Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

MetaCheater Utility

Evolve said:
I nominate Cogito as Reduser of the week for this! thanks man.
Click to expand...
Make that the year! Great work Jabez, thank you for all your time on this, mega important for the Avid heads...

Paypal donations system is a walk in the park to set up (don't tell me you can sort out an Avid metadata workflow but you can't set up a paypal account?!!) - just set up a paypal account for an email address that you use for nothing else (I'll invite you to googlemail if needs be, drop me a line if you want) and then publish that address for donations. People can donate whatever they like, or a pre-set fee from yourself (I'm guessing you'll go with whatever they like!), and then if you register your bank account with your paypal account (follow the details on paypal.com) you can transfer the money into your bank account online. See - easy!

I'll bung you a few quid even if I never end up using it - just for going WAY over and above the call of duty. Nice one fella! :)
 
MichaelP said:
I have been focusing more on RedCine of late which does have multicore support.

Michael
Click to expand...

I just tested Quicktime Pro on a dual core Mac.
To export an Avid DV Quicktime from a Red proxy it uses about 90% CPU on both cores :)
It didn't copy the timecode track though :sad:
I was able to extract it from the proxy and paste it into the DV Quicktime so maybe there is a way to automate this.
On the other hand, meta cheater can use the proxies to extract the timecode data.

To export a 10bit uncompressed YUV Quicktime movie to Avid DV it was only using 30% CPU.
 
Due to popular demand I worked out how PayPal donations work :) There is now a button in the new version of MetaCheater (v1.1, link in next post)... or this link will work too:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webs...ode=USD&lc=NZ&bn=PP-DonationsBF&charset=UTF-8
Thanks heaps to anyone who donates.

Dominic Jones said:
Make that the year! Great work Jabez, thank you for all your time on this, mega important for the Avid heads...

Paypal donations system is a walk in the park to set up (don't tell me you can sort out an Avid metadata workflow but you can't set up a paypal account?!!) - just set up a paypal account for an email address that you use for nothing else (I'll invite you to googlemail if needs be, drop me a line if you want) and then publish that address for donations. People can donate whatever they like, or a pre-set fee from yourself (I'm guessing you'll go with whatever they like!), and then if you register your bank account with your paypal account (follow the details on paypal.com) you can transfer the money into your bank account online. See - easy!

I'll bung you a few quid even if I never end up using it - just for going WAY over and above the call of duty. Nice one fella! :)
Click to expand...
 
Version 1.1 available

Version 1.1 available

Version 1.1 of MetaCheater now available.

The big new feature is the requested ability for it to handle SD Avid 24fps projects. In other words it can correctly alter the timecode on 24fps QTs to work in a 24pNTSC project that needs 30fps timecode. Also works with 24pPAL projects that need 25fps timecode.

(As usual there hasnt been a lot of bug testing done)

Also it removes the new "_F" and "_NA" RedAlert suffixes

And there is a PayPal 'Donate' button... :)

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1mbhzzq4gde
 
Thanks! I will be giving it a run - for users here, the change in timecode for SD projects is because SD does not have a true 24fps format - it is created from 30fps or 25fps sources. By "metacheating" to 30 and 25 timecode, it allows the Avid to recreate it's internal counts to 24 in the 24TC column to have frame accurate representation of both the 30, 25 and the original 24 all at the same time. Pulldown tracking is essential to the process since it can change a count by 1-2 frames if not used as part of the calculation.

Michael
 
cogito said:
Due to popular demand I worked out how PayPal donations work :) There is now a button in the new version of MetaCheater (v1.1, link in next post)... or this link will work too:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webs...ode=USD&lc=NZ&bn=PP-DonationsBF&charset=UTF-8
Thanks heaps to anyone who donates.
Click to expand...
Top stuff man, glad you got it sorted!

I'd like to take this opportunity to urge anyone using Jabez' software to donate a little cash - after, what's 10 or 20 bucks for a solution that will save you as much time as this does? Add up all those little donations, and if we all do our bit Jabez might actually end up getting a half-decent day rate for all his hard work!!
 
Hey Jabez,

I might be missing something really obvious here, but I can't get the select files to work well. I can't select multiple shots, as they are all in different source folders, and I can't maintain a multi-selection between folders...

Once I've added one file, I can't add any more.

I've tried copying the files I want into another folder for the purposes of adding them, but then the link to the R3D fails, and things like framecount don't work.

Am I missing something?
 
Ah, yes. Metacheater doesn't currently let you add separate batches of quicktimes and make one ALE file. All the quicktimes do have to be in one folder.

