XDCAM EX workflow for AVID

[Job Ter burg]

You’ll find a workflow guide on https://www.avid.com/xdcam.

Using MC3.5 or later, you’ll be able to link to the native XDCAM clips using Avid Media Access (AMA). Quick and easy. Make sure you read up on the XDCAM-AMA guide.

[Kris Anderson]

Personally, I would not use the AMA approach.

After nearly 400 XD discs ingested for a reality TV series, and after trying both ways, I would use the “Import XD Proxy” and batch re-capture method. But that’s just my opinion. I find it to be quicker and more responsive when editing (especially when grouping clips or cutting with multiple streams).

Of course, YMMV.

[Perrone Ford]

I am VERY new to Avid, but having dabbled in MC4 and now working with MC5, I wouldn’t use AMA for anything that didn’t have a same-day turnaround. I am currently editing a short film which was shot XDCamEX. There’s 17 days of dailies. I essentially ingested as XDCamEX. I will likely batch re-capture prior to grading. But for editing purposes, this is just fine. Multiple streams play VERY well on my desktop machine, and are more than adequate on my laptop as well. I am not using Mac hardware theough, so I don’t know how that plays into the mix.

But I would be VERY nervous about using linked media for shows versus bringing that media into the Avid managed database.

Just my view.

[Job Ter burg]

I’m not suggesting AMA for editing, just for bringing it in.

[Mark Spano]

I concur with JtB – AMA is amazingly easy to use to access the media. My usual workflow is two-step: AMA to access and have Avid create bins and import all the metadata, then select all and consolidate to high-speed storage to edit with. Every once in a while there’s a hiccup in consolidation, so I’ve got to keep an eye on it, but if it ever argues, I just retry and it continues. Pretty easy and allows for a closer-to-old-school edit from a copy rather than the master approach. No need to relink to any higher resolutions as the XDCAM-EX material is read and edited with easily by Avid.