Avid MXF Atom with J2K or H264

[davep]

Hey again,

I love that FFAStrans can do MXF with DNxHD, AVC and a few others - wonder if it would be possible to make MXFs for DNxHR, J2K and H264 also? I was wondering this to be able to make even smaller proxy files. Perhaps with some custom FFmpeg/AviSynth? Or is it fairly complicated because of the BMX wrapper...? Just a thought!

Thanks

[emcodem]

Hey dave,

are you aware about the open source tools that ffastrans is orchestrating (ffmpeg, bmx...)? As far as i know them, DNxHR and J2K are not supported at all. J2k is dying anyway (if it was ever really born), i recommend to find some alive alternative. H264 in mxf should not be a problem at all using the custom ffmpeg processor.

cheers!
emcodem

[davep]

I'm aware it uses those tools - I just like what FFAStrans has done with them I'm going to look further into creating something manually then perhaps. I-frame only H264 in MXF would be fine.

I tried using FFMpeg but for some reason the resulting MXF appeared as a separate clip for video and audio in Avid...and it only supports DNxHD, no other codec for MXFs.

BMX looked promising but it doesn't allow for J2k or H264 in an MXF Atom. I might try and make it as an Op1a and then rewrap....

[davep]

Just pulling this up again - wondered if anyone else had any joy with getting (i-frame only) H264 into Avid ready MXFs?

I can see how to get H264 wrapped into an MXF just using the command line tools, but then I'm not sure how to get the metadata embedded (tape etc), but ideally would love there to be a way for H264 MXF support in FFAStrans - does anyone have any thoughts on that?..

[momocampo]

Hello Davep,

I really don't understand what you want to do. H264 into mxf container i frame only?? It seems not logical. I frame only is for editing and you have several codec for : DNxHD, pro res, etc. H264 is for final step not for editing. If you want atom mxf, use DNxHD or XDCAM( not i frame only).
Maybe I don't understand your goal...
Cheers.

Benjamin

[davep]

My goal is to have an editing codec that is under 10Mbit/s. Like the H264 2Mbit/s proxies that can be created in Avid, but a bit better quality. I'm planning to send these files over the internet so ideally they'll be smaller than DNxHD36. That's my goal, if that makes sense...

[momocampo]

Hello,
Ok I understand now. You're right, it makes sense. To be honest, I don't have any experience about Avid proxies. I must learn.
Cheers.

[emcodem]

Hey dave,

Did you already try some tutorials from the net? e,g, http://johnwarburton.net/blog/?p=55

What about a command like that?

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i %s_source% -vf scale=1280:720:lanczos -an -metadata project="MY PROJECT" -metadata material_package_name="MY CLIP" -c:v libx264 -intra -b:v 10M -f mxf_opatom "E:\temp\MY_CLIP_v1.mxf" -vn -metadata project="MY PROJECT" -ac 1 -ar 48000 -metadata material_package_name="MY CLIP" -f mxf_opatom "E:\temp\MY_CLIP_a1.mxf"

[davep]

Thanks emcodem! I've had a look at a few of those tutorials - that command seems to get half way there but Avid is notoriously picky for which formats it accepts. When I try to use a file made with that command, I get an error from Avid saying it Did not find the first temporal sample.

I've have a play and see where I get with it!

[encodermonkey]

Hi Dave, did you get anywhere with this?