Mac Media Composer 7 project won’t relink on PC Media Composer 7

[Shane Ross]

Why did you AMA link, but not consolidate/transcode so that the media was in the file structure Avid wants and craves it to be in? AMA is a fine way to access the media, but it really needs to be consolidated to the Media Drive, so that the legendary Avid media management can take place. Footage is tracked better, links better when it is in the proper Avid media file structure.

AMA to link, but always transcode/consolidate. Or for audio, straight up import. Gotta be in Avid file structure.

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

[Brian Ging]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for responding but you gave me more of a finger wag than anything to help me. I’m posting because I’m not the expert you are with Avid and I’m new to all the ins and outs of Avid’s quirky as heck AMA system.

Regarding why didn’t I consolidate/transcode again, I didn’t want to duplicate all the footage on the drive especially since it was already in Avid codec and 16bit 48k. It shouldn’t be this hard to simply link an editing software to footage.

My goal is to relink the project I have. Please let me know if anyone has any help or resources to help me out.

Thanks.

[Michael Phillips]

You should be able to take all your hard work (.sync) clips and consolidate those. It will create a new set of clips. Move those to their own bin, copy project, bins, and media in Avid MediaFiles folder from Mac to PC and it should relink.

Michael

[Shane Ross]

I suggest you do what Michael said…on your machine transcode/consolidate the footage. Put it into the Avid media file structure, and transfer THAT structure and project file to the other machine. AMA is still new to Avid, and far from rock solid…so I suggest not relying on it.

The AMA footage…original footage, should be on a separate drive. This will be known as the “AMA DRIVE” or “CAMERA ORIGINAL DRIVE.” Footage is on that drive…link to it…but then consolidate to your MEDIA DRIVE…the one used for editing. Save all the AMA bins, put them in a folder, out of the way. You’ll need them later if you want to relink to the camera original footage.

If your original footage is already on your MEDIA DRIVE, copy them off to another drive. Or get a new drive for the consolidation that you need to do. Camera originals and transcoded media shouldn’t be on the same drive…for many reasons. Relinking might be an issue, if the drive fails, all of your media is gone…etc.

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

[Brian Ging]

Ok great. Thanks guys. I will give that a shot. Thanks again Shane and Michael for your help.

This is a feature, so there are hundreds of synced clips and takes, so If anyone has a suggestion regarding a trick to relink the audio that might be less intensive than conforming 3TB of material, I’d love to hear it so I can get back up and online quickly, and then do the consolidation gradually. (I’m now editing the feature as well).

[Pat Horridge]

You don’t want to work with AMA for long form work. It’s not robust enough, a lot of AMA linked fields will slow your system to a crawl and as you have discovered AMA linking doesn’t move well between systems and not at all between platforms (Mac PC).

If push came to shove there are ways to re-create the links in the moved project but I won’t list them here as it’s not an ideal solution and you do need to be across AMA workflows to do it right.

My advice would be to stop editing. Go back to the Mac and start the consolidate of the media to a new drive. You will then have to copy that media (not easy or advised to use Mac drives on a PC) to a PC drive and over to the PC system. You should be able to re-link the sequence you have already to the new media.

But you need to be working in Avid media for long form.

I’m also surprised you haven’t gone for DNX36 media and made life a lot easier.
You also need to be sure your offline workflow will work for your online. How is that happening?

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
Free online Tutorials at VET digital media academy online https://vimeo.com/channels/752951
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Brian Ging]

Hi Pat,

I am almost finished with the consolidation process of moving the material from the linked Mac project via consolidating all synced clips to AVX files on a new drive. I tested this on a PC system and it works. I guess you are right, AMA is a clunky unreliable mess across platforms (and otherwise for that matter). I come from FCP7 and Premiere editing for 10 years where “linking” has never been an issue, other than putting it in the ideal codec (ProRes), and in the case of this project, it came to me transcoded into DNxHD already (with MOV wrapper) so I didn’t think there would be any issue with Avid linking to its own kind. I guess I was dead wrong. 😉

Thanks again all for the detailed notes and I truly understand better for future projects what to do, and Avid’s quirks.

Regarding DNxHD36, I received all the footage transcoded already to DNxHD175 and it’s being edited and finished in that codec. It was shot on Canon HDV cameras.

[Pat Horridge]

Good I’m glad it’s all moving across ok.
But you can’t compare cross platform with FCP-7 as you really could take FCP projects to a PC!
Granted Premiere is cross platform but it has none of the Avid media strengths so it’s linked media is robust. But nothing close to Avids media when it’s native and not AMA linked.
Also we are seeing tighter integration with AMA linked media and there is more of that coming so we can expect the AMA side to improve even more. Still early days for AMA but getting there and as a Post house we use AMA a LOT and played to it’s strengths is awesome. We regularly shave costs for clients by adapting their workflows to lever AMA and save time and costs.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
Free online Tutorials at VET digital media academy online https://vimeo.com/channels/752951
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Brian Ging]

Very true about comparing cross platforms, as FCP7 was mac-only. I just meant the linking ease. I also cut a feature on Premiere CS2 that was one of the worst nightmares of my life technically…

I think that as Avid works out its kinks it will get better, and the background processes in MC7 really help with transcoding not taking out the whole machine.

thanks again Pat.