[Ryan Dundas]

I think what happened is, the editor used File>Open Bin and opened graphics bin from another project and used those clips in the sequence. Then later the same graphics were imported into the graphics bin in the current project. So when you hit find bin, that graphics bin opens up but I get the message saying “The clip may have been moved to a different bin.”

Still not sure why it went offline, even if it did come from another project, I am still connected to the drive with that other project and all of it’s media.

I couldn’t get the clips in the sequence to relink to the files that we later imported into the project, so I had to do a batch re-import. Now I have multiple copies of the same graphics in my project. Not ideal but the only way I could get it to come back online other that re-editing the graphic into the sequence from the new master clip.

[Ryan Dundas]

Thank you Brent!

With your guys help I was able to figure out that when I am connected to shared storage, Avid is only recognizing media in the folders that start with the name of one of my connected systems. I renamed the folder Avid1.101 like Brent suggested and Avid immediately indexed when I opened it up, and all of my media came back online.

And this also solved my issue of copying a project to a drive with Automatic Duck Media Copy!

When working from the drive I created rather than on our server, Avid doesn’t recognize the folders with the system names at the beginning. It only recognizes folders that are named with numbers.
So after I copy the media to the drive with the same file path, I just have to go into the MXF folder and change the name of all the folders that begin with a system name to just a number and everything comes online when I open the project!

[Ryan Dundas]

Hey Shane thanks for the info. Not sure what I am going to do to get this media back online that I already moved.

If you remember, I was telling you in one of my other posts that we are using a Qnap raid with a program called Mimiq that basically fools Avid into seeing it as an Avid storage system (ISIS or UNITY or NEXIS) This was the work of Bob Zelin. So I wondered if this setup was playing a factor in the issues I’m having.

But I was able to find out that the folders with the computer name followed by .1 are normal when you are working on an Avid shared storage system. If you have a single system working from a drive, you just get the 1 folder, and when that folder reaches the max file limit it creates 2 then 3 and so on. So I guess having numbered folders is possible, but the media in those folders won’t be indexed if you are connected to shared storage?

I was confused because one day I moved the mxf files to the folder I made and they eventually relinked after I let Avid sit open for a while. Then the next day I did the same exact thing and the media will not relink and Avid will not recreate those database files. I realized the only difference in my process was on day 1, all of the media was transcoded by a single computer. On the second day I used a second computer to expedite the transcoding time. I will have so much footage coming in that I have to use multiple computers to transcode.

I have read and been told that you can organize the mxf files manually by changing the 1 folder to another number, but I guess when using a shared storage system this is not possible?

[Ryan Dundas]

Hey Eric thanks for the response

It shouldn’t be a problem with my folder structure. All my media is in Avid MediaFiles>MXF, and since I am working from a shared storage system with multiple computers, the MXF folder contains a folder named 1, and also folders with the name of each computer on my system with a .1 behind it.

I am simply trying to create new folders inside the MXF folder to move my media into to keep it more organized. So when I transcode media on the computer named Avid1, it ends up in the Avid MediaFiles>MXF>Avid1.1 folder. I then move it to the new folder I created named 101, which I will do for all the media for the episode # 101 project.

But after I move the mxf files, the media goes offline instead of Avid indexing the folder and finding it. So I delete the database files, and now Avid is not recreating the database files or locating the media files.

Are you saying that when I move the mxf files from one folder to another, I have to move the 2 database files with it?

[Ryan Dundas]

So here is an update, but I still have some things I need help with.

After all else failed I payed the $99 for automatic duck media copy. The manual for the product says that I can select an Avid .avp project file, or .avb bin files, and the media will automatically be located and copied to the location of my choice. I tried selecting the .avp for my project and the transfer gave me errors on a bunch of files. Also it tried to copy over the high res footage that I have linked into the project. I only want to transfer the low res proxies that I transcoded from those linked clips in Avid.

So I tried going through and selecting all of the .avb bin files for all of the bins that I have my proxy media sorted into. I also added all the bins that contain my music and graphics. This time the copy completed without errors. So I moved my project folder from my server to the drive, disconnected from the server and tried to open the project from the drive. I was expecting everything to relink automatically since it copied everything over with the exact same folder structure, but nope! Apparently nothing is that easy in Avid. Some of the media was relinked, but the majority of it showed up as offline. I tried to select all the offline files and relink, but Avid will not relink to the files.

