AAF Export Error

[Andy]

Hi All

In my continuing quest to nail down some project sharing export workflows from Edius 6.51 I've hit upon a new issue.

I have a 25 minute project timeline, 3 video tracks, a couple of title tracks (not needed for export) and 8 audio tracks (7 mono, 1 stereo) as shown in the first screenshot below.

I'm trying to export this using the AAF project exporter function with settings as shown in the second screenshot.

If and when I execute this export I am then displayed an empty AAF Project Exporter window which holds on screen for about 30-40 seconds after which I am displayed a "Failed to copy files. Failed to Export." error message ... as shown in the third and fourth screenshots.

However, if use I/O marks to export my timeline in smaller sections, with all other settings otherwise the same, then everything works. The maximum amount of (this) timeline that I've managed to export in a single section (with the above settings) is one containing I'm guestimating around 300 events (somwhere between 21'30" and 22'00 of teh total timeline depending on exactly where the section is marked) ...

Is there a known limit to Edius's AAF export function in this regard ... maybe in tracks/length, file size, number of events it can describe or similar?

Thanks in advance
Andy

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[Jerry]

I noticed that the export codec was DNXHD. There is an issue in 6.51 where these files will not play. I don't know if that would cause an issue on export of AAF or not.

[Andy]

Hey Jerry

I'm thinking thats not the problem ... the files don't currently decode/play properly (in 6.51) but they do seem to encode ok. As noted, the AAF export proceeds exactly as expected if I export the timeline with those same settings but in smaller sections.

I think the issue is probably somehow memory related. I've experimented with closing all other applications / processes and/or rebooting the PC to flush any memory caches ... and after I do that I seem to be able to increase the total duration / no of edit events that I can export (I managed to increase the maximum export duration of the test timeline to just shy of 24 minutes). I also noticed that I could hang up the whole AAF exported process (and Edius) if, after starting a big AAF export, I then started a bunch of other applications processes.

The edit system, for reference, is built around an Intel Core i7 3820 (3.6GHz/10MB) CPU on an Asus Sabertooth X79 mobo with 16 GB RAM. I opened up the task manager and watched what happened when I intentionally started the AAF export with a section length I knew would cause it to fail ... sure enough the error message came up eventually but according to the Task Manager nothing untoward seemed to be going on while that all happened.

Puzzling, but not the end of the world as I can still export in sections.

Thanks for looking in.
Andy

[vgtah]

it s a type 3 aaf export ?

did you ever succeed to export an edius 6.51 project to a resolve project keeping all your parameters (crops, speed, fade etc...) ??

[Andy]

Hey Vgtah, thanks for looking.

No, this is not a "Type 3" base preset (that uses "original clips") ... the settings I'm using are as shown in the screenshot.

Did you ever succeed to export an edius 6.51 project to a resolve project keeping all your parameters (crops, speed, fade etc...) ??

No ... that information is not currently included in any Edius sequence/project export data.

Cheers
Andy

[vgtah]

Hey Vgtah, thanks for looking.

No, this is not a "Type 3" base preset (that uses "original clips") ... the settings I'm using are as shown in the screenshot.



No ... that information is not currently included in any Edius sequence/project export data.

Cheers
Andy

good andy, so...which type is it because i dont see it in the screen shot,
and what did you ever succeed to keep to jump on resolve then ?

thanks

[DmitryP]

Andy, you've opened one more interesting thread, so probably we'll find out an answer in the end of why Resolve doesn't import Edius timeline exported with AAF properly, meaning it imports just a master track (if this is not Resolve's bug of course).

[vgtah]

Andy, you've opened one more interesting thread, so probably we'll find out an answer in the end of why Resolve doesn't import Edius timeline exported with AAF properly, meaning it imports just a master track (if this is not Resolve's bug of course).

we already know that...the best way is to do a type 3 aaf export from edius to premiere then to resolve, this is the only way to keep all tracks, and speed but no crops, no fade.

[Andy]

good andy, so...which type is it because i dont see it in the screen shot,
and what did you ever succeed to keep to jump on resolve then ?

Hey Vgtah

It's not a "Type" at all :) It's a custom selection of settings based on the AAF Export options available ... it tells Edius to copy (export) the used area of each video clip (plus a 1 second handle on either end of each clip) and to encode those copied clips using the Avid DNxHD codec in a QuickTime movie wrapper, meanwhile it tells Edius to copy (export) each track of audio (rather than each clip) as separate audio files using the PCM WAVE format ... and all that new media is to be created within a new folder at the same location as the AAF file which you are exporting (and this is the media that the AAF file will reference).

