Dear all,

I currently test with the Canon XF705 camera with 3840x2160p50 material shot in the XF-HEVC Codec. I installed the latest Canon XF Ama Plugin 3.7.1 and also the needed Canon XF-HEVC Decoder.

Clips link fine via source browser and video and audio is great, can be transcoded and everything.

BUT every clip starts at TC 00:00:00:00. I can verify that every clip has Start TC indeed, when I analyse the source MXF with MediaInfo or throw them into adobe or davinci resolve, I can see and get proper Start TC for every Clip. So it is only the avid who cannot extract the TC data.

I use Avid MC 2018.12.15 but had same experience with Avid MC 2018.12.11

Anybody any suggestions or has made similar experience with footage from that specific camera / codec?

Thank you and best regards,

Felix

Are you seeing this in the bin START TC column and/or the source montor TC display?

Dear Scott,

Thanks for your reply.

I checked again and it is the same in bin start TC column, source browser column start TC and also in source Monitor Display. Same for Video track and all audio Tracks. Everywhere TC 00:00:00:00 for every clip. But every clip has proper TC when viewed in other application (Adobe, davinci , mediainfo)

Material ist 3840x2160 p50 xf-hevc And also 1920x1080

Same result with all canon ama plugins from 3.5 to 3.7.1

Same with mc Versions From 2018.12.11 to 2018.12.15 and Dome 2020 Version and even with newest 2021.3 (I spent really a lot time with testing....)

Canon Support hasnt responded yet to my question.

Do you have some idea what to do or can you please start a avid case on this? I can provide detailed Screenshot or also source footage If needed.

Thank you and best regards,

Felix

Sounds like it could be a bug. I will escalate to Avid. 

Dear Scott,

Thank you very much!

Let me know if i can help with providing samples or anything.

Best regards,

Felix

Hi Felix,

  I've started a support case. Tech support will reach out to assist you 04149357.
@Scott Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks,

RalphC

Dear Scott,

dear Ralph,

thank you for your help. Avid support contacted me and in the end the reason for the problems was quite simple and rather stupid:

My cameraman who did the testshooting fiddled with the original folder structure from the camera and that caused the problems with the link process. Trying to force Canon XF ama plugin on the mxf files themselves successfully links video and audio but then timecode for every clip is lost and displayed as 00:00:00:00

But when I recreated the original structure from storage media (CONTENTS -> HEVC_001 -> *.mxf *.XML INDEX.MIF) and selected the Folder containing the CONTENTS folder, then the avid correctly selects the Canon XF ama plugin automatically, links everything and extracts the timecode.

Again a good opportunity to remind the people handling the recording media to PLEASE copy ALL folder structure as it is and NOT trying to fiddle around with it.

Sorry for the confusion in the first place, lots of thanks to you and avid support team for the great help! This thread can be closed.

Thanks and best regards,

Felix

That makes sense but its hard to imagine there are still people who don't understand the importance of structured media and the danger of fiddling with that.

Happy to assist you guys!

RalphC

Pat Horridge:

That makes sense but its hard to imagine there are still people who don't understand the importance of structured media and the danger of fiddling with that.

 

You mean, just like it's hard to imagine why people would upgrade their software/OS in the middle of a project?

...or not think of ever backing up their project/rushes?

The MA courses I help teach are full of people with a little knowledge - which becomes a dangerous thing once they're let loose into the world.

I'm not saying there aren't some very intelligent and capable students, but there's a substantial middle ground of people who have this 'how hard can it be' attitude. I think some of them are victims of the millions of YouTube 'experts' who promise to show you how to achieve professional-looking Hollywood productions in 20 minutes.

I find I can't assume anything - I seem to be starting all my sentences with "Did you check...?" whenever there's a problem with clips not relinking or rushes not syncing.

You'd think that for post-graduate courses, the level of proficiency would be reasonably high, but I suspect the ability to pay, rather than ability itself, is the driving force for being accepted onto these courses.