Avid is self-aware. And while not in the sort of way, Avid is aware of it’s own. Commonly this is found in a shared user environment (Unity, ISIS). However, it can also be found in terms of raw media. A little known feature within Avid is the concept of a Fast Import. This complicated term does exactly what is says – it imports media into your Avid faster than a traditional import.
However, lately I’ve been frequently asked, “well, why not use AMA? No importing is needed!” Let’s address this before we jump into Fast Importing. In Media Composer 5 (or as I called it: AMA v 2.0) and above introduced a new feature to the previous incarnation of AMA: The ability to use QuickTime files in your Avid project WITHOUT having to transcode during import. While this is fantastic for instant gratification, it can cause problems during creative edit.
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Newer, highly compressed codecs (See: RED, 5D / 7D, etc) commonly cannot play in real time inside Avid. This can also lead to problems later – exporting and Digital Cuts are somewhat limited by AMA files.
Best practice is to convert all media into an Avid codec – for HD, it’s a flavor of – during import. Avid is then dealing with their own codec. Aside from the excellent quality of their codecs, they also do not break down during post due to renders. So, for several reasons, working in an Avid codec – natively – is an excellent choice. Back to smelling one’s own. The straight import process into Avid can be a long one. Not only does the conversion of the file into an Avid codec take a while, it also effectively kills your use of the Avid.
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The Avid is unusable as the progress bar creeps across the screen. But, if we create a file that is ALREADY in the Avid DNxHD codec, Avid will recognize it as such and skip the transcode process.
Avid will still need to wrap the file into the proper MXF shell to be used effectively – however, this is usually 70% – 80% faster than a traditional straight import. Geek Sidebar: Avid has always had excellent media management. Maintaining this requires Avid to separate a QuickTime file’s audio and video into separate files, wrapping them appropriately, and placing them inside the ‘Avid MediaFiles’ folder. This process takes time, hence the ‘only’ 80% savings in time.
/end Geek Sidebar Wunderbar! How do I get my grubby paws on this technique?. Download the Avid codec onto the machine which will do the encode (or as I call it, ). Codec Details Window (Click to Enlarge). On the same machine, open up your encoding software du jour.
I am a fan boy of ’s (, using multiple computers – Nice!) Other solutions may be Apple’s, Sorenson, etc. Choose to encode into a QuickTime Movie (.mov) Typically there is an ‘Options’ or ‘Advanced’ button, which will allow you to dig into the particular settings of the Encoder.
You want to choose “Avid DNxHD Codec” from the list. You can force FPS, but I typically leave it at ‘Best’. If you want better quality you can select “Multi-Pass” (if your software allows the choice).
“Single-Pass” works fine for most applications, and is faster. As far as Compressor Depth: 9 times out of 10, this should be at “Millions of Colors”, NOT “Millions of Colors +”. The + allows for an alpha channel, which the Avid DNxHD codec now supports. Unless you desire an Avid DNxHD file which has an alpha channel, disregard this.
The Alpha channel will cause a longer encode and a larger file size and is typically not used on media that is camera generated. This also goes hand-in-hand with the option below “Alpha”. Select “None”. This one is so important, it gets it’s own number in my list.
Color Levels: 709 not RGB. Avid DNxHD Codec Chart (Click to Enlrage) Rec. 709 are color spaces for SD and HD video, respectively. These values translate into Avid in an Y’CbCr color space, which Avid plays nicely with.
Resolutions: This is where things get hairy. Avid, in an attempt to not confuse people, created DNxHD Codec ‘families” to aid in ease of encoding. Unfortunately, it causes confusion when you get past the topical discussion about it. Geek Sidecar: Avid has 3 DNxHD Codec Families: DNxHD 36, DNxHD 145, and DNxHD 220. These numbers correspond to the data rates of the family (Mb/sec). However, what may not be obvious is that these data rates vary according to frame rate (23.976, 29.97, etc), however the family remains the same.
