Hi friends,

Long time lurker, first time poster...

I have a bin full of AMA linked footage (HEVC, Apple ProRes 4K) in a bin. Mixed frame rates, linked with the UME plug-in. Footage lives on a fast-ish thunderbolt external HD.

1080 23.98 project 

I'm trying to transcode this footage to another drive (fast SSD, USB-C). Transcoding to DNxHD LB proxies, project dimensions, maintaining the source frame rate.

Some clips transcode OK, but others fail and I get the following error and no transcode:

std::exception, what:ameAMAFI::AMAFIProducer::AMAFIDeferredTask: timeout while waiting for AMAFI response

Others still just yield really bizzarre results: colour encoding and frameflex source settings don't carry over, despite me asking Avid to transcode with them.

I'm frustrated, so any suggestions or help greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Nick

I've been having a similar issue to you transcoding UME linked media (not HEVC though.)

Have a look at this thread: http://b2.avid.com/forums/t/202899.aspx

although the workaround was to link with the QuickTime engine rather than UME which won't work for you because H.265 is only supported with UME, Pat responded: 

QT AMA plugin was the way we used to AMA link QT files (.mov .mp4)

With Apple killing QT Avid have created UME so UME is the new way to AMA link QT content.

However it works slightly differently t the old QT plugin.

The old QT plugin would ignore any part of a frame at the end (or start of the content) cropping off that content.

UME pads the video to potentially include upto 2 additional frames.

Its possible either of those frames is corrupt.

Have you tried making a subclip of the AMA master clip that starts and ends slightly shorted and transcode that?

Thanks Phillip, and O.P Pat.

I tried making subclips of the linked clips first and then transcoding. It seemed to help with some of the odd behaviour, but there ist still certain clips that simply won't transcode. They get about a third of the way and then I get one of the following errors:

NEMFileWriter::ExecuteInternal TIMEOUT - NEMFileWriter has detected upstream pipe stall...

std::exception, what:ameAMAFI::AMAFIProducer::AMAFIDeferredTask: timeout while waiting for AMAFI response

Seems to be longer clips (60s+) that tend to balls up. Have tried exporting to different codecs (DNxHR SQ etc) but no joy. Transcoding proceeds at glacial pace and then crashes.

Is this a bug? Anyone out there from Avid able to shed light. TIA.

Quick update / bump....

Still experiencing issues. Tried sbclipping first, then uninstalling the NewBlue Titler & FX application.

Picture one is a screengrab of my linked 4k source clip using UME Link. Some source settings colour encoding and frameflex transformations applied.

Picture 2 is the transcoded media. (DNxHR LB) 1080p, keeping source frame rate of 25.00.  'Apply source transformations' was selected. Yet what do I have? Weird pillarboxing, a scaling issue and no baked in LUT. Seems to be no rhyme or reason to resukts I get and settings selected.

Any help out there? Suggested workarounds? Known bug? This is drving me mad!

Nicholas Ogden:

Thanks Phillip, and O.P Pat.

I tried making subclips of the linked clips first and then transcoding. It seemed to help with some of the odd behaviour, but there ist still certain clips that simply won't transcode. They get about a third of the way and then I get one of the following errors:

 

NEMFileWriter::ExecuteInternal TIMEOUT - NEMFileWriter has detected upstream pipe stall...

std::exception, what:ameAMAFI::AMAFIProducer::AMAFIDeferredTask: timeout while waiting for AMAFI response

 

Seems to be longer clips (60s+) that tend to balls up. Have tried exporting to different codecs (DNxHR SQ etc) but no joy. Transcoding proceeds at glacial pace and then crashes.

Is this a bug? Anyone out there from Avid able to shed light. TIA.

It honestly sounds like a bug to me. Just to make sure, does the file transcode in Adobe Media Encoder? It's not a corrupt file? 

Thanks Phillip. Yes Adobe ME transcodes it just fine (minus source settings transformations I was making in Avid) so likely not a corrupt file.

A bug perhaps then. Frustrating as I can transcode in Adobe ME or Davinci but then worry about relinking timeline later to source footage.

Nicholas Ogden:

Thanks Phillip. Yes Adobe ME transcodes it just fine (minus source settings transformations I was making in Avid) so likely not a corrupt file.

A bug perhaps then. Frustrating as I can transcode in Adobe ME or Davinci but then worry about relinking timeline later to source footage.

You could import it, then drag it into the Avid Media Files folder, and import the database file to a bin? I don't know if that's what you want in your workflow? Or do you mean you have to relink the offline seq to the source h.265 footage that was causing the transcode problems in the first place? 

Another thing you should try is updating to the latest version of media composer. Lots of bugs get fixed at each release.