Consolidate problems, any help?

[Red Union Films]

Forgot to say, i upgraded to 5.5 and it did not fix problem...

[Red Union Films]

Hi All.

I have come up with a test to see if the consolidation issue is replicatable on other systems, and if so to see if we can narrow it down to things like software version, windows OS, Edius hardware. I have loaded 3 very short clips to my server for download. To keep size down, although the media is 1080P 25FPS I have rendered out at the lowest quality using HQ codec. Each file is no bigger than 10 Meg.

STEP 1.

Go to www.CDduplicator.co.uk/test This will take you to a web folder containing 3 AVI files marked as 1, 2, and 3. Right click on each file name and select "Save Target As" Best thing to do is create a folder on your media drive called "TEST" and save the files there.


STEP 2.

Start a new Edius project and use the "TEST" folder you created with the media in to save to, and call the EZP "TEST 1". Use the 1080P 25FPS settings for the project settings. The Edius pre-sets may vary in name depending on your Edius hardware card or software, if this is the case just select something close to the project settings above.


STEP 3.

Import the 3 clips into the route of your bin structure. In my tests the problem happens anyway even if the clips are in the route or in a sub folder, it does not seem to effect the outcome.


STEP 4.

Drag clip 1 into your timeline, eventhough the clip is small edit it down to about half it's size by trimming a bit off the front and a bit off the back. Do exactly the same for clip 3 and place it next to clip 1 in the timeline. You can do an I/O edit in the preview monitor, whatever way works best for you. Clip 2 is only there to see what happens when you consolidate the project and remove un-used media. When this is all done and you have your edit done, save the project and close down edius, then re-launch the project. This last bit is just to make sure windows and Edius is properly re-freshed.


STEP 5.

Go to consolidate and use the following settings.

"Save Project to Folder" - Create a new folder on your media drive named "TEST CONSOLIDATE"
"Consolidate Options" - select "CUSTOM"
"Remove unused clips in Timeline"
"Leave only areas used in Timeline"
set a trim of 00:00:00:01 - this is a one frame handle, as the trimmed media will be too small for bigger handles.

Then let Edius do it's thing.



Just to be on the safe side once the consolidation is done close down edius, and open the EZP in the "TEST CONSOLIDATE" folder. When it is open, what should be there is your sequence and 2 trimmed clips marked 1 and 3 in your bin. In all of my tests the media is not there in the bin, but the timeline has the edit with viewable media, and Edius does not give error messages about off line media although it should as it is no longer in the bin.

If anyone could be good enough to try this out could you re-post with your results and mention what version of Edius was used, what version of windows, and what Canopus hardware interface if any.

If anyone from Grass Valley can see any use of this test for your own use, you may want to make it a sticky post.

ALL DOWNLOADED MEDIA FROM www.cdduplicator.co.uk/test IS THE PROPERTY OF RED UNION FILMS AND AS SUCH WE GIVE PERMISSION FOR THE MEDIA TO BE DOWNLOADED AND USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS TEST.

The results of this test could be of great use to many Edius users, and I for one would like to say thank you to anyone who helps out.

Anyway I am off to watch the final episode of LOST and have a good cry....

Cheers.

David.

[Paranova Films]

I got some bad news for you David

Anyway I am off to watch the final episode of LOST and have a good cry....

John Locke is in fact dead... (just kiddin)

now seriously, i did (almost) exactly what you ask, the result is what you're getting in your system, even this: when consolidated is done you can see that the clip dissappear from the BIN, not even need to reopen the project to notice it; i did what i suggest to you afew post above and again: you're right... it doesn't help.

Just yesterday i did a consolidate from a project with a few P2 mxf clips and some other media and everything was fine, just didn't use the trim option.

Sorry to discover this issue, you can see my systems specs n my signature (just that i'm testing Edius 5.5).

Saludos.

[Red Union Films]

It was great to see that Hugo finally became keeper of the island, even that rat Linus had some good in him. I thought the last few episodes tried too hard to explain everything, got a little confused with the whole time jump to the gathering in the church at the end, no Michael or Walt??? All in all though, the best thing on TV ever after Futurama, and a very very sad ending, really i did cry....... Anyway before i forget, this is not the Lost forum, although it feels like a forum for the lost, as in me.


Thanks for the help. A couple of other people have tried the test and come up with the same problem, all using different systems. It is safe to say this is a bug. The consolidate function is still very buggy. The problem that Philip has is also one that is replicatable, I have tried it with native EX3 files. A consolidate funtion that does not trim video media other than its own codec, and then losses it's own codec media in the bin after trim, is not a very usefull tool at all. Like i said earlier i do not want to bitch about the software but my job as head of post production does not allow for me to make excuses over a work path that i chose. When I have the post meeting on Monday with the editor, producer, exec's, and everyone else, it will not be fun. The issue i have is that some people on the film, work with Avid. These are the worst people in the world for saying "I told you so" or "Avid does not have a problem doing that". The problem is, they are right. It was my choice to use Edius over Media Composser, I just hope this does not come back to haunt me. It is hard trying to be objective, after all, this is the first major un-solvable problem with no work around that we have had on the film. But on the other hand, this function is so basic to film making and at the moment makes it impossible to deliver the reels. At the end of lockoff the project with all 9 reels will be over 6TB. This is quite a difficuilt size to move about with, moving it around over gigabit ethernet takes about 18 hours. It's hard enough convincing an industry run on Avid to step outside of it's comfort zone, we do not need anymore reasons for it not to. We all know on this forum how much better adapted Edius is over everyother NLE software/hardware out there, to deal with the complexities of modern digital film production and all of it formats etc. But I feel I may have been fundimentally naive in confusing best adapted with just plain simple best.

