Specifications

Chapter 3: AAF, MXF, and OMF Overview

chapter 3

AAF, MXF, and OMF Overview

DigiTranslator™ 2.0 and higher lets Pro Tools exchange

audio, video, and sequences with other AAF-, MXF-, and

OMF-compatible applications (such as Avid editors).

AAF, MXF, and OMF Overview

Media Data (Media Files)

Media data represents raw audio or video material and is

stored in individual media files. Every time you record a

piece of video or audio material into an application, you

are creating a media file. Audio media files hold samples

(such as 44,100 or 48,000 samples per second of record-

ing) while video media files use frames (24, 25, or 30

frames per second of recording).

The size of each media file depends on how much audio

or video material it contains. For example, a file con-

taining ten minutes of high resolution video might be

approximately 2.16 GB in size, whereas a ten-minute

audio recording at the might result in a 100 MB file. Me-

dia files tend to be large, since high quality audio and

video signals are data intensive. Video data generally re-

quires considerably more storage than audio data.

Metadata

Metadata is used to describe the following:

• Information embedded in a media file. This may in-

clude scene, take, sample rate, bit depth, region

names, the name of the videotape from which the

media file was captured, and even time code values.

• Information embedded in Pro Tools sessions or other

sequences, including what files are used, where they

appear in a timeline, and automation.

• For AAF or OMF sequences, metadata also includes in-

formation embedded in unrendered AudioSuite™ ef-

fects (such as real-time EQ) on Avid workstations.

Pro Tools skips unrendered effects on import. Ren-

dered effects are media files that can be imported into

Pro Tools.

• For AAF or OMF sequences, information about auto-

mation (clip-based gain or keyframe gain).

AAF, OMF, and MXF Basics

AAF and OMF files are mechanisms for storing and re-

trieving media files and metadata so that projects can be

freely exchanged between different applications and

platforms. MXF is a media file format that can be used

with AAF (but not OMF) files.