The problem of moving the quicktimes all to one folder and the link breaking is an odd one. I haven't had problems with that in a while. But the best fix is to create the RedAlert wrappers into a single folder from the beginning. In RedAlert you can designate a folder for all quicktimes to be created in (instead of them being put into the same folder as their r3d files). They should then maintain the link to the r3d files and allow a single import into MetaCheater

Sycophant said:
Hey Jabez,

I might be missing something really obvious here, but I can't get the select files to work well. I can't select multiple shots, as they are all in different source folders, and I can't maintain a multi-selection between folders...

Once I've added one file, I can't add any more.

I've tried copying the files I want into another folder for the purposes of adding them, but then the link to the R3D fails, and things like framecount don't work.

Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
 
Sure, that makes sense, and with RedLine it should be fairly simple to do it all in one go.

Would it be a major hassle to allow files to be added from multiple locations? If not, put it down as a feature request from me :)

cogito said:
Ah, yes. Metacheater doesn't currently let you add separate batches of quicktimes and make one ALE file. All the quicktimes do have to be in one folder.

The problem of moving the quicktimes all to one folder and the link breaking is an odd one. I haven't had problems with that in a while. But the best fix is to create the RedAlert wrappers into a single folder from the beginning. In RedAlert you can designate a folder for all quicktimes to be created in (instead of them being put into the same folder as their r3d files). They should then maintain the link to the r3d files and allow a single import into MetaCheater
Click to expand...
 
The other benefit of a single folder per ALE file is the batch import process after is easier to manage.

Michael
 
MichaelP said:
The other benefit of a single folder per ALE file is the batch import process after is easier to manage.

Michael
Click to expand...

Yes of course, I knew there was another reason. If a single ALE contains QT's that are in multiple folders it will be very frustrating when you batch import in the Avid. Actually I think this is important enough a reason not to add the ability to import multiple sets of QTs into one ALE file in MetaCheater.
 
I believe it should be added as an 'option' at least.

As we speak i'm importing 320 files into Avid for a tvc. Straight from the _P proxy files. The only easy way to do this was to search for all files containing 'p.mov' in finder then drag and drop into avid. This is the only way we can batch import into the avid from multiple folders.

So once the job has been approved and we are ready to create an edl i have to match back to all the clips used, find them, open them, and find out the starting time in qt player. Then in avid change the starting timecode so we can create a useful edl.

I thought my dreams had come true with metacheater, although what is the point if im only doing one file at a time?

If i've missed something here, please tell me im REaDy to learn !
 
But even if I was to add that feature into MetaCheater you would still have to direct the Avid to each file, one by one. The Avid can only automate the batch importation of quicktimes from an ALE if all those quicktimes are in the same folder. The feature you want would not help you work any faster, if you continue to keep the quicktimes in individual folders.

So the trick you missed was to drag all those "_p" quicktimes into a single folder first, then create an ALE using MetaCheater of all the QTs in that folder. Import the ALE into the Avid, select all the clips and chose 'Batch Import' from the Clip menu. Because all the clips are coming from the same folder, once you have correctly matched up one of the clips with its correct path (in the Avid's Batch Import window), all the others will work out their links automatically.

Some people report problems copying the QTs into a single folder, apparently sometimes this breaks the link to the original r3d files. It seems to me though that if you set RedAlert to create the QTs into one folder from the beginning, then their links are preserved.

Redline can be used to automate the creation on the QTs into one folder, even though the original r3ds are in several folders.




jamedia said:
I believe it should be added as an 'option' at least.

As we speak i'm importing 320 files into Avid for a tvc. Straight from the _P proxy files. The only easy way to do this was to search for all files containing 'p.mov' in finder then drag and drop into avid. This is the only way we can batch import into the avid from multiple folders.

So once the job has been approved and we are ready to create an edl i have to match back to all the clips used, find them, open them, and find out the starting time in qt player. Then in avid change the starting timecode so we can create a useful edl.

I thought my dreams had come true with metacheater, although what is the point if im only doing one file at a time?

If i've missed something here, please tell me im REaDy to learn !
Click to expand...
 
What I found is that I wasn't getting all the information in MetaCheater when I did that, as the connection to the source R3D file broke when I moved the QT Ref files.

But it's fairly easy to script REDLine to make new QT Ref files in a single location.
 
I just noticed the ALE I got out of MetaCheater contains no 'Tracks' column - which according to the ALE spec is requried, although Avid didn't complain, but it has resulted in clips expecting VA1-2 and only getting V when I import them.
 
Yeah, let's put this down as a 'known issue'. The workaround is so easy it doesnt bother me. Just select all the clips once you have imported the ALE into a bin (before you batch import the matching QTs) then select 'Modify' from the Clip menu, and then 'Set Tracks'. You can now delete the audio tracks.

Sycophant said:
I just noticed the ALE I got out of MetaCheater contains no 'Tracks' column - which according to the ALE spec is requried, although Avid didn't complain, but it has resulted in clips expecting VA1-2 and only getting V when I import them.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top