[Jimmy See]

Hi, yes, it is necessary to have the corresponding import tool from automatic duck as well as the export tool in order to import AAFs using FCP or to export them, as FCP did not have this functionality and worked instead with OMFs for the equivalent purpose.

These tools used to cost a bundle, but the developers gave them out for free as FCP became obsolete and they got jobs at adobe, I notice now that they have stopped hosting the files for download as it looks like they are reviving the automatic duck project to produce some new tools (not sure what they will do), so the software is no longer available. I still have my installer for the automatic duck ‘pro import’ which will allow FCP to import AAF’s if you can provide me with an email address I should be able to send it to you. Unfortunately I don’t know how you send messages to individual cow users, maybe reply with a temporary email address if you don’t want your publicly known.

Anyway, ultimately, it’s best if you can simply get your sound guys to export to a format that already works. Unfortunately I don’t have time to research the matter because I’m late for work but perhaps Pro Tools offers OMF export? I think it mightn’t but worth checking, or perhaps XML with an accompanying media folder.

Anyway’s once I get to work I’ll check here again and see if there’s an address for me to send to so you have it, but I’ve had mixed results with this tool, I don’t remember what was going wrong, but as you can see from my post a year ago, there’ s a checkbox that seems to have unexpected effects upon the import that you should pay attention to too.

[Jimmy See]

That’s an interesting thought. I’ll try that out next time I need to. The reason it had taken so long to get back to you and to notice that there was any kind of a problem with the method for me was because, the circumstances I’m in for this production are such that we’re filming on XDCAM discs. Avid seems to have the ability to deal with these clips as native files without the use of any AMA linking to begin with by way of the legacy XDCAM import functionality. The only reason we were using AMA was initially because in testing I noticed that AMA linking and then consolidating seemed to actually be marginally faster than importing despite neither method involving transcoding. I found that while the difference was minimal, over the course of a full disc and with the speed of the connection to the storage media we had, this difference added up and made it worth using AMA link. This was just fine until I noticed the irritating problem with the lack of choice in imported sound channels and when I found your solution I realised that the time it took to set that up would most likely eat up the time saved from AMA consolidation vs traditional import.

Today I found myself in a situation however where it would be advantageous to use AMA and to remove tracks to keep the number of channels manageable because I wanted the process to operate in the background while I completed some other work I was doing. Unfortunately, that’s when I ran in to the problem I’m describing now.

I mention this because I might not be in that obscure circumstance again for a little while but if I do, or if I find some spare time for testing, I’ll try out what you suggest. I didn’t actually know the process worked after ingest of AMA clips but now that you suggest I see it. When you suggest ‘transcoding’ it should also be fine to consolidate instead right? Just so long as you end up with Avid media in Avid MediaFiles rather than AMA linked?

[Jimmy See]

After AMA linking the file, unlinking, and removing tracks. It is failing the re-link at that stage. The machine seems to be pretty flaky in general so I wouldn’t put it past the workstation.

The Avid version we’re running was recently patched because of various AMA problems, it’s currently 7.0.4 but it still seems to be pretty unstable. It’s also an HPz400 workstation which I think is one of the specific Avid qualified pre-built workstations so a bit frustrating.

[Jimmy See]

Hey as a heads up, I know this is from a long time ago but I just tried this method for the first time today and couldn’t get as far as relinking.

Avid refused to relink saying something about how the some of the clips were online when media database was loaded. Frankly I don’t understand why that would be an issue as that sounds like exactly what you want to happen when the media database is loaded and in any case the clips are offline now and need to be relinked. Prior to giving me this message it loaded AMA indexes too so it seemed like it was working just fine. Anyway maybe it’s just the system I’m on but unfortunately the method was unworkable. I tried altering the settings on the relink menu to tell it to relink to ‘any video’ and it crashed the application.

[Jimmy See]

Hi mate, thanks for helping out. Unfortunately the files are no longer on my testbed machine.

I cleared them because I stumbled on to the solution myself. Perhaps there’s a more elegant way, but this works quite well.

I found the ability to select all streams via the map command in the map documentation that I’d managed to miss before because it’s buried in an example of how to do something quite different to what I was attempting to do.

My solution looks like this:

ffmpeg -f concat -i mylist.txt -map 0 -c copy testoutput.mxf

where the mylist.txt document contains the files I wanted to concatenate with their absolute paths listed after file at the start of each line. This seems to do exactly what I want it to do.

[Jimmy See]

Huh, so after that super long post, I didn’t realise you could just delete markers by pressing delete. Oh well, I do think it would be good if they could implement the feature as described rather than having to use markers but if it is that easy I guess I’ll do that for the time being. At least now it’s articulated well so I can submit it to the feature request.

