P2 unwrapping problem
by mike pasley
on
Jun 27, 2008 at 12:14:34 am
Hello all...having a problem unwrapping mxf files from a recent shoot. here's the problem. PLEASE HELP.
we shot a feature using an HVX. we've unwrapped all the footage except one cards worth. keep having problems with it. we used the following system:
filled the card, put it into a PC laptop and dumped it to an external HD, then I used my Mac Pro with Final cut studio 2 to 'Log and Transfer' the clips to an internal HD. we had one 'roll' from the shoot that was missing the 'lastclip.txt' file which i recreated using the forum on C.C. that i found (thank you!). that still did not do it. this is the point that i noticed that inside the 'CONTENT' folder we are missing the 'audio' folder. so, i looked at the 'roll' we shot just previous to this one and noticed that there are a lot more files in the audio folder than in the 'video' folder. thought maybe they all got put in the same audio folder somehow when we transfered from the P2 to the external HD because both cards were done at the same time. this seems to have been wishful thinking though.
This did let me at least open the contents in the log and transfer window, but then when i add the clips to the queue i immediately get the little error icon in the status column.
i don't know what to do. worried that we're going to be missing audio, which is a big let down, but luckily the scene that is in question COULD work without audio, at least work better than not having anything. anybody have this problem or have any suggestions?
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by Shane Ross on Jun 27, 2008 at 6:09:25 pm
[mike pasley]"so, i looked at the 'roll' we shot just previous to this one and noticed that there are a lot more files in the audio folder than in the 'video' folder."
That is because the camera records ONE video track, and FOUR audio tracks. Notice that four audio tracks will have the same name, but have different ending numbers. For example, 0001FX00.mxf, 0001FX01.mxf, 0001FX02.mxf, 0001FX03.mxf.
Can you put the card back into the camera and use the REPAIR function? Dunno if it will bring back the audio (no clue what happened to it), but it might make it so you can import the footage.
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by mike pasley on Jun 27, 2008 at 7:22:52 pm
we will try that. 4 tracks of audio makes sense. i didn't even look at the file names, duh...
forgive me, but the HVX is not mine. still have access to it, but my possibly ignorant question is can you put the data from the external drive back onto the card and then repair it? or does the card still have to be intact? thanks for your help.
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by Noah Kadner on Jun 27, 2008 at 7:53:38 pm
[mike pasley]"we will try that. 4 tracks of audio makes sense. i didn't even look at the file names, duh...
forgive me, but the HVX is not mine. still have access to it, but my possibly ignorant question is can you put the data from the external drive back onto the card and then repair it? or does the card still have to be intact? thanks for your help."
If the entire contents are intact then you can copy back to a P2 and repair should work. If some parts are missing this can fail. You can also check by date and you should be able to see what's what. Also you can of course access the MXF's directly via Raylight.
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by mike pasley on Jun 27, 2008 at 8:21:19 pm
we're aware of raylight. that will be a next option. just trying to use the hardware/software we already have spent $$$ on! I keep hearing good things about raylight... Thanks guys. appreciate the help.
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by mike pasley on Jun 30, 2008 at 4:07:54 pm
can you give me a little insight on "not as powerful as raylight" means? I've heard raylight is good, but I don't know what features. etc. are in raylight that makes it better vs. other programs. thanks in advance.
Re: P2 unwrapping problem by Noah Kadner on Jul 1, 2008 at 3:57:10 pm
[mike pasley]"can you give me a little insight on "not as powerful as raylight" means? I've heard raylight is good, but I don't know what features. etc. are in raylight that makes it better vs. other programs. thanks in advance."
One area where Raylight differs from Calibrated is in the preservation of the source metadata. Calibrated directly accesses the MXF source as audio and video together but loses the camera metadata. Whereas Raylight creates a kind of pointer to them while keeping the camera metadata intact. But Raylight is also more expensive so it comes down to what's more important. I'm sure if the Raylight or Calibrated folks read this they can chime in with more specifics.
