Features

With the plugin, you can link, play, edit and transcode ARRIRAW footage via AMA in Avid editing products. It supports the linking of complete volumes as well as single clips. The clips may consist of MXF wrapped ARRIRAW frames and PCM Audio or be sequences of unwrapped ARRIRAW frames,  *.ari files accompanied by PCM audio Wave files. Furthermore, this plugin is able to link and decode sequences of Codex HDE encoded ARRIRAW frames in *.arx files.

In addition, the plug-in reads and interprets the important metadata that is encapsulated in the ARRIRAW media.

Evaluation

The downloaded copy of the plug-in runs in demo mode. A nablet logo will be printed into the decoded images but otherwise, the plugin is fully functional. To purchase a license key please visit the nablet site.

After the plug-in has been unlocked by a license key, you can continue to use the clips that were previously linked in demo mode. You do not need to re-link them. The logo will disappear after the key has been validated by the plugin. However, transcodings and video mixdowns have to be re-done since they have been encoded with the logo in the source image.

Requirements

Supported Avid Products

• Avid Media Composer from v8.2 up to latest releases

Supported Operating Systems

Windows

• Windows 10 64-bit
• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• Windows 8 64-bit

Mac

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina)
• macOS 10.14 (Mojave)
• macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
• macOS 10.12 (Sierra)
• OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

System Requirements

Debayering and processing of ARRIRAW frames require a lot of resources. For a fluent workflow your editing system shall meet the requirements below:

• A powerful CPU with at least 8 logical cores. Preferred is a workstation with dual Intel Xeon processors.
• On Windows PCs a high-end GPU with support of CUDA or OpenCL (1.2 or above). For CUDA the NVidia driver version must be 397.44 or higher.
• On Mac PCs a high-end GPU that supports OpenCL (1.2 or above).
• A fast I/O that is capable to read 600 MB/s and more. Recommended are SSD and RAIDs.

Change Log

• v2.0.4
  • Fix: Plugin failed to load under Media Composer version 2018.11 or earlier on Mac systems.
• v2.0.3
  • ASC_CDL values are set in the bins ASC_SOP and ASC_SAT columns.
  • Mac version approved for macOS 10.15 (Catalina).
• v2.0.2
  • Fix link failures when there are Mac OS phantom files on the media.
  • Detect audio wave files also in the video root folder of HDE encoded media.
• v2.0.1
  • Fixed incorrect clip frame rates in metadata.
  • Support proper linking of ARRI clip folders as clips.
• v2.0.0
  • Support linking and decoding of Codex HDE encoded ARRIRAW frames in *.arx file sequences.
  • Uses ARRIRAW SDK 6.1.1
  • Mac version now notarized by Apple.
• v1.0.1
  • Uses ARRIRAW SDK 6.0.4
  • Improved detection of suitable GPU on macOS 10.14.4 and later
  • Installation Procedure

Installation Procedure

Prerequisites

You cannot install the AMA Plug-in while the editing application background services are running. Make sure you stop the services before installing AMA Plug-Ins. The stop/start background services icon is on the Media Composer menu bar (Macintosh) or taskbar (Windows). Once you installed the new AMA plug-in, restart the services. See “Starting and Stopping Avid Background Services” in the Media Composer Help.

Install Instructions

Windows

1. Download the installer package and unpack it.
2. Double-click the EXE file in the extracted folder to run the installation.
3. Follow the instructions provided by the installer. Read and accept the End User License. If you already own a license key file pass its path when asked. If you used a temporary key file that you received for test purposes you can update it now with the key file you purchased.
4. During the installation, any previous version of the nablet ARRIRAW plug-in will be updated.

Mac

1. Download the installer archive and unpack it.
2. Double-click the DMG file to mount the image. A folder with the plug-in package opens.
3. Launch the PKG file to run the installation.
4. Follow the instructions provided by the Installer application. Read and accept the End User License. If you already own a license key file pass its path when asked. If you used a temporary key file that you received for test purposes you can update it now with the key file you purchased.
5. During the installation, any previous version of the nablet ARRIRAW plug-in will be updated.

Uninstall Instructions

Windows

1. Open Windows Control Panel and launch “Programs and Features”.
2. Select nablet ARRIRAW Plug-In and then select Uninstall.
3. Next, select Yes to confirm the removal.

Mac

1. Locate the directory Library/Application Support/Avid/AVX2_Plug-ins/AMA/nablet.
2. Delete the .avx file.
3. Delete the license key file .key
4. Empty the Trash to completely erase the files from the system.
5. Locate the directory Users/Shared/Library/ApplicationSupport/nablet/nablet_ARRIRAW_AMA_Plugin and delete it with all its contents.

Verifying the Plug-in Version

After installation, the plug-in is available to Avid Editing products. To confirm whether the plug-in was properly installed and verify the version follow the steps below:

1. In Media Composer's project window hit the Info button
2. A list starting with version and license information for Media Composer will appear.
3. Scroll down to find the AMA Plugin Info.
4. Confirm that the nablet ARRIRAW Plug-in is listed and the version matches the one that you've installed.

Operation Procedure

Installing Colorspace and Look LUTs in Media Composer

The installer for the ARRIRAW Plugin also copied two folders with 3D LUTs onto your system.

On Windows OS they reside in

C:\ProgramData\nablet\nablet_ARRIRAW_AMA_Plugin\

on a Mac in

Users/Shared/Library/ApplicationSupport/nablet/nablet_ARRIRAW_AMA_Plugin/

The folder ARRI_Color_Space_Reference_LUTs contains LUTs required to convert from ARRI LogC colorspace to a project's SDR or HDR colorspace.

The folder ARRI_Look_Library_LogC_LUTs provides a huge selection of ARRI Look LUTs.

