Transcoding to DNxHD decreases quality

[Thomas Schöbinger]

Yeah, so that’s the conclusion: Always AMA-link and transcode.

What’s the deal with that? If Avid has a newer method of converting the footage, which preserves more quality, doesn’t mess with the gamma (as you can see in the waveform-picture I posted) and even goes a lot faster, why is there still the import option, or, why don’t they change the import option so that it is as good as AMA-linking and transcoding? If you are not familiar with those facts it seems much more convenient to always click on import when you are planning to transcode the footage anyway.

Or is this some particular issue only occuring with h.264/DSLR footage?

[John Pale]

Agreed, it’s kind of a mess for new users. I think Avid fails to appreciate how utterly weird the ingest process is for someone unfamiliar with what’s been going on in Avidville for the past decade.

AMA (now simply called Link) has been around a fairly long time now. When it was first introduced, it wasn’t very capable and people still used Import for most things. Gradually, it’s gotten to the point where you can use it for most everything. Import needs to stay there for backwards compatibility with old projects at the very least. Personally, I still use Import for audio files and graphic files with alpha channels, as I find the behavior more reliable. Unfortunately Import still uses the old QuickTime engine to do its thing (relying on tech that Apple itself has deprecated). It’s been largely unchanged for years. It’s not just a DSLR issue.

[Thomas Schöbinger]

Okay, at least now I know. Thank you all a lot for the help.