I’ve always found it odd that it isn’t a feature in most NLE’s, or actually for any come to think of it. I can totally understand how it might be frustrating if you want it the way it is, but it doesn’t seem an obscure method of working to want to use it as I describe which therefore makes it seem to me like two clear acceptable position indicator behaviours that would likely be wanted by people. It should really be an optional feature through a settings menu.

[Jimmy See]

tried to google your issue and found this https://community.avid.com/forums/t/134234.aspx which I’m guessing is you since the circumstances are identical.

Sony helpfully don’t seem to have placed a manual with error codes listed anywhere.

I wish I could be more helpful because I’m sure you’ve already tried most of my suggestions. Here they are anyway though, have you tried unplugging the unit itself from the workstation and power cycling both workstation and PDW-U1? Also, how is it connected to the workstation? Is the USB 2 interface connected via any USB extension leads? If so, try eliminating that and connect the device directly to the workstation, and try a different USB port on the workstation, hopefully from a completely different bus. Also, try those same tests, with a different cable if you’re still no joy after trying each of them. Is the deck only malfunctioning on writing to disc out of avid, or does it successfully perform other tasks? You might have to do a lot of divide and conquering to figure out precisely what’s going on, can you export any sequences at all, or none including the one you want to export? Can you format discs? Can you playback material from an xdcam disc using the XDCAM browser? Do you have many discs available to test with? Is this the same disc that worked fine on the macpro or a different one? It could well be the disc itself.

I don’t see any particular reason to believe it’s a windows error as the people in the Avid forum believe based on the available evidence, as a matter of fact since they were able to at least partially decipher what the error code meant as “Loader Assembly Error” that sounds to me a lot like it’s the unit itself and it’s actually trying to tell you that but maybe they know something I don’t. I guess since the same unit worked on a macpro there’s an indication it isn’t faulty.

I just recently resolved an issue with one of these things whereby it refused to export a sequence that had been assembled in a progressive project on to a disc as interlaced by changing the project format prior to export. That issue surfaced with an error message reported in Avid not windows or the XDCAM driver software so it’s probably not as serious as what you’re experiencing, however it might be worth trying the same solution that worked for that issue just in case. The fix for that particular problem was to start a new, interlaced project and copy the bin containing the progressive sequence in to the new, empty project and exporting from there. Doing it that way I encountered no errors.

I’m guessing also that you’ve checked in the basic information tab on the drive utility software that the particulars for the disc are all as they should be. Also, just in case it is an issue with the deck itself, the disc is inserted the right way up right? I know that sounds patronising especially since you wrote a disc before already but have to ask everything just in case.

[Jimmy See]

The title post makes this a pretty mysterious issue to deal with, you might get more replies if the title described the issue in some way.

I don’t know what’s happening in the scenario you’re describing but I have found that issues with avid windows that in some way obscure themselves and can’t be moved simply by dragging the window around as you normally would, it can help to try removing additional monitors from the system thus hopefully forcing a new window placement on your single monitor which you can then save by quitting avid. Then you can plug your additional monitors back in and start Avid again and hopefully the window placement has been saved to your user account from the previous session and will be visible on your main monitor ready for you to move them where you’d like them. This solution is mainly for dealing with windows that have decided to position themselves outside the borders of the visible screen space on a monitor rather than windows that have decided to disappear altogether, but it might work for this too.

It also sounds like, if they appear on quitting, the windows are somehow appearing behind other windows and are there all along, perhaps it would help to use the cmd+~ key combination and see if that returns the window to the top of the screen.

Failing that, if you haven’t tried it, messed up interfaces are also often fixed by creating a new user with everything stock standard. If that fixes it, you know it’s an issue with your user settings and you can figure out what to do from there.

[Jimmy See]

awesome thanks mate. Hopefully the time those extra couple of steps take to complete is not greater than the time saved using the AMA plugin vs the legacy XDCAM import. I can’t figure out how one is able to faster than the other anyway to be honest but glad it’s possible to be quicker even so.

I saw someone had asked this question some years ago and it was you who answered saying you’d look in to it so thanks for playing the long game.

[Jimmy See]

Ended up figuring it out.

The escape key on the standard Avid keyboard is already mapped to toggle source and record monitors. For the circumstance I’m in where I’m constantly switching between timeline and source monitor because of the match frame button, it’s simple to use the keyboard to select the tracks I want on the timeline when nothing is loaded in the source monitor as the record tracks are by default what’s affected, and then after hitting the match frame key, pressing escape to toggle the record monitor which when selected allows the record tracks to be manipulated as opposed to the source tracks.

I think read somewhere that ctrl 0 is switch focus to timeline. I’ll probably look in to that too, but the simplicity of the two way toggle between source and record is pretty handy.