I am having difficulty importing video clips into Da Vinci 15

[Terence Christopher]

Well I amusing import file which switches automatically to media. The screen remains black. It is the same if I create a bin and try to import into that. However Ole has just pointed out that there is a bug in the ER emergency kit that is responsible for the problem
Thanks for your help
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

I haven’t tried that as most of my files were in M2t, and I had started to transcode them to MP4 as that is accepted by Da Vinci. However a month ago I made a huge effort and transcoded almost all of my M2T to DNxHD (however mxf) I might have to unwind them if I have lost the original.M2T. I am going to ask Ole how to do that. He said that it is possible with ER Toolkit Do you think the problem is in Da Vinci because it also doesn’t accept M2t from my experience. Maybe there is some minor difference in the definitions of the standards between different editors rather than a bug?
If you want a clip to send to Da Vinci so that they can define the differences I would be happy to send it to you. However I don’t want to give you this problem to solve. I will try to go to .mov . I am not up against a commercial problem as this is all done for personal pleasure and my family. I really appreciate the great generosity of so many people with their time and knowledge.
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

I am using Windows 64 bit 10 which I automatically keep updated, and Intel I 7 4770S 3.10 GHZ, RAM = 16 GB
HD= 2.0 TB DISPLAY= NVIDIA Geforce GT 750M plus Intel HD Graphics 4600 on the processor
I am limited to a Gigabit Ethernet and have only USB 2 ports on the machine. But so far they have not been a problem
My data storage is on a QNAP TVS 822T with a RAID 6 system providing 30 Tb of storage.
My original question was why I was having difficulty loading M2T video clips onto Da Vinci 15 ( free edition) but was convinced that i should use DNxHD as it made editing superior. I then changed my videos to that format, but unwittingly swamped my system storage as the files were 10 times bigger than the originals. I am trying to find a way around that impasse and have installed an 8Tb external drive which is full of my original 2.5 TB M2T videos but at least I have some space on my storage system. I have now found that I couldn’t load the DNxHD files into the Da Vinci and have subsequently learned from Ole Kristansen that there is a bug in the MSX output from the otherwise superb ER Toolkit that I used to switch my videos and that I should use .mov instead. They are only 5X bigger than M2T ie 12 to 15 Tb and I am trying to sum up the energy for that. However I will be more careful just testing out one or two videos to verify that Da Vinci will handle them. It seems that Da Vinci seems to have problems with several different formats and I don’t know where the problem lies.

[George Dean]

Hi Terence,

Risking that I muck up the waters, have you tried using MediaER to convert your m2t files to h264/mp4? You can set the bit rate, deinterlace, and change the pixel ratio all at the same time, and they will run in Resolve 15 without issues.

If you want to try this, I would set MediaER to the following before dropping in a test clip…..

– Classic mode
– Video Quality = Custom, set this to match your source, I tested 25 MiB source and thereby set this to 25,000.
– Audio Bit Rate – I left this at 96 Kbps, but you can change this to match your source.
– Media Container = MP4, although other option should also work.
– Force Size To should be checked and set the drop down to 1080p HD
– Replace Audio should be unchecked
– Extract Audio To Wav should be unchecked
– Anamorphic should be checked
– Deinterlace should be checked
– The remainder settings can be left at default

Then drag your test clip and convert.

The test I made for this was an old m2t clip from my Canon XL2 1440×1080, 29.970, interlaced, bite rate 25.3 Mb/s, file size 23.3 MB. The resulting conversion file was 1920×1080, 29.970, progressive, bite rate 27.5 Mb/s, file size 23.3 MB. Both were 4:2:0 8 bit.

I prefer using DNx or ProRes, and when I was using source from this camera, I converted all the source to DNx intermediate, which was overkill in size and quality (which wasn’t used), but at the time the DNx ran smoother on the NLE and PC I was using. However I did not have storage space issues with the projects at that time.

The conversion I list above, should keep the quality pretty much the same, hold the file size down, and as you already know, using Media ER Tool Kit is very easy, supports batch processing, and relatively fast. Just a suggestion that may fit your needs.

BTW: I forgot to add this, the m2t file I used for testing from the Canon XL2, was easily added into Resolve 15.3 without converting.

