MacMediaSift 1.0

Download

http://www.belle-nuit.com/download/macmediasift100.dmg (OS X 1.3 MB)

Specification

MacMediaSift runs on Mac 10.2-10.4 with Avid Mediacomposer, Avid Xpress DV or Avid Xpress Pro installed on it.

Usage

This is Freeware. Please report us crashes and other bugs.

Installation

Drag the MacMediaSift folder to the Application Folder.

Introduction

MacMediSift is mainly a port of MediaSift for Windows from David Griffiths. You can find the Windows application at http://www.senkou.com. You will also find more deep documentation there.
The goal of MacMediaSift is to give the editor a tool to organize Avid mediafiles. You can sift and copy mediafiles relative to a project or an Avid bin.
The design of the program is very conservative: It will never erase a file and will not overwrite files which are already on the destination.

User Guide

The program has one main window with 5 tabs: Volumes, Projects, Sifted Projects, Bins, Logs.

When you open the program, all volumes are scanned. The programs looks for "OMFI MediaFile" folders and for the the database "msmFMID.pmr" within the folder. With this database, it can identify the mediafiles. If no database is present, the program tries to get the information from the mediafiles directly, which takes somewhat longer. The files with the following extensions are analyzed: ".omf", ".aif", ".wav", ".sd2". Other files are ignored.
Note: Do not use the program while Avid is open..

Volumes tab

The Volumes tab shows the list of the volumes. For each volume you can see the number of found files and the size of all files. It will notify you if the "OMFI Mediafolder" is missing and if some files listed in the media database are missing.

On the bottom, you see the list of the files. For each file you see the volume, the associated project, the filename, the creation date, the file size. The project name is written directly into the mediafile. The Idx columns shows wether the file was in the media database ("D") or the file was analyzed directly ("F"). The online column shows if the file is currently online ("X"). Missing files listed in the media database are in italics.

You perform the following actions:

Scan Volumes: Scan the volumes again to find media files. Normally, you would not have to do this manually. The volumes are scanned at beginning and each time you do an action. You may need to scan the volumes if you moved files with the finder.
Sift Volumes: Select the Volumes first you want to sift. Subfolders are created for each project of the selected volumes with the name "theproject_sifted" and then all files are moved into the folder of their project. All files of the selected volumes are now offline. When the mediafiles are in the subfolders, Avid will not see them any more.
Add Folder: If you have a folder at a special place with mediafiles, you can include it into the scanning.

Projects tab

The Projects tab shows a list of projects which have mediafiles that are not sifted. You can then select a project and perform the following actions:

Copy Project: Copies all mediafiles of a project to a folder you define.
Sift Project: Creates a subfolder for the project on each volume with the name "theproject_sifted" and then all files are moved into the folders. All files of this project are now offline.

Sifted Projects tab

The Sifted Projects tab shows a list of sifted project. You can then select a project and perform the following actions:

Unsift Project: Moves all mediafiles in the subfolder into the main folder. All files are now online again.

Bins tab

The Bins tab adds a very cool feature to MacMediaSift. You can add a bin to the window and then copy all mediafiles related to this bin to a new folder. This allows you to consolidate clips and effects from a bin to view a version of your edit on another Avid. And because MacMediaSift does never overwrite a file on the destination, it allows you to do that incrementally over versions of your edit and it copies only the new files which is much faster.

Add Bin: Select a bin.
Copy Bin: Select a folder and then copy all mediafiles related to the bin to that folder.

Logs tab

The Logs tab shows all actions you performed. It lists also the files that could not be copied or moved because there was already a file on the destination folder or if there was notr enough space.

The Logs are saved into files into a folder "logfiles" in the program directory.

Known issues

The program handles only OMFI-projects, not MXF.

If no database is present, the program can detect the project files related to the mediafiles, but not of all media types. It can currently read correctly SD2, AIFF, WAVE files and OMFI files which are JPEG-based.

Disclaimer

This is freeware and you can use it as you want it. The source code was written 2005 in Switzerland and remains copyright to Matthias Bürcher. The software is not related to Avid Technology. Avid and all other trademarks owned by Avid mentioned herein are trademarks of Avid Technology. Apple and Macintosh and all other trademarks owned by Apple are trademarks of Apple.

Beta History

12.12.5 release 1.0:
Bug: NilObjectException when you clicked to sort by date.

16.11.5 beta 3:

Feature: A folder with media files can be added.
Feature: Column shows where project information is read and online status.
Feature: Missing files are now shown.
Bug: Last volume is now also scanned.
Bug: All files other than .omf, .aif and .wav are now ignored.
Bug: When there is no media database, the program can now identify the ID of some media files (.waf, .aif and JPEG .omf, for others i need sample files).

24.10.5 beta 2:
Bug: Fixed creation of logfiles.
Bug: Invalid Target, when sifted folder did not exist yet.
Bug: Out of bounds exception on scanning when number of sifted projects is smaller than number of projects.
Interface: Window opens now before scanning.
Interface: Status shows currently copied/sifted file.

23.10.5 beta 1:
First Beta.