In order to use those LUTs in your editing projects, it is required to install them in Media Composer. To do so proceed as follows:

1. Open a project and on the Project page hit the Settings
2. Scroll down and double-click Color Management. The Color Management Settings dialog appears.
3. In the Install LUT section specify whether the LUTs shall be embedded in the current project or be installed to be shared or both (for details refer to the Media Composer manual).
4. Hit Select LUT file and navigate to the ARRI_Color_Space_Reference_LUTs folder located as described above.
5. Select all LUTs or the ones you intend to use.
6. Hit Open and be patient. After several seconds of silent processing, you'll be informed that the LUTs were successfully installed

   

7. Proceed as before, navigate to the ARRI_Look_Library_LogC_LUTs folder to install the Look LUTs you want to use.

Before you start to link footage as described on the next pages, make sure that the option Insert color transformations automatically in the source settings upon linking is unchecked.

Unfortunately, when this option is checked, some versions of Media Composer may apply an unnecessary complex stack of LUTs for transformation the project is not in a Rec.709 color space which even may affect the image quality.

With this option unchecked no transformation is applied and it can be added later in the source settings of the clips. There hit the Auto button and now, in most cases, the proper LUT will be applied automatically, given it was installed before. You may of course also manually apply a Look LUT and a colorspace LUT.

Looks shall be applied before the colorspace LUT as shown in the example above.

Folders and Clips on ARRIRAW volumes

ARRIRAW Frames are either stored in an MXF container or as a sequence of *.ari files in a folder. An ARI file is a single ARRIRAW frame with metadata.

Below is the typical folder structure of a volume with MXF wrapped ARRI RAW clips

The structure is simple. The folder M002R00H on the left represents the volumes root folder. This folder contains the MXF files.

The structure of a volume with clips that consists of *.ari  or *.arx file sequences looks a bit more complex

Here the folder S002R6ZJ on the left again represents the volumes root folder, but instead of MXF files, you find other folders which each represent a clip. You will notice that the naming style of those 'clip' folders is similar to that of the MXF files.

Inside such 'clip' folder it looks like below

On the right, you see the ARI files which each represent a single ARRIRAW frame. Audio is stored in the folder wav on the left. The folder xml contains some metadata.

But now forget about this internals again. You will not have to deal with the single assets directly but with the 'clip' folder only when you use the plugin to link a clip.

Linking the footage

You can either link single or multiple clips out of an ARRIRAW volume or link the complete volume, which is the preferred method for a fluent workflow.

You can not link *.ari or *.arx files directly. Instead link the clip's folder as explained on the previous page. It is not possible to just link only one or a specific number of frames out of sequence.

Linking to an ARRIRAW Volume on Media Composer 8.6 and later

1. Select the desired destination bin in the project.
2. From the menu bar, select File->Input->Source Browser.
3. When in the Source Browser dialog, make sure that Link is selected, not Import.
4. Navigate to the desired volume.
5. Select the volume root which must be the volumes parent folder, e.g. M002R00H or S002R6ZJ from the examples on the previous page.
6. Hit the Link button on the bottom right. Media Composer will choose the nablet ARRIRAW plugin automatically and all clips contained in this volume will be linked into the specified bin.

Linking  to an ARRIRAW Volume on Media Composer 8.5 and earlier

1. Select the desired destination bin in the project.
2. From the menu bar, select File->AMA Link… (Link to Media… if using Avid MC 8.4).
3. Media Composer will not assign the plugin automatically. From the Files of Type drop-down menu select ARRIRAW.
4. Select the volume root which must be the volumes parent folder, e.g. M002R00H or S002R6ZJ from the examples on the previous page.
5. Select Open. All clips contained in this volume will be linked into the specified bin.

Linking to ARRIRAW files on Media Composer 8.6 and later

1. Select the desired destination bin in the project.
2. From the menu bar, select File->Input->Source Browser.
3. In the Source Browser dialog, make sure that Link is selected, not Import
   
4. Navigate to the desired ARRIRAW MXF file(s) or .ari clip folder(s).
5. Media Composer will not assign the plugin for MXF files automatically!

   Select and right-click the desired MXF clips and select Link with->nablet ARRIRAW”. For *.ari or *.arx sequences just select the clip folders.

6. Hit the Link button on the bottom right.

Linking to ARRIRAW files on Media Composer 8.5 and earlier

1. Select the desired destination bin in the project.
2. From the menu bar, select File->AMA Link… (Link to Media… if using Avid MC 8.4/8.5).
3. Media Composer will not assign the plugin automatically. From the Files of Type drop-down menu select nablet ARRIRAW.
4. Navigate to the desired ARRIRAW MXF file(s) or .ari clip folder(s).
5. Select the clip(s) to be linked.
6. Hit the Open button on the bottom right.

Transcoding

Do not attempt to transcode a linked clip from within Media Composer's Source Browser as offered when you accidentally tried to Import instead to Link. Always link the footage as described above. When done, navigate to the bin with the linked clips, then select the desired clips, right-click and select Consolidate/Transcode. In the Consolidate/Transcode dialog select Transcode on the top left. For details about the further settings please refer to the Media Composer manual. Once the transcoding is completed the transcoded file(s) will appear next to the linked source clip(s) in the bin.

Known Issues and Limitations

• For real-time playback of ARRIRAW footage, set the Avid’s NLE Video Playback Quality setting to Draft or Best Performance.

After transcoding a clip or after performing a video mixdown, which always requests the plugin to provide frames in the highest quality, some versions of Media Composer will not reset to the desired lower Video Playback Quality when playing back the source file or timeline. Toggle the Video Quality setting once when you encounter a performance loss during playback.