I am working on a project that I can transfer between work and home. I am working off of a mobile 2TB that I have been transferring back and forth. I just noticed that some of the Video I manipulated using the "fit to fill" option is being saved onto my hard drive and not the mobile 2TBs. It is not giving me the option to save it elsewhere. How can I keep from saving anywhere but the 2TBs? Thanks!

Hi,

In your Media Creation settings, make sure Filter System Drive and Filter Launch Drive are selected.

good luck,
Carl

Awesome thank you!

Please be aware that this setting MAY have to be recreated for each, individual project. Don't just assume that you set it in one project, it is in place for all future projects too. I believe there is a way to lock it to the user settings - but I am not in front of the system at present.

Solopost:

I believe there is a way to lock it to the user settings - but I am not in front of the system at present.

But, as with every setting, you can add them to the "Site Settings" which should make the settings somehow permanent on this machine.

I really hate to say "should" in this context...

Regards, g_f

"I really hate to say "should" in this context..."

Ain't that the truth.

general_failure:

But, as with every setting, you can add them to the "Site Settings" which should make the settings somehow permanent on this machine.

I really hate to say "should" in this context...

...But you're absolutely right, should is the operative word here. There has been an ongoing bug ever since MCA 2.2.3 where media creation settings dragged into site settings are not being consistently honored, especially regarding drive destinations. This is definitely an intermittent problem with no discernible pattern. And even with system drive filtering active, I've seen the C: drive pop up occasionally on the capture or import tool. So keep a sharp eye out every time you write to a drive - double check the destination.

Larry Rubin:

So keep a sharp eye out every time you write to a drive - double check the destination.

Yes, yes and: YES! I will add those points to my "System Maintenance" post on my blog or do another post which will adress how you make sure everything is where you need it to be. Really an issue at the moment and since not every codec will "survive" consolidates, AFAIK, without the possibility of quality loss the "Media Creation" settings should somehow be improved. I know this can be problematic if you unplug or simply not start your media drives, but then there could a dialog box pop up asking "Where is your media drive?" just like the "Driver Mismatch" dialog on 3.5. And why does MC prefer emptier drives, for example, even if they are slower or just are another partition on my system drive?

Best, g_f

general_failure:

why does MC prefer emptier drives, for example, even if they are slower or just are another partition on my system drive?

Because of the specific way Avid handles the media it ingests. When you capture or import and create an associated media file, it is not one continuous unbroken file. It is deliberately fragmented into streaming bits and pieces which are scattered across a drive, partition, or RAID drive array for accurate storage, retrieval, cueing and seamless playback in real time. Hence, the "Initializing Media Streams Manager" stage of the boot up. (BTW, this is why you NEVER, EVER defrag your media drives.)

 The most efficient way for the system to handle the media fragments is to "spread the wealth" and achieve as close to an even balance of occupied space per drive as you can. Best way to monitor this is with the hardware tool.

And don't overload yourself with applications you don't need to do the job with Avid. Over all, the leaner and meaner the platform, the better it runs...and runs...and runs. Like a stripped down muscle car whose only need is speed.

general_failure:

Really an issue at the moment and since not every codec will "survive" consolidates, AFAIK, without the possibility of quality loss the "Media Creation" settings should somehow be improved.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here, but I'm curious what you mean by "not every codec will 'survive' consolidates". Can you elaborate? What type of quality loss are you seeing and at what stage of the workflow?

Larry, thanks for your answer. But I think you missed my point:

general_failure:

why does MC prefer emptier drives, for example, even if they are slower or just are another partition on my system drive?

It is possible for software to read a drives speed in rounds per minute, disk cache, number of physical vs. logical dives and so on...

Larry Rubin:

Because of the specific way Avid handles the media it ingests.

So maybe this was the best way to handle stuff in the "old" days, when you had multiple but rather low capacity hard drives. But today 1TB of a fast disk costs nearly nothing. For example I would have a RAID-0 attached via eSATA, why would MC choose to jump to my 5.400 RPM internal system-disks 2nd partition, just because it is emptier?

Regards, g_f

Larry Rubin:

What type of quality loss are you seeing and at what stage of the workflow?

To be honest, I never ran into such a situation but the technical staff from my Avid reseller and support told me that DNx codecs will "survive" about 8 - 10 transcodes/consolidates without quality loss while other codecs degrade very fast (2-4 transcodes/consolidates) due to mathematical inaccuracies. Even better to transcode/consolidate would be the 10 bit codecs. This is only hearsay, that is why I said

Larry Rubin:

not every codec will "survive" consolidates, AFAIK, without the possibility of quality loss

Now that I have made rumors go 'round I will have to test it tomorrow and post back, I fear. But if you can prove me wrong by any argument of reason I will be happy, too.

Best regards, g_f

general_failure:

So maybe this was the best way to handle stuff in the "old" days, when you had multiple but rather low capacity hard drives

And a lot of this is due to a 20 year old code base. This was the program's early attempts to balance the load. And yes it is outdated. But you can easily disable switching to emptiest drive in your settings.

You can avoid rendering and capturing to almost every disk if you copy an empty P2 folder structure (CONTENTS) to this disk. When the software is started, the disk will be flagged as P2 = read only. Very confortable, as you can still access this drive for disk read but not write.

Unfortunately, this nice litle trick does not work for the C: system drive. So, systems with shared storage like UNITY and ISIS are still rendering to C: with a smile on their face, without any sign when they are doing it. You see this thing only when you try to open this shared storage sequence on another workstation and symply wonder how it´s possible to see MEDIA OFFLINE or missing renders in an shared storage enviroment. Well, the answer can be found on the C: drive of the last time used workstation....

Kind regards

pixel

Not trying to start any kind of argument, I was just curious if a threshold of signal degradation could be defined, similar to dropping generations of tape - how far can you go before you no longer have a viable product? Which codec might be the most survivable? I've been getting into this with our engineers because of many issues regarding how our signal is getting from transmission point alpha to displays in the field and what the hell is happening to it along the way. Any details that you could provide might ultimately prove very helpful to me.