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Link to Media On 2nd Hard Drive
Hey guys, I’m a Final Cut Pro user who recently picked up Avid Media Composer. I’ve worked with Avid before but have forgotten a lot about the basic workings of the program.
I have an old Avid project with all of the files on a 2nd Hard Drive (internal, but no my OS hard drive)
I can navigate to the Project file (or folder I should say) easily, but I don’t know how to get Avid to read the Avid Media Files and OMFI Media Files folders. I have them all in one folder for simplicity and would just like to direct Avid to them. How would I go about doing that?
Thanks!
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6 Replies
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Well, those folders need to reside on the root of the hard drive. Assuming Avid can see the hard drive as a media drive option (check your media creation settings to make sure it’s not filtered out) it will make an OMFI MediaFiles folder and Avid MediaFiles folder. Replace those with your older ones, open MC and it should scan the drives and see all the media.
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Man, that sure is inconvenient. Thanks for the speedy reply though! I moved all the files too the Root section of the hard drive and it worked.
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Mac OS X 10.5.3
Mac Pro 2 x 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon | 4GB Ram
Final Cut Pro Studio 2 -
Not inconvenient at all. This is why Avid has the best media management of any NLE on the planet. As long as your media is in the corresponding OMFI MediaFiles folder or MXF folder, it’s online and Avid can track it. If it’s offline, it’s because it’s been deleted or someone renamed one of your two folders. Change those back and you’re back online.
Avid handles the media management portion, so all you have to do is organize your footage in your project. I definitely prefer it to Premiere or Edius or FCP’s method of putting media all over the place and hoping you don’t change a folder or filename to throw it all offline. Too easy to throw something offline, and too hard to reconnect and share media with other editors.
Michael.
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But, to be fair, it is not Final Cut Pro or Premiere that is “putting media all over the place” it would be the editor that did that. With FCP you have the option to setup your Media Management exactly like Avid if you so desire. Whereas with Avid you are only given the Media Management style that the developers have determined is best for you, rather than letting you choose for yourself.
The main reason I said it was inconvenient is that while I can keep all my FCP projects, files, etc… wherever I want (neatly tucked into a folder with the name of the project) my Avid project is scattered among a sea of other folders on the root of my hard drive that have nothing to do with the project at all.
I understand your position and agree that Avid does a great job of keeping your project online, I just don’t enjoy being forced into one way of operating.
Mac Pro | Leopard |
2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon | 4GB Ram |
Final Cut Pro Studio 2 | Avid Media Composer -
I understand where you’re coming from.
I’m on a PC, so if I want to keep everything in one folder like you do with FCP, I use virtual drives. Windows can assign a drive letter to a folder, which Avid sees as an actual drive. You just capture everything for your project onto that “drive”, which is actually a folder, and it’s organized like you do with FCP.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe virtual drives are possible on a Mac. It also looks like you’re on a Unity? I’m sure that would add a layer of complexity to it (I’ve not worked on a Unity).
I guess I don’t mind Avid having a few folders because I hate organizing media, but I understand why others need/want to.
Michael.
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Ah! I never even considered that. I wonder if I could do the same thing with a Disk Image or something similar? Hmmmm, I must look into this.
Thanks for the tip!
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Mac Pro | Leopard 10.5.3
2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon | 4GB Ram
Final Cut Pro Studio 2 | Avid Media Composer
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