HELP!! Avid DNxHD 36 MXF export from Redcine-X (build 454) not working...

[Jan Balster]

Hey guys,

I'm working on a commercial and the post house wants DNxHD 36 MXF files for their offline in Avid. I'm a FCP guy myself and I'm having trouble finding a way to export files that work for the post house. I've spend several hours yesterday trying to find a solution and I'm sure that I'm not the first one to ask this question.

Here is what I've doen so far, export from Redcine-X (build 454) as an AFF & MXF with the options set to DNxHD 36 8-Bit. When the export is done, I get a folder with AFF, an ALE and a folder of MXF files. When I import the AFF into an Avid bin, Media Composer is supposed to pick up the MXF and run with it but all I get is a "Media Offline". I can't seem to find a workaround and since most of the stuff I've found in my search dates back to 2009 and early 2010, it leads me to believe that a solution has be found but I'm just not seing it.

HELP!! I'm getting a little pressed for time with this.

Thanks so much in advance.

- Jan

[Adam Eden]

You need to copy the contents of the MXF folder and place them in to the media drive and its folder normally named 1 or so on where the other mxf files are.
You owe me a case of beer for this if you ever come to Australia as this is a common mistake!

[Eric Santiago]

You need to copy the contents of the MXF folder and place them in to the media drive and its folder normally named 1 or so on where the other mxf files are.
You owe me a case of beer for this if you ever come to Australia as this is a common mistake!

I've gotten to the point of creating a new MXF folder not named 1. Avid has a limit with files and we've hit the 5000 file mark many times. Im at Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1 to 9 in most of our drives.
For RED Ive designated 11 ;)

[Jan Balster]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the help. I'm very green when it comes to AVID and I just installed the trial of Media Composer but I really don't know what I'm doing with AVID. Would you mind baby-stepping me through the process of how to find/create the aforementioned "1" folder? One I've created that folder how do I make MC recognize it?

I'm thinking that the post house should know this stuff but I'm trying to test the files that I export from Redcine-X.

Thanks again.

- Jan

[M Most]

I've gotten to the point of creating a new MXF folder not named 1. Avid has a limit with files and we've hit the 5000 file mark many times. Im at Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1 to 9 in most of our drives.
For RED Ive designated 11 ;)

Two things to keep in mind:

1. The Avid MediaFiles folder must be at the root level of the drive it's on. It can be on any drive on the system (or on multiple drives, one per drive), but it must be at the root level.
2. Avid will only use numbered folders for file evaluation. Any folder under Avid MediaFiles->MXF that has a name instead of a number will not be evaluated.

If you're not relinking to an existing or pre-created bin, you can try opening the Media Tool and looking at the specific drive you've placed the files on to see it the system is seeing them. If it is, you can show master clips only and simply drag them into a new bin. That will not necessarily get you additional metadata for later use that is in the ALE but not in the MXF directly, however, it will let you edit with the clips, if that's all you intend to do.

[Eric Santiago]

Would you mind baby-stepping me through the process of how to find/create the aforementioned "1" folder? One I've created that folder how do I make MC recognize it?

Are you on a Mac or PC? Either way, when you start Avid you have to select the drives you wish to work on. As soon as you do that you should see this folder structure "Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1" Now the only time I can get a new folder within the MXF is to overfill the first folder. However at the start of a new drive, I can just take the "1" folder and duplicate it and rename as "2" or whatever you wish. This folder should have two files intact (msmFMID.pmr & msmmMOB.mdb) which are Avids database files. Of course I would only attempt this with a new drive and no imported files in the first folder.

[M Most]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the help. I'm very green when it comes to AVID and I just installed the trial of Media Composer but I really don't know what I'm doing with AVID. Would you mind baby-stepping me through the process of how to find/create the aforementioned "1" folder? One I've created that folder how do I make MC recognize it?

I'm thinking that the post house should know this stuff but I'm trying to test the files that I export from Redcine-X.

Thanks again.

- Jan

See my previous post.

Post facilities deal with Avid all the time, but it's still up to you to properly copy files they send you. The Avid help files explain the media management and file structure quite well, you really should look at them. They should answer most of your questions.

[M Most]

Are you on a Mac or PC? Either way, when you start Avid you have to select the drives you wish to work on. As soon as you do that you should see this folder structure "Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1" Now the only time I can get a new folder within the MXF is to overfill the first folder. However at the start of a new drive, I can just take the "1" folder and duplicate it and rename as "2" or whatever you wish. This folder should have two files intact (msmFMID.pmr & msmmMOB.mdb) which are Avids database files. Of course I would only attempt this with a new drive and no imported files in the first folder.

You can create as many folders under the MXF folder as you want, as long as they are numbered. You can copy MXF files into them as you wish. If you're duplicating an existing folder, and then changing what's in it, you should delete the two files you mentioned. Avid will create and rebuild them for any numbered folder under the MXF folder when it starts up, or when you add a new folder or remove an existing one while it's running. That's the beauty of Avid's media management, it always knows what's there, even if it's changed.

[Eric Santiago]

You can create as many folders under the MXF folder as you want, as long as they are numbered. You can copy MXF files into them as you wish. If you're duplicating an existing folder, and then changing what's in it, you should delete the two files you mentioned.

Ooops my bad. I forgot to add that we like to keep certain files away from each other due to Avids problem with Hagrid, SWDC, etc...
We got into the habit of moving folders around and renaming.
FYI. Once you have a solid Avid folder e.g. MXF > 1, you can rename that folder to anything you wish.
Like I said we got into renaming due to other reasons so we keep our RED files away from older projects.
Only thing is that the renamed folder will not accept newly created Avid files.
If you rename the MXF > 1 folder it will come back again if you import/create new files within Avid.
Just some quirks we have to deal with here.

[Jan Balster]

This is what I got from a fellow DIT, which helped a lot and I finally got my MXFs into MC.


-Render out 1080p 23.976 DNXHD 35 MXFs in RedCine-X
-Open Media Composer
-Make a new project
-Open a bin
-import a dummy file into the Avid using the import tool - can be any pretty much any Quicktime -- this will force the Avid into making its "Avid MediaFiles" directory.
-Find the Avid MediaFiles directory on your disk.
-You can delete the dummy file out of there
-Copy the contents of the MXF folder created in RedCine-X into the "1" folder in Avid MediaFiles
-Refresh Media Directories from the File menu in Avid
-Open the Media Tool (under Tools)
-Select the drive of your Avid MediaFiles and the project name (or shift-click all the projects for that matter)
-Choose "Master Clips" at the bottom (if this doesn't work, try adding media files as well)
-If nothing shows up, restart the application and reopen the Media tool.
-Master clips are what you want--they'll have sync'ed audio
-Drag these into a bin and you should be good to go.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

- Jan