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I installed the (free) LE version of Avid’s DNxHD onto bothWindows and Mac, in order to round-trip between Sony Vegas and FCP.  Having received no responses to my threads on forums for Sony Vegas and for FCP, I tried Avid’s forums.

• The “Avid on Windows” Forum:
  • PC MediaComposer to MAC FCP http://community.avid.com/forums/p/74442/416691.aspx#416691
    • Thread from August 2009.  Might well be out of date now.
    • If you export DVCProHD from your PC Avid you’ll want to check the “Use AvidDV Codec” box.  This will encode the file as AvidDV100 (which is Avid’s DVCProHD codec).  With the Avid codecs installed on your FCP system you’ll be able to read them.
    • Why don’t they mention DNxHD ?
• The “Avid on Mac” Forum:
  • Search on [fcp dnxhd]
    • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/84564/477328.aspx#477328
      • Error while loading DNxHD QT .mov into FCP
      • Someone with same issue as me: they rendered from Sony Vegas to DNxHD to import to FCP, and the media wasn’t recognized.
      • Thus far, that thread is inconclusive, with suspicions focussing on the precise format settings etc. and the fact that the media was rendered from Sony Vegas (as I guess the latter is relatively “unknown territory” to the Avid/DNxHD folks).
      • I copied this info (& thread link) to the Sony Vegas forum http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=720994&Replies=11.  Useful replies:
        • …a smalll but critical point; the codec DNxHD does all the encoding of the video stream, vegas does not touch the encoding process. At most, vegas may update the file headers and starting meta data as it closes the file. If Sony has an issue it will be there, but I would question FCP file handling when it opening the file.
      • ?

Problem:

• In Windows I export from Sony Vegas to AVI (CineForm).  In OS X I read the file into FCP and apply the SmoothCam effect, then export to ProRes.  In Windows, Sony Vegas, I replace the original file with the smoothed one.  The levels/gamma are wrong.

Solution (Search):

• Sony Vegas forum http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=718371
  • Use DNxHD
    •  Couple of tips re DNxHD:  709 color level assumes 16-235, and RGB assumes 0-255.
  • Force it back again: www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/gamma_mac_pc.html
    • But this presumably implies getting re-quantized twice (the roundtrip issue and the forcing), which for 8-bit footage I imagine could reduce the quality (banding).
• Uncertainties
  • Where and how does this gamma get applied?  In FCP I didn’t (knowingly) alter the levels (eg until it looked right), I just applied the SmoothCam filter.  So I guess it would look wrong on the (pre-SnowLeopard) Mac but I wouldn’t care.  Wouldn’t FCP then export back whatever it got but smoothed?  This one is really confusing.    Experiments needed (when I get time…) I guess.

From article “NAB 2010: AVID MEDIA COMPOSER 5.0″ of 2010-04-25 at [lfhd.net], as of 2010-05-15:

•  Avid Media Composer 5.0 now works with the Matrox MXO2 Mini (not main or LE), not for capture, but for monitoring on a large monitor.
• New advanced Avid Media Access (AMA).
  • This new version of AMA now allows Avid MC to access Quicktime files directly, and allows MC to EDIT those QTs without converting or transcoding them. So things like ProRes, the new Canon XF codec…they are directly accessed via AMA and you can just start editing them right away.  For example from files recorded on a KiPro unit or a QuickTime-based camera.
    • But move the files, and the connection is broken.   So, if you want to work with the footage natively, then move it to the folder you want it to reside in on your media drive, then import.
    • A possible FCP+AVid workflow: Utilize FCP to capture the footage (ProRes), use AMA to import that footage into AVID MC 5.0…edit (e.g. by Avid-only editing people) …then send that sequence back to FCP (via Automatic Duck) linking to the original media…send to Color to color correct, then output from FCP?
  • This also includes native RED files. Media Composer can edit them without the need to transcode.
  • You can adjust the color of the footage before you bring it over…apply a general look while you edit.
• A FCP look&feel approximating mode called Smart Tools mode.  Can toggle between this and Classic mode.
• AVCHD import. Before now you had to use third party applications to convert the footage to DNxHD, like ClipWrap. Not anymore. Now you can import the AVCHD footage directly into Avid MC via the IMPORT feature.  (But) there are multiple types of AVCHD (can it cope with them?).
• Audio improvements:
  • You can now SOLO and MUTE on the timeline.
  • You can now access the Audio Suite plugins directly from the timeline.
  • And (for screen update speed) you can turn on Audio Waveforms on SELECT TRACKS ONLY.
  • You can now make a stereo pair appear as only ONE TRACK on the timeline. This works for stereo sound effects too.
  • Direct access to many audio suite plugins directly on the timeline. No need to go digging in the Audio Tool for them.

The  [lfhd.net] article also reported something about Avid remote editing using cloud computing, but that sounds to me like a whole other topic.

Others have found issues with it.  Maybe worth skipping or waiting for a compatibility fix for pro apps in that case.

• http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11350000