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Streamling Multiformat Workflow
Hi everyone,
Same story you’ve heard a thousand times before, we’re a FCP house migrating to primarily Avid. The biggest problem I’m encountering is the amount of time it’s taking to prepare assets to be brought into Avid. I’m finding myself transcoding everything with a DNxHD wrapper and then importing that into Avid because I can’t seem to get AMA linking to work well.
Specifically if we’re doing a marketing sizzle the workflow becomes almost unmanageable with people sending me .flv, .wmv, basically any format you can think of. Is there a better way to do it than I am now? Perhaps a proper way to prepare files for AMA linking? Maybe converting files that I can just toss into the Avid media directory then bring directly into a bin instead of using the import tool?
Thanks all and after 11 years away from Avid it’s fun to be back.
-Jimmy
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7 Replies
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You might want to look into the Sorenson Pro application as an “input portal” for these various file types as it can create native MXF/DNxHD on output that you move to the Avid MediaFiles folder.
Michael
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You also might want to look at Adobe Premiere for doing those sizzles. Look, I like Avid as much as the first guy (the first guy being Michael), but it isn’t suited to everything…especially sizzle reels where your footage comes from a mixed bag of sources. When that happens, I simply use Premiere CS6.
I don’t have to transcode a majority of the footage. I might have to some, like .FLV or some very low res MP4s….but other than that, Premiere handles this stuff natively.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
The frustrating part about that is that we invested into Avid buying into the whole AMA nonsense. You’re right I always expected to have to transcode some files but I can’t even link a ProRes QT without running into issues. So what you’re saying is I can just stick DNxHD QTs right into the Avid media folder then bring it into the bin?
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Anything QT wrapped cannot be copied/moved to the Avid MediaFiles folder. Avid managed media is via MXF wrapper. My suggestion was for Sorenson to create native MXF DNxHD media which can be dragged to the Avid MediaFiles folder.
And I agree with Shane – I never work with AMA other than access, then transcode. It is not ready for most program types. And yes, I like “Media Composer” for the type of editing I do, but “Avid” I have a few issues with here and there… 🙂
Michael
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Their marketing of AMA as “just link and edit!” is an odd one. Goes against reality. AMA is just that, ACCESS. It might work with some formats, like ProRes, on a short project…minimal footage. But Avid was designed around working with MXF files. The entire code is built around MXF and their media file structure. AMA is an add on to that…so that you can reach out and access other formats. But Media Composer isn’t designed to work with them natively.
Adobe Premiere is. It doesn’t have a codec that you convert to. The basic structure it is built on is access and workability with native codecs…and then encode a final later.
Media Composer is great for many purposes. Just not the one you are trying to use it for. Surely you have other project types you can use this on?
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Wouldn’t be the first time people have had issues with Avid marketing. Wasn’t Adrenaline touted as being upgradeable?
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Well it is upgradeable to DX hardware… 😉
Michael
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