File extension missing from ‘Tape’ column on the ALE.
Client requesting file extension in ‘Tape’ column in the Avid bin, merged from the ALE.
For example “A007C004_430731_R2YE” should read "“A007C004_430731_R2YE.MOV”
This change was introduced in v1.4.6:
Version 1.4.6
NOTE: This version includes a change to the way the TAPE NAME field is written into ALE’s and Avid media Extensions and sequence numbers are no longer included. This may require using a different setting in the Avid when re-linking media for assemblies (Both: Ignore Extension, Target: Ignore After Last Occurrence: _)
This was in response to several requests from various users along these lines:
There’s some camera formats that divide each clip into parts. One example is Red footage; because of the RedMag/FAT32 limitation, a single clip could have several R3D files. (Names like “ClipName_001.R3D”, “ClipName_002.R3D”, etc). Another example we experienced recently was ARRIRAW – one file per frame.
So Cortex interprets these split files and virtually joins them into one playable clip in Cortex. The question I have concerns the Avid media that gets generated, specifically the “Tape” column name. For these multi-file clips, Cortex always assigns the first file as the “Tape” column. For example, for a Red clip the Tape column might be “A320_C001_0213H6_001.R3D”. For an ARRIRAW clip it might be “A043C001_140215_R0TG.0005201.ari”.
The Red file is not a big deal. We had an initial question from a post house … where they had issues relinking to the original R3D because of the _001. I believe they just manually edited the EDL to replace “_001.R3D” with “.R3D”. I don’t know what system they used for conform (Symphony, Smoke, Baselight, etc)
But we had some more serious problems with the ARRIRAW. Avid imported the DNxHD 36 files just fine. But then it started throwing up all kinds of errors with relinking and merging ALE data. After doing some testing, it appears it’s because of the length of the Tape column data – it was 32 characters long, which is a magic number with Avid (numerous issues related to >31 character file names and data). Granted, we are using an older version of Avid MC (5.0.3) so it might be fixed by now.
So the question is this: is the assigning the full name of the 1st file part (ie A320_C001_0213H6_001.R3D) to the Tape column a feature? Or just the default Cortex setting? Or is this just something that nobody has mentioned yet? RedCine exports an ALE with just the base name of the clip (no part number, no extension – ie A320_C001_0213H6). DaVinci Resolve exports the first clip name but without an extension (ie A320_C001_0213H6_001). So it appears there is not a “standard” way of denoting original file names in the Tape column.
Would it be possible to add the option to truncate these multi-part clips down to the base name in the Tape column? (ie Red footage would mimic RedCine and the Tape column would be “A320_C001_0213H6”). I don’t think this is a rush. More of a “hey this is weird, what do you think?” kind of question.
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