Import Avid bin info into Premiere Pro CS4

[Todd Kopriva]

This page should be a good jumping-off point for learning about Avid <-> Premiere Pro workflows.

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
———————————————————————————————————

[John Adkins]

Thanks for the heads-up. I understand the basic exchange flow of info. The suggested route is to export my existing Avid files as AAF. After doing that and then trying to import into PP CS4 I receive the follwing message – “unknown file format”. Is there more than on version of AAF. Am I missing something here? Thanks.

[Steve Brame]

We were a Media Composer centric house until CS3 was released, and I got to try it out at NAB. We decided to install CS3 on our Avid PC, later upgrading to CS4 when it was released. I made several attempts to port older and current Avid projects to CS4 via AAF, and never was successful. It seemed from discussions on the web, at NAB and User Groups that it was a purely ‘hit and miss’ venture, mostly missing. We eventually abandoned Avid, and became an Adobe centric house, now having both a CS4 PC and a CS5 one. I haven’t tried moving an Avid project to CS5, but from what I’ve read, it seems to do better than earlier versions.

The inability to use the AAF route with CS4 forced us to finish up those projects with Avid, while starting new projects on CS4. This involved several hours or days editing on CS4, then having to switch to Media Composer to work on one of the older projects. Going to Avid directly from CS4, it felt like I have gone from typing with a word processor to chiseling in stone. Even though I had used MC for years, I found myself having to either grab the manual or sit and give serious thought as to how to do even the most common tasks, whereas in Premiere it seems totally intuitive. But, that’s just me.

Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions