[Matthew Waysdorf]

You should be able to do that with just a relink. First, mount your AMA drive. Then, go to the relink window and set the following:
All Available Drive
Load Media Database
Relink Selected Master Clips
UNCHECK Relink only to media from the current project
In the Relink By window, check the box that says Ignore Extension and uncheck the box that says Match case
In the Video Parameters window, set Relink To to Any HD Format.

Run the relink and it should work.

[Matthew Waysdorf]

Here is my uber-rock-solid online to offline and back workflow that works for any file-based format. It can take much longer on the front end than a lot of people like, but the uprez takes about 10 seconds and is almost idiot proof.

1. Import or AMA-link your files at the codec you intend to hi-Rez in (dnxhd, etc).
2. Transcode those clips to SD (2:1, 15:1, etc). We have separate workspaces for online and offline media, but it’s not 100% necessary.
3. Trash the .new clips. Relink your original hd master clips to the SD media.
4. Edit to your heart’s content.
5. When it’s ready to uprez, simply relink your footage to HD format, and you’re done.

No need to transcode using a third party platform, and everything you need to uprez has been brought in to avid already. We work under much tighter deadlines for delivery than for ingest, so this works great. I avoid using streamclip on my master media (still use it for exports) because streamclip has no way of dealing with metadata. All of your TC and clip info will be stripped. Apple Compressor is the best bet IMO for conversions like this and can handle avid codecs in custom settings. But best to just let media composer do all the work for you. Best of luck!

[Matthew Waysdorf]

First off, check your decomp settings. Make sure you uncheck “offline clips only”, since you want it to decomp everything. Then select “captured and imported clips”. Since you’re only working file-based, it’s important that imported clips be included in the decomp. If that still doesn’t work, bring your sequence in to a new project and see if you can successfully batch import by showing reference clips rather than through decomp. Good luck!

[Matthew Waysdorf]

We recently moved a number of shows from on facility running a Unity to a completely different one running and ISIS and has similar problems at first. What you need to do first and foremost is import a file in avid to a bin – doesn’t matter what it is, color bars, a still, anything. Set the import to the drive that contains your media. Then right-click the clip and hit “reveal”, which will show the clip in the finder, then close out of Avid. That folder will tell you what all your media folders should be named. If it’s “1”, then successive folders will be 2, 3, 4, etc. If it is “computername.1”, successiver folders will be “computername.2, computername.3,” etc. A maximum of 5,000 files can be in any one folder in your Avid Mediafiles folders. If you approach 5,000, move clips to the next folder (computername.2, etc). Delete any and all msm database files and the “creating” folder. Then open Avid and let it rebuild the database. All your footage should be online, at the very least accessible by media tool. I made the FCP to Avid switch too, it can seem like banging your head against a brick wall at times, but eventually it clicks and everything works great. Good luck!

[Matthew Waysdorf]

Welcome to reality tv! Stringouts are scripts, usually generated by producers and then assembled by AEs from grouped clips. The editors then start from an assembled sequence with all the angles rather than having to pull everything themselves. Good luck!