The Avid edit system records, stores, and manages Omf media in a folder (directory) with a special name - "OMFI MediaFiles".
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Depending on your system configuration, there may be several OMFI MediaFiles folders, one on each disk drive used for storing media.
The Avid stores its Omf media files in these folders, and can only access media residing in them. It also maintains two important support files in each OMFI MediaFiles folder - msmMMOB.mdb and msmFMID.pmr.
Only Omf1 media files can exist in an Avid's OMFI MediaFiles folder. Avid will reject Omf2 or any other type of file.
The Avid constantly monitors the contents of the OMFI MediaFiles folders and updates these two database support files as required.
Avid will stop monitoring if it is not active, that is, if it does not have the users focus or is minimized, or, of course, if its is not launched. This makes it possible to copy or move media files into the OMFI MediaFiles folder from the desktop, or to record directly to an OMFI MediaFiles folder.
WARNING: IT IS CRUCIAL YOU DO NOT SWITCH TO THE AVID WHILE WRITING TO AN OMFI MediaFilesFOLDER! If you do, the Avid may become confused because it will attempt to update information that is changing, and this risks crashing Avid, corrupting the database files, and potentially losing media. Be certain all move, copy, or recording operations are completed before activating Avid.
When Avid is activated and new Omf media files have arrived in an OMFI MediaFiles folder by any method (desktop copy or move, or by recording directly to it) the Avid will scan the folder for any changes that may have occurred, and will display this progress bar -
In many cases this will happen very quickly, and you may not notice it. Other times, for example if there are many new media files, it may appear for several moments.
If all goes well during this scan, that is, if all new Omf media files are correctly formatted and the changes are accepted by Avid, the progress bar will disappear and any new Omf media files will be available to Avid Media Tool.
If some error during the scan, please see Handling Avid OMFI MediaFiles Scan Errors.
This mechanism makes it possible to copy, move, or record directly to an OMFI MediaFiles folder while the Avid not active, and for Avid to recognize these files when it is re-activated.
Again, be sure your Avid is minimized, does not have focus, or is not launched when making any changes to an OMFI MediaFiles folder.
BullsEye is designed to output Omf media files to be placed into an OMFI MediaFiles folder and loaded into Avid using Avid's Media Tool. You can do this by either -
Recording BullsEye output directly toOMFI MediaFiles (recommended).
In this case, BullsEye will automatically suspend your Avid (if it is launched) during conversion.
Recording BullsEye output to a temporary folder and copying or moving the media files from the desktop.
In this case is very important to be sure all move or copy operations are complete before activating your Avid.
See Loading BullsEye Omf media files to Avid and Using Avid's Media Tool.