Best Regards……George

[Terence Christopher]

Thanks George for all of your help. I will send my clip to you after replying to your latest note. I had been thinking of changing to mp4 but was convinced by Ole and others that it would be better to go to a codec (If that is the right word) which would allow better quality processing by Da Vinci. I was told that MP4 is again over compressed. and is a delivery codec. It seems that the .mov format with DNxHD may be half of the size of DnxHD which I may be able to handle and a friend advised me that a PNG compression is lossless so I was wondering whether if after I have edited the video that I might save it as Mp4 .PNG and completely discard the DNxHD.mov I don’t know what the best way to save the clips would be nor if they would ever be of use to anyone.If I saved the original as MP4 as you suggest. Would that be a good storage medium for the clips? I would like to stream these videos if possible (for remote family) but I am limited by the ridiculous bandwith of Comcast upload and their gouging. I would appreciate your advice as I am a complete novice but admire beautiful images.
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Thanks George for all of your help. I will send my clip to you after replying to your latest note. I had been thinking of changing to mp4 but was convinced by Ole and others that it would be better to go to a codec (If that is the right word) which would allow better quality processing by Da Vinci. I was told that MP4 is again over compressed. and is a delivery codec. It seems that the .mov format with DNxHD may be half of the size of DnxHD which I may be able to handle and a friend advised me that a PNG compression is lossless so I was wondering whether if after I have edited the video that I might save it as Mp4 .PNG and completely discard the DNxHD.mov I don’t know what the best way to save the clips would be nor if they would ever be of use to anyone.If I saved the original as MP4 as you suggest. Would that be a good storage medium for the clips? I would like to stream these videos if possible (for remote family) but I am limited by the ridiculous bandwith of Comcast upload and their gouging. I would appreciate your advice as I am a complete novice but admire beautiful images.
Terence
addendum I have been attempting to upload but even the smallest clip exceeds the limits imposed by Cow. 15 seconds comes out as 1/2 Gig

[George Dean]

Terence, 1st please don’t read into my suggestion that I disagree with Ole to use DNx, as I stated I would prefer DNx over most h264/mp4 files. I was just adding a suggestion to reduce the size of your converted files to save storage space. However, if you use the 36Mb option in DNxER, the files size is only about twice the size of your original m2t (or at least mine) and the bit rate is a bit higher than the h264 I listed above.

The issue, as I see it for the most part (not completely) is finding a bit rate in the codec that retains enough quality for your working files and only takes up a reasonable amount of extra storage space. However, a h264/mp4 file can be a working or delivery, mostly depending on the bit rate selected. All of which most likely will not have a bearing on what you need.

If your m2t files have let’s say a bit rate of 40 Mb/s, transcoding/converting it to DNxHD 185 is going to be a waste, because you are starting with 40 and it will never be 185 by converting. Pretty much what happens is the files size gets bigger and on some systems the DNxHD will play back smoother than a lower bit rate (compressed) h264. h264 is actually capable of being lossless, but then it would require huge amounts of storage space with no benefits of increased quality.

However h264/mov would be a good candidate for a delivery format for streaming to your family, selecting a bit rate that retains reasonable quality, hold the files size down for saving bandwidth, and will play in all the devices your family members have available.

I’m not familiar with mp4/png, but when you included the word lossless, that to me spells huge storage space requirements! And, I don’t think Resolve will render it, maybe I’m wrong.

If your sample file was .5 Gb, I would not be able to download it anyway, as I’m on a limited monthly data program, I was kinda thinking a short sample would be more like 100 Mb.

I’m getting confused about your m2t source files, have you posted a Mediainfo (in text mode) report as yet? When I post this message I will run back through your post see. I don’t understand why a 15 second clip would be 500 Mb.

Best Regards……George

[George Dean]

Hi Terence,

Looking through your post I only find the Mediainfo report of the mxf converted file. Can you post a Mediainfo report on your m2t file? I would like to compare it to mine to see what difference there is, as my m2t’s load into Resolve without problems, as well as, I’m curious about the bit rate. Thank You.

Best Regards……George

[Robert Withers]

Codecs and containers — they’re different. .mov and .mp4 are containers. Codecs live inside of containers. I have to look these up every time. I think h264 is a codec that can live in a .mov or .mp4. ProRes is an HD mezzanine codec that can run inside a .mov container. You can look up these things–I do over and over.
Cheers,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Terence Christopher]

Thanks for this help and advice. I have just been testing Ole’ s suggestion which was to use DNxHD.mov it didn’t reduce the file size but gave a beautiful coloration of waves stirring up the sand with a lot of texture of the colour. Is that only available with bigger formats or if compressed to MP4 will it still be visible? If I need to stay with the bigger format during editing, maybe I should invest in more disk space?? and in the interim have several 8 TB USB drives holding the masters. These videos were taken on a camera I am no longer using, having switched to a Panasonic 4K which I am using at this time. Everyone told me that I should capture the data directly as DNxHR which is thus hanging over me. I cannot think what storage space I will need. I thought 60 Tb in a RAID configuration was overreaching but it is evidently insufficient. It seems that perhaps having it all in RAID is unneccessary though. Is there any risk of deterioration (apart from fire and magnetic pulses from some A bomb ) from having the masters on 8 TB USB drives?
Thanks
Terence