MXF files in After Effects on Mac OS Mavericks

[Todd Kopriva]

What exact codec are you using? The Sony F5 can record a lot of different formats into an MXF container.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[Bruce Lambert]

Running the MPEG2 Constant Bit Rate 50 1920 X 1080 HD codec on the F5.

Here’s a snippet of the XML file from the Sony:

VideoFrame videoCodec=”MPEG2HD50CBR_1920_1080_422P@HL” captureFps=”59.94i” formatFps=”59.94i”/>
VideoLayout pixel=”1920″ numOfVerticalLine=”1080″ aspectRatio=”16:9″/>

The same thing is happening with video from a Canon C300. It will not import it anymore. I get an error message in After Effects that says: cannot be imported – this SRAW” file is damaged or unsupported

Originally I downloaded and used the Sony (PLAD-RW1_v1.2_for Mac) plug-in to enable importing of those mxf files. Both the Sony and Canon cameras that I described above were working before the Mavericks update.

I can send you a folder of the video files if you have an ftp.

[Bruce Lambert]

Anymore information on this problem I’m having?

[Fabian Pourmand]

I am having the same issue as you.. I was working on my video using C300 footage and i had to upgrade to 10.9.2 because of a plug-in and now my footage gives me color bars when sending to AE. It doesnt matter if its Dynamic Link or straight to AE… Really need this to work.

[Bruce Lambert]

I have to scratch my head knowing that I can play and edit these files using Premiere CC and the Media Tool CC on Mac 10.9.2, but I can’t round trip them into AE or import them directly without After Effects giving me an error message.. Somebody knows how to make these files work on the Adobe Premiere side, hopefully they will speak with the folks from AE because its a workflow efficiency nightmare having to transcode mxf files to movies before I can use them. Lucky for me I have the option to import and work on the files using an older system. I know they’ll get it right eventually I’m just spoiled now. 😉

[Fabian Pourmand]

Yes its definitely a nightmare because I have a full project already edited! Now its time to take clips into AE for further enhancements and I wont be able to do that… Im thinking of formatting the whole thing and going back to either snow or lion… Real hassle

[Bruce Lambert]

Thank you for the information. The funny thing is that I CAN open those Canon MXF files from a C300 directly into After Effects using Mac OS 10.8.4 / Adobe CS6. It is just after updating to 10.9.2 that this ability stopped working. Eventually it will be fixed (I hope). I just need to complain about it enough.

[David Seay]

I had a similar problem. When I used the “replace clip with AE comp” command in Premiere pro CC, the MXF media from my Panasonic camera would often go offline. Here is the error message it returned: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8h01y6lsg4drt8/Screen%20Shot%202014-04-25%20at%2011.45.50%20AM.png

Here is a possible workaround. When working in FCP 7, I use a software called Raylight. It takes raw MXF files and creates quicktime aliases for each one (super fast too….like 15 seconds for a full 64GB card). Those aliases can be imported as source files in your editing system. It essentially tricks PP into thinking these are quicktime files and not mxf. It beats transcoding all your media to ProRes, which does work. So far – no problems.

I hope this helps you.

Dave

TV- It’s why Kennedy beat Nixon
david seay
https://www.davidseayproductions.com

[Bruce Lambert]

Thanks for your reply David. I have found out through this battle that there are a lot of programs that will import various mxf file structures into the mainstream video editing tools. What I find a little annoying is that camera manufacturers and or companies that supply editing software would have you spend another 100 to 300 dollars for software to get the files into your machine so that you can edit more efficiently.

Granted I’m no programmer so I don’t know how complex / expensive it is to write code and have these files recognizable to the various editing platforms, but I sure would be inclined to use one over the other if I could have one less headache in the edit suite.

[Chris King]

I read through some posts online and have found some similar (but not identical) problems. Some guys recommend to install the latest updates, try some MXF plug-ins, but still didn’t work well. If you want to import and edit MXF files in After Effects in a flawless way, the reliable workaround I’ve found so far is to transcode MXF to MPEG-2, the most edit-friendly format for After Effects(any version).