Hi,

I have a colleague who is currently working on a feature shot on RED. Due to late arrival of the material and being able to start editing quickly, everything has been batch-imported straight from the QTRefs of the RED itself, using ALE's generated in REDRushes. This did save some time in skipping transcoding steps, but of course resulted in a lot of colorspace issues, mainly in the low-light parts of shots.

Over the last few days I have been looking into the MetaFuze workflow to see if I could prepare a new transcode batch of all material to solve the colorspace issues. I have to say that I very much like the fact that MetaFuze transcodes directly to MXF (and quite fast, too) which saves a lot of time and hassle.

However, there are a few issues with MetaFuze that I think could be improved and make it the No.1 software to do the transcode jobs for R3D material in an Avid workflow;

- working with MetaFuze is slow because of the automatic preview that is loaded when a shot is selected. It would be good to be able to switch off the automatic previews, just for workflow speed within MetaFuze.

- a big issue is not being able to set properties for multiple shots at the same time. Setting project name, Debayer and Resolution quality should be possible for all shots at once, which would save a lot of time.

- the same goes for setting a transcode job. This should also be possible to do for multiple items at once. Moreover, it would be great if you could create your own Transcode Presets and save them as templates. Those templates could then be applied to all selected shots when creating a transcode job.

- creating ALE's from MetaFuze is also strangely complicated. Just being able to select all and click 'Export ALE' would be good. At this point MetaFuze will only export ALE's for selected transcode jobs, while I feel that I should be able to create an ALE based upon the selected shots, regardless of whether a transcode job is set for those shots or not.

Especially when working on a feature with lots of material, these options are essential. At this point, REDrushes still has the advantage over MetaFuze, in that it's very quick in loading complete shooting days, setting transcode options, and starting the batch transcode with the click of a button.

If a next release of MetaFuze would solve these issues, it will definately become my application of choice to use in a RED workflow because of the direct transcode to MXF.

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Wouter Jansen

Hey Wouter,

The good news is, I think Avid is fairly on top of this stuff and the next release will be much more flexible and robust. I say this because of a thread on Reduser.net where MichaelP explains that the current release was sort of rushed out the door because beta testers said it was still useful for many people, but they know they have a lot to do on it still. I also believe it's a priority for them to get the new version our pretty quickly. You can read it here:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27664

Chris

A Mac version would be much appreciated along with the things you mentioned.

sw

Native Mac is farther out as MetaFuze is a file import function of Avid DS broken out.

Michael

Well it's not always the answer we want to hear, but it's nice to hear an answer, nonetheless. Thanks, Michael.

Chris

I would say, regarding MetaFuze, that it would be great if Avid turned it into their catch-all transcoder for all the wonky codecs out there. For instance, AVCHD to DNxHD (with the option to remove pulldown, would be fantastic), and even standard P2, with the option to rotate the image 180 degrees for the those instances where footage was shot with a 35mm lens adapter, etc.

Surely it's easier to add functionality to a stand-alone transcoder than it is to add support to the big app, right?

Chris

MichaelP:

Native Mac is farther out as MetaFuze is a file import function of Avid DS broken out.

Darn - thats what I need to have:  Mac MC to DS linking to the native files.  OK, you have a week or so before NAB...can't ya just whip that one out?  Seriously, though, can I use another PC based machine to start the project and do the transcoding to MXF and then transfer it all to my Mac based system?  An extra step that I would like to avoid, but....

I use MetaFuze on my Mac via VMWare. But even if you transcoded all your dailies via MetFuze, just copy the folder of MXF wrapped DNxHD files to the Avid MediaFIles folder on the Mac and you're good. That's what I do.

Michael

"... you have a week or so before NAB...can't ya just whip that one out? ..."

As Sherriff Bart would say, "Excuse me while I whip this out."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/quotes

Randall L Rike:

As Sherriff Bart would say, "Excuse me while I whip this out."

Ah, Blazing Saddles...a movie that could never be made today!

Thanks Micheal.  I will go the PC route until you guys "whip out" the Mac version...now hurry up, its costing me money!  ;-)

best -

Scott

MichaelP:

I use MetaFuze on my Mac via VMWare. But even if you transcoded all your dailies via MetFuze, just copy the folder of MXF wrapped DNxHD files to the Avid MediaFIles folder on the Mac and you're good. That's what I do.

Michael

really dumb question I think, but if I transcode the R3d files on a separate PC to move over to my Mac for offline cutting, will I need to have MC loaded on that PC and create a project that the files are attached to?  Meaning, how would I import the transcoded files into an Avid project on my Mac.  After all these years, I have never done that (without moving the entire project) on Avid.  On FCP this would be simple....Avid not so much, I think?  Sorry for the newbie question, I think!

*EDIT* - NEVER MIND.  Found the answer in the meantime!

OK, more on this process.  I used a PC to transcode 3 R3D files to DNxHD36 and exported an .ale.  Imported that ale into MC 3.0.5 and 4 shots showed up, non of which would re-link.  In addition on startup, MC gave me a warning that these may not really be MXF files and wanted to quarantine them.  I ignored all and tried to relink, which one file did successfully.  The others did not.  Each of these 3 fies were transcoded the exact same way, but only one would show up as a valid MXF file. Being new to Metafuze, is there a crucial step I am missing?  Going to try and transcode again today.  Any and all information is appreciated.

Scott

This may be a really stupid suggestion, but could it be a permissions problem?

I don't think so.  I re-transcoded these files and once again, MC gave me the same warning, but ONE of the four test clips linked up fine.  The same clip as last time.  I was thinking it could be a file issue from the Red, but as I am testing all workflows, I used Red Alert to transcode these same files to ProRes 422 HQ and imported all four into FCP just fine.  I will, however, check out the permissions path.

Perhaps a newer version of Metafuze will address some of these issues (along with audio).  Could this be something in MC 3.0.5?  Would the upgrade to 3.5.1 help?

sw

Do they show up in media tool? I thought that was how the importing process worked to begin with.