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Published 1 year ago • verified publisher icon IMFTool

Some user feedback regarding the IMF tool and quality of life improvements

Open ryzen88 opened this issue 2 years ago • 4 comments

Hey hello, first of all thanks for developing this application.

At my work we are currently making lots of IMF packages for clients and the tool is really awesome. But after working the past 1,5 month intensively with the tool some impractical things really stick out so i just wanted to give some feedback regarding those.

  • When opening a IMF package or import a subtitle asset the window that unfolds does not show the normal file explorer choices, IMF is big so all the content is located on network attached storage but the attached network drives and locations are completely absent from this browser window in the IMF tool.

  • We often end with a package that has multiple CPL files, think multi region versions and added trailers/clips. When you have created those multiple CPL files sometimes you want to quickly copy paste for example the ID or labeltext, but if you enter it for a CPL you first have to save, then go to the next, paste and save and so on. Would be lovely if we could switch in the same package between CPL without the need to save first before going to the next CPL because currently you just lose the data.

  • Would be nice to be able to remove a language from the annotation without needing to delete the whole annotation list.

  • I like going through settings and preferences, in the Tool there is the menu option Tools -> preferences <- greyed out, noooo the torture.

  • As far away goals it would be nice if the Tool could support some more playback/player functionality so you can do some simple QC of your work before compiling. Listen to audio tracks for example to make sure the correct language is used.

  • Some added functionality to directly import MXF OP1A or Atom to IMF tool (needing rewrap) or something. (like is possible PCM import)

Wel thanks for the read and hope the feedback can contribute to the development of the tool.

ryzen88 avatar Jan 11 '24 22:01 ryzen88

Thank you for the great tool. I would like to unsubscribe because I have changed the software domain. BR.

michaljanjankowski avatar Jan 11 '24 22:01 michaljanjankowski

@ryzen88: Thanks for the valuable feedback.

Let me answer in the order above:

  1. (a) Assuming from your posting you are on Windows. Let's start with "Open IMF package": Are saying when you click on "My computer" in the file browser that opens you are not able to see all Windows drives? (b) The "Add Asset" workflow shows the same browser as for "Open IMF package", again network shares mounted as Windows drives should be available under "My Computer". With one exception: MXF track files can only be imported from the actual IMP location or from subfolders. So if you want to import existing MXF track files, they need to be copied to the IMP folder beforehand. More details can be found in the manual.

  2. When you applied edits in the "Details" tab, make sure you hit "Enter" or click into another field before switching the tab. Then the changes won't be lost when switching to another CPL tab. It's a feature of the QLineEdit widget.

  3. I agree a right-click option "Delete" would be useful for Language, Region and Rating List items in the Locale List. There's a workaround for Language and Region entries, though: Just edit and delete the value of e.g. a language entry. When you save the CPL, that entry will be deleted, too.(When you save the CPL with the same ID, you would need to re-open it).

  4. There's currently no preferences to be edited.

  5. Audio playback would be a nice project. Feel free to reach out to me if you are interested.

  6. With Add Assets > Add existing track file you can actually import IMF compliant MXF track files. I haven't received requirements for re-wrapping of e.g. PCM/IAB DCP files yet. Re-wrapping is certainly doable, but currently out of scope.

IMFTool avatar Jan 12 '24 10:01 IMFTool

Hey thanks for your extensive reply, much appreciated

  1. I wanted to reproduce the issue at home, and i was unable to. We also recently updated to the latest IMF tool so that is also not the issue. But at work when you open the browser there is just no network attached storage visible, we look for the correct folder in explorer and copy past that link in the tool to get to the location. I will try to find out what is going on exactly, maybe it has to do with user rights in windows and mounting network drives, is the only thing i can think off. But i will try to find out if i can reproduce the issue and will let you know.
  2. Haha oke, that tip makes my day, also feel a bit simple for somehow not figuring that out.
  3. Cool i will certainly try that out.
  4. but more performance options ;)
  5. I would love to help but as soon as things stop having gui's i get very uncomfortable. So probably not the right person for the job but if otherwise always happy to help.

6 I will explain the reason for bringing up the topic for context to the question. Currently resolve exports to IMF with JPEG2000 and it's just horribly slow and only runs on the CPU. From everything i have read HTJ2K is supported in the IMF standard and also in the IMF tool for example. So i really want to switch over to HTJ2K rendering for the IMF packages and it seems within reach except for some roadblocks. Resolve can export HT-J2K following IMF standard but its in separate image (TIFF for example) without audio, so that needs to be wrapped again before it can function as MXF track. Alternatively resolve can export MXF OP1a and MXF Atom with HTJ2K with the added benefit of exporting the audio as well. But when trying to feed that in the IMF tool it just reports that it can't add this because it cannot determine Asset ID. From what i understand the rewrap to make such a mxf compatible for the IMF should be very limited. Maybe i'm wrong but it should just be some tags in the metadata (of course when the MXF is rendered with IMF Specs in mind)

One last question, so we render the main feature in a IMF package and things like trailers in their own package, mostly because we can quickly finish all assists for a package. After render we manually add the Audio/Video of the trailer to the feature and build in that package an additional CPL with it. Is it possible to just add or merge an complete package folder with the relevant AV tracks ,CPL and others? Because it feels like it's not the most efficient way to do it how we currently do it.

Thanks again for your time and response

ryzen88 avatar Jan 13 '24 12:01 ryzen88

Some additional feedback. The browse thing is indeed related to permission of user thing.

  • ATM when you insert subtitles it makes a TimedText file with a uuid number. But when importing say 5 or 6 languages or different types of subtitle it quickly gets confusing and you have to manually annotate the tracks. Is it possible for the created timed text file to include the original sub name, or at least the language tag you already input when the subtitle is selected.
  • In the Timeline it would also be very practical to see the original sub name or the language tag.
  • There is an option to import ADM soundfield and or immersive audio. Unfortunately when i try to input for example a dolby 7.1.4 /12 channel wav audio file i cant get passed the channel maps to window. the finish button remains unclickable.

ryzen88 avatar Jan 28 '24 10:01 ryzen88