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Does Media Composer give a file the same name the second time it’s transcoded?
Hi all, I have a question that maybe one of you knows the answer to.
We have edited a project in Media Composer that was shot on the 7D. All media was brought in via AMA and transcoded before editing. The the raw (camera) files were saved on a separate drive.
My question is, there is about 4tb of Avid files, and only around 500gigs of raw (camera) files. We would like to only save the raw files (in the interest of not purchasing extra drives just to back up this project) when we backup the project. Also, we aren’t interested in just consolidating our sequence, since we might need all footage, even what wasn’t included in our final sequence, at some point down the road.
So, if I only save the raw (camera) files on the other drive, will I be able to re-create my project in the future (if necessary) by re-transcoding the raw (camera) files and re-linking them with the Avid project file?
In other words, will Media Composer give the same name to a specific file every time it is transcoded?
Hopefully, this question makes sense. I am inclined to think that Media Composer will give a completely new file name to everything brought in via AMA & transcoded , even if you are transcoding something that was done before. But, perhaps I’m wrong.
And, yes, I know that drives are relatively cheap, but if we can get away with just keeping the raw files (and re-transcoding down the road), that’s what we’d prefer to do.
Thanks in advance, and any advice would be appreciated!
Jennifer -
4 Replies
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As long as you don’t change the original camera file names to be different than what you see in the “Source File” column you will always be able to bring original camera files back in and recreate your sequence via a conform or re-conform depending on what you want to call it.
So archive the 500GB of material, on at least two different drives, (better three), and keep them at two (or three) different locations for safekeeping. Make sure to spin them up once or twice a year and make sure the environment is stable, etc. You may consider an LTO type archive. I usually make two for LTO, and three for hard drives. The saying for backup is” One is none, two is one, and three is two.”
Michael
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Jennifer, you’re right. Avid will make NEW media if you retranscode through the AMA route. So the MXF will be unique for each transcode. My understanding is it will not index and reconnect automatically. But if you choose to retranscode with AMA, you’ll be able to RELINK to the new MXF media, assuming the Source File heading is preserved.
You can also Batch Import the offline media instead of AMAing it and this will circumvent having to Relink. But it takes a bit longer. Surprisingly longer. (….so much longer…)
August Anderson
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You have to be careful with batch importing as you have to do it on the original master clips with the original duration or else it will scale in the incoming media to fit. AMA is better as you can work directly off the sequence. Doing a “relink to selected” from an AMA link is a much better way to go. And as August says, import is much slower. AMA was optimized to used multiple processors so a transcode is much faster than the single threaded import process.
Also make sure when using AMA the second time that you are consistent with the levels settings or any color correction done may change as a result. For example, if you AMA linked with source settings being VIDEO levels the first time, make sure you AMA the same way the second time before transcoding.
Michael
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Thanks Michael & August – Makes complete sense!
Thanks again,
Jennifer
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