David Esp Video Technical Blog

Some tips I came across by accident:

• http://c2.avid.com/forums/p/86416/489511.aspx
  • (From July 2010):
    • << MDV is a free tool that will allow you to separate your media files by project, so you can store them separtely.  The site is Russian, but safe.>>
      • Angle-brackets here emphasize that this is just a quote from a post, I have no experience of it myself.
  • A media database(s) rebuilt may help (sometimes help fix obscure issues): trash the msmFMID.pmr and msmMMOB.mdb files from the mediafiles folders and run MC, it will scan the hard drives and rebuild the files.

Confusions:

• I’m slightly befuddled by these terms, and what the corresponding operations are useful for. What do they do and how are they pragmatically useful? – in particular in a digital and even tapeless world. I first came across the term Decompose when investigating an Offline/Online workflow for AVCHD-Cineform-DNxHD(low bitrate)-DNxHD(high bitrate): http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/328.
• For example “recapturing” sounds at first like an antiquated concept in the digital world.  But maybe they have expanded the term to include re-ingestion of digital footage in higher-bitrate format, e.g. online as opposed to proxy in the case of XDCAM-HD or just different DNxHD bitrates (e.g. 145 instead of 36).  For example initially ingesting all digital footage at DNxHD(36) for offline editing then later recapturing only the used subset of that digital footage at DNxHD (145).  Advantage: reduced disk space requirement.  Just my guesswork though, still trying to work it all out…

Snippets providing Glimpses:

