After IMPORT I get a gray image in AVID 7

[Phil Lowe]

Was your source material RGB or 601/709 color gamut? If it was 601/709, you should import using that setting. That way Avid knows not to compress the luminance values. (RGB has luminance values ranging from 0-255 on the RGB scale, 601/709 has luminance values ranging from 16-235 on the RGB scale.)

If you imported 601/709 footage as RGB, Avid applies another layer of luminance compression onto material that was already at 601/709. This is why your video lacks contrast: instead of black and white levels at 16-235, they are now 32-215.

If you’re working in PAL, you need to find out which gamut applies and import accordingly. The values cited above are for 8-bit NTSC/ATSC.

Hope this helps.