"last location unknown" Error

[Travis]

I'm trying to import an OMF 2.0 from a Symphony into ProTools 5.1u w/ A/V XL option across a fibre channel Unity system. The OMF2.0 has embedded audio with linked video. When I open the ProTools session all the audio is there, but the video is missing. ProTools prompts me to find video files with the name ?filename? of course files with these names do not exist. If I skip video files and finish opening the session, a movie track is created which shows all the proper clips w/names, but of course no video is attached. When I check the DigiTranslator log, under the heading "missing video" it lists every single video clip and the error "last location unknown". I have done several tests and this happens regardless of allocation group, edit complexity, compression, consolidation, mixdown, etc. If I look on the drives I can find the video files, so I know they exist, but DigiTranslator never even prompts me to try and find them. It always just lists the clips as location unknown. What am I missing??? The Unity drives are mounted when I open the OMF and I can add clips and digitize to the drives. By the way, it worked once, but I cannot figure out what I could possibly be doing different.


DigiTranslator 1.0cs3

ProTools 5.1u Mixplus
G4 733MHz
512 Megs RAM
OS 9.1

Unity 1.2.1 SP3
MediaNet Client 1.2.2

[Paul Greyson]

Sounds like the video was offline when the export was done. (e.g., maybe the Symphony system did not actually have the Unity volumes mounted at the time of export.)

[Travis]

Paul,

Thank you for the quick response!

In every case the drives were mounted (when the Symphony made the OMF) and the media was online. In the most recent test, we took three video clips and put them together in a sequence (no transitions or effects just cuts). This was exported as an OMF 2 w/ linked video and embedded audio. When DigiTranslator opened the OMF it logged just three errors: "last location unknown" for all three clips. The media was still online and the OMF was made right after the sequence had been played so I assume the drives were mounted.
Perhaps the OMF export on the Symphony is not "seeing" the drives. I also did a test with our Avid 9000 and got the exact same results.
Thanks for your help.

[Paul Greyson]

How you done this successfully in the past?

[Matt Foglia]

in order to get video into a 5.1U session, i've been told by the kind kids @ digi that you should transfer only the audio tracks in digitranslator and then go to Movie - Import Movie and select the omf document. this SHOULD create your movie track, with linking video... of course, it's still a little touchy...

[Paul Greyson]

Hmm. Have you ever tried doing video and audio at the same time with DT? I think it should work.

[Matt Foglia]

video & audio at the same time via DT sometimes works (emphasis on SOMETIMES). i've had it work on one spot and then not work on the next. i initially thought it'd work this way since it seemed quite logical. however, we're dealing with digidesign, so being logical isn't always the answer. you usually get an error message and the session doesn't open. however, this is AFTER it does all of it's processing and looks oh so promising; ie, a time waster. try doing them as i mentioned above and that'll usually get you there (at least in my experience)....

[Matt Foglia]

p.s. if you get that ?filename? thing, skip it. in the past, i've skipped it and the thing opens up (of course, there were just as many times as it didn't open up; but it's worth a shot)...

[Paul Greyson]

Matt, what error message are you seeing?
Are you using the latest version of Digi Translator? (1.0cs3 is the latest.)

This is the first I've heard of the problems you're describing.

[Matt Foglia]

paul, i get 'a program error has occurred' -nothing too specific. yes i'm using cs3 (even tried an unreleased version via steve r. @ digi). the guys dealing with 5.1u are aware of this, and told me to open files as mentioned above.... thanks for the interest, though. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]