Thus, 23.976 fps in DNxHD 36 at is indeed 36Mb/s, but 29.97 fps at DNxHD 36 is 45Mb/s. Avid has gotten better at this, and as you look at the chart below, you’ll see the new numbers reflect the correct data rate. Read for yourself:. Here are some (of my) good rules of thumb for each family:. DNxHD36: Offline quality, not fit for broadcast. DNxHD145: Threshold of broadcast quality. DNxHD220 or 220x: best quality possible.
Import Settings – OMFI / AAF Tab (Click to Enlarge) I find the speed benefit to be about 80% faster (trials done on a Dual Quad Core 2.93 GHz ‘Nehalem’ MacPro, a Mid 2007 Intel Core Duo 2.4 GHz ‘Merom’ MacBook Pro, and a HP Z800 Dual Quad Core 2.93 GHz PC) I do want to make one point clear: This speeds up the import into Avid. You still have to wait for the initial encode to be done. Depending on your encoding software, it could be faster (or slower!), but it DOES free up your Avid to work while the file is encoded elsewhere. Also, the concept of “pay now or pay later” comes into play. Would you rather wait at the front end of a project for the import (less stress), or wait until the END of the project (more stress) – with deadlines – and deal with the transcode / render / mixdown then?
Also, think about how the creative edit will be impacted when things don’t play in real-time. As always, feedback is welcome. Michael Kammes Michael Kammes is the Director of Technology at Key Code Media. He works on the technical, consulting, and demonstration side of post production, and has been a keynote speaker at conventions, colleges, conventions, technology retreats, symposiums, and industry events. In his current role, he consults on the latest in technology and best practices in the digital media creation and communications space, guiding the selection of best of breed solutions.
Michael has been involved in the design and build of thousands of production and post production systems and facility integrations. He has also worked extensively in the post audio realm, serving as a Dialogue Editor, SFX Editor, ADR Recordist & Editor, Re-Recording Mixer, and Supervising Sound Editor on countless film, television, and internet based projects. In addition, Michael has worked on many new media and interactive media based projects, from web design to DVD / Blu-ray to interactive kiosks. He is also creator and host of the popular “5 THINGS” web series, focused on demystifying the technology in the industry.
Michael is currently a member of the MPSE (Motion Picture Sound Editors), an Apple Certified Trainer (Final Cut Pro – ACT FCP), an Avid Certified Support Representative (ACSR), and is constantly becoming certified on latest and greatest post technology has to offer. Plus, he really, really, digs Post. Hi Evan- Thanks for the feedback. There actually IS a way to READ DNxHD in Linux.
FFmpeg has had the ability for over 2 years know. Via CLI with a -F switch, you can force MFFmpeg to play the file.
It works great here (ya just have to force it). Since FFmpeg is based off of the libavcodec library, the ability is there. An associate wrote a batch file (in Windows), so whenever I drop a DNxHD (MXF wrapped) file on it, it opens up FFmpeg with a -f switch and whammo, instant viewing of DNxHD – and in it’s Avid MXF wrapper to boot.
Obviously, this would require a bit of know-how to go from the decode to encode, but the framework is there. However, I do believe a DNxHD.mov should be fine even without a switch. Since FFmpeg has the abilities on each platform. Aside from that, lower-cost Apple Compressor farms- or even the really good Telestream Episode Engine Farms – this works great. I thought Autodesk products (Linux based) Smoke, Lustre, Flame, etc.
All understood DNxHD Media. Per Autodesk (v. 2011+) Avid MXF Limitations Keep in mind the following limitations when working with Avid MXF files. ■ Support for Avid MXF files is currently limited to DNxHD encoded files. IMX, DV and uncompressed formats are not supported at this time. ■ Conforming of Avid AAF - Avid MXF files is limited to material generated from an Avid system that does not reference P2 Spanned clips.
■ Conforming of Avid audio MXF files imported from stereo source material and split into single channel MXF files will only relink to one channel. ■ Problems may occur when MXF files greater than 2GB are accessed through NFS, due to a limitation of the NFS protocol. This may cause the application to crash. If they can then there has to be yet another solution! Sounds promising that there might be a way to encode new DNX quicktimes, but I think unless it’s easy most VFX houses won’t care enough to put the time in to figure it out. From their perspective a Photo JPEG QT works just fine (and can use less space), but yeah, then we in Editorial have to spend time converting it on import.
