TABLE OF CONTENTS
How does Content Hub match an asset list (EDL) to actual assets (Clips)?
VFX Plate Generation & Delivery EDLs
How To Export an EDL from Editorial Softwares
Conform Pulls and VFX Plate Generation in Content Hub uses Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) to identify the clips that will need to be pulled and generates files for delivery. In this article, we will walk you through what an acceptable EDL will look like and how Content Hub matches the EDL events to the clips stored in Content Hub.
Content Hub supports any EDL format generated from Avid and Premiere Pro. CMX3600 is NOT ACCEPTED because it truncates the reel name to 8 characters, and most clip names are longer.
Content Hub supports EDLs with regular retimes and transitions. In case your EDL is not able to be parsed upon ingest, please reach out to your Netflix Contact assigned to the project to help troubleshoot.
How does Content Hub match an asset list (EDL) to actual assets (Clips)?
In order to use Conform Pulls and VFX Plate Generation, a user is required to create a submission in a Content Hub project (see related articles below). After the submission has been created, the user will be prompted to provide an asset list in the form of an EDL with all the clips that need to be delivered to the recipient of the submission. By loading the EDL, Content Hub will match the events on the list with actual assets (clips) in the assets library of the project where the submission is being created.
Figure A
Content hub does this by looking at the ‘Reel Number’ field and source timecode information for each event on the EDL.
Figure B: Example EDL - Highlighted ‘reel number’ field AND In and Out Source timecode
After the ‘reel number’ has been identified on the EDL for a given event, Content Hub will try to find a clip name that matches the information provided on the ‘reel number’ field of the EDL within the asset library of that project.
Figure C: ‘Reel Number’ field in EDL. Figure D: Clip Name as identified by Content Hub
If a matching clip is found (like in the example above), then Content Hub will take the source in and out timecode information from the EDL and continue to try to find a match within the timecode range of the clip that was identified as a possible candidate.
Figure E: Source timecode information on EDL Figure F: Source timecode identified in Content Hub
If the in and out frames are found within the frame range of the matching clip, the retrieval and/or transcode/trim process will begin and the status of the given asset in the submission will change from ‘Pending’ to ‘In Progress’.
On the above examples you can see how the information on the EDL matches perfectly what’s in Content Hub: the information written on the reel number field of the EDL matches with a Clip Name in the asset library of the project and the In and Out timecodes defined on the EDL are within the range of the Start and End Timecode identified on that clip by CH.
If Content Hub does not find a match, then the clip will fail in the submission and the user will need to download the desired asset from the library instead. As you can see, the correlation between the information on the EDL and the assets in our system is key, otherwise, the match will not be possible and the workflow won’t be completed.
VFX Plate Generation & Delivery EDLs
Content Hub can use the locator field on each event as a source to filter what plates need to be transcoded in a submission.
Figure G
Figure H
After a locator color is selected on the submission, Content Hub will name the plates based on what is defined in the locator field for each EDL event. The specified locator should only include the plate name and not additional information/description.
Source EDL:
Figure I
When using VFX Plate Generation & Delivery Content Hub can extract CDLs from your EDLs. If included, the CDL values on the EDL will be extracted and written on accompanying .cc and .cdl files that will be included in each plate of the package.
CDL information in EDL:
Figure J
Parsed CDL values:
Figure K
Additionally, Content Hub will append a suffix with the frame number sequence. The first frame for every clip will be 1001. If handles were selected, then the first frame of handles will be 1001.
Results:
Figure L
Sample EDL
Find here a Sample EDL for reference:
Figure M
How To Export an EDL from Editorial Softwares
For resources on how to export your EDL from the Editing software please visit the following resources:
In case your EDL is not able to be parsed upon ingest, please reach out to your Netflix Contact assigned to the project to help troubleshoot.
Related Resources
- Conform Pulls
- VFX Plate Generation & Delivery
- Footage Backup User Guide
- Media Suite Desktop Client - User Guide
- Media Suite & Pegasus Desktop Clients IP Allow List