RedCine to ALE

[MichaelP]

All -

For those brave enough to try some beta code... wait, everyone on this site uses beta code! :wink:

I have attached an XSLT file (zipped) which translates the XML from RedCine to an ALE file. Things to keep in mind is that it is currently working for entire clips - I am waiting on an update on RedCine to give an outpoint in the XML when making handles in RedCine (subclips).

The script is grabbing all of the metadata in the XML file including frame resize and offsets. The way one works with this script is by using some freeware tools. There is an XML translator for Firefox or you can use one of these freeware tools for Mac or PC:

PC - XTrans: http://www.simxtech.com/users/zc2/xtrans/XTrans.zip
Mac - TestXSLT: http://www2.entropy.ch/download/TestXSLT-3.1.zip

In each case, you first open the RedCine XML file, then the XSLT file, and there is a process or transform menu or button. This will create a third file which is an ALE file. Do a "save as" and name it with a .ale extension.

Import ALE first, then do a batch import (like with MetaCheater) to merge the QT's created from RedCine into the Metadata.

This will get you started. Let me know what you find. Have fun!


Michael

 

[Jörgen Persson]

Let me know what you find. Have fun!

Michael

Let me start by saying thank you.

Then I would just like to point out that the UNC Path in my ALE is missing the leading Camera Letter ("A" if you just have one camera). Feature or bug?

xsl:value-of select="substring($actual, 2, 24)"/

Could the "2" be the culprit?

 

[MichaelP]

Checking with the engineer. I am assuming that the "A" is part of the original string in the originating XML? Try changing that to a 1 and see what happens... I will let you know what I hear.

Michael

 

[MichaelP]

Is it part of the string in the original XML?

Michael

 

[Jörgen Persson]

Is it part of the string in the original XML?

Michael

Yes.

Actually the entire path is missing from "source".
So it's either the full path or an extra letter

If I change from "2" to "1" then the A is back in the ALE.
But i guess RedCine will have a hard time finding the R3D without the path downstream in the process.
"Construct failed to load" and so on.

 

[MichaelP]

The UNC path is an interesting one since files can be copied from area to a other between an offline and an online... I changed the 2 to a 1 and got the full file name. Working with the engineer now - most likely will repost an update soon.

Michael

 

[Jörgen Persson]

The UNC path is an interesting one since files can be copied from area to a other between an offline and an online...
Michael

I agree.

But doesn't RedCine need the original file path to be able to open the xml?

(You are probably in the loop and know what the next version will be able to do, so I will let you do your job...) :whistling:

 

[Jason Diamond]

thanks michael. gonna grab this. nice to see bug fixes within hours of first posting!
the UNC column is a tricky beast. Bob was having a hell of a time getting it to work at the AVID thing in NYC. said it mightve been that he was on a early beta not the newest RC build.

 

[MichaelP]

I forgot to mention that in order to have the RedCine export the movies with the same name as the XML2ALE, you need to use #C as the export format.

Michael

 

[Kim]

Thanks alots Michael, maybe no need to borrow my friend's macbook to use RedAlert

 

[MichaelP]

Hello All again -

Attached is the latest version of the XSLT file that translates RedCine XML to ALE. See first posting in thread. Also remember to use #C as the file name in the output of RedCine.

Changes made to this version:

• 
  Full UNC path is preserved

• 
  Added internal timecode to AuxTC1 column

Other than the subclip support which we are waiting on from RedCine folks, this one looks pretty complete.

Michael

 

[Terry Wester]

Michael,

Thanks for sharing. I am curious how this is different than MetaCheater? Do they pretty much just do the same thing, or am I missing something? We have a pretty fast smooth workflow in place right now, I am just wondering if this could make it better.

Thanks

 

[MichaelP]

Right now they are pretty close - the difference is in additional metadata being supported such as UNC path, both edgecode and time of day timecode, automatic placement of metadata into multiple columns for increased flexibility downstream (long and short file names for EDL or not), as well as support for resize metadata if changed in RedCine (X, Y and offset). Subclips to come in an upcoming version. You will also notice the beginning of a predictive DPX file based workflow conversion (inspired from MetaCheater) that creates the DPX file name from a timecode to total frame conversion. This creates predictive metadata for anyone downstream creating or converting to DPX -

As anyone who knows me, I am a metadata whore (in a good sense) since you never know who is going to need what when. So you will see metadata being redundantly placed in certain columns because of the flexibility it will offer downstream processes at some point in time.

If you have a workflow that works today with MetaCheater, then "don't fix what ain't broke" as they say. But this is the first step in a deeper roundtrip metadata management that you will see increase over time. You will see similar results with Redline in the near future.

Jabez is a good friend of mine, and I already warned him - I'm gunning for MetaCheater!


Michael

 

[Terry Wester]

Micheal,

Thanks for the rundown, I will give it a go. One quesion, does it support SD?

Right now we offline in SD. We save quicktimes using the Avid DV codec. The reason we use Avid DV codec is speed. Red Cine will output is almost realtime on an 8 core mac running bootcamp. And on our new redBoxx it is almost 2x realtime.

When I use Metacheater everything works great.

We are onlining on Scratch.

Thanks,
Terry

 

[MichaelP]

Not right now, but we can look into creating an XML that would work for SD NTSC and PAL. But right now it works at the rate handed to us from RedCine. And RedCine only outputs DNxHD 115 in NTSC based countries. Looks like MetaCheater for you for now.

Michael

 

[Terry Wester]

Michael,

Sorry to be OT, but do is there any easy way to automate the match up of video and audio clips with the same name and length in the Media Composer? Been working on this for a while and we are still doing it the old-fashioned way

 

[Jabez Olssen]

Jabez is a good friend of mine, and I already warned him - I'm gunning for MetaCheater!


Michael

To tell you the truth I never expected MetaCheater to stay relevant for as long as it has

-jabez

 

[MichaelP]

Jabez - I was wondering when you would get on the thread! I wanted to make sure you got all the donations you could get.

As far as video and audio - in the HD world and HD post, do the audio and video have the same 24fps jam synced timecode from the set?

Michael

 

[Jörgen Persson]

Hello All again -

Attached is the latest version of the XSLT file that translates RedCine XML to ALE. See first posting in thread. Also remember to use #C as the file name in the output of RedCine.

Changes made to this version:

• 
  Full UNC path is preserved

• 
  Added internal timecode to AuxTC1 column

Other than the subclip support which we are waiting on from RedCine folks, this one looks pretty complete.

Michael

Just one more thing. For the UNC Path to work inside Avid the files and folders need to be separated by ":" not "/".

 

[Jörgen Persson]

A feature request for Avid (not for the xsl) would be able to set the import file location in the ALE. That way you don't need to put all files in the same folder or manually locate them before batch import. You could keep them in the same folder as the original R3D file for example.