Understanding MXF files at Finder level ?

[Richard Sanchez]

The MDB and PMR files are your Avid Database files. MDB (Media Database) not sure what the PMR acronym is. The creating folder is where media will live while it is being actively captured or transcoded. Once that process is done, it is moved into the numbered folder where it lives. So, your Avid Media files is as is VolumesAvid MediaFilesMXF1 (Unless you’re on a Unity In which case it will be VolumesAvid MediaFilesMXF1ComputerName.1)

If you want to separate media, you can import or capture and immediately create a “2” folder and or any numbered folder to move media into. Keep in mind, the 1 folder will always be where the newest media will be transcoded to. Sometimes I’m importing large amounts of media, I’ll import it to the 1 folder and create a folder 100 and move the media into there. The reason the folders are numbered is that Avid will manage your file counts in your folders. After 5000 files, it will create a new numbered folder to keep the overall file counts in each folder down. The fact is, I try to keep my file counts under 2000 especially on large projects with massive amounts of media. At a certain point, it seems that file counts become less of a problem with the Avid, and more of a problem on the operating systems. You’ll notice when you click on folders with large amounts of files, it takes a while for it to resolve itself. Keep in mind, every time you move media between numbered folders, you should delete the MDB and PMR files and allow Avid to rebuilt those database files.

As far as moving media around, Automatic Duck’s Media Copy is fantastic. https://automaticduck.com/products/mc/

This can move media by bin, or by project. You hit it right on the head, as far as V1 being video track one, and A1 and A2 being audio tracks.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Rosie Walunas]

I see. Great. Good tip about creating a new numbered folders to keep track of the media. But as a follow up question to “delete the MDB and PMR files and allow Avid to rebuilt those database files,” from which folder do I delete the MDB and PMR? Do I delete this from the “1” folder in general? Should these be carried over to the new numbered folder I make weather it be “9” or “100” like you say? You said Avid starts with the “1” folder and fills up numerically, so does it start there with those files regardless?

Thank you!

[Richard Sanchez]

For example, if you import a quicktime, it will convert it to MXF media and place it in a folder Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1 but you choose to separate it into Avid MediaFiles\MXF\100. Copy only the MXF files. Don’t copy the creating folder, or the PMR or MDB files. However, since you’ve modified the “1” directory, you should delete the PMR and MDB files. Avid will see those are missing and it would rebuild those database files and it indexes everything. It will also notice that you moved footage into the 100 folder, and index those files, creating an MDB and PMR in that folder. If you later decide to move more media into that 100 folder, you should delete the MDB and PMR in the 100 folder and let Avid rebuild again so that it always has updated database files. In general, it will catch when the contents of that folder change, but sometimes it doesn’t or doesn’t index properly until you delete those files and let it rebuild.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Rosie Walunas]

Cool. Thanks for being so clear about this. It’s very helpful.

Thank you!

[Richard Sanchez]

Anytime!

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Eric Santiago]

I suggest Media Mover to all newcomers.
It helps you manage the MXF folders.
It was great when we use to have 4 to 8 mounted drives but now we only use one.
Still a great addition to your workflow.

[Rosie Walunas]

How do you get into/use Media Mover? Any suggested tutorials?

Thank you.

[Glenn Sakatch]

If you are constantly switching back and forth between a couple of major projects, and want to keep them separated, you can also rename the numbered folders to anything else you want…after the database has been built. If all your media for job1 has been captured to a “1” folder, and you are about to start capturing for job2…take the “1” folder and rename it job1. then start capturing for job 2. A new “1” folder will then be created. At the end of that process, change that folder to job2. The databases can be read by Avid in a folder with letters…but Avid can’t write anything new to that folder…including updating the database. It is a great way to keep media organized for all to see what is in the folder. All renders and such you do will go into a “1” folder. I don’t usually worry about splitting renders into separate named folders…they can always be recreated if deleted accidentally.

Also, with the mxf file structure, if you capture from tape, you will notice not only the A and V representing audio and video, but the first set of numbers on the file are your clip names…or part of your clip names. Not sure offhand if this is the case for imported files. After a while, it is possible to look through that maze of numbers and find individual shots.

Glenn

[Rosie Walunas]

Okay, great. All this makes sense.

Is there any risk to renaming those numbered folders. You did mention that new footage or material would be an issue. What if you brought in that new material, Avid created it’s database, and then I transferred those files to the renamed folder? Shouldn’t be a reconnecting issue, no?

Totally get what you mean about renders. But, actually how do you locate all your renders in general – so that one can delete them to save space? Say I have many different sequences I’ve rendered and have ‘left behind’ in the edit process, and I want to get rid of their renders to save space.

So many details, but I like to have a good understanding of this stuff as I’m doing assisting stuff.

Thank you!

[Glenn Sakatch]

Sorry, tried to respond to this last week, but the posting never went through.

There is no risk to renaming any folder… as long as you understand the rules regarging read/write (if folder only has numbers) and read only (if folder has letters)

If you want to add new footage to a folder, simply put it back to a number only naming convention, let avid rebuild the database, then name it back to what you really want to call the folder. Remember, anything “new’ that you do, will go into the folder called “1”. That is where you’ll find the stuff you want to copy to a different folder

You can rename these folders as much as you want…Avid doesn’t care, as long as the folder is in the proper area Avid MediaFiles/mxf/yourfoldername,
The folder also has to have an accurate database for Avid to find all the footage in it. (see paragraph 3 above)

To locate renders, run your media tool and have it search for precomputes.

Glenn