Media Director v2.2.1 Technical Overview -...

Media | Director

Version 2.2.1 – Technical Overview

What’s New ............................................................................................................................................. 1

Notes ....................................................................................................................................................... 1

Supported Versions of Interplay Production ........................................................................................... 2

Supported Versions of Media Composer ................................................................................................ 2

Scaling Media | Director Installations ...................................................................................................... 2

Change log .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Notes and Limitations ............................................................................................................................ 16

Known Issues ........................................................................................................................................ 19

Important Information

Avid recommends that you read all the information in this Technical Overview file thoroughly before installing or using any new software release.

What’s New

Media | Director 2.2.1 is a maintenance release. It addresses a number of issues, including the following major topics:

• Expansion Box Installer fails when using domain user

• ClipTools: Start Time shows wrong values, list of clips incomplete

• Cleanup of workflows and Mediarewrapping jobs was not working as expected

See the Change Log for a more detailed list of fixes.

Notes

For information on the Remote STP option and other Media Director v2.2 documentation, see the following link on the Avid Knowledge Base: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/readme/Media-Director-Version-2-x-Documentation-and-Qualified-AMA-Plugins

Supported Versions of Interplay Production

Media|Director 2.2 is compatible with all versions of Interplay Production from 3.1 through 3.8. It is expected that Media | Director 2.2 will also support newer (future) versions of Interplay Production. When rewrapping or transcoding to Panasonic AVC-LongG and Sony XAVC Long GOP media, Interplay Production needs to be version 3.6 (for AVC LongG only), 3.7 (for both format families) or newer.

Supported Versions of Media Composer

When installing the Clip Tools functionality on a Media | Director 2.2 client computer, installed AMA plugins and other program components may interfere with Media Composer software installed on the same machine. While Media | Director 2.2 AMA Plugins and libraries are fully compatible with Media Composer at release time, versions may diverge over time in a production environment. To minimize the potential for issues, we recommend to not install Media Composer and Media | Director client (Drop Utility) on the same machine if Clip Tools are used.

It is safe to install Media Composer 8.8 or newer versions alongside with the Media | Director Drop Utility in case you do not intend to use Clip Tools.

For Panasonic AVC LongG and XAVC Long GOP AMA workflows with Media | Director and Media Composer, please check Media Composer compatibility for Panasonic AVC LongG AMA and Sony XAVC Long GOP AMA.

Scaling Media | Director Installations

Media | Director has been qualified to run with up to three Expansion Engines per single Main Engine. If you plan to connect more than two Expansion Engines please contact your Avid representative for guidance regarding system setup and scaling. Remember that even a single Main Engine can generate a significant load on the connected ISIS storage. A single Main Engine can potentially saturate a single ISIS crate. If you plan on adding Expansion Engines, please make sure that your ISIS setup can support the required bandwidth without adversely affecting other operations.

Change log

Media Director 2.2.1 Resolved issues in Media | Director 2.2.1

TI-6125 Expansion Box Installer fails when using domain user fixed

TI-6193 ClipTools: Start Time shows wrong values, list of clips incomplete fixed

TI-6012 MediaDirector Spanned P2 files are imported incorrectly fixed display problem

TI-6247 Profile cloning is broken for certain profile types regression fixed

TI-6165 MediaDirectorDropUtility-2.2.0.562 regression: issue with deleting DI profile

regression fixed

TI-6164 When RemoteSTP or other packages are installed on MD, Uninstall fails

fixed

TI-6146 MediaRewrappingCleanup: database connection string does not get passed correctly

fixed

TI-6145 Cleanup: Workflows not properly cleaned up fixed

TI-5970 Media Director not maintaining aspect ratio. 3rd party bug in Transcode

TI-5833 BSI MD: Composer and FI storage browser are unable to link to AMA files where path contains a comma

3rd party bug, fixed with MI 3.8.1

TI-6217 MDDU installer does not install C++ Runtime 2010 fixed

TI-6183 SoapCallTimeoutInSeconds needs to be set in WorkflowEngine profile

fixed

TI-6169 MD Expansion Box: MRW logs do not get cleaned up fixed

TI-6166 ToolTip for LAN/Remote/Internet is not sufficient fixed

TI-6159 MDDU 2.2.1.13870 doesn't detect installed Canon XF Plugin 3.2.1.15 properly

fixed

TI-5978 BSI Media Director: UHD ama files exported by MC, are offline after Direct Ingest.

3rd party bug, fixed with MC 8.9

TI-5971 BSI MediaDirector: UHD DNxHQ clips ingested thru Direct Ingest throw error on export and won't come online.


TI-5969 BSI Media Director: Loading XAVC Long 50 files during EWC ingest, throws Assertion error if checked out too soon.


