AVID down — Not sure Why?

[Shane Ross]

…Never surrender.

What specific errors are you getting? How is the drive you are using for media connected? How full is it? How large are the biggest bins?

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Ross Spears]

Thanks for your reply. Here are answers to your questions:

Size of biggest bins — We have a total of 60 bins, most of them not very full. Our largest bin, however, has 1100 shots! Most often, the bins have less than 200 shots. They are a mixture of shots from our HDV camera tapes and our HD SxS cards. None of those shots have been transcoded to the AVID codec.

How are the drives connected: They are both internal drives.

How full are the drives: The original drive in the computer has a capacity of 639 gigs. There are only 19 gigs are available. The second drive, which we added in 2011, has a 4 TB capacity altogether, and there are 835 gigs available. We have been thinking about adding another internal drive with a large capacity.

What messages are we getting? They are follows: 1) AMA Mapper::GetSampleTemporalOffset() Unexpected AME status [-2147483645] 2) Exception: DISC_TOO_MANY_OPEN, filename: TREESHDVVO1.51719516.51F820.mxf 3) Exception: std::exception, what: “Bus error” in Thread ‘AdoptedThread’, at address 0x0

After this last message the AVID freezes and we must force quick. We very much appreciate your assistance!!

Thanks!

Never Give Up

[Shane Ross]

[Ross Spears] “They are a mixture of shots from our HDV camera tapes and our HD SxS cards. None of those shots have been transcoded to the AVID codec.”

Ah…so AMA? Native? Media Composer doesn’t like that. The point of AMA is to “ACCESS” the media…you then need to transcode to Avid media. Working with files natively in Avid might be OK for short form, meaning :30 second spots. But long form? No way….you gotta transcode to Avid media. That’s the issue right there. The error even says so…”AMA MAPPER.”

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Ross Spears]

Thanks very much! OK! We will begin transcoding the files. What is the best way to transcode a large amount of material? Can we do it in batches? Should the native files then be discarded after they are transcoded? Is the transcoded file larger than the Native file? Will it make a space problem.

Also — two more questions: 1) Should we move files out of the drive that is almost full? 2) Do you think that the AVID will be able to handle another internal drive or two? The computer is set up for two more internal drives.

Thanks very very much for your help!

Never Give Up

[James Beattie]

to transcode a large amount, you can select everything in a bin, or you can create a sequence of all clips, then select the sequence and choose to transcode.

You should always have 20% of available space on your harddrives. This is a good rule to follow. You can always add more chassis to your system, and the avid will be able to track that material.

James Beattie
ACSR Elite/Avid ACI, Apple Certified Technician

Consulting for Workflow and Digital Technologies at Comprehensive Technical Group

[Shane Ross]

[Ross Spears] “Should the native files then be discarded after they are transcoded?”

NO! Those are your masters…don’t throw away your masters. Be like capturing a tape and throwing the tape away. SHooting film, capturing the film and throwing the film away. No, back that up…those are your masters.

[Ross Spears] ” Is the transcoded file larger than the Native file?”

Depends on what you are transcoding to, but if you choose the higher end codecs, yes, it can. If space is a concern, you can transcode to DNxHD 36 for offline editing, then relink to the masters/camera originals when you lock picture, and then transcode only the footage used in the project to DNx200 or 175.

[Ross Spears] ” 1) Should we move files out of the drive that is almost full?”

Drives should have between 15% and 20% empty space, to keep them running at optimal speed. Your best bet is to get more drives, transcode to those drives, archive the ones the masters are on.

[Ross Spears] “2) Do you think that the AVID will be able to handle another internal drive or two?”

Absolutely…that doesn’t affect media composer at all. I have 30 drives mounted on my computer, via ISIS. And at home, as many as 8 drives at one time.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Robert Ober]

If you have another machine you might want to put Squeeze or something that supports DNXHD on it and use that computer for transcoding.

Also, Shane gives good advice about backing up the masters. What most folks don’t realize is that they should backup to LTO tape as drives are MUCH less reliable and need to be spun up every month or so to keep them from failing sooner.

I would not want to rely on something as old as 4.05, but maybe the Pros can weigh in on that.

Hope your project goes well,
Robert A. Ober

[Ross Spears]

Thanks very much! That’s very helpful indeed. I do have all the camera originals backed up on multiple hard drives. Would it be better to back up to tape?

I have been advised – via Larry on this Forum — to keep my project going in AVID 4.0.5 because it is the most stable and that it will do all I need it to do. Would you agree?

Also, what kind of external drives do you recommend for use with this set-up? And by the way, what is ISIS?

Thanks so much.

Ross

Never Give Up

[Robert Ober]

Disclaimer: I offer backup to LTO as a service.

Yes, always backup masters to tape.

I don’t know about 4.0.5 being the most reliable, I don’t go back that far but if a real Pro says its good and it does what you need then no reason to change.

Are you sending the final out to Resolve or something? What is your deliverable?

I have several different external drives but my CalDigit RAID 1 is well built and of course RAID 1 is two drives with the same data so it has redundancy. Lots of folks like g-raid drives but I have had good service from the CalDigit and good tech support.

ISIS is Avid’s shared storage system for allowing multiple editors to access the same data.

Hope your project goes well,
Robert:)

[Ross Spears]

Thanks for the info. I have been transcoding all the “native” footage from the SxS cards and things are playing well again. But I am rapidly running out of Hard Drive space.

I impulsively bought a 6 TB external drive at the Apple store, with a Thunderbolt to firewire adapter, but now it won’t show up on the screen. Actually it won’t even power up. Looking online I am now wondering whether Thunderbolt drives will even run on a Mac Pro computer!? Does anyone know?

I will look at the CalDigit RAID 1 drives now.

Also, how does LTO tape backup work?

Lots to learn! Thanks.

Never Give Up