[John Pale]

I agree with you for the most part, Andrew. FCPX does the ProRes optimized video thing rather elegantly. And yes, all the other systems have media management shortcomings that don’t exist with Avid (non-AMA) managed media.
I am rather new to Adobe CC and wasn’t aware of the distinction you mentioned between using the Media Browser and importing…so thanks for that! I guess my main beef with Avid is the way AMA (now Link) has been marketed as a huge time saving feature, yet three or four versions later, newcomers are still warned not to listen to the marketing and transcode everything because it doesn’t work well as advertised with anything but the most simple of projects. It’s not just paranoia, as from experience, I know it doesn’t work well. When other edit systems link to media directly by default (yes, you can choose to “optimize” in FCPX), it’s hard to justify that limitation. They should, make it work or stop touting it. It’s not something exotic. I am about to start a large sports highlight project that involves getting large amounts of H.264 material off of FTP, and the transcode time is staggering. If it were possible, I’d get the production company to switch to Adobe for this..as we could just download the files and start editing with Premiere Pro….but they are heavily invested in an all Avid infrastructure.

PS: I really love your idea about a unified ingest pane that clearly identifies your options. This could also be done for output.

[John Pale]

Apply the 3D warp effect to each clip and resize as needed. Remove the effects before final output. It’s cumbersome, but it will get the job done. I don’t know of any NLE that has multiple output video channels.

[John Pale]

I’m pretty sure there is no way to make multiple record monitors. You can make one giant one, that eliminates the source monitor. You then can get multiple pop up source monitors. Not really what you want. I don’t know anyone who uses that feature regularly. What’s wrong with what Shane suggested? That’s how nearly everyone does it. There are very inexpensive options available, if cost is the roadblock.

[John Pale]

It’s a preference. Look in your timeline or composer settings. I can’t remember which and not in front of a system.

[John Pale]

Michael, have you ever tried to explain AMA, legacy import etc. to someone who only knows FCP classic or Adobe Premiere? They get the same look on their face as a cat gets when you try to teach it algebra. :). Don’t even get me started on the fact that some AMA plugins are built in and some need to be downloaded. Plugins that are unnecessary on any other system.

Basically all other systems edit using “Link” full time. That’s what importing actually does in FCP and Premiere. Only in Avid, does importing create new media, which is a huge distinction. The fact that the idea of editing using AMA..errrr….Link…is still discouraged among Avid users (for good reason)…despite what the marketing says…is kind of mind boggling to users of other systems. How can it not work well? Its nothing exotic…it’s just how every other NLE works.

Back on point…Avid has it tough here. Much of the kludge with ingest is well understood by the grumpy longtime user base, but for people new to it, it’s borderline incomprehensible. Link is pretty straightforward and descriptive about what’s actually happening, at least. The term AMA requires you to know a bit more about the underlying architecture of Avid.

sorry for the rant. Not directed at you at all. I don’t really know what the answer is, but Avid needs to do more than just fiddle with the names of these things.

[John Pale]

It’s just called “Link” now. They are phasing out the term “AMA” as people coming from other systems don’t have any idea what it means and keep using legacy import.

Explained in the 8.4 docs

[John Pale]

Make sure you are using the correct AMA plugin rather than let Avid auto select it. Manually select the correct AMA plugin in the drop-down menu.

Had an instance recently where Avid selected the wrong one (the generic MXF instead of the P2 plugin). This caused only one section of every spanned clip to be linked and all clips (spanned or single) had incorrect time code.

[John Pale]

This isn’t really a good workflow for avid at all.

Your assistant should link to your footage via AMA and transcode within avid to an offline resolution.
After the edit is locked, you relink to the original files and transcode to your online resolution.

For this to work properly, it’s essential that you keep the card folder structure intact and don’t go renaming and reorganizing all the files. You can rename the clips in avid all you like and it will still remember what files they came from but don’t rename the files themselves.

[John Pale]

check your media creation settings for rendering. the color correction is rendered in that codec when flattened (even if it plays in real time fine). If it differs from your export codec, you will be adding another level of compression. Just a guess.

[John Pale]

Give him two AAFs. One using only your intended tracks. The other, having the alternates.

Also provide a wav or aiff of your rough mix.

A bit tedious to prepare, but might avoid headaches later.