TI-5824 Profile Installer Setup does not reliably recognize previous installation

fixed

TI-4354 OpenSource zip on landing page points to misnamed file fixed

TI-3934 Headframes don't get checked in when being generated by MPS fixed

TI-4955 Need to change the error message when not able to loginto the DMS broker

fixed

TI-6152 Invalid Paths in Default Profiles when using Burst fixed

TI-6017 When RSTP is installed on MD, the link to Control Center is missing fixed

Media Director 2.2.0 Media | Director 2.2 adds Edit While Capture (EWC) capabilities, which allow the editing workflow to begin while the ingest operation is still in progress.

The following profiles permit the use of Edit While Capture:

• Direct Ingest

• Direct Ingest via Cache

• Ingest from OP1a

The above profiles have been updated and the Drop Utility UI will show a dropdown that allows the user to enable/disable EWC mode on a per profile basis. By default, EWC mode is disabled. While the Drop Utility offers the ability to transcode into two resolutions at once in general, EWC mode allows only one resolution to be created. When sequences are created, Media |Director now preserves the order of clips in the volume as they are detected by the AMA plugins. Volume ingest operations can be accelerated by splitting the operations into multiple Clip Tools jobs. The copy step of the jobs will run in parallel. To start the jobs in parallel:

1. Select a subset of the clips that should be ingested.

2. Start the job.

3. Repeat steps 1. and 2. with the next subset.

Media Director 2.1.1 Media | Director 2.1.1 is a maintenance release. It addresses the following major issues:

• Upgrade from an activated Media | Director 1.x system yielded a non-activated system

• On servers belonging to a domain, the installation process could fail

• The tool for changing the service user credentials was not included with 2.1.0

• Link to the administration tool ‘Control Center’ was missing

Media Director 2.1

Media Director 2.1 adds support for the ‘Remote STP’ license option. Using the Media Director v2.1 ‘Remote STP’ option, a remote MediaCentral | UX user can send Interplay | Production assets to AirSpeed playback servers or an Airspeed Studio located in a different workgroup. This feature is called remote send to playback (Remote STP). Remote STP is especially useful for customers with offices at different locations, some of which host the playback servers (playback offices), and some of which only create content (satellite offices). Remote STP lets a user in a satellite office send an asset directly to a playback server in the playback office.

Media Director 2.0

• Presets & Overrides for Outgest To Op1a and Overrides for Ingest From Op1a operations can now be

configured via the Profile Builder in the Media Director Drop Utility.

• Outgest To Op1a now supports

o transcoding to a different resolution

o defining the Op1a export name

• Direct Ingest, Direct Ingest via Cache and Ingest From Op1a now supports XML side car files.

o There can be a side car file per media file, or one side car file per folder.

o The content of the side car file can be accessed and used via token functions and xpath

expressions.

• Drop Utility enhancements:

o Favorites:

▪ Support for more than 5 favorites.

▪ Favorites can now automatically start actions like opening a volume in Clip Tools or

starting the ingest operation.

o Profile filtering: The Profiles and Templates list in the Profile Builder can be filtered by

clicking into the list and typing the filter string. The typed string will be used to match any

profile name that contains the string.

o The Drop Utility now automatically detects when a USB device gets plugged into the

machine.

o The Drop Utility Help menu allows showing the installed AMA plugin versions.

• Improved Profile Installer for easier integration of profiles

o Can install Adobe Premiere and BurstOnTV profiles

o Offers assistance for creating Burst profiles with XML sidecar support

o Offers profile backup and restore

o Downloadable from Media|Director the installer section of the Landing Page.

• Transcoding to Panasonic AVC-LongG and full ingest support for Sony XAVC Long GOP resolutions.

Supported operating points:

Name in Interplay Production

Bit Rate

Raster Frame Rate

Chroma Sampling

Bit Depth

Panasonic Name

AVC Long GOP 12 1080i 29.97 12 1920x1080i 29.97* 4.2.0 8 AVC-LongG 12

AVC Long GOP 12 1080i 25 12 1920x1080i 25.00** 4.2.0 8 AVC-LongG 12

AVC Long GOP 12 720p 59.94 12 1280x720p 59.94 4.2.0 8 AVC-LongG 12

AVC Long GOP 12 720p 50 12 1280x720p 50.00 4.2.0 8 AVC-LongG 12









Name in Interplay Production ***

Bit

Rate

Raster Frame

Rate

Chroma

Sampling

Bit

Depth

Sony Name

XAVC Long GOP 1080i 29.97 25 1920x1080i 29.97* 4.2.2 10 XAVC Long GOP 25

XAVC Long GOP 1080i 25 25 1920x1080i 25.00** 4.2.2 10 XAVC Long GOP 25





XAVC Long GOP 720p 59.94 50 1280x720p 59.94 4.2.2 10 XAVC Long GOP 50

XAVC Long GOP 720p 50 50 1280x720p 50.00 4.2.2 10 XAVC Long GOP 50

* Sample rate of 59.94 fields per second. ** Sample rate of 50 fields per second. *** Please note that different operating points are using the same display label in Interplay Production.

