I have just upgraded to MC8.8.1 from 8.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.9.5

As detailed by Avid and Sony I deleted all the previous Sony XAVC AMA plugins from the AVX2_Plug-ins / AMA folder and downloaded the new Nablet XAVC and RAW and HDCAM_SR plugins which are now installed in the aforementioned folder.

I shoot on a Sony PMW F5 and have been for sometime.  Previously a 'Link to Media' to the mxf files on the SxS card would allow direct ingest of the XAVC footage - absolutely no problem, this has been working across several Avid upgrades for about the three years we've been shooting on the F5 in this manner.

Now with 8.8.1 installed with the new Nablet plugins, and new Source Browser running, Avid fails to allow a "link" to the XAVC files.  I cannot link to them, and cannot therfore use the footage.  We have tried various options, I have, as I say, deleted the old Sony AMA plug-ins but this new set up is fialing to see link to the files.  I can highlight the files in the Sourve Browser but i see "Missing Plugin" in the plug in column, and if I try to "Link" I get a message telling me this is not possible.

If I then delete the Nablet plugins and replace them with the old PDZK-MA2_v3.51 plug in, the Source Browser sees the plug in and will allowing a "Link" to get the footgae AMA linked to a bin.  This is not supposed to be the correct method though so I would welcome any comments on this and any information on whether i have missed a stip in implementing the new plug-ins please.

Many thanks

Tim

I'm also having the exact same issue since upgrading to 8.8.1 - hadn't previously tried it with deleting the new Nablet AMA plug-ins and replacing with the old Sony ones, but having done so, the same thing happens as Tim has described above.

Does anyone from Avid have advice on what we should do going forward?

Cheers

Huw

I've got the same problem. As the OP suggested, I tried the old Sony XAVC AMA plugin and I now have the option to link Sony F5 footage via AMA. The Nablet versions are not working. The annoying thing is that with this workaround I get the warning message asking me to upgrade my Sony AMA plugins every time I load Media Composer.

Any advice from Avid would be helpful!

Thanks, JK.

Have you listed your AMA plug ins in the console to check you have correctly installed the plug in? I can't remember the exact command - I think it is AMA_ListPlugins.

Also make sure you delete the Sony plug-ins from here:

Library>Application Support>Avid>AVX2_Plug-ins>AMA

Please also note their are three different plug-ins from Nablet (as there were from Sony), though you guys sound like you know what you're doing - never hurts to check you've installed the correct one..

Also - normal things; new user etc

Also these are the provisos from Nablet - not sure if any of these apply to F5 material in particular?

• ASC_CDL values are set in the bins ASC_SOP and ASC_SAT columns.
  Note that they are only set when they are not at the default of (1,1,1)(0,0,0)(1,1,1),(1).
• Removed 720p XAVC Intra Class 200 and QFHD XAVC LongGOP 4:2:2 100Mbps 50p/59.94p
  from the choice of XAVC export operating points as they are not part of the specification.
• Fix: Failed to link certain XAVC LongGOP files with a huge number of index segments.
• Compliant with Avid Media Composer 8.7
• Mac version compliant with MacOS 10.12 Sierra

Folks,

Please be specific.  XAVC is too general.  There is XAVC-I, XAVC-L, and XAVC-S.  In addition to that, most cameras that shoot XAVC will also shoot XDCAM which is mpg2 Long GOP, normally at 50mbs.

Also, it is not a good idea to link directly off a memory card.  Always copy the ENTIRE folder structure from the card to a drive.  And then backup the card at least one more time to somewhere else.

Y'all be cool,
Robert

Robert A. Ober:

Folks,

Please be specific.  XAVC is too general.  There is XAVC-I, XAVC-L, and XAVC-S.  In addition to that, most cameras that shoot XAVC will also shoot XDCAM which is mpg2 Long GOP, normally at 50mbs.

Also, it is not a good idea to link directly off a memory card.  Always copy the ENTIRE folder structure from the card to a drive.  And then backup the card at least one more time to somewhere else.

Y'all be cool,
Robert

Spot on Robert....  be as specific as you can so we can help

marianna

Thanks for all the replies on this - it seems we've come to conclusion amongst ourselves - the Nablet documentation states clearly that the new Nablet AMA plugins are MAc compatible with OS 10.12 / 10.11 and 10.10 - the particular system I was using at the time is, for various reasons, still 10.9.5 and so it seems the new Nablet plugins will not work - but as the older Sony plugins are working just fine for now short term, that's the work around.

Huw and JK - as we've discussed the above explanation appears to be the issue on this so an OS upgrade would seem the way forward.

John - many thanks for your input - yes, we'd setup new users, I'd actually downloaded all three Nablet Sony Plugins and had uninstalled the old ones prior to installing the new, so had followed the normal protocols but in this instance it does seem to be an OS issue.  My colleague is running the same setup and tried the same SxS Card in his machine, but with a newer Mac OS all worked fine - so am prepared to draw a line under this as an operating system issue.

Robert - many thanks for the advice.  I guess my point was rather that a specific workflow that we had been employing on a particular Series for many years had suddenly stopped working in a scenario where nothing else had changed other than the AMA plugins and version of Media Composer.  While remianing constant, the fact that I am shooting one particular format of XAVC on a Sony F5, and then still shooting that same format after a MC upgrade sort of makes the actual format irrelevant.  Also, to my knowledge the Sony F5 will only shoot the XAVC-I XAVC format (as opposed to my Sony a7s which last time I checked had no direct AMA support for its XAVC-S format) and if I was shooting in MPEG2 which as you rightly state, the F5 will shoot in at 50Mbps, I would not have said I was working with XAVC files.  So I hope that clears that up.  With regards linking and ingesting directly from SxS and then backing up, this is a practice employed in a fast turn around environment that works well for us - each to their own when it comes to media management - discipline and clarity being key which ever way around one does this.

Marianna - as ever good to hear from you,

Thanks all - I guess for now this thread is solved - thanks in no small part to the power of collaboration - many thanks to all for your input

Tb

timvertigofilms:

Nablet documentation states clearly that the new Nablet AMA plugins are MAc compatible with OS 10.12 / 10.11 and 10.10 - the particular system I was using at the time is, for various reasons, still 10.9.5 and so it seems the new Nablet plugins will not work - but as the older Sony plugins are working just fine for now short term, that's the work around.

good work Tim

• Mac version compliant with MacOS 10.12 Sierra

I do note that on their main page they've only qualified these plug ins with 10.12 - I take it you found the info about the other OS's elsewhere on their site?