Avid roundtrip MXF AMA

[Stig Olsen]

There is of course a possibility to track the files by looking for them with the media tool, but as it is organized – the media took will bring up ALL the subolders (MXF1+2+3 etc) so that makes it a mess.
It should really be a work-around that let you use the media tool to open just the subfolder (like mxf/2) where all the resolve files are gathered – or just enabling AMA to link direct to the MXF-files produced by Resolve.

Probably its better to just stay away from the AMA-import anyway as it mess with the gamma and generally having problem retrieving the correct level information that Resolve creates.

How do you guys relate to this?

[Mike Most]

You don’t bring in MXF files using AMA. AMA is used for everything that ISN”T an MXF file. You bring in MXF files by putting them in a numbered folder under the Avid MediaFiles/MXF tree, and either let Avid create a database file (the .mdb file) in that folder and drag that into a bin, or use the Media Tool to access the master clips. If you’re doing a roundtrip, though, none of that is necessary. You do need to put the mxf files into a numbered folder in the proper place, but when you import the AAF produced by Resolve (you need to export one from the Conform page) Avid will relink it to the proper MXF files as long as they’re present automatically.

[Stig Olsen]

I know that – but I am confused since BMD says the have a “AMA round trip” but I guess thats just non technical communication.
Is it also possible to output am AAF for just a single clip or does it take the whole sequence?

[Mike Most]

Why would you want to export an AAF – which basically describes a sequence and associated media – for one clip? You can simply render the clip to whatever you want and pick it up in another program. If it’s Avid, just render the clip, put it in a numbered folder, and use the .mdb file Avid will create to get it into a bin. Or am I missing something here?…

[Stig Olsen]

your right of course 🙂 I guess Im just so settled with the AMA-workflow.
But Mike, can you help me out with this one:

When I render MXF from Resolve with the lift / black levels set to 0 and highlights to 1023, it looks perfect when Importing to Avid. (its scaled to fit 16-235) and it looks exactly the same.

But when cranking the contrast below 0 in Resolve and importing the image is washed out. Do you know why it is like that?

I seems like avid is clipping (not scaling) everything under 0 and over 1023. Is this true? How is it then possible to make black real black when its all beeing washed out?