Please refer to the Interplay documentation for further details.

o Notes: In order to use

• Panasonic AVC Long GOP operating points, an Extended Panasonic AMA Plugin of version 4.7 or

newer is required.

• Sony XAVC Long GOP operating points, the new nablet Sony XDCAM 4.000.1.718 or newer is required.

• Both plugins have to be installed on:

▪ the Media | Director MAIN Engine

▪ any Expansion Engine

▪ on the client for enabling Panasonic AVC LongG / Sony XAVC Long GOP Clip Tool workflows

• For using Panasonic AVC Long GOP and Sony XAVC Long GOP operating points 32GB RAM is required.

It may be necessary to purchase a license for the Extended Panasonic AMA Plugin functionality.

Media | Director 1.5

• Transcoding from and Rewrapping to Panasonic AVC-LongG resolutions.

Supported operating points:

Name in Interplay Production

Bit Rate

Raster Frame Rate

Chroma Sampling

Bit Depth

Panasonic Name

AVC Long GOP 12 1080i 29.97

12 1920x1080i 29.97* 4.2.0 8 AVC-LongG 12





25 1920x1080i 29.97* 4.2.2 10 AVC-LongG 25





50 1920x1080i 29.97* 4.2.2 10 AVC-LongG 50




* Sample rate of 59.94 fields per second.

** Sample rate of 50 fields per second.

o Note: In order to use this feature, an Extended Panasonic AMA Plugin of version 4.7 or

newer is required and has to be installed on:



▪ on the client for enabling Panasonic AVC LongG Clip Tool workflows

It may be necessary to purchase a license for the Extended Panasonic AMA Plugin

functionality.

• Support for integration of Adobe Premiere Pro with MediaCentral UX. MediaCentral and Adobe

Premiere Pro support the “MediaCentral Premiere Pro Connector” that supports the following:

o Create media compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro. The Connector uses Media Director to

create simplified versions of MediaCentral sequences or master clips and compatible media

for formats where the original media cannot be used directly in Adobe Premiere Pro.

o Use Media Director to send the active Adobe Premiere sequence back to MediaCentral. For

additional information, see the Media | Director User Guide.

• Processing sources with more than 16 tracks of audio.

• Post Processing of material created by Media Director allowing you to create a mixdown or sequence

from the generated media. For additional information, see the Media | Director User Guide.

• Support for creation of profile favorites. For additional information, see the Media | Director User

Guide.

• Support for automatically running a virus scan at the end of an ingest job. For additional information,

see the “Finalize the Installation” section in the Media | Director Engine Installation Guide.

• Clip Tools enhancement: Ctrl + Drag and dropping a volume to the Job Builder will automatically open

the volume in Clip Tools. For additional information, see the Media | Director User Guide.

Media | Director 1.4.1

• When transcoding media from AMA sources the MedieRewrappingWorker services and Clip Tools

service might use a lot of memory. (MPI-16925)

• Saving a profile in the ProfileBuilder fails in case an attribute name or value is left empty. (TI-3402)


• Sony XAVC Long support:

o Support (transcoding from this format only) for the following source formats was added:

▪ Sony XAVC Long 50

• 720p {50, 59.94}

• 1080i {25, 29.97}

• 1080p {23.98, 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94}


• 1080i {25, 29.97}


• 1080i {25, 29.97}

o Target formats when transcoding from Sony XAVC Long are:

▪ XDCAM HD 50

▪ H.264 (only to OP Atom)

▪ Other target formats are expected to work but are not fully qualified or supported.

o Note: In order to use this feature a Sony Deck AMA Plugin of version 3.41 (Sony PDZK-MA2

v3.41) (or newer) is required and has to be installed on:



▪ on the client for enabling Sony XAVC Long Clip Tool workflows

• OP-1a export (outgest) enhancements

o Support for exporting masterclips, subclips and sequences from Avid Interplay Production to

MXF OP-1a.

Note: Interplay Transcode is required for exporting sequences to OP-1a. Media | Director

will automatically trigger a sequence Mixdown operation before performing the OP-1a

export.

o Via the Media | Director REST API workerOverrides and workerPresets can be specified to

either override metadata on the MXF OPAtom source (workerOverrides) or target presets

can be configured for the MXF OP1a target (workerPresets):

▪ workerOverrides:

• Start of Media

• Aspect Ratio

• Active Format Descriptor

▪ workerPresets:

• Start of Media

• Audio Channel Structure to define the number of audio tracks and channels

per track (currently only 1 channel per track are supported)

• Container constraints template: Currently ARD/ZDF HDF is the only

supported template. This setting will write HDF conform MXF OP-1a files.

