AAF processing

[taner]

Hello guys,

@emcodem: im currently on vacation. If it is ok i will send you the aaf at monday when im back at the office. Concerning p2 structures: we are working with sony and canon-cameras. Sorry. But in case of p2 structures i would favor single clips.

The latest release of media composer (2019.6) supports natively mxf op1a media.
Inside media composer it is possible to create op1a media by consolidating, transcoding and mixdowning as well.
On the media drive the traditional avidstructure is expanded by an additional folder where all op1a media resides.
Maybe this info is worth mentioned when developing an aaf-workflow (outgest, ingest).

Taner

[emcodem]

Hey @taner,

avid being able to import and export op1a is for sure nice information to have for future development! The question will be if it is something useful they create... anyway... it would be really helpful to have a "clip only" aaf from you... i have already examples from transcoders but those write mxf -style aaf instead of MS compound file type and the guy from pyaaf2 does not yet support mxf style aaf which makes me worry. Please, whenever you find the time, upload some aaf for me to analyze to the link in the first post

@ghatis this thread started with "reading" aaf but as it turns out that the list of requirements for decoding aaf is really huge (effects!), i believe this is a project that would die pretty soon- if it ever comes to life. Instead writing aaf seems to be a project that leads to somewhere at least.
I can imagine decoding aaf sequences and support frame-accurate cut of the referenced clips (audio+video) but reverse engineering/rebuilding avid effects is something that could only be done when someone invests lots of money and time into it

[taner]

Hello Harald,

Just uploaded the aaf.
Youll find it in the folder "linked".
Filename: aaf_linked_avid_1_clip_v1

taner

[emcodem]

Thats great, thanks a lot @taner.
Good news, i sorted out some possible bug in pyaaf2 and now it actually creates linked files. I'll upload something for testing tomorrow morning.
I guess this is only interesting for interplay users only, so the testing might be up to you dear taner... i hope the default files from pyaaf2 are good enough not to destroy your system ^^

[taner]

Hello emcodem,

that sounds great!
I'll test it with joy.
Many thanks for your efforts!!!

Taner

[emcodem]

Good morning

In the like where you uploaded files from my first post, there is a tools folder. in there you can find create_linked_0.0.0.1.exe
You need to execute it on commandline and provide all files you want to link in the aaf as parameters. As output file, it will take the first parameter you provide (e.g. video file) and create a file with same name but .aaf extension.

Usage on commandline:

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create_linked_0.0.0.1.exe %VideoFile% %Audiofile1% %Audiofile2% ....

The paths of the linked files are exactly where the files currently resides.

A word of warning: these are the default output files of pyaaf2, using the contained convenience method link_external_mxf. I did check the aaf structure and it does not look very wrong or so, but i also did not try to align the structure of the file with any of the shared files.
There is a chance that you break some importing process and it needs to be restarted, so take care when testing!

cheers,
Harald

[taner]

Hello Harald,

After creating the aaf and importing into avid it get this error message in Media Composer: AAF Domain: Failed to open file for reading., hr:0x80030109

You can find the aaf in the folder "linked".
Filename is "v", i haven't changed it.

Best

Taner

[emcodem]

Hey Taner, thanks for testing!
When the aaf file is exactly 111kb, the program did not work as expected and no files were linked at all. It currently only supports linking opatom files, did you use opatom? Or better, is there a chance you share the file(s) you wanted to link (if yes, the smallest possible example would be great)? Did you get an error msg from my program?
I tested files created by DNXHD ffastrans encoder, checked the create avid structure stuff and called the commandline like that:

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C:\output\create_linked_0.0.0.1.exe C:\Temp\k_v1.mxf C:\Temp\k_a1.mxf C:\Temp\k_a2.mxf

Output of the commandline:

Code: Select all

Adding File: C:\Temp\k_v1.mxf
Adding File: C:\Temp\k_a1.mxf
Adding File: C:\Temp\k_a2.mxf
Output: [C:\Temp\k_v1.mxf.aaf]

cheers!

[taner]

Hello Harald,

it works!!!!
There was an error concerning the path.
I've tried it with XDCAM HD50Mbit 1080i50

Very great! Many thanks!!

Taner

[emcodem]

Great, thanks for your help Taner.
Next week (hopefully) i'll add some functionality for error handling and to accept a folder as input parameter, so the program adds all files in this folder so it can easily be used after a transcode node in ffastrans.

This was so easy that i did not learn as much as exepected but at least i now know that pyaaf2 is the way to go, even if it does not support any other aaf style than the Compound file. In the end pyaaf2 looks pretty complete and easily debug and maintainable, so if anything is missing one can add the missing functionality pretty quick.

What about those the linked paths... is it needed to have some program that is able to change the linked paths or so?