Whew... Originally I had planned to release this on the first day the new forums were up and running - but while the program was working just fine, I had to do all the mundane stuff like write documentation, fix the website, etc...  (the boring stuff).  At any rate, this is my little way of saying "thanks" to the Avid community at large and helping out other editors!

MediaSift!

MediaSift is an OMFI management tool for Avid editing systems.  It's designed to allow you to copy/move/sift OMFI files to move projects around, and to dump stats on any/all Avid projects on your system.  It was born from the fact that I needed the tool for my own purposes, and that I wanted a bit of a programming challenge to get the ol' programming brain cells working again.  While the idea for this tool came from a somewhat similar commercial application, this software was completely written by me, from scratch (I never installed the commercial package to see how that author tackled the problem).

MediaSift is compatible with Avid editing systems running on Windows 2000 and Windows XP - It's been tested with Avid Xpress Pro, Xpress Pro HD, and Symphony Universal (although it will likely work with any Windows-based Avid system).

The best part?  100% Completely Free!

Yup, you heard that right!  Of course, you're more than welcome to PayPal me a few bucks if you so desire, but there's no nagging, no crippling, no time limits, and no copy protection (infact, I'm flattered if you like it enough to give to your colleagues).  You'll get an "about" window one time when you install a new version of the software, but that's it.

If you want to grab a copy, or just read the documentation, pop over to my website:

http://www.senkou.com

If you have any comments, suggestions, or otherwise, please drop me an email or leave me a message on the blog-site.

As this program was designed to move and copy media files around, I rather highly suggest you read the manuals.  MediaSift will NEVER delete your files (infact, there is no delete command anywhere in the code), but if you have a large system with many drives, you could create a lot of work "putting stuff back in the right spots" if you're not sure what you're doing.

Dave

Awsemone.. have to read through it but it seems very nice.. thx for the hard work and the tool you made.. I'll let you know how it went.

Menno

This could be just the ticket - am using media mover but am concerned long term over re-activating it when my system changes and they shut up shop perhaps?

Will trail this week - thankyou!  I have been pestering my IT friend to write such a thing, now he is off the hook!

it's a hell of an app man.. very nice coding.. applause..

(a feature request is a sift on project base instead of drive only... that would be awsome even more)

If there is anyway i can help you... by all means. I'm impressed...

Menno

Baklap wrote:

it's a hell of an app man.. very nice coding.. applause.. (a feature request is a sift on project base instead of drive only... that would be awsome even more) If there is anyway i can help you... by all means. I'm impressed... Menno

Yup, I can add that in.  I'll put it on the list for the next update.

Dave

Dave, I've already used it to help backup a project that I had scattered across five drives, and it definitely works.  However!

I have an audio-only project (fortunately on its own drive) that stops the app cold.  I don't know whether the problem is a corrupt media file, or if MediSplit requires video media, but I rebuilt the database files and the problem persists.  Since a sample of one doesn't necessarily mean a bug in the software this is just a heads-up in case someone else reports the issue.

Arising out of that, would it be possible in the next release to give an option to skip a drive witn non-matching media and database files?  Just a rename/quit option is a little frustrating when you encounter a problem like the one above.  I realise that this potentially reduces the security of the app, but possibly it could be set as an "expert mode" option or with a suitable second-level "do you really want to do this?" dialogue box.

But even as it stands, congratulations on a great application.  I've never been a fan of version 1 software, but in this case I'm delighted to make an exception.  It's definitely part of my software toolkit from now on.

Very nice app. I have tried it last night and it works well.
Thanks,

Moved 2 projects off, then put them back - 100% fine.  Great app.

jwrl wrote:

Dave, I've already used it to help backup a project that I had scattered across five drives, and it definitely works.  However! I have an audio-only project (fortunately on its own drive) that stops the app cold.  I don't know whether the problem is a corrupt media file, or if MediSplit requires video media, but I rebuilt the database files and the problem persists.  Since a sample of one doesn't necessarily mean a bug in the software this is just a heads-up in case someone else reports the issue. Arising out of that, would it be possible in the next release to give an option to skip a drive witn non-matching media and database files?  Just a rename/quit option is a little frustrating when you encounter a problem like the one above.  I realise that this potentially reduces the security of the app, but possibly it could be set as an "expert mode" option or with a suitable second-level "do you really want to do this?" dialogue box. But even as it stands, congratulations on a great application.  I've never been a fan of version 1 software, but in this case I'm delighted to make an exception.  It's definitely part of my software toolkit from now on.

Ok, I'll have a look.  I'll make up an audio-only project and test with that - it shouldn't really make a difference though because MediaSift is just looking at the Avid index file and the files on disk - it doesn't really care what kind of file it's looking at so long as it exists in the index.  If I can't find the problem, I'll throw together a special debug version for you that will log what it's doing so I can track it down.

One possibility is that maybe you have a file inside the OMFI directory that's not an Avid media file - it was something I was pondering last night.  To temporarily test this, check the number of files that MediaSift reports for the drive in question, then pop-open an explorer window and navigate to the same directory.  You should see the same number of files listed in there, plus the 2 index files (ie: 100 media files, plus 2 indexes, for 102 in total).  If the number is any different, there may be a stray file of some other type in there and no amount of Avid re-indexing will ever catch it.

I can probably add a menu option for "ignore invalid media indexes", or make it a command-line option that could be used when launching the program.  It won't damage anything, but if the index doesn't match, it may mean that some files aren't copied/moved/sifted when those operations are performed.

Dave

Dave, I'm a little closer I think.  I wasn't able to try your file number test because MediaSift won't report the number of files until it scans the drive(s), and it's falling over when it scans drive H:, where I have the project in question.

But I wouldn't get too stressed about it if I were you.  I've just split that media directory in two and using subst created a dummy new drive with the second half on it in its own OMFI MediaFiles directory.  The first half falls over, the second half doesn't.  So indications are that there's a rogue file in the first half.  Investigations (when I get more time) are proceeding.....

Nice work Dave

Thank YOU!!! for making a great and much needed (and free) app.

As you suspected Dave, it was a single corrupt file.  Interestingly Avid did not prefix the file name with a + and was able to play it.  However the file is definitely corrupt since it plays with a loud splat on the last frame, which it didn't last time I checked.

Your error checking must be more rigorous than Avid's!

WOW,

This app is realy great! Thanks for all the time and hardwork you put into it Dave! It has obviously paid off!

YESSSSS! I needed that. Nice app Dave. Sifting on projects as Baklap mentioned would be a very usefull addition!.

Thanks for the tool