Note:

The following constraints apply when the HDF template is specified:

o The audio tracks need to be set to either 8 or 16 (channel per

track 1). If the source media has fewer tracks, silent audio tracks

will be added.

o Only the following source formats are supported: XDCAM HD 50

1080i/25; AVC-Intra 100 {720p/50, 1080i/25}

o Audio has to be 24bit 48kHz

o The source media must not have an ANC data track.

• Ingest enhancements:

o New token: The {UI.Machine} token references the client machine that started a specific

ingest operation. This can be used to add metadata about the client machine that triggered

the specific operation.

o Tokens and token functions can now also be used as part of the PamDatabaseBasePath

backend configuration setting. Previously, tokens and token functions were only supported

in the ISIS storage path configuration settings. This can be used for ingesting the multiple

database root paths without exposing the full database path in the profile.

o The server side setting CreateSequenceForRegisteredClips can now be overwritten on an

ingest profile level (profiles where a register step is involved). This allows defining at the

profile level whether sequences are generated or not.

o AMA Plugin related profiles (Direct Ingest, Direct Ingest via Cache, Park and Register, Park,

Register and Transcode, HiRes Conform from Parked Storage) now support up to 12 freely

configurable UI controls (widgets) that can be used to add additional metadata to a job.

Previously, only 2 UI controls were available.

o AMA Plugin related profiles (Direct Ingest, Direct Ingest via Cache, Park and Register, Park,

Register and Transcode, HiRes Conform from Parked Storage) now support up to 10 custom

Interplay Production attributes that can be set on ingested clips. The custom attributes can

be populated from any token or UI widget, or combinations thereof including the results of

token functions.

o For partial ingest operations using the IngestFromOp1a profile the user can now configure a

handle length that will be applied on the in-point and out-point of the configured cut (via

REST API only).

o Via Media | Director REST API workerOverrides can be specified to override metadata on the

MXF OP1a source (Ingest from Op1a profile):

▪ workerOverrides:

• Start of Media

• Aspect Ratio

• Active Format Descriptor

• Support for ingesting volumes into MXF OP1a:

o As an additional integration feature, Media | Director offers the ability to convert AMA

sources to the OP-1a container format. This new ‘AMA to OP-1a’ process can rewrap all

sources that are supported by the AMA plugins for Media | Director (MXF, P2, XDCAM and

Canon XF) to MXF OP-1a containers. The OP-1a files for a source volume are created in a

configurable folder structure, along with XML manifests that describe the volume and all

metadata information the volume brings along.

Please check the MediaDirector SupportedVolumesAndFormats.docx for a list of supported

source formats. All formats listed in section Supported source formats for consolidation

workflows (same docx) are supported as target resolutions for ingesting volumes into MXF

OP1a.

Note: The ‘AMA to OP-1a’ process is disabled by default because it is not applicable to

Interplay Production workflows. Even when disabled, the process is still available through the

Media | Director API. To also enable the ‘AMA to OP-1a’ process in the Media | Director user

interface, visit the System Administrator page of the Media | Director Administration pages.

The feature toggle can be found in profile MediaDirector, section Toggles, setting AMA-TO-

OP1A. The profiles will be enabled in the UI by setting the value to true.

o The following new profiles are then available:

▪ Direct Ingest to Op1a

▪ Direct Ingest via Cache to Op1a

▪ Park and Transcode to Op1a

o Similar to the outgest functionality, ingesting into OP1a also supports workerOverrides and

workerPresets. Please see the section above for more information.

• Client enhancements:

o MS Windows: The client side Clip Tools dialog now supports playback of the displayed clips if

a media player (e.g. VLC) is installed on the client machine and is associated with the

extension of the media files.

o MacOS: El Capitan client support (requires ISIS Client 4.7.7).

o Via the ProfileBuilder pane the profile administrator can now un-flag a profile from being

shown in the drop down list of profiles on the JobBuilder pane.

Last Minute Notes (MD 1.4)

The documentation regarding workerPresets and workerOverrides within the profile xsd files is slightly wrong. While workerPresets are supported for OutgestToOp1a and Normalize Op1a operations, they are not, yet, supported for IngestFromOp1a. workerOverrides are supported for all three operations: OutgestToOp1a, Normalize Op1a and IngestFromOp1a. There is a known issue with using the workerOverrides – Start Of Media for OutgestToOp1a operations. It is not recommended to use it in Media | Director 1.4. The same override works correctly on IngestFromOp1a and Normalize Op1a. Please see the table below for details:

Operation Overrides / Presets Type

Name Comment

IngestFromOp1a workerOverrides SOM Start of Media

Aspect Ratio

Active Format Descriptor

OutgestToOp1a

workerOverrides SOM Start of Media

Aspect Ratio

Active Format Descriptor

workerPresets SOM Start of Media

Audio Channel Structure (number of tracks and channels)

