Hypderdeck Shuttle 2 Supports DNxHD

[Paul Kapp]

Hi Jay.
I did try the ffmbc rewrap method but couldn't get it to work.
I also tried a gui named "AnotherGUI" that made it easier, but still didn't rewrap successfully.
I would be very interested in getting this going.

This is the command I used without the gui:
C:\>ffmbc -i D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mxf -vcodec dnxhd D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mov
This gave error messages:
material track 2: no corresponding source package found
material track 3: no corresponding source package found
clip wrapping without index is not currently supported
Could not find codec parameters <Video unknown <0X0000>, 1920x1080>

I tried adding -s hd1080 but still no luck.

Can you help?
Regards,
Paul

[Simon Preston]

I have been using ffmbc to convert nano flash .movs to mp4 for use on windows premiere.

Try something like this it should leave the codec and just rewrap it. The -an disables audio just so you can test the video then work from there

C:\>ffmbc -i D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mxf -vcodec copy -an D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mov

Otherwise I think you need to specify the bitrate next to the dnxhd command. All the documentation I've seen refer to this a re encoding which I don't think is necessary as it should just be a re wrap.

[Paul Kapp]

Thanks Simon.
I tried this but no change to errors, which is strange.
I would expect the -an command to deal with these 2 errors:
material track 2: no corresponding source package found
material track 3: no corresponding source package found
Since there are 2 audio tracks associated with the video in the same folder.

I already tried the dnxhd 185 parameter but no change.

If I can get this to work it would be great.

[Ned Soltz]

This discussion has also been going on "the other board."

To use these files, you need to drop them into AvidMedia -> MXF folder. Good idea to create a new folder for each project. In that MXF folder, files are numbered sequentially from 1. Use the Tools -> Media Tool in MC or Symphony to locate and load the file into your bin.

These are Avid MXF files as opposed to an MXF wrapper.

So far, I can't figure any way to use them other than in Avid. You could then transcode out of Avid, of course.

Ned Soltz

[Paul Kapp]

Thanks Ned.
Now I have it working.
The Shuttle files work in Avid MC.
No CUDA in MC.
I hope this doesn't remain the only way to work with Shuttle DNxHD clips.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Originally Posted by Paul Kapp

Hi Jay.
I did try the ffmbc rewrap method but couldn't get it to work.
I also tried a gui named "AnotherGUI" that made it easier, but still didn't rewrap successfully.
I would be very interested in getting this going.

This is the command I used without the gui:
C:\>ffmbc -i D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mxf -vcodec dnxhd D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mov

Can you help?
Regards,
Paul

It's 11 PM Eastern time here in the US and I just got home. My Shuttle 2 was sitting there waiting for me and I got as far as converting the SSD to HFS+ with MacDrive. I'm going to be in NYC the next four days, so no tinkering for me until next Monday. As to ffmbc, I see Simon Preston gave you the same command line as I originally did. Note that you need the "-vcodec copy" option (not dnxhd) or you possibly don't get a rewrap:

ffmbc -i filename.mxf -vcodec copy filename.mov

I would also try putting the mxf file in the same folder as the ffmbc executable and see if dropping the path info helps. I'll play around with this on Monday, once I get the Shuttle 2 working properly with uncompressed MOV files and then I'll tackle the DNxHD MXF files. Given your experience, I'm not hopeful about ffmbc or anything else other than an Avid software solution to reading the MXF files.

[Paul Kapp]

Thanks Jay.
I did try this command:
C:\>ffmbc -i D:\MXF\Capture0000V.mxf -vcodec copy D:\MOV\Capture0000V.mov
but it didn't work.
I just tried putting the .mxf in the same folder as the exe but no luck, same errors.
I did not have any experience of ffmbc until your suggestion so I don't really know what I'm doing.
Maybe an experienced hand can make it work.

Uncompressed quicktime is easy to import, and plays back easily if your system has the right specs.
Works well in Premiere.

I'm looking forward to your experiences with DNxHD.

[Tony Partamian]

When i re-wrap the mxf to .mov in MC6
and put the file in fcp i get a higher luma image when i pause on the picture.
The timeline is DNxHD.
Anyone can try the same?

[Anmol Mishra]

Is there any other free option for using these mxf files ?

[Jay Bloomfield]

Originally Posted by Paul Kapp

Thanks Simon.
I tried this but no change to errors, which is strange.
I would expect the -an command to deal with these 2 errors:
material track 2: no corresponding source package found
material track 3: no corresponding source package found
Since there are 2 audio tracks associated with the video in the same folder.

I already tried the dnxhd 185 parameter but no change.

If I can get this to work it would be great.

I just got home and I duplicated this error, so we aren't any further to resolving this problem at the moment. The video MXF file's metadata must have some reference to the two audio files that needs to be accommodated in the ffmbc command line options. I'll work on it further tonight. We here in NY are still recovering from the Superbowl. 8-)


Edit: Note that someone has asked the author of ffmbc to tackle this issue. The link is to the ffmbc Google user group:

http://groups.google.com/group/ffmbc...2fba39aa1a0995

[Paul Kapp]

Good move Jay.
It would be great to have a solution to this.

[Jay Bloomfield]

I even made a donation to the ffmbc project. I think that the problem is the mapping among the individual streams in the 3 input MXF files and the output file (That's probably the source of the indexing error). I'm not that familiar with ffmbc, but it is derivative from ffmpeg and I've had trouble before when muxing files with the -map option with ffmpeg. It's not a bug; it's just complicated when you have multiple files and multiple streams.

But beyond that, ffmbc seems to be having trouble recognizing the MXF video file metadata's codec as DNxHD. There is an open source freeware library MXFLIB, which you can use to do relative simple tasks with MXF files. I used it to dump out the metadata from a Hyperdeck Shuttle MXF file that I recorded, but I didn't see anything unusual.

It's best to let the experts try to come up with a solution to this.

[Paul Kapp]

Calibrated{Q} MXF Import v2.2.0 Windows
allows Premiere to play(and edit) Shuttle .mxf files.
Also makes qt ref files.
Just tried the demo.
Full version $199 Calibrated Software Windows Bundles Store

[Jay Bloomfield]

That seems a bit steep for what it does, but there doesn't seem to be any other option. I found some information that indicates that at least back in June, 2011, ffmbc didn't support the input mxf files in the op-atom (multiple video and audio files) format:

Issue 49 - ffmbc - Can't transcode SMPTE 390M OP-ATOM MXF audio - FFMedia Broadcast - Google Project Hosting

This is why ffmbc works fine with single DNxHD mxf files and not those from the Shuttle.

We'll have to see what the author comes up with, I guess. In mean time, I'm going to use uncompressed mov files and transcode them to Cineform.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Originally Posted by Paul Kapp

Calibrated{Q} MXF Import v2.2.0 Windows
allows Premiere to play(and edit) Shuttle .mxf files.
... Calibrated Software Windows Bundles Store

It does appear to work, but the specs say that it is considered a beta for Hyperdeck hardware. Also, it opens the Shuttle MXF files as three separate files in PPro 5.5. Is that how it worked for you? It's too bad that they don't sell the MXF Importer separately from the decoders, as you don't need the decoders to open the DNxHD MXF files. I also sent you a PM about this.

J