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Table Of Contents
Using the Media Tool
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If you receive an error message that prevents you from unmounting a drive, it might be that you
have Avid Media Access (AMA) enabled. AMA does not require you to mount and unmount
drives. AMA is on by default. To turn off AMA (and unmount your drive), see “Selecting the AMA
Settings” on page 408.
Using the Media Tool
The Media tool is your window into the captured video and audio data files stored on your media
drives. The Media tool provides similar database tools for manipulating digital media files to
those provided by bins for manipulating clips and sequences.
The Media tool displays media that is stored on local drives (drives directly connected to the
Avid editing system) and on unmanaged shared storage (shared storage that is part of an Avid
shared storage network but is not managed by an Avid asset manager).
In an Interplay environment, the Media tool displays only media that is stored on local drives, see
“Using the Media Tool in an Avid Interplay Environment” on page 441. Use the Media tool to
search for media on local drives, and use the Interplay Engine to search for media on shared
drives.
Basic Media Tool Features
The Media tool provides many of the same controls for viewing and managing information that
you use with bins:
The three display options in the Media tool function like the bin display views: Text view,
Frame view, and Script view.
You can use Text View headings and options for columns of clip and media file data. You
can also use procedures such as customizing the display of columns, moving within
columns, and sorting information, as described in “Using Text View” on page 320.
You can use the same Frame view options described in “Using Frame View” on page 324.
You can use the same Script view options described in “Using Script View” on page 326.
The Media Tool Fast menu gives you quick access to the same commands available in the
Bin Fast menu.
You can highlight, move, copy, duplicate, delete, sort, and sift clips in the Media tool. You
can also select media relatives, source clips, and unreferenced clips, as described in “Bin
Procedures” on page 328.