This preset defines the number of audio tracks and channels per track should be provided in the output media. Not existing tracks / channels in the source media will be filled with silent audio. Currently only 1 channel per track is supported.

templateName (ARD/ZDF HDF)

Formats: o XDCAM HD 50 1080i/25 o AVC-I 100 {720p/50,

1080i/25}

o Audio: 24bit 48kHz

Constraints: o Tracks: 8 or 16 o Channels: 1 o No data track

-


• Panasonic AVC LongG support:

o Support (transcoding only) for the following source formats was added:

▪ Panasonic AVC LongG 12 720p {50, 59.94} fps



▪ Panasonic AVC LongG 12 1080i {25, 29.97} fps



o Transcoding Panasonic AVC LongG sources is supported for the following target resolutions:

▪ XDCAM HD 50

▪ H.264

o Please note that in order to use this feature a AVC LongG-licensed Panasonic AMA Plugin of

version 4.4.6 (newer versions are not supported) is required and has to be installed on:



▪ on the client for enabling AVC LongG Clip Tool workflows

o Due to a known issue in the Panasonic AMA plugin, Panasonic AVC LongG source media

(volumes only) might remain locked after an ingest operation. As a result the media cannot

be moved or deleted until the corresponding backend service got restarted.

There is a new setting in the Media Director profile on the Admin pages to automatically

restart those services. Set the following setting to true to configure auto-restart. By default

this setting is false.

▪ Debug\RestartWorkerAfterGetVolumeInfo

Please note that restarting the backend services might have an impact on the overall ingest

performance.

o For additional limitations please check the limitation section below.

• Windows 10 Client support

• A job can now be canceled via REST API as well

• Profile Builder enhancements:

o The Interplay Clip Name field now allows to use the following new tokens:

▪ Source.Filesystem.Volume.Path.<n>

▪ Source.Filesystem.Volume.Parent

• Support for using the IngestFromOp1a profile from the Media | Director Drop Utility.

• Usability improvements:

o Start jobs directly after dropping a volume

o Start or delete jobs directly from the JobBuilder queue without using the context menu

o Progress reporting has been improved

o Introduction of profile icons

o The Templates and Profiles section in the Profile Builder can now be resized

o The ClipTools cache location can now be reset to the default location.

• Ingest comments are now also set on clips in Interplay Production. Before a comment was only set on

the parent folder of the clips.

• Support for source volumes that reside on an FTP location:

o Windows: Navigate to the FTP server using Windows Explorer and drag & drop a volume to

the Media | Director Drop Utility.

o Mac: Mount an FTP server location and use drag & drop from a Finder window into the

Media | Director Drop Utility.

o Limitations:

▪ Only park workflows are supported (Direct Ingest via Cache - Park and Register -

Park, Register and Transcode)

▪ Clip Tools and Shift+Drop are not supported for FTP sources on Windows.


• The new Clip Tools feature allows ingest operators to select individual clips of a volume for ingest,

instead of ingesting the whole volume. Please refer to the Media | Director user guide for a full

description of the Clip Tools feature.

• Support (rewrapping and transcoding) for the following source formats was added:

o DNxHR

▪ DNxHR 4:4:4

▪ DNxHR HQX (High Quality Extended)

▪ DNxHR HQ (High Quality - 8 bit)

▪ DNxHR SQ (Standard Quality)

▪ DNxHR LB (Low Bandwidth)

o Canon XF

▪ MPEG-2 HD 50 and 35 Mbits (1920x1080, 1280x720)

▪ MPEG-2 HD 25 MBits (1440x1080)

o Extended support for XAVC-Intra UHDTV1 {23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 50p, 59.94p} (transcoding

only)

• Support for transcoding all supported progressive UHDTV1 source media into DNxHR resolutions.

• The Media | Director Main and Expansion engines can now be installed to be running with a Domain

user. This allows an easier permission configuration and management for providing Media | Director

services access to media shares on the network.

• Fixes

o Fixed support for AMA-linking of MXF OP1a files that have descriptive metadata timeline

tracks that have multiple descriptive segments.

o Fixed support for AMA-linking of MXF OP1a files that have an SMPTE ST 381-3 AVC Sub-

Descriptor.

o Fixed support of AMA-linking and transcoding from MXF OP1a and Sony device media files that

contain XAVC 4:2:2 video of 720p/50 and 720p/59.94 rasters.

▪ Note: Consolidate of such media is still not supported.

o Fixed an issue where transcoding from QuickTime files that contain ProRes444 media into

DNxHR 444 or H.264 8oo kbps could lead to a change on color (blue tint).

o Fixed an issue where consolidate and transcode of Sony device media XDCAM EX clips became

progressively slower with media duration.

o Fixed a situation where the Media Rewrapping services would terminate abnormally when

processing Avid Airspeed-created H.264 proxy MXF OP1a files.


