Can you transcode Avid avb files?

[Pat Horridge]

Basically no.

Avid AVB files are Avid bins. They are files that contain the metadata of the project. Masterclips and sequences.

They are unique to Avid.

They aren’t the media.

It’s not advised to live between NLE systems unless it’s an approved workflow.

Some people have had some success exporting a sequence as an AAF into Resolve and the from Resolve to Premiere but it only works on simple sequences.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Rebecca,

Do you know what flavour of Avid that your short-film was edited on?

Avid.com will let you have “Media Composer | First” for free. But it is very limited in what it can do.
You can also download a free 30-day trail of the full Media Composer package.
However, please do note, that being able to download it, does not mean that it will run on your hardware, so there is caveats attached.

Alternatively, there is a way of migrating Avid Media Composer projects to Premiere Pro.
A couple of weeks ago I went the other way when exporting out a program from Premiere Pro to be mixed on Avid ProTools – there was no problems with the export itself, and import at audio facility.

Adobe has a whole page on it here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/premiere-pro/how-to/migrate-from-avid-media-composer.html
This only works if your editor used the full version of Avid, otherwise you are stuck on using the “First” version.

Before going down this route, do stop up and consider this:
Why do you need to re-open the project?
If it is just to add grade, titles and end-credits, do you need the whole project unlocked, or can you “paint” on top of it?

Good Luck!

Mads

[Pat Horridge]

Worth noting that projects and bins aren’t interchable between the full Avid version and the free version.

So you can only continue with whatever version you started with.

Going from Avid to Resolve is a valid workflow and you can round trip back to Avid afterwards. So if it just grading or trimming that would work.

Going to Avid isn’t the same as coming from Avid so if you are determined to try that test first but remember you can only send a sequence (as an AAF) so you still need to be in Avid to export. And experience has shown me you will be doing lots and lots of exports to try and get something thst works.

Premiere doesn’t follow Avids specs for AAFs so you can get many issues. But testing is the only way to be sure. For an easy quick solution I’d find an Avid editor with their own system and just go that route.