[Terence Christopher]

I am using Windows 64 bit 10 which I automatically keep updated, and Intel I 7 4770S 3.10 GHZ, RAM = 16 GB
HD= 2.0 TB DISPLAY= NVIDIA Geforce GT 750M plus Intel HD Graphics 4600 on the processor
I am limited to a Gigabit Ethernet and have only USB 2 ports on the machine. But so far they have not been a problem
My data storage is on a QNAP TVS 822T with a RAID 6 system providing 30 Tb of storage.
My original question was why I was having difficulty loading M2T video clips onto Da Vinci 15 ( free edition) but was convinced that i should use DNxHD as it made editing superior. I then changed my videos to that format, but unwittingly swamped my system storage as the files were 10 times bigger than the originals. I am trying to find a way around that impasse and have installed an 8Tb external drive which is full of my original 2.5 TB M2T videos but at least I have some space on my storage system. I have now found that I couldn’t load the DNxHD files into the Da Vinci and have subsequently learned from Ole Kristansen that there is a bug in the MSX output from the otherwise superb ER Toolkit that I used to switch my videos and that I should use .mov instead. They are only 5X bigger than M2T ie 12 to 15 Tb and I am trying to sum up the energy for that. However I will be more careful just testing out one or two videos to verify that Da Vinci will handle them. It seems that Da Vinci seems to have problems with several different formats and I don’t know where the problem lies.

[Terence Christopher]

I haven’t tried that as most of my files were in M2t, and I had started to transcode them to MP4 as that is accepted by Da Vinci. However a month ago I made a huge effort and transcoded almost all of my M2T to DNxHD (however mxf) I might have to unwind them if I have lost the original.M2T. I am going to ask Ole how to do that. He said that it is possible with ER Toolkit Do you think the problem is in Da Vinci because it also doesn’t accept M2t from my experience. Maybe there is some minor difference in the definitions of the standards between different editors rather than a bug?
If you want a clip to send to Da Vinci so that they can define the differences I would be happy to send it to you. However I don’t want to give you this problem to solve. I will try to go to .mov . I am not up against a commercial problem as this is all done for personal pleasure and my family. I really appreciate the great generosity of so many people with their time and knowledge.
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Well I amusing import file which switches automatically to media. The screen remains black. It is the same if I create a bin and try to import into that. However Ole has just pointed out that there is a bug in the ER emergency kit that is responsible for the problem
Thanks for your help
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Hi Ole. I am afraid the image on my computer was not big enough to see you clicking on the Mov button and as the other choice was mxf that seemed to be the right one so I just went with that. I also didn’t realise the significance of the choice and actually still do not! I thought the mov format was an old low res one unrelated to HD or UHD. When is it used nowadays? I will go back and try some movies with that option. I’ll report back. What had I done wrong with the format that I chose? I will go ahead and report back to the other people who are also trying to help me.
Thanks for all the very kind help
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Here is the text mode report. I would happily sent you a clip if you could tell me where to send it.
The whole problem might be my fault as this is a new programme for me.
I really appreciate your help
Terence

General
Complete name : D:\Sony Video Archive\M2t clips clips\2006\Aug Air Show 2006\Clip 003_DNxHD-HD1080[Anamorphic].mxf
Format : MXF
Commercial name : DNxHD 220
Format version : 1.3
Format profile : OP-1a
Format settings : Closed / Complete
File size : 544 MiB
Duration : 20 s 521 ms
Overall bit rate : 223 Mb/s
Encoded date : 0-00-00 00:00:00.000
Writing application : FFmpeg OP1a Muxer 58.19.100.0.0

Video
ID : 2
Format : VC-3
Commercial name : DNxHD 220
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : HD@HQ
Format settings, wrapping mode : Frame
Codec ID : 0D01030102110100-0401020271040000
Duration : 20 s 521 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 220 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 3.540
Stream size : 538 MiB (99%)