• Fixes:

o Improved stability on MediaRewrappingWorkers

▪ For some media the MPEG-2 AspectRatio fixer component was writing out of buffer

boundaries.

▪ Some specific IMX media tended to crash the MediaRewrappingWorker.

▪ Media with bad indexTable was processed but resulted in wrong video track

duration. Now this media is rejected.

▪ TapeName is now properly set on OpAtoms were expected / required.

o Relinking issues in Media Composer between AMA and Avid native resolutions were resolved

(those issues got introduced in Media | Director 1.1.1).


• Fixes:

o XAVC-Intra 4:2:2 UHDTV1 source formats can now be transcoded

(Note: consolidation of these formats is not supported)

o Timecode and SOM related:

▪ Some Omneon Spectrum generated XDCAM Op1a files with SOM = 0 cannot be

converted to OP Atom (IngestFromOp1a profiles)

▪ SOM is now always been used from the video track, before there were occasions

where the SOM was used from an audio track

▪ Source package start time code is off by pre-charge edit units

o Quicktime AMA Plugin

▪ Decrease of memory consumption of the QuickTime AMA Plugin.

▪ Issues around QuickTime AMA Plugin regarding interlaced and progressive media.

▪ Some XDCAM EX MP4 clips failed to process.

o Improved MediaRewrappingWorker stability:

▪ Improved error handling on file IO. Specifically when interacting with ISIS.

Operations are terminated with error messages and eliminating the risk of creating

partially invalid media or getting MediaRewrappingWorker crashes.

▪ The following crash issues have been addressed:

• issues related to writing out of buffer boundaries

• issues related to exceptions being thrown in destructors of depending

libraries

o Media related:

▪ MediaRewrappingWorkers were stalling when reading specific Hamburg Pro Media-

created MXF Op1a files with IMX payload

▪ Harmonic Spectrum generated Op1a files with IMX payload could not be read

▪ Grass Valley MPEG-2 Long-GOP 1080i/25 16ch OP1a file having 50 Mbps 4:2:0

payload cannot be converted to OP Atom

▪ Adobe AVCI-1080i25-8ch P2-style volume cannot be consolidated or transcoded to

Avid OP Atom

▪ Rewrapping from MXF OP 1a to Avid OP Atom for specific DV-based 25 NTSC media

is missing 1 frame

▪ Duration in MC is 1 frame more than actual for OP Atom XDCAM file with pre-

charge

▪ Outgesting previously ingested XDCAM HD with pre-charge and TC rollover

midnight: A/V out of sync in OP 1a

▪ MXF and Panasonic AMA Plugin failed to process some media

▪ 24fps media with wrong dropframe flag can now be processed

o Improved error messages from media services


• The target resolution transcode label of DNxHD Compact is no longer available. Profiles using this

target resolution will no longer be displayed or accessible from within the Media | Director Drop

Utility. Submitting jobs using a DNxHD Compact transcode target via the Media | Director REST API

will fail. Instead, users are recommended to use DNxHD Thin Raster. This will produce equivalent

media as the previous DNxHD Compact target.

• The target resolution transcode label DNxHD Standard Thin Raster was renamed to DNxHD Thin

Raster.

• Media | Director now supports transcoding to multiple target resolutions using the same profile.

• A Register profile was added. This profile can be used to register volumes that were directly copied to

the parking storage.

• The token / rule system has been extended. Media | Director now supports custom token functions.

Token functions are written in JScript. They can be used similar to tokens within fields of a profile.

Media | Director ships with the following pre-installed token functions:

o substr(inputString, startPosition, length)

Extracts parts of a string, beginning at the character at the specified position, and returns the

specified number of characters.

o length(inputString)

Returns the length of a string (number of characters). The length of an empty string is 0.

o split(inputString, splitChar, elementNumber)

Returns the n-th substring of a string.

• Media | Director now supports multiple WatchServices.

• WatchServices now support parking profiles as well.

• Media | Director now ships with a very simple UserManagement. The user management comprises

two basic accounts, administrator and default. The default account is used when no credentials are

provided. The default user won’t be able to view details or modify profiles. The other user is the

profile administrator who can view and modify profiles in addition to starting ingests.

• Media | Director jobs can now be prioritized (High, Media, Low) before submitting them to the Media

| Director Main Engine.

• Media | Director now supports volume ingests via VPN or other high latency connection between the

Media | Director Drop Utility and the Media | Director Main Engine.

• Some AMA Plug-ins decode frames in the plug-in even before handing them to the Media | Director

services. For this reason, source media supported by those AMA Plug-ins cannot be consolidated, and

has to be transcoded instead. The fallback resolution for this transcode operation can now be

configured; previously it was preconfigured to XDCAM HD 50.

