box for "AMA Link to Volume". Avid will link to all video files in the subfolders. You can have it bring everything into a single bin or it will create bins based on the subfolder names. That is selectable in the dialog box when you start the process.

That is the preferred method versus import. You don't need to use the Sony clip browser software. It is a faster workflow once you get the hang of it.

Chris—thanks so much for this. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I've never used the AMA route before... partly because I'm not in news and don't need to edit immediately after shooting. I've always felt safer importing everything into Avid, and then editing. From what you say, I can still sort of do this... if I do an "AMA link to volume" and then consolidate?
Malcolm

That is correct. If you consolidate the media Avid will rewrap to MXF and do a quick import.

I've talked to quite a few that haven't tried AMA. Once they see what it can do it becomes a normal part of their workflow. It is especially important to use AMA to import any MOV media. Importing MOV media directly can be a problem due to gamma shifts and clipping from a bug in QuickTime for Windows.

You also have the option to do a rough edit on a timeline then consolidate the timeline itself. That way you save some space by only importing the specific parts of the files you expect to work with in the final edit.

With XDCam you don't need to do the consolidate if you don't want to. Most computers can handle editing it via AMA with no performance issues. I no longer import any of my XDCam material. I edit it directly via AMA and it works fine.

Wow... very glad you know about XDCam and Avid (seems that all of my fellow camera operators here in Ottawa are Final Cut users)... can you tell me what's different about the files that the PMW-200 records than the ones that my old EX1 recorded? I did ask, before getting the 200, whether I'd be able to work in the same way, and the Sony/Avid reseller said yes, it would be just the same.
I take what you say... that my using AMA and then consolidating, I'll be fine, and thank you so much for that (it means I can get back to editing), but I am wondering why Export to MXF for NLE worked so well before and now doesn't work. Does the PMW-200 record a different type of MPEG file?
Thanks again,
Malcolm

The 200 records 4ch audio but the EX1 does 2ch. I have found problems with Avid importing files with 4ch audio. Specifically it was when I was using the newer xdcam browser with the EX1 which adds 2 channels creating 4ch mxf files.

Make sure you have the most recent AMA files for xdcam in your system and will be fine.

Avid | Avid Media Access Plug-ins (http://www.avid.com/US/products/Avid-Media-Access/plug-ins)

The 200 can also do 50mb files. That is different from the 35mb from the EX1.

Which bitrate are you using on the camera?

Hi Chris,
I was using what I thought I'd been using before: MPEG2 HD Long 35Mbps
But yes, there are now four channels of audio.
I'll see if I've got the right AMA setup in Avid, and get going this morning!
Thanks again,
Malcolm

If its BPAV folders its not 50mbps.. I get 9 items total downloaded with 500 in XDCAM HD..

If its BPAV folders its not 50mbps.. I get 9 items total downloaded with 500 in XDCAM HD..

Exactly why I wanted to ask since I had assumed above when I made the BPAV reference that the recording mode was 35mbs.

Hi Chris,
O.K., I installed the latest Sony AMA Plugin (PDZK-MA2.1), then restarted my Mac Pro and relaunched Avid.
But no luck!
Checking a few settings, I see that in Import, the Video Resolution selected is J2K 1080p 29.97 MXF
Is that correct?
In the 'Link to AMA Volume' Bin Selection window, I've tried various choices, but nothing seems to work.
No matter what setting I choose, I get a window saying:
'Unable to link to any clips at /Volumes/RAW MEDIA/INTERVIEW'

Hoping you see this...
Malcolm

In the folder "INTERVIEW" is there a BPAV folder in there from the card or did you rename the BPAV folder INTERVIEW?

Aha! This is where I'm probably bungling things. I renamed the BPAV folder 'INTERVIEW' (everything inside this folder, eg. CPLR folder, TAKR folder, etc., is untouched).
Is that my mistake?
Malcolm

Yes, you're right. I moved the BPAV folder back into the INTERVIEW folder (with all the same folders in the BPAV folder), and it just linked in lightning speed!
Thanks so much!
Now, Chris, if you don't mind: do I right-click on the interviews clip(s) in this bin, and choose Consolidate/Transcode?
Malcolm

Before you consolidate give a simple edit a try with the clips as is. You may find it works just fine and you don't have to anything but get straight to work.

Use them as you would any media.

