[Pat Horridge]

If you are new to AMA then check the AMA settings first to make sure the AMA’d clips are created int he bin you want/expect (I prefer to set it to use the Active bin and use a newly created bin named as required before I do an AMA link)
Also if you choose AMA link volume you can point to the folder that contains the files and they will all be linked (AMA link files allows individual or group selections and is useful if you have a folder with a mixed bag of content).
As Juan says AMA then consolidate is best but not all codecs can be consolidated (only those considered “native” by Media composer can) so if you can’t consolidate, or want to change codec then use AMA link then Transcode.
I can’t stress strongly enough how much more powerful AMA link and consolidate/transcode is compared with import. The time saving at then end if you have to conform back to the source media can be significant.
Check out the VET short course https://www.vet.co.uk/site/training/scheduled_courses/avid_ama_ingest_and_export_vet_short_courses

For more on AMA workflows with Avid. It’s a great course. I wrote it and teach it 🙂

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

Lets not get confused between wrapper and codecs.
QT, AVI MXF and many more are wrappers they aren’t codecs.
So the source format is DV currently on a tape. As long as it’s captured to a DV codec it will still be DV and no re-compression will occur.
The “wrapper” to hold it being QT or AVI or MXF is just a convenient way of collecting that coded data.
Clearly it makes sense to “wrap” that coded data in a way the next system can easily access but it’s not critical. Re-wrapping content is a simple and fast process.
So for example Avid would prefer it as MXF files and if they are you can drop them in the media files folder and access them. But if they are DV codec wrapped in a QuickTime file you can AMA them into Avid or fast import them.
My concern here is the maximum capacity of the DVD medium and source files that exceed that. And the fact that DVD writing and reading isn’t that quick.
A harddrive is far more practical (but make sure at least 2 copies are made for backup)

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

My understanding is that the Avid Scaler is an offline quality feature and is designed to give fast processing and as much realtime playback as possible.
Hence many of the steps you describe still result in realtime playback which is a big time saving when being creative.
But as a finishing process it’s less than ideal. So I’d be processing those effects external to the Avid based on the offline guide and replacing those affected shots.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

Also lack of Alpha channel support for AMA source is a drag.
But the real gain is adjusting the level mapping and field order without re-importing.
And AMA red footage is really powerful!

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

Maybe worth looking at the Avid community forum revised layout.
With do many news users coming over from FCP the forum where filling with new user basic questions. They now have a getting started foru.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

Ours was the 1100w unit with the 2 6 pin molex. connectors.
the issue was that to habeas 2 high power cords like the 580 issue& 4000
You need 2 6 pins and 1 8 pin molex.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

Sounds lithe edit assistants going to be very busy!
Looks like manually is the only way.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

I’m pretty sure the machine template won’t help.
The only setting that relates to delay is the edit delay and that’s not related to time offset. Don’t forget the decks just doing what it’s told frame accuratley. Any offset will need to be MC controlled.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

No gotten round to testin that yet.
Mainly transcode to DMX 185 in Avid first for most stuff unless it’s Red and I need to go back to the original source media.
Have you checked the Resolve codec support list? That has all the supported codecs on it and if XDCAM is there your in luck.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US

[Pat Horridge]

We very rarely deliver anything above 1920X1080 REC709
At best content will go to Digital Cinema and that’s limited to 2048 pixels (2K) and 1920 isn’t that far behind so it’s far more cost effective to produce a 1920X1080 output and then scale anc colour space convert for DCI and have the ability to make file based and blu-ray outputs from the final timeline.
We can finish (and often do) in our DS systen which ties in nicely with the Symphony we have and from there we can output 2K or 4K as DPX but we just don’t work with clients who can actually use a 4K output in any sensible way!
So no we don’t need to use any external tools like RedCine. Just MC or Symphony. We have just finished setting up a Resolve workstation and that will be an alternative grading solution but again I expect 90% plus of our work will be rec 709 HD outputs.

Pat Horridge
Technical Director, Trainer, Avid Certified Instructor
VET
Production Editing Digital Media Design DVD
T +44 (0)20 7505 4701 | F +44 (0)20 7505 4800 | E pat@vet.co.uk |
http://www.vet.co.uk | Lux Building 2-4 Hoxton Square London N1 6US