Solution to Davinci Resolve .edl to .cdl Conversion

It’s very well known that Davinci Resolve can import standard .cdl file format, yet up to version 14, it’s still unable to export a proper .cdl in an xml format.
This creates incompatibility in some workflows where the cdl (.edl) files created in DR have to be interchanged between applications.
For example, when a DIT receives a series of creative looks .cdl file format created in DR from a post house to be used on-set as a starting point.

for example, trying to imported the resulted .edl file into Comfort LiveGrade to be further modified on-set accordingly with the cinematographer and director's vision and later to be sent back to post.
The .edl was not recognized by LiveGrade. It appeared greyed out.
I looked around in the web, wrote to some developers asking for an application that could convert the .edl in a proper standard .cdl format but without any luck.

I found Walter Arrighetti’s EDL to CDL Conversion Tool: http://acescentral.com/t/edl-to-cdl-conversion-tool/731
The tool does exactly this. However, it doesn’t have GUI. It requires the user to know how to use command lines.

Im my desperation I came up with this simple idea as a temporal solution.
It consists in copying and pasting the .cdl parameter values contained in the exported DR .edl into an already formatted mxl .cdl file.
Here are the steps if you ever need the short cut.

In MacOS,

Open the exported Davinci Resolve .edl file in TexEdit
In TexEdit, open the .cdl file formatted in xml.
From the .edl. copy the .edl parameter values that corresponds to each line, SOP + Sat
Paste each parameter value into the corresponding command line in the file destination: the formatted .cdl file.
Save the file.
Import the new .cdl into LiveGrade.

It works as a charm.

The only downside to this workaround is that each parameter has to be copied and pasted manually from one file into another.
I’m still looking for an application with a GUI that can do this automatically, better if it can batch convert multiple .cdl/s contained in the a single .edl.

Please see screenshots below.

I modified an xml/cdl file and saved as a template with the SOP_+Saturation parameter empty between the lines to fill out each line with the corresponding parameters.
Send me an e-mail if you want a copy.

Below are some screenshots illustrating each file.

Original Davinci Resolve_exported .cdl wrapped in an .edl.

DR_cdl_edl values_01.png (43.38 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

xml_cdl template with empty lines for SOP_+Saturation parameters

empty_xml_cdl.png (89.99 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

Original Davinci Resolve_exported .edl parameters copied and pasted into an already formatted .cdl.

DR edl format into_edl_xml_02.png (90.84 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

This should be doable, and it's also a bug BMD really should address. This does not look like a complex problem for them to fix.

This should be doable, and it's also a bug BMD really should address. This does not look like a complex problem for them to fix.

Meanwhile, I have a response from Lattice's Tech Support regarding the EDL to CDL conversion.
I have been told that the upcoming update of Lattice is going to support conversion of CDL contained in an EDL, in addition to supporting different CDL formats as seen in the screenshot below.
Batch conversion of cdl is going to be supported too.

Lattice CDL Conversions.png (465.5 KiB) Viewed 2424 times

I have been told by Greg from Video Village, that the update for Lattice containing the EDL to CDL conversion has been released.