I checked the log file that Media Copy creates and it shows all the files from all my bins were copied over without error. So I went back to my original project on my server and located a clip that is not relinking. I click reveal file and then search for those .mxf files on the drive and I am able to find them under the same folders as the server. Avid is just not able to relink to some of the clips even though the .mxf media is on the drive. Why is this?

I tried deleting the media database files (.pmr & .mdb) in every folder on the drive then relaunching Avid but I still can not get the files to relink. And that takes me to my next question…

When I delete those database files and reopen Avid, I expect it to show the indexing files box with a progress bar, but it doesn’t come up. And the database files are not being remade immediately when I open Avid. Then I left my computer sitting for about a half hour and they appeared. Is there some way I can force Avid to re-index my Avid MediaFiles folder? Or maybe there is a setting I have to select so that it is done automatically when I launch Avid? I looked under media creation settings but didn’t see anything?

[Ryan Dundas]

Hey Shane, we went with that format for the proxies because that is what the post sup asked me to try and it seems to be working alright with our system. No storage issues yet, they are shooting much less footage than we expected.

I looked more into automatic duck media copy. With that I have to export an XML of a sequence, then it is able to find all of the media from that sequence and move it to a target drive. Still more steps than I want to do because I don’t have all of my footage in one sequence.

But I was thinking if I do layout all of my footage into sequences and have those all in one bin, can’t I just select all of those sequences and Consolidate them to my external drive? That will copy over all of the media used in those sequences correct?

I am just nervous because I am going to have to reconnect the editors sequences on our raid after they are done working. I fear that if I consolidate, the new media files it creates on the external drive will have different names or some other crap that makes them difficult to reconnect to the original media on my raid. I am testing this with some sequences now

[Ryan Dundas]

For my test project I transcoded all of my linked 1080 DNxHD 145 footage to 720 DNxHD 50 proxies by changing the project format from 1080p/29.97 to 720p/29.97. I did this because when I left the project format 1080p/29.97 and tried to transcode to either Source 1/4 or Source 1/16, the only option it would give me for resolution was DNxHR LB MXF. I didn’t want to work in that codec.

I think moving forward I will try to leave the project 1080p/29.97 and transcode to DNxHD 45 and see how my system handles multigroups with 6 or more cameras in 1080 instead of 720

And it sounds like I set the source info wrong for relinking. If I have to add a unique tape name to every single clip that is pretty annoying, I have easily over 100 clips from 10 different cameras. Not sure why it can’t just remember the name and location of the linked file it was transcoded from.

Am I screwed if I don’t add the Tape Name to the linked file before transcoding? Or in other words if I forget to add it and transcode a file, can I add the same Tape Name to the linked and transcoded files and expect a reliable relink?

I’m sure it is preferred to do it before transcoding but sometimes editors bring in footage when I am not around and I can see them forgetting to do this. If so do I have to re-transcode?

[Ryan Dundas]

Ok so it looks like there is no way to navigate to each file individually when relinking, like in Premiere or Final Cut?

All I can do is select what drive I want to search and what metadata to use to search?

[Ryan Dundas]

Hey Shane thanks for the knowledge.

When it comes to archiving, we always back up the camera masters on G-Drive external drives, and another copy on SATA drives using a dock like you mentioned. So we have it in 2 locations as well as on our server for edit.

For this project it sounds like I could link the footage straight from the camera media then consolidate it to my server instead of copying to the server then consolidating. That way my server doesn’t need space for both versions and I will have my backups.

Shane my other question I have for you is; if I decide to edit with low res proxies for better multigroup playback performance, what metadata do I need to be sure is there so I will easily be able to relink back to my high res footage that I linked to transcode the proxies? I figured I could just relink using Source File name, but I read in another post that this metadata will be removed after making the multigroup so you have to use Tape Name?

I did a test where I multigrouped 3 cameras together using proxy files. Then I cut a sequence from the multigroup and chose Commit Multicam Edits then tried to relink back to my high res footage and I was having trouble getting it to relink. I was told I need to add a unique Tape Name to every single clip that I make proxies from? Is this correct?

[Ryan Dundas]

Ok good to know thanks

I figured after my edit is complete I could right click the sequence and select Commit Multicam Edits, and that would turn all the multigroup clips back to regular clips that I could easily relink to the Original master clips. Is this correct?

After doing some searching I noticed people running into bugs with the Commit Multicam Edits feature. Is there anything I need to know to avoid getting this bug?