• Media | Director now ships with several new administration tools:

o WorkflowFoundationResetterTool: This tool will remove a broken Media | Director Workflow

Foundation installation.

o MAAdminPasswordChanger Tool: This tool can be used to change the password of the

MAAdmin user. It will automatically apply the change to all running Media | Director services

as well.

o MediaDirectorLogsCollector Tool: This tool can be used to collect all logs required for

diagnosing Media | Director issues.

o CPServiceTool: The Media | Director Drop Utility copy functionality was moved to an external

service. This tool helps to set the credentials of the copy provider service on the client and

Main Engine. As the service needs to access local as well as network shares, it should be

configured to run as a user with required access permissions.

Notes and Limitations

Language and character support

• Fully supported languages are: English, French, German, Swedish, and Polish.

• Media | Director is ready to support Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and, to a limited extent, other Unicode

character sets for end user relevant areas. In detail this means:

o Supported by Media | Director in:

▪ Clip and PAM folder name building rules

o Not supported by Media | Director in:

▪ Filenames

▪ Other Operating System visible items (e.g. ISIS directories, temp directories, etc.)

• Media | Director only supports characters from the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Media |

Director does not support characters from the Unicode supplementary planes.

• Whitespace and Soft Hyphen characters are not supported by token functions.

• Important: Other products (e.g. Media Composer) typically used with Media | Director may have

different or limited support for international character sets. Please check interoperability for every

product involved separately before workflow pipelines that rely on international character sets.

Media Ingest

• Stitching is not supported in this release of Media | Director.

• AMA workflows for media with interleaved audio (e.g. Sony IMX, GoPro) require Interplay Production

3.1 and Media Composer 8.1 or better

• General:

o 720p off-speed (23.98, 24, 25, 29.97) as source formats aren’t supported for transcoding and

consolidation.

o NTSC and PAL progressive (25 and 29.97 SD formats) source formats aren’t supported for

transcoding and consolidation.

o MXF OP1a media with unknown duration is not supported by the Avid AMA MXF plug-in.

o MXF OP1a media with multiple default descriptors for the same essence type aren’t

supported.

o QuickTime media that is exported from Media Composer applications will require the Avid

Codec Pack to be installed before it can be processed by Media | Director. The CodecPack

will automatically be installed on the Media | Director servers, but needs to get manually

installed on any Client that is using Clip Tools functionality.

o Audio-only media is not supported.

o Source media with alpha channel isn’t supported for transcode and consolidation.

o Media with 4k resolution and corresponding aspect ratio are not, yet, supported

o Media with variable or non-standard frame rates are not supported

o Long paths on parking or production storage are not supported. Please ensure that the paths

to parked media or media on production storage are not longer than 256 characters.

o Profiles that ingest into MXF OP1a targets don’t support the generation of EDLs / sequences.

• Transcoding

o Cross frame-rate transcoding isn’t supported, except for:

720p/59.94 or 720p/50 to 1080i/29.97 or NTSC and 1080i/25 or PAL, respectively.

o Transcoding from interlaced to progressive formats (de-interlacing) is not supported.

o Transcode to DNxHR is not supported for QuickTime files that contain uncompressed 8 bit or

10 bit video.

o Transcode of XAVC-Intra UHDTV1 media to DNxHD 444 is not supported.

o Transcode profiles that ingest into MXF OP1a targets don’t support the following target

resolutions: H.264 and JFIF

For a full list of transcode target formats please check the MediaDirector

SupportedVolumesAndFormats.docx

o For Edit While Capture ingests, growing source media produced by the media processing

services are not supported

• Consolidating

o Some source formats are not supported for consolidation workflows with Media Composer

and Interplay Production Transcode. Please see the

MediaDirector_SupportedVolumesAndFormats document for formats that are supported for

consolidation workflows.

o Media | Director ‘full volume’ consolidation must be triggered from the Media | Director

Drop Utility.

o There will be no headframes created when consolidating DNxHR media.

o Consolidation profiles that ingest into MXF OP1a targets don’t support the following source

resolutions: H.264 and JFIF

• Registering

o Currently Media | Director does not generate head frames for the clip in Interplay

Production when running park and register (without transcode) workflows.

o Media registration and AMA workflows are only supported when ingesting media into

Interplay Production.

o Sony clips that are only available in the AMA resolution and that were registered via the Sony

AMA plugin cannot be processed with the nablet AMA plugin (the nablet AMA plugin

replaces the previous Sony AMA plugins).

• Audio Processing

o On consolidate and transcode audio is always written as single channel Avid OP Atom files.