Thanks mate.

David.

[tingsern]

My 2 cents worth :-)

Let me start with a disclaimer - I have never used consolidate function, and most likely will never ever use it. Why?

a) When I start a P2 project (I use Panasonic HPX172) - I copy all the clips from my P2 card(s) into a folder in my RAID0 video hard-disks (3TB in total capacity).

b) All the EDIUS editing (including project folders and still pictures, IVP files, Titlemotion Pro files, etc) are kept in another folder.

c) After I am done with one project (rendered out the final version to the satisfaction of my clients) ....

1. I move the EDIUS editing stuff into a separate partition (but, keep all the folder names, file names, etc intact).

2. I dump all the P2 clips (found inside the folder I created in step (a) above), and the contents of the separate partition (in step (1) above) into tape. Not those DV tapes - but, SDLT tapes - using my SDLT tape drive. One tape has 800GB uncompressed capacity. Costs about US$20.

3. After the software does its verification (after writing) - all okay, I delete the P2 folders, and all the contents in the separate partition.

****

If at any time in the future, the clients want to retrieve the "original" files, I merely reach for the right SDLT tape, let the tape drive fast wind to the right tape mark - and restore everything back to Hard-disks.

Because the process preserves all the links in the EDIUS project file, I have never encountered a case of EDIUS "missing links dialogue" at all.

Read and write to data tapes are as fast as hard-disks (using eSATA connection). To me, whether the data are on hard-disks or tapes are irrelevant - it takes me about 10 minutes to restore 50GB of data. Writing to tape is slower because of the write / read verification by the tape hardware.

My average P2 project is about 100 - 150 GB ... which takes about 30 minutes to restore.

I hope this idea of archiving projects will help members out there still struggling to have a hand on digital video - rather than trying to use the buggy consolidate function in EDIUS.

[Red Union Films]

Hi.

That method obviously works for you, and small projects. But when you have a project that is over twice the size of your current raid, you to will have serious issues for baking up. That is when the consolidate function needs to be in place. When i work on small projects that only use a few hundred gig or smaller, I just do a total backup to an external hard drive for archive.

David.

[tingsern]

Well, the highest SDLT or LTO tape capacity is now 1.5 TB uncompressed ... maybe you can consider backing up your huge project files to tapes. Transfer speeds are around 140MB/sec (as fast as hard-disks).

[Red Union Films]

I don't think you understand. I am not trying to back up I am trying to consolidate, they are two different things. Evan if i wanted to backup i would always want to use drives over tapes, this could be done if i had 9 consolidated reels. Tapes are not practical when working with other people on the same material.

Thanks.

David.

[tingsern]

Got you now. Sorry for misunderstanding your intent.

[VideoOpp]

I consider the consolidate tool to now be the weakest link in Edius. It is so important for documentary film makers to be able to consolidate and archive projects for future changes, revisions and new language versions. I have been after Canopus for four years to please fix this part of the program. Apparently they just don't understand the priority. I would like to continue to promote this product to other producers, but the lack of this feature makes it rather difficult.

Hopefully 6.0 will have addressed these issues.

[Red Union Films]

Hi Frank.

The consolidate function works as you would expect if you use all HQ media. Any other media types like MP4, WAV etc will be copied in whole to the new target directory. Lets hope E6 gives us more joy.

Cheers.

Dave.

[peterC]

A long long tiime ago, in a galaxy far,far away, there was a system called Video Machine.

It too had a Consolidate function and it never did work. Like it or not, I preferred to know that all was well without it, just had to work a little differently and live with that.

[VideoOpp]

Hi Frank.

The consolidate function works as you would expect if you use all HQ media. Any other media types like MP4, WAV etc will be copied in whole to the new target directory. Lets hope E6 gives us more joy.

Cheers.

Dave.

I'M OK with it not being able to trim some file types ... My problem with the utility is that it is not smart enough to keep used files in their proper bins, it consolidates all sequences in the project, regardless if they are open or closed, and on larger projects, often stalls half way through the consolidate process.

[Red Union Films]

Hi Frank.

Sorry, are you talking about the magic bins that vanish? If so, yes, a real bu@@er. It's only good if you want to trim a finished project or real, to bring down it's media footprint. But a proper pain in the a@@ if you need to re-visit and check media.

Cheers.

Dave.

[VideoOpp]

Right. I often need to come back to a project to make minor changes for a client or make a new language version. The very strange thing is that the bin structure is preserved, just no Media refrence in the bins. I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that the way Edius was designed, the media might end up as seperated audio and video if the media was to be placed back into their proper bins. Just a guess ...