• Avid MC 5.5 Help [Understanding Decompose and Expert Decompose]:
  • Decompose creates new master clips in the bin based on the lengths of the clips edited into a sequence. You can then recapture media for the new master clips. Decompose breaks any links to the original source clips, and only the sequence and its new master clips are linked to the newly captured media files. If decomposing results in a change to the edit rate of some clips in the sequence, your Avid editing application adds Motion Adapter effects, or modifies existing Motion Adapter effects, to manage the edit rate change.
  • Decompose gives you more control over the recapturing process than simply recapturing a sequence without using decompose. You can sort or modify the clips that decompose creates before you recapture media. You can also use the Expert Decompose feature to customize how decompose operates.
  • For film projects, clips you create with decompose retain all the information from the original master clips, including Pullin column information, key numbers, ink numbers, or any other information formerly entered in the bin.
  • You do not need to decompose clips that were linked with the AMA (Avid Media Access) method.
• There is also anAvidHelp on [Decomposing Sequences].  But it is just a set of instructions on how to do it, not a helpful (to me) as an explanation of what it does or what it’s for.  To understand it, you need an existing understanding of the concepts & jargon.
• http://cstest.avid.com/forums/t/64647.aspx
  • Larry Rubin:
    • Consolidating will create a new set of pointer files and associated media files, separately discreet from the original set – essentially a clone.
    • Decomposing creates a new and offline clip list relative to a particular sequence, so that you can batch capture or import only media associated with that sequence instead of all the original source material. This is used primarily to conform a low-rez rough cut to high rez finished material.
• http://community.avid.com/forums/p/50488/283293.aspx
  • Q1:
    • Q: I want to save disk space. Is it possible to decompose an MXF Sequence in order to keep only the portions of footage used in the sequence on my hard disk? The footage was captured on P2 cards and Firestore.
    • A: Decompose is not what you want.  Select your sequence and right-click select consolodate.  Set your handles, then select “delete original media” and that should do it.  Remember that if you digitised anything that is not used in your sequence that you consolodate, this media will remain and you would need to manually delete that media as well. Be warned, though…  make certain that you are not trashing anything used in other sequences as well.
  • Q2:
    • Q: Can I consolidate more than one sequence at a time?
    • A: Yes – just select the sequences and go through the same routine
• http://hershleder.com/content/avid-media-composer-version-4
  • Recapturing and Decomposing: The new Expert Decompose feature allows you to decompose only certain tapes or clips used by a sequence, and allows you to fine tune target formats to which you want to recapture.
• Book: Avid Editing: “A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users”, By Sam Kauffmann.  I have that book, but a web-link version is still handy.  Paraphrasing:
  • Clip Menu (Page 341)
    • Consolidate / Transcode:
      • Consolidate lets you migrate media files to other drives, e.g. for better organization of files.
      • Transcode lets you change the format of a clip or sequence, e.g. from HD to SD.
    • Decompose:
      • Breaks a sequence into its component clips.  Example: you captured 1000 master clips at low resolution, e.g. DNxHD (36), to save space.  Thefinal sequence only uses 50 clips. After decomposing, you have those 50 clips in a bin and you only recapture those 50 clips at higher resolution e.g. DNxHD (220).
  • Uprezing Your Offline Sequence (Page 308).  That is, moving from offline to online resolution; nothing to do with sub-pixel enhancement etc.  Example: given an initial edit based on DNxHD (36), you want to replace those clips with equivalents “recaptured” (retranscoded from original recording, digital or otherwise) at DNxHD (220).
  • Recapture (Page 311).
  • Decompose (Page 311) breaks a Sequence into its component clips.  This enables you to organize these clips in bins, recapture them etc.  Without this feature, a recapture would take place over all clips at once – when you really only want certain clips recaptured, or maybe put off some until another day.
  • Recapture
• http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/45/866918#866918
  • Scott Simmons:
    • Decomposing gives you a new sequence with offline media that has had all the clips trimmed to only include the media used in the edit + handles. If you’ve edited at low resolution you then recapture only the media you need at the online rez.
• http://c2.avid.com/forums/t/98814.aspx
  • Randall L. Rike: Consolidate isn’t designed to create offline media.  It is used to move/copy media.  Similar to Decompose, it can move/copy only the segments of clips required to support a sequence.
  • Larry Rubin: The consolidation function is also useful for creating duplicate sets of clips and media that are linked to a different project than the one they were originally created in.
  • Job ter Burg:
    • Consolidate a sequence: make a dupe of all media that is being used in the sequence (with handles if you want). Consolidate master clips: make a dupe of the clip on a new destination drive. Consolidate subclips: make a dupe of this part of the media on a new destination drive. Decompose a sequence: generate offline clips for all media that is being used in the sequence (with handles if you want). You can’t decompose master clips.
    • Decompose I would use when finishing a tape based offline and preparing for tape capture to hi res media-right?Absolutely. Performing a Batch Capture would sort of have the same result, except Decomposer gives you more control over the batch process (as you can select which clips, etc).
    • You can’t decompose master clips
    • What I meant was if I consolidate a low res sequence, I am removing the unwanted media that does not reside in the sequence.Consolidating will not necessarily delete any unused media. And if you do select the option to delete originals, you still may have a lot of unused clips on board (that are completely unreferenced in the sequuence. I personally don’t consolidate that much anymore, as drive space is so cheap. If you do, I’d recommend consolidating onto an empty drive/partition, then hide/delete/remove the originals on your other media drives.
  • Pat Horridge:
    • Decompose is useful in that you create a new sequence and new master clips with whatever handles you set.  You can the decide how to re-capture/re-import those clips rather than with just batch capturing/batch importing the sequence which will just prompt for the required tapes/files.
    • Consolidate is normally used to create a new sequence and subset of Avid Media files for media management (so you can blow away the rest) or moving to a different system.
      • Take care that not all media can be consolidated (re AMA and “foreign types”) This skips those clips that link to media that can’t be made into Avid media files and your consolidated sequence will still be linked to the original AMA’d media.
      • So with AMA media and a mixture of sources you may need to consolidate and then transcode to get a complete set of media. (I’ve made a feature request to have this as a single function)
• http://aviddssupport.avid.com/pdf/v10.2/AvidDS_HiRes_Workflow_Color_Guide.pdf
  • ?? (Not yet read) ??