When working in a professional production environment, ingest is much more than simply copying files from one location to another. It is necessary to prove that every file has been transferred completely, accurately, and in a way that can be verified later if required.
Camera cards, field recordings, and production drives often contain irreplaceable material. Once that media enters post-production, you need complete confidence that nothing has been lost, altered, or corrupted during the transfer process.
Limecraft Edge provides robust verification during offload to ensure media integrity is maintained from source to destination. It supports MD5, xxHash64 and xxHash3 verification, as well as standardised ASC Media Hash List (MHL) manifests, alongside other formats.
Choosing the right Checksum Algorithm
MD5, xxHash64, and xxHash3 are all checksum algorithms used to generate a unique digital fingerprint for a file, allowing you to verify that media has been copied without corruption or alteration.
MD5 is the long-established industry standard in many broadcast and archive workflows, valued for its compatibility and widespread support across tools and facilities. However, it uses 128 bit encryption and thus is relatively slow compared to newer algorithms.
xxHash64 and xxHash3 are modern high-performance hashing algorithms designed for significantly faster verification, particularly when working with large media files or high-throughput storage systems.
- xxHash64 offers excellent speed while maintaining a very low risk of collisions, while
- xxHash3 (64-bit) provides even better performance on modern hardware and is optimised for large-scale data processing.
In practical production workflows, all three algorithms provide reliable integrity verification, with the choice typically depending on compatibility requirements versus performance priorities.
Setting up ASC Media Hash List (MHL) Manifests using Limecraft Edge
As part of card offloads you have a choice between Media Hash List files, besides other file formats. MHL files are written in to the destination folder alongside the copied media files, creating a portable and standardised record of the transfer.
This means you can choose the verification approach that best suits your workflow, whole maintaining full confidence in the integrity of your media.
Configuring Verification Preferences for Limecraft Edge
To manage the verification preferences for your project
- Go to the Edge Project settings of the relevant workspace
- Select the Checksum Algorithm in the Verification settings. You have a choice between MD5, xxHash64 and xxHash3.
- MHL files are written in the destination folder alongside the media files.
These checksums are also recorded in the MHL outputs, so cards and disks offloaded with Limecraft Edge can be verified with other MHL-capable tools and post-production workflows.