That red frame discussion

Question

So i have been dealing with red frames for about a year and a half now -
- In Premiere pro CC and early CC 2014 versions, .MXF footage used to red frames and relink badly on multi spanned clips if the sidecar files were detected by premiere. This was a major bug because your edit would now relink to bad timecode. The handling for that was deleting any kind of metadata before importing your .MXF files. this worked 99% of the time for me - did not get much bugs after that.
- Skip to what i believe was the 8.0.0 version, and most importantly the 8.0.2 - i do not have re link issues, however red frames appear on export nearly everytime. With the media encoder log you can see how much red frames you have, but no timecode and its still a pain in the *** to double export(correcting the red frames on the first export file).
- From the few adobe employee posts i have read, the way to counter this is - import the card while maintaining the structure, then import footage via the Media browser. This should technically handle any bugs. I have not tested this yet, however i already know that sometimes i get mxf files without card structure(director's sometimes create their bins at the Mac OS X Finder level)
Im hoping adobe fixes this issue ASAP - i undestand that red frames are only an indicator of a bigger problem, but this problem is making me consider converting all my footage to prores before import, thus turning my premiere pro cc in FCP 7.

Answer 1

Hello Adaptat1on,
- From the few adobe employee posts i have read, the way to counter this is - import the card while maintaining the structure, then import footage via the Media browser. This should technically handle any bugs.
With the release of Premiere Pro CC 2014.2 (8.2), we believe we have solved the "red frames" issue with .mxf files.
If you are working with an earlier version of Premiere Pro or have updated a project file from a previous version of Premiere Pro to 8.2, you might still see them.
The method of importing these files is correct as you outlined above. Copy the SD card to your HD, then import via the Media Browser.
I have not tested this yet
However, this is precisely the right way to import footage coming from a camera's SD card.
However i already know that sometimes i get mxf files without card structure(director's sometimes create their bins at the Mac OS X Finder level).
I would communicate with your colleagues and inform them of how you would like your footage prepared. You should state that you will be saving them money by doing so as you won't have to troubleshoot red frames issues which could still occur with raw .mxf files even in 8.2. Tell them turn around time will be faster, as well. They will listen to you when you speak their language (saving them time and money gets their attention quickly).
Im hoping adobe fixes this issue ASAP - i undestand that red frames are only an indicator of a bigger problem
All our fixes are in 8.2. Please create new projects in version 8.2, ingest the footage correctly, and you should have no trouble with red frames. If you do, please file a bug report and send me a PM.
This problem is making me consider converting all my footage to prores before import, thus turning my premiere pro cc in FCP 7.
That's certainly an alternative, but I'd try the method previously outlined before doing anything rash like transcoding. That said, certain cameras produce beautiful pictures but create files which perform poorly in Premiere Pro. I'm most frequently tempted to transcode Canon footage, as that gives my Mac Book Pro the most trouble.
Hope this info helps.
Thanks,
Kevin