Yes it seems to work perfectly in editing.
So even for a project that I'm shooting and editing over the course of a few months, this is as good (and dependable) a way of doing things as the 'old' way (of importing, which converted all the files to the mxf file type that Avid likes)?
Regards, Malcolm

Yes, as long as you don't move the files around on your drive the links will remain.

If you do loose the links and your media becomes "offline" it isn't the end of the world. Just link to volume again and you will be right back in business.

I use it all the time and no longer transcode anything other than h.264 media which is not edit friendly. Even with h.264 media I AMA link it then transcode to DNxHD. That is a workflow with a higher quality end result than doing a straight import.

Thanks once again for all your help with this Chris.
I'm now back in editing mode!
Regards, Malcolm

You are welcome Malcolm.

Report back when you have had a chance to get used to the workflow and tell us how it is going.

Chris:

If you have a project with multiple SxS cards...please describe the workflow you would use to bring in the files via AMA and then, bin by bin, convert them to permanent media files inside the AVID.

Thx!

I can do that. I won't be able to do that till tomorrow evening. I have a production meeting tonight that will eat up my evening.

It will be best to show it with some screen shots.

I'll wait for Chris's formula... but if I can add one little bit that applies to me, anyway (I'm not in news; no fast turnarounds; no need for offline/online workflow). This is advice from someone who doesn't shoot with our cameras, but knows a lot about editing in Avid:

transcode rather than consolidate

Consolidating, he says, would just rewrap the original long gop structure of our clips. Transcoding converts them to the DNx (or J2k) codec, that Avid likes.

We'll see what Chris says though!
Malcolm

This is going to take 2 posts due to the number of screen caps.

First you have to get your media into your system. I took a large project that I worked on to show how this works with a generous amount of xdcam media shot over a couple month period.

You can step through the attached screen grabs and see what happens pretty easily. In the AMA Result image I did arrange the bins like that. They don't com in arranged in a flat view. Also if I had chosen "Single Bin" in image Create Bins all the media would have been in one bin with in this case hundreds of video clips.

So this is step one to getting your media into the system. If you are using XDCam you can get right to work editing with no problems with performance. There are a few export features that aren't available to you when using long GOP media but those are easily handled with another trick I can show you in another post if you need.

Now one thing I want to point out here is in the attached graphic - Media Works - the media before I started this was OFFLINE because I had deleted it all out to show how AMA linking works. When I relinked everything the system recognized it was the same media even though it was now in a different location on my computer from when the sequences were created (I brought this project back off my archive server for the demo).

Another thing you may notice is there were some folders on the directory tree in image - File Location - that didn't come into the project. Those are folders with Canon dSLR footage. You must use "Link to AMA File(s)" to pick up those.

On to the next part.

Here you can see some options for what to do with the media. For most types of projects you could get to work where I stopped on the last post.

If you do need to transcode things you have some options. You can transcode files in a bin as you can see with attachment #10. This transcodes everything you select in the bin. Depending on your project that may not be an ideal situation. I chose this project to demonstrate that because it is a dramatic piece and has several takes of the same thing. I may not want to convert everything and tie up that much hard drive space with less compressed media that I'm not going to use in the project. At 35mb this project is 300GB of RAW video. It would be easily 1.5TB if it was transcoded to DNxHD.

To trim down the media to just what I plan to use I drop it into a sequence and do a rough edit. I'm not worrying here about a final result. Just doing some housekeeping. You can see a sequence loaded in attachment 07 and the transcode dialog. The drive on the list you see there in BOLD is where the AMA linked media is currently located. A quick note here - If you are going to transcode media make sure you do it to some OTHER drive. Don't have AMA linked and identical transcoded media on the same drive. That can lead to confusion as to which media you are working with. It also makes it harder to go back and relink to the AMA files for final render if you wish to do so.

Once you transcode the sequence you can see in attachment 08 that Avid has created the new transcoded media and a new sequence with the new media. It will be functionally equal to the sequence with the linked AMA media. If you don't want a new sequence with the new media then simply uncheck the box "Create new sequence" you can see in attachment 07.

That is the basics of how to do it. We can continue the discussion as to why you might do one over another if you have any thoughts or questions about that.

XDCam is a very mature codec. I would recommend giving a direct AMA (non transcoded) worflow a try. If you don't like it you can easily transcode your sequences and not loose any editing work.