I also think they probably don’t get a lot of requests for Avid-ready QTs, since a lot of people don’t know about the Fast Import option and how much time it can save them (hence the article!). Thanks Scott. There are a number of compression utilities that do it. However, this is a feature most often found in higher end products (i.e. Root6’s Content Agent can do it, for example. However it;s $10,000 – starting.
Telestream’s Flip Factory can do it, although the price is even higher. Metafuze can do it.but is painfully slow. It’s funny – Avid’s DNxHD codec is a SMPTE standard AND Avid has their Avid Media Toolkit, so all the material needed to do it is out there. Just need it to be financially beneficial for someone/thing to find the R&D time and be able to profit from i!
Hi Chris, sorry for the delay in responding, I’ve been MIA at NAB! There are several advantages of using a 3rd party app to accomplish this.
As we’ve discussed, you don’t tie up your editing bay. Processor usage.
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Media Composer isn’t really efficient as it could be when importing – thus (as you’ve probably seen) it can be slow. 3rd party apps Like Telestream’s Episode can saturate the pipe, so to speak, and generate usable files quicker. During Import, if Media Composer does not recognize a file, or runs into an issue, you’re stuck. Media Composer waits for you to Abort, Continue, etc. Leaving the app to chug overnight importing is good in theory, but without a pair of eyes, you have to.hope. the import went 100%. I believe this is one of the reasons why Avid added in the ability in 5.x for emails to be sent when tasks are completed.
Yes, this certainly eats up more space. I think it’s the lesser of 2 evils: Do you want to have a horrible editorial experience with non RT playback of media and effects and very long export times (but save space) or have a good (dare I say pleasant) editorial experience but take up extra space? Pick your poison, I suppose. You do have the ability to delete the DNxHD.mov files AFTER you fast import them into Media Composer – remember, Media Composer is copying them and wrapping them, not using the file as it sits. Dear mic, we been runng offshore production in london, issue is our filming happens in Europe, offline footage goes to india for editing, we are not typical avid guys, transforming ourself coz of DS, right now we capture HDV footage through media composer dv25411 mxf, transcoded to 15.1 mxf for the offline edit, we send it to india for the edit, we receive back 15.1 attached to the media composer relink actual footage, this is what we been doing now, its really look rediculous, but its our self made way, i will be happy to hear is there any effective way of doing this? Any posbltiy to use third party software for the transcoding, thanking you in advance riaz khan CEO sasyinternational. Hey Zach: The problem is that Metafuze (almost 3 years old at this point) is painfully slow – slower than a traditional import into Avid AND it’s PC only (natively).
Thus, we gain no time benefit by using Metafuze, only the ability to NOT tie up the edit bay. I, for one, would spend money on a fast transcoder than wait on Metafuze. That being said, Metafuze DOES handle some oddball formats other transcoders don’t (it’s based off of Avid DS code), so I guess the user has to pick their poison depending on codecs and budget. Dear Michael, Many thanks for this great articles.
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😀 but i have few questions. Are this setting can be used in PAL world? Because i’ve been using your setting except for that resolution setting. I’m using DNXHD120, because i’m living in PAL country. The project setting i’m using is 1080/25.
But when i’m trying to import the file that have been pre encode on sorenson squeeze, it wouldn’t do the fast import. Avid still re-encode the files. I’ve change the color space both in avid and squeeze to 701 but it still won’t do fast import. Did i made a mistake? Or the fast import just won’t do on PAL?
Regards Jody. 5D footage is H.264.
H.264 is an acquisition codec – not editorial. While Avid can use this natively (v5 and v6), the editing experience may not be “pleasurable”. H.264 can be difficult for computers to play, and thus you may experience playback issues like stuttering, etc. When playing multiple streams or on an older computer. Converting the footage to DNxHD ensures that you are using a codec that not only plays easier, but holds up better after subsequent FX, renders, and export.
In v6, you can do this same fast import trick with ProRes footage which is excellent. The same holds true – 709 is the correct color space.