Please Help. I Only Copied The Mxf Video Files

A

adamski

Member
I did a shoot yesterday and was totally dumb, i transferred files straight from the camera onto my mac. However i stupidly only copied the mxf files from the video folder as i thought that was all i needed.

I now have a load of mxf files that i can't view. Is there any software that i can use to view mxf files or convert them. As i said earlier i'm on a mac platform.

If anyone can help me you may be able to stop me crashing and burning in the biggest way possbile.

:violin:
 
Before answering, I just gotta ask -- WHY do people do this? It's so puzzling. It's actually more work for you to dig into the CONTENTS folder to find the video files, and it breaks the whole system. And all the other additional folders don't take up more than, what, 10% of the space at most?

I don't get why people do this. Not picking on you specifically, but man if there was some way to get everyone to NOT DO THAT, life would be better for them.

Now, to answer your question: you're somewhat hosed. P2 Log Pro can maybe rescue the files. Raylight could probably rescue them, but that's on the PC. I think your best bet is P2 Log Pro but I don't know for sure.
 
Oops, thanks for the reply. When i started to copy the files over, i began by copying the whole contents folder and it was going to take 30 mins. The AJ-PCS060 P2 Store wasn't working properly and we didnt have time to wait 30 mins. It was as i said a stupid new user error. I tried P2 Log pro. if anyone else can help i would gretly appreciate it.

Thanks for input though Barry.
 
30 minutes? That's wack. Something was obviously not working properly, because it should have taken 4 minutes (for a 4GB card) or 8 minutes for an 8GB. Copying just the video files will still take up 90% of the time and space as copying the whole volume. But at least now I can see why someone might try that.

Again, P2 Log Pro is your best bet. You won't be able to directly import into FCP, but the potential hope is that I think the audio gets encoded in the video stream, so there's a good chance that P2 Log Pro could restore the files.

If you don't need the audio and only need the video, then you don't really have a problem at all, Avid only uses the audio and video files, none of the rest, and it works. So in the worst possible case you could just import the video-only files into Avid and then export an FCP-compatible file from there.
 
Barry you are the man. It was a music video. So i dont need the audio at all (which is why i thought "30 minutes? screw that i only need the video files"). I've tried just importing the mxf file into P2 log pro and it wont even read them.

I'll have another go. Been searching frantically all over the net to find a fix.
 
Brainwave, i work on an Avid Adrenline at work (PC based), so from your post you're telling me i dont have a problem at all that i can just import the mxf files into the adrenaline and i should be fine?

please let the answer be yes?
 
I don't know for sure, but maybe. From what I understand, I believe the Adrenaline does offer MXF support, so drag the files into the media tool and supposedly you should be able to import them straight to the timeline.
 
Barry_Green said:
Before answering, I just gotta ask -- WHY do people do this?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you why I do it:

I am on the PC platform, and I use Raylight. Unless I need the extra audio tracks, I typically just convert the MXF files into standalone Raylight AVIs. The reason? I get sick and tired of creating new folders for each card, whereas I can just copy all of my MXF files into the same folder, and then batch convert them all to Raylight AVIs. Much faster that way.

Yes, I know I could buy P2 Genie, which would automate the process. But I typically dump all of my footage to my main editing PC using the camera's USB function, so offloading to a laptop would add an extra step, which would really defeat the purpose.

Now if I was on a MAC, and needed the whole file structure intact in order to do anything useful with my footage, I would most certainly copy over everything. But Raylight's convinience has made me a tad bit lazy...
 
So twisted lincoln, is it possible that i could jump on a pc install raylight and convert all the DVCProHd mxf files into a more usable format. From what i understand this is what you do (unless you need the audio). Do you lose any quality when you do this?
 
I use Avid Express Pro, and you don't actually import MXF files, you just mount them. As far as Avid is concerned it is already in a working format. (I assume Adrenline is similar.)

In Express Pro, you make the following folder structure (replacing the # with numbers for sub directories):

C:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1\
C:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\2\
C:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\#...\

Dump the MXF files from Audio and Video folders into one of the numbered sub directories, and the MXF wrappers take care of matching the right files together. Then do File -> Mount All. Open the Media Tool, and you clips should be ready to transfer to a bin.

Hope this works for you,

Bob
 
adamski , you do not lose quality, raylight does a pixel for pixel conversion.

It's so good that Cineform has licensed the codec for their product.
 
Hey Guys I really appreciate your help on this one. The DOP and i did the stupid thing of using a new camera without hiring it to play with before the actual shoot. We should have shot on digibeta but one to try DVCProHD.

Thanks Arson, the raylight will be a back up option if i cant get the Avid option to work.

Bobs thanks for the suggestion with the Avid file structure etc. I'll try that when i get to work tomorrow.

You guys are great.

And if anyone else has anymore suggestions i would also appreciate seeing those.

has anyone tried DVFilm maker as a way to convert the mxf files to quicktime?
 
DC that is excellent!! Thankyou very much. I haven't tried it yet, i will do that when i get to work.

But you have detailed everything in en excellent step by step process. Wonderful!
 
Hey DC, one more question. Do you know if this works the same on media composer, I'll sleep much better tonight knowing that you've heard of someone going through the same process you describe in media composer.
 
P2 Log Pro repaired almost all my mxf clips after I copied them incorrectly and I'd tried everything. I only yesterday got to see what I shot last nov from the mxf files after repair with P2 pro. Hope u recover those clips mate.....
 
can you talk me through the process of importing an mxf file and then exporting to somothing useable as i haven't been able to get it to work
 
In the file menu is an "open p2 volume"

Locate a folder containing the MXF files.

This results in a pane with thumbnails.

Select a clip and you choose be able to put a check mark in a box next to it, and choose export FCP XML and put that in a folder
 
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