Once I had this set up I clicked the "Save preset..." button (bottom left of screenshot) and have save it as my own custom AAF preset which I've called "Resolve - DNxHD".

Hope it helps explain the settings.
Andy

[Andy]

... why Resolve doesn't import Edius timeline exported with AAF properly, meaning it imports just a master track (if this is not Resolve's bug of course).

It's just a matter of tuning Dmitry, it's not a bug in Resolve and it's not a bug in Edius either ... they are simply not yet in tune with each other.

Obviously it benefits both parties to get it working and for that we just need patience. Unless or until that tuning happens then we need to create and adjust our own workflows ... which is what we've been doing :)

[Andy]

I noticed that the export codec was DNXHD. There is an issue in 6.51 where these files will not play. I don't know if that would cause an issue on export of AAF or not.

Hey Jerry

It's Monday morning over here and I have a few minutes before I need to get on with the day so I just did a very quick experiment ... I simply switched the AAF Exporter codec to CanopusHQ AVI, and sure enough the export worked. No error.

So there we are. Some aspect of the issue certainly IS codec depenedent, though my success with a multi-part AAF export using the same DNxHD encoding options does suggest that it is not entirely a failing of Edius's handling of the codec itself.

I've gone back to scour the relevant section of the manual again and found the following note:

• When you select an exporter which does not support the export of the timecode, the file is not properly exported.

The manual is not very specific with regards to what "not properly exported" means, but it seems like it maybe pertinent as Edius does not export correct timecode when targetting a Quicktime Movie encoding (all clips produced via that method will read as having timecode beginning at 00:00:00:00 rather than taking timecode from the original source or sequence as would otherwise be expected). To test this idea I just tried the same export again, but changed the AAF Exporter codec to a "QuickTime Canopus HQ" preset ... and boom. Back to the same old "export failed" error again.

Drat. This looks like it might be the root of the problem. My basic conclusion at this point is then that whilst you can choose a Quicktime preset as the AAF Exporter codec, there is a (variable) limit to how many edit events you can export when using such a preset (and that limit may or may not be memory / cache related).

Something to go on for the time being anyway.

Cheers
Andy

[GrassValley_SL]

The source clip timecode on export with quicktime is not implemented yet.
We are looking how to accurately support this.

[Andy]

Thanks for the note Steve. Will avoid AAF with transcodes to Quicktime for now.

Cheers
Andy

[DmitryP]

It's just a matter of tuning Dmitry, it's not a bug in Resolve and it's not a bug in Edius either ... they are simply not yet in tune with each other.

Obviously it benefits both parties to get it working and for that we just need patience. Unless or until that tuning happens then we need to create and adjust our own workflows ... which is what we've been doing :)

Honestly speaking, a couple of days ago, I made my first exersice w/ Premier & Resolve and I was excited of how easy and smoothly all things have been done. Of cource my master file coded at Canopus HQ was not so good for Premiere, and was not to good at all for Resolve, but seems having had 6.51, QT HQ should be a solution for some time.

I made ~6-7 tracks, and exported a sequence as FC XML to Resolve,- everything was fine w/o any "dancing with a tambourine". Now, I decide to go after new workflow based on BlackMagic at all. Seems, a proprietary technologies which were a best solution in the past right now are gone, and open architecture might change this.

NB: Strange but I had crashes of Premiere during trimming of my clip, with error re CUDA driver (w/ CUDA acceleration switched on). And this is happened at my PNY Quadro FX 3800not cheap GPU cerified by them,- strange.

[Andy]

we already know that...the best way is to do a type 3 aaf export from edius to premiere then to resolve, this is the only way to keep all tracks, and speed but no crops, no fade.

Perhaps not. Just tried this excellent little (free) conversion application made by Matthias Scheurer ... its simply called aafConverter and it converts Edius AAF files to Final Cut Pro's XML Interchange format.

Tried it just now with a test Edius AAF export froma timeline where I have various video clips scattered accross three tracks. The resulting XML worked perfectly with Resolve which rebuilt my 3 track timeline without issue. Nice ... much quicker and easier than using Premiere.

Matthias's website, where you can download his very clever conversion tool, is here: http://matsab.de/index.php/en/aafconvert-en

Thanks Matthias
Andy