Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

At my last Project where i edited Dialogue i had a massive time wasting Problem. I got the AAFs, prepared and sorted the Session, everything worked fine to the point where i wanted to expand the alternate Tracks. Stupidly all the Data was in MXF Format and there where no chance to get a Backup of the Original Fieldrecorder BWFs, so i had to deal with it. Indexing of all Data required 6 Hours!!!:eek:Has someone of you tested indexing MXF Files in PT11? Maybe the new 64Bit Architecture and improvements in MXF compatibility solve the Problem?
Thanks in Advance for your Answers, Greetings Achim

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

6 hours seems a bit long even for PT10. For how much media? Currently I have about 75GB of MXFs on board and I think it didn't take longer than a few minutes to index.


Frank.

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

Hi Frank, thats interesting. Maybe i do a Mistake. Here the steps i have done.
1. Open the AAFs
2. Cleaning up the Tracks to have only .A1 Fieldrecorder Tracks on a PT Track
3. Mark this Tracks as Filedrecorder Guide Tracks
4. Set the Area to search and then "Save and index"
And yes, Indexing was pretty fast, about 15 Minutes for 90GB of Data, but for the second task "Searching for Files" took Hours and slowed PT down. Sliding a window or open up a menu had extreme delay. Are there improvements with MXF handling in PT11? Do you have a different Workflow?
Thanks, Achim

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

Have been seeing this Issue for some time.
The Problem often evolves when having many tracks dedicated as "Field Recorder Guide Track". Works alot better when there are only a few tracks dedicated. One possibility you could try is converting the .mxf files to .wav files.

Regards,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

No that's my workflow too. But I don't see that lag. Not under 10 and not under 11. Maybe a drive/DB issue?

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

Running Sessions from external FW-Drives and it seems that they are fine. I will try an OS and PT Update. My System still running under Lion 10.7.4 and PT 10.3.3. I know there are improvements with RAM Management in Mountain Lion. Maybe this helps.
Achim

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

Try that but when I was on your version I didn't see the issue either. But who knows maybe the update clears some issue on your specific machine.

frank.

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

15 minutes for indexing 90GB of rushes is long. I've been working on 2 television series the last few months, with both having 13 episodes, each of them always referencing to about 550GB of (poly BWAV) sound rushes (that's 550GB per series).
Indexing doesn't take longer than a minute or 2 (the rushes are on internal 7200rpm SATA HDs, and this is on PT10.3.x).
The "Searching for Files" when you re-open such a session can run a little longer in the background (maybe 10 minutes max, but not always), but you can always pause these processes, if you prefer to give priority to something else (relinking, waveform overviews,…)
But again this is all referencing the original BWAV files. I remember reading here (probably from Frank) that PT likes MXF less in the workflow, although this might have been with PT9. So working with the MXF sound rushes could slow things down.

Greetings,

Thierry

Re: Indexing MXF Files and matching Alternates in PT11
 

Yes that was back in the PT7/9 days. MXF would create a huge memory over-head and could slow PT down to a point where working with MFX was literally impossible. This has changed since PT10 came out.
But like Thierry I reference back to the original ploys. I only need the MXF to open the AAF and use that as a guide for the conform.
Especially on shows shot on Devas ;-)

frank.