Audio
ID : 3
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little
Format settings, wrapping mode : Frame (AES)
Codec ID : 0D01030102060300
Duration : 20 s 521 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 2 304 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 29.970 FPS (1601.6 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 5.64 MiB (1%)
Locked : Yes

Other #1
ID : 1-Material
Type : Time code
Format : MXF TC
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
Time code settings : Material Package
Time code, striped : Yes

Other #2
ID : 1-Source
Type : Time code
Format : MXF TC
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
Time code settings : Source Package
Time code, striped : Yes

Other #3
Type : Time code
Format : SMPTE TC
Muxing mode : SDTI
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00

[Terence Christopher]

Hi Ole I am sorry to still be bugging you. I have been away getting more disc space and clearing out a critical drive. So I have not yet tried the ffmpeg switch to .mov though I did it with one clip and found that if I then did the transcode to DNxHD that it was 5 times bigger rather than 10 times bigger.. So some improvement. However I thought i would try to see what benefit I would be getting from the DNxHD approach and tried to load one of my files into Da Vinci just to try it out. But Da Vinci would not accept it. Here is its format as produced by ER Media Toolkit,
Clip 001_DNxHD-HD1080[Anamorphic}
It plays perfectly well, and my Da Vinci is still working with my old MP4 videos that I edited so I think it is working maybe there is a setting that I have missed?
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

HI Ole that sounds encouraging. However I need know something about the ffmpeg format versus the DNxHD 180 and The ProRes 422. Format. Sagi suggested that one should have at least this bit rate to maintain the quality.
The DNxHD 36 format is apparently only useful as a proxy file and A higher resolution format is needed by DaVinci to obtain the best resolution Master after editing. I saw that the ProRes conversion by the ER Media Toolkit is in Mov format but is still 5 x bigger than my M2t original though the DNxHD 180 format was 10 bigger than the original. I am running out of drive space on my 30 Tb NAS Are you certain that the ffmpeg conversion will protect me. I think that app might actually be employed by the ER Media Toolkit in its conversion. I am wondering whether I should use the DNxHd 36 as a proxy and hopefully use the M2t as the higher quality reference source (or some other format that you cuold recommend) for the detail. I am facing the removal of 30 TB DNxHD 180 files as they are stalling my drives or purchasing another 20 or 30 TB of drive space. either as USB drives or an extension to my NAS which is only a 6 drive system with 10Tb drives. (I had thought that was overkill)
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Hi Ole Sagi has replied and the problem might have been my bit rate setting. However the programme has also crashed and I will have to reinstall it and retest it. So It might have all been my fault and inexperience.
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Hi Ole I have come up with a new problem that you need to know about. I have been running out of file space which seemed impossible however an engineer at QNAP suggested it might be the file size.. Which it was. I found that a 10 gigabyte file became 84 gigabytes after transcoding.. I was transcoding another set of clips and the transcoding seized up so I was able to see in the same clip the size of the clip before and after transcoding and there was a huge difference.
As both clips were playable I was able to see what was going on. It appears that the transcoding programme was going in loops transcoding a small subset of the clip repeatedly producing a chaotic looping of the image.
I don’t know what prompted this. I have contacted Sagi Gal who has been very helpful and am waiting for his response. However I suspect I will have to re transcode all of my files and I might have to ask you for another tip about which program to use
Terence

[Terence Christopher]

Ole Dean and Marc
Thanks for your advice and experience. The problem is having too many discs etc. It is only recently that big discs have been cheap enough and my present problem stems from having files scattered across discs that are too small and unwieldy to be useful. I am now deleting multiple reduntant disks and centralising the back up as well as switching to the mxf. format. Hopefully my work flow will become rational. Thanks for all of your great help it has given me the ability to do this. Sorry to ask one more question. can you recommend a good utility that allows me to see the metadata of these videos? It would be really nice to have that abstracted into a data base linked to them. Can you do that with DaVinci?
Terence