Failure in loading AAF

Dear Jeremy,

thank you. Knowledge is king! To know how things work, makes it easier to get rid of failures.
The applet seems to work now. Say thank you to your colleagues.
I will stay tuned and tell you how things work out.
Best.

Max,

I tried re-importing my edited FCPXML into my FCP X and it failed to load with the same error that you have. So i tried importing your original FCPXML into my FCP X and it failed as well.
It appears that the FCPXML was invalid, which sometimes FCP X does create an fcpxml that it can't open itself. This is one of those occasions. X2Pro seems to be a bit more tolerant of whatever is invalid.
So it is good that you were able to get a new FCPXML exported and it converted through X2Pro.

In regards to the "retiming" and "conform rates" errors that you got after converting your FCPXML, here is a bit of information from our Knowledge-base on how X2Pro deals with different framerates and adjustments form FCP X:
A conformed clip is one that FCP X has automatically retimed because the frame rate of the clips was very close the the frame rate of the project. For example when a 23.98fps clip is used in a 25fps project, FCP X will play the clip at just over 104% speed. FCP X does not alert the user when it conforms clips.
X2Pro doesn't support retiming or conforming, and clips will be at the original speed in the AAF. This is likely to cause a sync issue, so if any clips were retimed/conformed, the conversion report will list each one and the time code that it appears in the project so that the audio finisher knows what to look for when they open the AAF.

The knowledge-Base can be found here .

As for my colleagues applet that was failing on your system, he made a slight tweak to it that I believe should allow it to work on your system now. I am attaching a new version of it here for you to have.

Please let us know how you get along with your new AAF in Pro Tools.

Hey Jeremy
First of all thank you very much.

I tried to import your corrected FCPXML from your reply #2248, but it didn´t work. It always gives me a failure message: "DTD-Überprüfung fehlgeschlagen (MEANS: DTD-validation failed). (IDREF attribute projectRef references an unknown ID "p1"
IDREF attribute projectRef references an unknown ID "p4"
IDREF attribute projectRef references an unknown ID "p2"
)
Any idea why I can´t open your FCPXML?

So, if I can not reimport your FCPXML, your 2 recommended procedures makes no sense yet.
That´s way I rolled up my sleeves and did a recut of the failure (synced) clips with the original soundclips. Thanks to your list I have a workable AAF now (at least I hope so, because I can´t check it in ProTools now). Also I hope this will be the same, when there´s really a Picture Lock in the next weeks. But I´m optimistic now.
I also could not find out any pattern of the failure clips. That´s really curious. Definitely it has something to do with my renaming of the synced multicamclips (2 different cameras, one separate audio). Hmmmm?!

After exporting a workable AAF, a long list of X2Pro-failures popped up. Most of them are negligible ("Loudness adjustment is not supported"), but there are bunch of clips with a "retiming" and a "conform rate" failure. What does this mean exactly. What is X2Pro doing in such cases? For example speeding up or reversed audio (Retiming) and putting 24fps-clips in a 25fps-Sequence (Conform)? Could you explain this, please? ;) thank you.

Unfortunately your small Mac applet is not runnning properly on my Mac Pro 10.9.4. It always tells me in german, that a failure occured and I should check the properties of actions. Does that make any sense to you.

Best, max ;)