• Panasonic AVC LongG:

o The Panasonic AMA Plugin needs to be licensed to support Panasonic AVC LongG media.

o AMA workflows are planned to be supported with a future version of Media Composer

(Media Composer 8.4.4 and earlier don’t support Panasonic AVC LongG AMA workflows with

Media | Director)

o A Panasonic AMA Plugin version of 4.5 is required. Older versions of the plugin are not

supported with Media | Director 1.4.

• Codecs:

o Some codecs, like DNxHD, require SSE4.1 instruction set support of the installed CPU.

• FTP Sources:

o Only park workflows are supported (Direct Ingest via Cache - Park and Register - Park,

Register and Transcode)

o Clip Tools and Shift+Drop are not supported for FTP sources on Windows.

Other

• There is no automatic enforcement of the maximum file count per folder on ISIS (5000 items per

folder). File count limitations must be implemented through suitable storage rules, using the week or

month tokens.

• Media | Director is supported only for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

• If a park/register/transcode workflow is run more than once with the same media, Media | Director

may create and append multiple edit resolutions to the asset in Interplay. Duplicate resolutions are

not rejected.

• Long path names with more than 256 characters are not supported on Parking or Production storage.

• Paths including a % (percent) are not supported to work with a volume scan for Clip Tools.

Performance

• Volumes with very short clips adversely affect throughput due to the processing overhead involved.

The documented throughput is valid for clips of at least 10 minutes duration or longer where

processing and setup times are less relevant.

• For AMA plugins that work in sample provider mode, the maximum achievable throughput depends

strongly on the performance of the plugin. Some plugins may, even with multiple parallel media

rewrapping services running, not be able to achieve 100% server usage.

User Interface:

• Changes to the layout in the Media | Director Drop Utility don’t get persisted.

• The Media | Director Drop Utility will limit copy operations to 3 parallel volumes from different discs

at the same time. Copy operations from the same source are limited to 1 parallel copy operations.

• Parking volumes to an already existing location on the parking storage is prevented and will fail to

protect the already existing media. Please use rules that build hierarchies and ensure unique names

(such as appending a GUID to the volume copy) to avoid naming collisions on the parking storage.

• Pending jobs in the JobBuilder staging area of the Media | Director Drop Utility will be removed after

a restart of the Media | Director Drop Utility or a reconnection to the Media | Director Central

Runtime service.

Progress UI

• 200 active (running) and 200 inactive (failed, succeeded) processes and 50 users are allowed

• After a restart of the Media | Director Central Runtime service all active and inactive processes

disappear from Progress UI

Known Issues

MPI-22297 MP returns UNC locators at the output with UNIFORM_MEDIA_LOCATORS toggle FALSE and passing file-urls as input locators

MPI-22325 "Encoding expected duration" if set to "false" encodes current media duration instead of "maximum duration" specified

MPI-20458 On converting source media that has undefined color space, defined color space (such as ITU-R 709) may appear in the transcoded result.

MPI-17452 QuickTime plugin creates AMA-linked AAF with incorrect chroma subsampling values.

MPI-13041 Seeking for the in-point during a restore operation might fail for some OP 1a DV-based 100 1080i media

MPI-11012 When transcoding or rewrapping Op1a (ama-to-opatom) with undefined AspecRatio defined AspectRatio appears

MPI-7440 Media Rewrapping Worker fails to rewrap Op1a media with a Stored Height of 0

TI-5995 EWC: UX is unable to perform STP of EWC clips

TI-2744 PAMWatchFolders that are longer than 256 chars will end in a loop of failing outgest operations

TI-445 Job doesn't start if services aren't completely up, but no message indicating so

TI-438 Possible to edit MDDU UI error message text field.

TI-273 MDDU UI unable to modify job after server restart

Known AMA Plug-in Issues

Avid MXF Plug-in

MPI-13871 MSP_MXF plugin does not support Op1As without index tables

MPI-11761 Some Grass-Valley Op1a media not supported by Avid MXF plug-in

MPI-11011 MSP_MXF plugin does not support MXF OP1a file with unknown duration

Known issues that may appear in conjunction with other Avid components:

TI-5604 PANASONIC-19

For P2 volumes created by newer Panasonic cameras such as AG-HPX370P, combination of spanning clip segments is broken such that a gap of duration equal to the total duration of all previous spanning segments is inserted into the timeline of the clip

PANASONIC-2 MPI-11817

Panasonic P2 plug-in 2.3.1 and newer no longer support roll-over midnight spanning

PANASONIC-6 MCDEV-4064

Clips name is wrong and 64 symbols long if AMA link to spanned P2 volume was done in reverse order

PANASONIC-31 MPI-22696 MPI-23276

P2 4.8.2.2 fails to perserve SOM for all spanning and some non-spanning clips

SSENG-11286 Windows 10 Secure Boot must be disabled to install NEXIS Client

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