Yup, it will always bring it in as native regardless. You must then transcode to the resolution you require. This is the workflow for one of the companies I work for;
1)with legacy import mode on, select the mxf's in the clip folder and import them to a temp workspace, adding a disklabel in the import dialog box
2)add tape IDs to the imported clips with the post house's barcode ID so the clips can be identified for batch import
3)transcode down to an offline ISIS workspace at required resolution then delete temp hi res media
4)Edit
5)duplicate final sequence, remove audio, commit multicam edits (if there are any), mark in-out and clear any match frame edits, then decompose imported with handles.
6)Check decomposed clips are correct length, if not, add tape name and decompose again
7)Sort by tape ID
8)Select clips and batch import
9)Avid batch imports all selected clips
10)rinse and repeat for the next roll
This works every time so it's weird that you're having problems, Avid will always do all the selected clips not just one at a time. You have to do one roll at a time though, if you select all decomposed clips at once Avid will just randomly pick clips and you won't get anywhere, just pick the clips from one roll, import them and then select the next roll.
We never use the proxies though so perhaps this is what is tripping Avid up? You definitely have the required Sony XDCAM plugin for the U2 installed? You should not see the ProAV folder at all if it is installed correctly, just the normal XDCAM folder structure of Clip, Edit, General, Sub, Take, User Data etc.
If it were up to me I would simply AMA, transcode down, edit and then relink to AMA for conform, i think it's a waste of time and drive space doing the initial import but that's the way they do it.
Hope you figure it out, it's pretty smooth when it's all working.
Andi
To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
From: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2015 17:32:52 -0700
Subject: [Avid-L2] Re: More XD Cam ?s with XD Direct Batch Import requires Legacy XD Cam off but decompose requires it ON?
Well from an XD Cam guide this answers one of my questions:
»
Your Avid editing application imports XDCAM media at the native
resolution of the media on the XDCAM disc. Your application ignores other resolution settings — for example, in the Select Files to
Import dialog box. You can repeat this procedure for each XDCAM
disc that holds media you want to import.
---In avid-l2@yahoogroups.com, <bigfish@...> wrote :
This is a follow up to my recent thread about XD Direct workflow. We have chosen what XD Direct call the batch import workflow. They have a choice between batch capture which give the ingested XD Cam proxy clips a tape name and you use an XD Cam Deck to batch capture like a tape workflow. Since we will be using the U2 drive which doesn't work like a deck we will use the batch ingest/import workflow.
The solution we have found to the inability to decompose anything but the entire XD Cam master clips is to Turn on Legacy XD Cam workflow. This allows for a decompose with handles of the XD Cam material. Surprisingly though with legacy on we can not then batch import the decomposed clips. We have to turn of legacy and then batch import the clips grabbing all from a particular disk and then manually finding each clip. I thought it would at least let you highlight all the clips from an XD Cam disk then batch import highlight all the clips and find the first clip and the rest would automatically be found but because we use the proxy media which is in the "sub" folder that becomes part of the path name and you end up having to find each clip manually.
When we try to batch import with legacy workflow on Avid asks for a particular disk and when it is mounted it finds the clip but then it throws up a debugger error and we hit continue and it spins but nothing happens and it says 0 out of 1 clip imported. We are going to confer with the Rental house to see where we are going wrong.
The other thing I found in tinkering is if we load an XD Cam disk into the U2 drive then do a standard import by navigating to the clip on the XD cam disk, be it the proxy media or the full rez clip, Avid ignores the resolution we choose for import. If I point to a proxy the clip comes in mpeg 4 even if I'm in an SD project and tell it to be 14:1. Even in the SD project if I import one of the full rez clips it comes in as XD Cam 50 mbits and not even an SD resolution. This is with legacy workflow off. With legacy workflow on when I go to import it prompts to put in a disk string in an error box but I know of no way to put in a disk string. These particular import test are not involved with XD Direct at all they are just me doing standard imports to XD Cam disk files.
All are test so far are with the decomposed clips and not by batch importing the finished sequence. Very funky behavior for what is supposed to be a test and robust workflow. I'm sure the rental house will show us where we are going wrong.
This in on MacPros OS 10.7.5 with Avid 6.5.4.
John Moore Barking Trout Productions Studio City, CA bigfish@...
