AFD syntax

[James]

Hello -

I've searched through the discussions and cannot find an example of
the appropriate syntax to use for adding AFD to an MXF file
(specifically XDCAM for my use case).

I do see that as of FFmbc-0.7-rc5 "Support writing AFD information in
MXF files." was added.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Kind Regards,

- James

[Baptiste Coudurier]

On 06/05/2012 05:34 PM, James wrote:
> Hello -
>
> I've searched through the discussions and cannot find an example of
> the appropriate syntax to use for adding AFD to an MXF file
> (specifically XDCAM for my use case).
>
> I do see that as of FFmbc-0.7-rc5 "Support writing AFD information in
> MXF files." was added.

ffmpeg -h is your friend here:

mxf muxer options:
-timecode <string> E.... Set timecode value: 00:00:00[:;]00, use ';' before frame number
for drop frame
-afd <int> E.... Set Active Format Descriptor value

--
Baptiste COUDURIER
Key fingerprint 8D77134D20CC9220201FC5DB0AC9325C5C1ABAAA
FFmpeg maintainer http://www.ffmpeg.org

[James Heliker, Walt Disney Company]

I've tried setting AFD with both hex (b) and binary (1011) for 14x9
(horizontally centered pillarbox in 16x9 frame)

Both times I get a "Could not write header for output file #0" error.

With hex, it is undefined constant, and with binary, it is out of
range. What kind of value is this command expecting?

Kind Regards,

- James

On Jun 5, 5:49 pm, Baptiste Coudurier <baptiste.coudur...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Baptiste Coudurier]

On 06/05/2012 05:57 PM, James Heliker, Walt Disney Company wrote:
> I've tried setting AFD with both hex (b) and binary (1011) for 14x9
> (horizontally centered pillarbox in 16x9 frame)
>
> Both times I get a "Could not write header for output file #0" error.
>
> With hex, it is undefined constant, and with binary, it is out of
> range. What kind of value is this command expecting?

Humm -afd 0x9 works here, -afd 9 would work too.
What's your commandline and can you please paste the output ?

[James Heliker, Walt Disney Company]

Oh! I understand. Other systems I've used such as MacCaption require
the hex or binary representation, so my command option was "-afd b" or
"-afd 1011" (hex or binary rep for AFD code 11).

I just tried -afd 11 and it worked like a charm! I am going to
validate on rasterizer now.

- James

On Jun 5, 6:05 pm, Baptiste Coudurier <baptiste.coudur...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[James Heliker, Walt Disney Company]

So although the ffmbc command accepted my input, it does not appear to
have successfully added AFD to my XDCAM HD 422 mxf.

I checked on a rasterizer connected to a SeaChange BML server, and
another connected to a Harris Farad / Nexio system, neither recognized
the AFD flag in the mxf.

Contrast this to adding AFD with CPC's MacCaption, both of the
aforementioned systems have no problem recognizing and displaying
whatever AFD value you choose.

Looks like this functionality doesn't quite work correctly? I can
provide my test file if that would help diagnose. Are there any 3rd
party tools out there to verify the presence of AFD in a file?

Thanks for your help!

- James

On Jun 5, 6:11 pm, "James Heliker, Walt Disney Company"

[Baptiste Coudurier]

On 6/5/12 7:48 PM, James Heliker, Walt Disney Company wrote:
> So although the ffmbc command accepted my input, it does not appear to
> have successfully added AFD to my XDCAM HD 422 mxf.
>
> I checked on a rasterizer connected to a SeaChange BML server, and
> another connected to a Harris Farad / Nexio system, neither recognized
> the AFD flag in the mxf.
>
> Contrast this to adding AFD with CPC's MacCaption, both of the
> aforementioned systems have no problem recognizing and displaying
> whatever AFD value you choose.
>
> Looks like this functionality doesn't quite work correctly? I can
> provide my test file if that would help diagnose. Are there any 3rd
> party tools out there to verify the presence of AFD in a file?

An MXF analzyer would tell you.
The AFD value is stored in the mxf container.
This is shown:
"ActiveFormatDescriptor = 9"

Applications need to read and recognize that in the mxf file itself, not
in the mpeg-2 stream or anywhere else.

[Gael Chardon]

On 6 juin, 04:48, "James Heliker, Walt Disney Company"

<james.heli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Looks like this functionality doesn't quite work correctly? I can
> provide my test file if that would help diagnose. Are there any 3rd
> party tools out there to verify the presence of AFD in a file?
>

On 6 juin, 07:06, Baptiste Coudurier <baptiste.coudur...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> An MXF analzyer would tell you.
> The AFD value is stored in the mxf container.
> This is shown:
> "ActiveFormatDescriptor = 9"
>
> Applications need to read and recognize that in the mxf file itself, not
> in the mpeg-2 stream or anywhere else.
>

Hello James,

I'm looping in since I've contributed to this small patch and I'm
using it without any trouble (but not on the exact same version of
ffmbc).
So, you could also check the AFD with the free tool MediaInfo, it's
not a real analyzer but its mxf prober will parse the AFD tag and
display its value under "Active Format Description" (in advanced mode
only).

Hope it helps.

Gaël.

[biggi...@gmail.com]

Guys, sorry to intrude in your conversation - I am trying to set the AFD for an MXF to 16:9 (2 - from what I read online) but I can't quite get the whole command; could you, please help me with this?

P.S. Yes, I'm a noob ... lamer if you will! :)