How to Convert Media with the Drop Converter

How to Convert Media with the Drop Converter

Convert source media (videos, image sequences, single frames) into optimized playback formats by dropping files into the DropConvert watched folder. The conversion runs automatically via the Media Manager DropConvert service. Monitor progress and control jobs from the Drop Converter Status window inside Backstage.

[USER-ACTION-REQUIRED: Attach a screenshot of the Drop Converter Status window here]

Before you start

• You have media files to convert (video files, image sequences, or single frames)
• You can access the D:\DropConvert folder on the server
• The DropConvert service is running (pre-installed and automatic on B-series servers)

Steps

1. Choose a format and variant

Open D:\DropConvert in File Explorer. Inside you will find format folders, each containing one or more variant subfolders. The subfolder you drop files into determines the output format and quality.

2. Drop your media into the variant subfolder

Copy or move your source files into the chosen subfolder. For example, to convert a video to DPX 4:4:4 10-bit, drop it into D:\DropConvert\DPX\444_10. Both single files and numbered image sequences are accepted. Subfolders within the variant folder are processed recursively.

Conversion starts automatically once files are detected.

3. Monitor progress in the Drop Converter Status window

In Backstage, open View > Other Windows > Drop Converter Status. The window shows a job table with columns for Job, Progress, Status, and Actions.

The window also auto-opens when new jobs start or when all running jobs finish. A blinking warning icon appears in the main toolbar while conversions are active — click it to open the status window.

4. Control jobs if needed

While a job is running, use the buttons in its Actions column:

• Pause — pauses a running sequence job. Not available for single-file jobs.

• Resume — resumes a paused job.

• Cancel & erase queued files — stops the job and removes queued files. This action is not undoable.

Once a job finishes, additional buttons appear for importing and cleaning up its output (see the next steps).

5. Import a completed conversion into your Assets

When a job reaches Completed, click Import to Assets in its Actions column. Backstage reads the conversion sidecar (*.info.json) written by the DropConvert service and imports the resulting frame sequence into your project Assets at the recorded framerate. If the conversion also extracted audio, that audio is imported as a separate Audio asset.

A green status line above the table confirms the import (for example, "Importing 1 image sequence(s) and 1 audio file(s) from job clip.mp4"), and the imported assets appear in the Assets panel. After importing, the button changes to Imported to Assets and is greyed out to prevent duplicates.

Note:Import to Assets is only available for jobs that completed successfully — not for stopped or failed jobs, or jobs whose output has already been deleted. You can still import converted output manually from the media root (typically D:\MEDIA-ROOT) using the standard asset import workflow if you prefer.

6. Delete a completed job's converted files

For any finished job (Completed, Stopped, or Failed), click Delete converted files in its Actions column. A Delete Converted Files confirmation dialog appears, warning that assets already imported from these files will lose their media and that the action cannot be undone. Click Yes to proceed.

Backstage removes the converted frames, any extracted audio, and the sidecar files; for stopped or failed jobs it also cleans up matching partial output, and it removes the output directory if it is left empty. After deletion the button changes to Files deleted and is greyed out.

Your original source media is never deleted. This action only removes the converted output in the media root — never the files you dropped into the D:\DropConvert watched folder.

Options explained

These controls appear in the toolbar of the Drop Converter Status window.

Job status values

Common Mistakes

• Converted files don't appear in Backstage automatically — Conversion output is written to the media root, not added to your project automatically. Use Import to Assets on the completed job (Step 5), or import it manually from the media root.

• "Import failed: no conversion info found" — The job has no *.info.json sidecar (the conversion may have been interrupted before writing metadata, or the DropConvert service is too old to produce one). Confirm the job completed fully and that Media Manager is up to date.

• Deleting files that a loaded asset still uses — If you imported a conversion and then delete its converted files, that asset loses its media. The confirmation dialog warns about this; remove the asset from your project first, or keep the files.

• Files dropped into the format folder instead of a variant subfolder — The service watches the variant subfolders, not the top-level format folder. Always drop files into a specific variant (e.g. DPX\Default, not just DPX).

• Pause button is greyed out — Pause is only available for sequence jobs, not single-file conversions. Single-file jobs can only be cancelled.

• Status window shows “Waiting for Drop Converter snapshot...” — The DropConvert service may not be running. On B-series servers it starts automatically. Check the system tray for the DropConvert helper icon.

Tips

• Use the Default variant when you are unsure which bit depth or subsampling to choose — it automatically selects the best match for your source material.

• HDR and Rec.2020 sources are converted to Rec.709 during the process. Plan your color pipeline accordingly.

• If existing files at the destination have the same name, they are overwritten without prompting.

• Conversion resumes automatically after a server reboot — you do not need to re-drop files.

• If you re-drop a source file whose earlier conversion already shows as imported or deleted, that status resets; once the new conversion completes you can import it again.

• The system-tray DropConvert helper manages which format presets are available and which standard formats are shown. Use it if you need to customize the folder structure.

Related

https://brainsalt.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BXHELP/pages/488931330 — Full list of media formats Backstage can play back.

https://brainsalt.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BAC/pages/34308135 — How to import video and audio assets into a Backstage project.

https://brainsalt.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BAC/pages/12091828 — Working with numbered image sequences as assets.