Import spanned AVCHD MC 5.0

Avid Media Composer

Import spanned AVCHD MC 5.0

Posted by Tina Hedegaard on February 12, 2012 at 1:31 pm

Hi everybody

I’m in MC 5.0 at a client with snowleopard, and I have a lot of XDCAM and AVCHD material which I’ve to transcode to XDCAM ex 35mbit.
I’ve no problem with the XDCAM, I just AMA-link it and then transcode it.

It’s the AVCHD that is causing problems and a lot of time, so I wonder if any of you out there have some good solutions.

I’ve tried to just import the .mts files into AVID, but I experience several kind of error messages:

– “This file is not the first file of a spanned clip. This clip will be out of sync if the first file is not selected first.”
Questions:
1) How do I avoid this – should I combine the clips before I import –
2) and if so, how do I know which clips are spanned?
3) And which program would be the best to do this – clip wrapper? MTSmerger? another?
I know I could use the log and transfer in FCP, and spanne the clip, export and transcode to AVID, but it seems like a long and difficult way.
I am transcoding the files as an online format, so I would prefer to minimize the times I have to convert, transcode etc.

– “Exception: NEMFileWriter::ExecuteInternal TIMEOUT – NEMFileWriter has detected upstream pipe stall”
Questions:
1) I cannot find any reason in this – there is a lot of different solutions on the web. Corrupted file, slow speed on hard drive etc. My hard drive is a Caldigit VR 3 TB with esata connection.

General question concerning AVCHD
1) What would be the best way to import AVCHD to preserve quality, metadata and always be able to get back to the original material.

I hope someone has answers, solutions or just advice i AVCHD workflow. Anything would help, right now I feel like I’m spending a lot of time in something that I can’t use..

Thanks

Yours Sincerely

Tina Hedegaard
Editor | Final Cut Pro 7 | Media Composer 5.0 -5.5
Mac OS 10.6.7

Tina Hedegaard replied 14 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Andrew Mckee
February 12, 2012 at 3:19 pm

The best way would be to upgrade to MC6, which has AMA support for AVCHD. But if that isn’t an option then importing is the only way. Using none spanned clips I have never ran into any problems importing at one quality, editing and then batch importing at a higher quality. I believe Clipwrap (https://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap/features) is the way to go for spanned clips. I think it can combine spanned clips into one, very quickly without a generation of comression, but I’ve never used.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCPX
Pixelwizard.net
Brendan Maghran
February 13, 2012 at 7:52 am

I had this exact problem with a show I was working on, we ended up going the clipwrap/import route. Worked, but is definitely slow, especially since most spanned clips are quite long.
Tina Hedegaard
February 13, 2012 at 8:33 am

Hi Andrew and Brendan

Thanks for your replies.
It’s not possible to upgrade to MC6 at current time, unfortunately. So I guess import is the way to go.
Do you know how to spot the spanned clips, when you just look at the .MTS files? Or do you know if clip wrapper detect the spanned clips by it self? I am gonna give it a go today.

And have you met the error:
“Exception: NEMFileWriter::ExecuteInternal TIMEOUT – NEMFileWriter has detected upstream pipe stall..”
I’ve transcoded a lot this weekend (all AVCHD), from a remote destination though, and I’ve got this message a lot of times. The import stops, you have to press ok, and then AVID will continue importing the rest of the clips.

Yours Sincerely

Tina Hedegaard
Editor | Final Cut Pro 7 | Media Composer 5.0 -5.5
Mac OS 10.6.7
Brendan Maghran
February 13, 2012 at 4:32 pm

I’m not familiar with that error. But when we used clipwrap, all we did was re-wrap to QT, we did not convert the AVCHD Codec, so when spanned clips were there all it would do is make them separate files.
Tina Hedegaard
February 20, 2012 at 2:13 pm

Hello

I just wanted to tell the ending to my AVCHD-trip.

Now I’ve started using clip wrap, and it’s what I needed to get a fast workflow with the AVCHD. It can easily spot the spanned clips.

I had though one clip with a lot of problems. The duration of the clip was 01:14:00:00 (AVCHD, 25fps, spanned in 8 parts), and I think to long, and perhaps the clip was corrupted in a way.
I had a lot of workaround with this single clip.

– Clip wrap:
ReWRAP: Something happened to the audio – a high frequency of noise came in the first 15 seconds – so that didn’t work.
Transcode to DNX: Again something happened to the audio and the video turned green in the first 15 seconds.

– Final Cut log and transfer.
It can’t handle such large clips, so I split the clip i 5 parts. It choked my computer, and it never finished the work.

– AVID 6.0 AMA – I downloaded a trial to my own macbook (OS X 10.7.2 – 2.53 GHz intel, 4 GB Ram)
The transcode stopped at part 4 in the spanned clip. I tried it several times. no luck

At last I found a H.264 encoder and converted the clip and then did the import. But it was a long work around.

Does any of you know a way of transcoding such large clips or should I try to convince the photographers to press the stop button on the camera and avoid such large clips.

Thanks in advantage.

Yours Sincerely

Tina Hedegaard
Editor | Final Cut Pro 7 | Media Composer 5.0 -5.5
Mac OS 10.6.7

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