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AMA Files Not Connecting
MacBook Pro, 2.2 GHz i7, 4GB RAM, OS 10.6.6, Media Composer 5.5.3 Trial.
Evaluating AVID on the 30 day demo for possible migration from FCP.
I have 2 ProRes QT files that I transferred from another drive onto my external test drive. I put them in a folder I created called AVID Test Project. These files were originally acquired on a KiPro. I created the test project from the AVID startup screen and assigned it to the test folder on the external drive. (I’m giving this info in case there might be something wrong with my file structure)
I’ve used (several times) the “Link to AMA File(s)…” feature to import each of these QT files. They import, but aren’t highlighted in yellow and register a “Media Offline” when I load them in the viewer. Trying to relink either of these files yields the same result. Importing them works fine, since it’s transcoding to the AVID codec. But that won’t cut it in our workflow.
What am I overlooking here?
Thanks, Mike
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8 Replies
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A follow up to this. When I quit the project and reboot it, even the transcoded media goes offline. Now there’s no media.
I’ve used the Media Creation Tool at the start of the project to specify which drive I want the media to go to and it does create an Avid Mediafiles folder and places into it the three clips from the transcode. But now it’s offline.
I’ve also tried several different ways to get AMA to import the ProRes KiPro file, including taking the file in FCP and exporting out as a Quicktime with the AVID DV codec. It still brings the file in, but without turning it yellow and with a “Media Offline” indicator.
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Unfortunately I can’t offer you a solution, but I thought I would chip and at least let you know that this is unusual behaviour and certainly shouldnt be expected. My instinct is to ask how you are connecting to the drive, but as you are targeting it as a media drive I assume that it is connected via USB/Firewire/Esata rather than over a network?
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net -
That is correct, I’m connecting via Firewire 800. I’m still not totally knowledgeable on AVID’s file structure but video tutorials are helping and I think I’ve done it correctly.
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You seem to be doing nothing wrong. My only thought is that MC5.5.3 is only compatible with 10.6.7 , 10.6.8 , and 10.7.0. Perhaps this is causing your problems?
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net -
Check the names of everything in the path. If there are any characters other than letters/numbers/underscores, Avid will let you point to the file but not link to it. The whole path: disk name, folder names, file name.
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I figured it out, or at least I figured out how to get it to work. In the “AMA Settings – Bins” dialog, it was on “Create a new bin”. I unchecked it and checked “Use active bin”. Worked like a charm. Not totally sure of the reason but I suspect it was constantly putting my files into a new bin that it wasn’t connecting to.
I did discover, though, that I can’t make a QT reference movie from AMA material. But that’s a topic for another post…
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Not worth another post, you just can’t do it. They did introduce AAF’s, but if you want to do a QT ref you’ll need to consolidate or transcode first.
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net -
Regarding the illegal character issue. Most of us know not to use them in drive and folder names as was mentioned previously. Check this out. I had all my AMA volumes go offline without warning. Double checked every drive, folder and file name. All good. Turns out it was a STORE BOUGHT CD from Rhino records that had a forward slash and a 2 quotes in the name of the disc on the desktop. Wasn’t playing or anything. Just having it in the tray spun down was enough to make all AMA volumes offline to the Avid. Ejected it and boom, everything back online. For the record, no pun intended, all rhino records “Top rock ‘n” roll hits” CDs have this naming convention. Example:
Billboard Top Rock ‘N’ Roll Hits/ 1974
Is the name of one of them. Who puts a forward slash in a CD name? Beware of illegal CDs!
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