The RLIngest exports H.264 and MPEG2 35Mbits at 25 fps material in MOV or MP4 format to MPEG2 MXF OP-Atom (Avid). The program was developed in order to ingest the material from Canon 5D, Hero GoPro and Sony F3 (via re-wrap to MOV or MXF with Sony XDCAM Browser - "Import to Final Cut Pro"), but supports any camera that encodes the supported codecs and frame rate. The application suports MXF preview only with the external player.

The program uses a simple concept of structure of folders to create the metadata key to future relink of the material.

Input codecs: H.264 e MPEG2 35 (aka XDCAM EX 35)

Output codecs: MPEG2 35 (aka XDCAM EX 35)

Input formats: MOV, MP4 and MXF (MXF preview only with the external player)

Output formats: MXF OP-Atom

The H.264 material is encoded to MPEG2, it takes longer to export comparing to the MPEG2 material which is only re-wrapped and audio converted. MXF files are only re-wrapped.

Creates a "locator" that can be used in Avid to create an "In Point" to group and synchronize clips.

The material can be exported directly to a folder in the MXF folder structure of Avid. The program creates a folder with the processed material that can then be moved to a numerical folder in the Avid folders structure.

The import of the material is done through the "Media Tool". The material can be re-linked as a normal tape, since the material to be exported with the RL Ingest and the structure of folders and files is the same. The custom metadata (name of the clip and comment are not relevant to re-link the material).

1.4 - Advantages of using RLIngest

- 4 GBytes de memory minimun

- Dual core CPU recommended (developed in a core2duo)

- FFmpeg: video and audio encoding sofware. Get more information and license agreements in http://www.ffmpeg.org (press BACKSPACE to return to this help page).

- BMX Libs: Libraries to read and write mxf files.Get more information and license agreements in http://sourceforge.net/p/bmxlib/home (press BACKSPACE to return to this help page).

First you must set the folder where to export, go to preferences in the XDCAM Browser, in "Destination Folder" field of the tab "FCP" choose the folder you created in the RLIngest folder structure to the camera in question. Save your preferences and exit. Select the material to export and choose "Import into Final Cut Pro .." from the menu "Clip". You can also use "cmd + i" on the keyboard. The material on this camera is exported to MOV without changing the essence. The material is ready for the RLIngex.

This material does not need any treatment, just copy the folder with the material from the card into the camera folder on the RLIngest folders structure. We are talking about 5D H.264, but could be material from other machines provided in MOV format. This material will be coded in MPEG2 35Mbits therefore takes longer to export than F3 material (even with the XDCAM Browser process).

Once prepared the material, you can open the RLIngest and click in the "Input folder" button to choose the day with the material to be imported. All MOV files existing in the subfolders are read for the metadata table with the default assignments. If the folder has already been edited and saved, the applicattion reads the saved metadata automatically. The program only accepts input directories in the format "YYYYMMDD". If you delete files you must copy the plist file to keep your metadata.

With the material of the day in table editor you can select the clips one by one and edit the metadata.

The editable fields are "Clip Name" and "Comment".

The clip field changes first part of the clip name, which by default is "Clip nº" followed by the number of clip in the editing table. You can place here, for example, the scene of the episode, like "001/01". All other fields are automatic and are based on the date represented by the folder "DAY" in the camera folder name, the name of the MOV clip and the folder name "PROJECT_NAME". The field "TAKE" is created taking into account the order of the file in the folder:

cam1/file1 > TAKE_1

cam 1/fle2 > TAKE_2

cam2/file1 > TAKE_1

cam2/file2 > TAKE_2

This process facilitates the creation of groups in Avid because the clips can be ordered by takes.

You can create a sync point locator that helps you with the multi-camera synchronization process inside the Avid Media Composer.

To save changes to the clip click "Save clip." To save changes to the day click "Save Day". "Save the day" creates a file in the folder with the metadata of the day, the next time you choose the same folder the metadata is read from that file.

If you do not want to export oome clips, select the clips and use the "Export" check box. Press "Save day" to save the changes (the property "Export" on the "Clips" table becomes "NO").

After you finish editing the metadata click "Export" and choose the output folder. You should choose a folder in the final volume connected to Avid machine.

You can choose a numeric folder in the Avid folder structure (Ex: some_volume/Avid mefiaFiles/MXF/1) so then it is only necessary to move the files, the program creates a folder like "creating_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" (Ex: some_volume/Avid mefiaFiles/MXF/1/creating_20120305113025) where creates the mxf files. In the end just move the files to the numeric folder (some_volume/Avid mefiaFiles/MXF/1). It is advised to leave the Avid before moving the files, especially if are many files. Never let the numeric folders contain more than 5000 files. A good practice is to create our numeric folder with the format "YYYYMMDD" and export the stuff to there.

A text file is created in the folder of day, with the name export-YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.txt containing the report generated in the export window.

After move the files just open the Avid, which will re-index the material. Open the "Media Tool" to move the material into a bin. Even if you have no project with the exported project name, it will appear in the "Media Tool".