The following is a list of all of your filenames that had "invalid"or null characters in the XML.
(The null characters have all been replaced with a "?" so that you can see them)
Metzgerei-0911 Cam A 18 - ?00602033
Metzgerei-0911 Cam A 21 - ?00605669
HBrenner Cam A 19 - ? P1030159
HBrenner Cam A 20 - ? P1030162
HBrenner Cam B 19 - ??P1000141
HBrenner Cam B 20 - ?P1000142
HBrenner Cam B 21 - ?P1000143
HBrenner Cam B 12 - ??P1000134
HBrenner Cam B 13 - ??P1000135
HBrenner Cam B 15 - ??P1000137
HBrenner Cam B 16 - ??P1000138
HBrenner Cam B 17 - ??P1000139
HBrenner Cam B 18 - ??P1000140
HBrenner Cam B 11 - ??P1000133
HBrenner Cam B 08 - ?P1000130
HBrenner Cam B 09 - ?P1000131
HBrenner Cam B 10 - ??P1000132
Würzburg_Cam B 07 - ?P1000308
Stadtarchiv Cam A 06 - ?P1040175
Stadtarchiv Cam A 07 - ?P1040176
Stadtarchiv Cam A 09 - ?P1040178
HBrenner Cam A 34 - ??? P1030180
HBrenner Cam A 31 - ??? P1030176
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
HBrenner Cam A 29 - ??? P1030174
HBrenner Cam A 23 - ?? P1030165
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
HBrenner Cam A 25 - ?? P1030167
HBrenner Cam A 23 - ?? P1030165
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
HBrenner Cam A 28 - ?? P1030173
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
HBrenner Cam A 24 - ?? P1030166
Maccabi Cam A 80 - ?P1040249

I provide you these in case you can see a pattern, for example; if you are importing the files to your project using a special tool that might be putting these null characters in the file names.
I used notepad ++ in order to find the null characters in your original XML, as you are able to use the extended search mode and search specifically for null characters.

One of my colleagues as also created a small Mac applet that will remove NULL chars from any file that you point it to and save it to a new file. This applet comes with no support, but it may be helpful to you if you come across more project XMLs with null characters throughout.

Dear Jeremy.
You are great. Thanks a lot for your help.

@1: For a better understanding and to avoid this in future projects, which "invalid characters" do you mean? Is there any way to fix it by myself? I just want to avoid to come back to you and disturb you with the same problem in a future project.

@2: I will check this, when I´m back to my editing suite on sunday or at least monday. I´ll be back then.

Thanks again. Enjoy the weekend. ;)))
max

Max,

Your FCPXML had 2 different problems with it.
1. It contained several invalid characters throughout it, which would not allow it to be loaded into X2Pro.
I was able to find those characters and fix that.

2. It contains auditions that are not finalized.
If you can either import your corrected FCPXML into your FCP X and finalize the auditions at the follow timecodes.
• Unfinalized audition found at 00:22:20.91. Please finalize all auditions before exporting Final Cut XML.
• Unfinalized audition found at 00:23:45.40. Please finalize all auditions before exporting Final Cut XML.
• Unfinalized audition found at 00:24:09.56. Please finalize all auditions before exporting Final Cut XML.
• Unfinalized audition found at 00:24:33.45. Please finalize all auditions before exporting Final Cut XML

or finalize the auditions in your current project and export that to a new FCPXML for me to fix the invalid characters on.

Let us know how you get along.

Dear Jeremy
I´m back again. Here´s the fcpxml. Hope you can solve my problem.
Best, max

Dear Jeremy,
thanks for this quick answer. I get back to you tomorrow and will send the FCPXML.
Best.

Could you please provide us with your FCPXML?

Without looking at your XML specifically, the error message points to an invalid character on the 2,522 line of your FCPXML.
If you can give us your FCPXML we should be able to get things figured out.

Dear support,
Maybe my following question is already featured in your help, but I could not find it.
My Import of an AAF from FCPX10.1.3 ( - already cleaned sequence with no video in it) into X2Pro2.5.1 gave me this error:
Unable to parse FCP XML file to obtain project information

Details:
Unable to parse file /Volumes/3TB_JUD/JLB_v15_Data/02_EXPORT/150716_AAF_v15_vo vid/JLB_v15_2prep_no video.fcpxml (Line 2522: Char 0x0 out of allowed range
Line 2522: AttValue: ' expected
Line 2522: attributes construct error
Line 2522: Couldn't find end of Start Tag clip
)

Suggestions:
- Ensure that the file is not locked by another application and is readable;
- Ensure that this is a valid FCP XML file from a released version of FCP X;
- Ensure that this is the export of a Project, not of a Library or Event;
- Ensure that this is not an empty project (or that all audio is disabled);

All media locations are accessible.

My questions:
1. What does it mean in general?
2. What means line 2522?
3. How can I solve this?

Thanks a lot in advance.
Max;)