Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Resolve

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Michael McCaffrey

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Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Resolve

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 12:23 am

Has anyone successfully moved a long form Premiere project into Resolve? I know this is done all the time for grading, but I cannot get an AAF or XML of my project into Resolve without Resolve Crashing, without Audio coming into resolve out of sync (and not only out of sync, but entirely incorrect portions of the audio track), still images such as jpegs appearing in the wrong locations seconds or even minutes later than they should in the sequence, other audio clips appearing offline with a red triangle that Im unable to relink to the original media, but strangely the audio from the clip plays correctly when in the source viewer. Just a whole onslaught of issues. Tried using Resolve 12.5.6 and 14b6 without success. Im thinking the problem may be Premiere, but with what? Neither the AAFs or XMLs are working correctly, each have problems if they came into resolve without crashing the software first. I've been speaking with BMD tech support for a couple weeks now and having to escalate the case. I've got lots of problems and no answers. Anyone have any insight on doing this?

My sequence is 90mins, but I've also tried importing 2-3min portions of the sequence and have all the same problems.

Using the latest Premiere CC 2017.1.2
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Rakesh Malik

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 12:37 am

Maybe try the LiftGammaGain forums? You might find someone with relevant experience there. I'm going to be conforming a 90-film edited in Premiere for coloring in Resolve pretty soon, so I would like to know what you come up with.

In the meantime all I can recommend is to make sure that you don't have any merged clips in your edit, and also that you have only one video track.

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Peter Chamberlain

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 12:46 am

First check Michael, does the Ppro xml import correctly into a new project in PPro?
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Jamie LeJeune

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 6:07 am

Rakesh Malik wrote:In the meantime all I can recommend is to make sure that you don't have any merged clips in your edit, and also that you have only one video track.

Those are good and necessary suggestions. Here are some others that will help you get that sequence out of Premiere cleanly:
- Avoid AAF. Adobe is aware it's a mess and they don't care, so use XML instead. It's still pretty crap, but it's far better than their AAF.
- Collapse/commit all multi-cam clips
- Make sure there are no nested clips, no dynamic links
- Make sure your stills all use the "set to frame size" option NOT the "scale to frame size" option
- Make note of any clips where you've changed the frame rate using "interpret footage" in the Premiere browser. You'll need to set those clips to that same frame rate in the Resolve media pool later.
- Media manage into a single folder only the clips in the Premiere sequence that you want to move to Resolve
- Export your XML from the new media managed sequence
- Set the Resolve project settings to the correct sequence frame rate BEFORE importing anything
- Import the managed media BEFORE importing the XML (though in rare cases doing it the other way round works better, no one knows why)
- When importing the XML, uncheck "set project settings" and uncheck "import media". There will be a dialogue box that pops up allowing you to choose the folder in the Resolve media pool where you previously added the managed media.
- If the media is from consumer cams where the timecode for every clip starts at 00:00:00:00, be prepared for a lot of manual conforming of clip timecode conflicts.

MixingLight.com has a useful series of videos on how to get an efficient conform between Premiere Pro and Resolve. Definitely worth watching.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 6:39 am

Many good suggestions above.

I would add:

1) flatten the timeline to a minimum number of video tracks (preferably no more than 2)

2) be aware that clip retiming may not translate precisely, particularly speed ramps. Constant speed changes can work to a point but will most likely need manual adjustment because of differences in interpretation to Nearest Frame vs. Optical Flow vs. whatever.

3) if the project is a long one (like a 2-hour feature or a 1-hour episodic television show), I would break it down to smaller chunks like 20-minute segments, similar to "reels" in the film days. Once the reels are color-timed, you can easily output one complete segment from Resolve using nested timelines.

3) I can't remember if Premiere has multicam clips, but if so, commit them to the original files and not as a multicam. Also avoid merged audio/video clips and separate them back out into the original video files for final color.

4) I would avoid audio entirely in the initial conform and just worry about conforming the video portion in Resolve. I would then export a single audio file from Premiere (stereo or 5.1 or mono or whatever the final is) and import that WAV file into Resolve.

5) export a Reference Video from Premiere, just a light-duty file like QTLT 422, with burned in timeline timecode and (if possible) the original clip name and original clip timecode for every shot. Resolve can use this as to confirm that the conform is good.

6) wipes, composites, and titles are not well supported and will most likely will have to be manually adjusted during the conforming process. I think Resolve can do about 97% of these, but there are a couple that may have to be exported from Premiere if you want a 100% precise match.

MixingLight.com has several in-depth tutorials showing how to overcome Premiere conforming issues in Resolve, but be aware this is a pay site. Note also that a lot of these problems come from Adobe clinging to an older version of XML; FCPX uses XML 2.0 which is more sophisticated and does support more features.
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Michael McCaffrey

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 4:29 pm

Peter Chamberlain wrote:First check Michael, does the Ppro xml import correctly into a new project in PPro?


Good suggestion. And no it didnt.

I tried importing the XML for my full project and got an error message saying Premiere encountered a generic error. I then tried importing my test XML containing just the first five minutes of my project. This did import, but my audio was either offline, or it seems the left channel was offline for some even though the right channel was online. So apparently the answer is no, it will not even come back into Premiere correctly.

No idea where to start with addressing either issue.
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Rakesh Malik

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 4:32 pm

Michael McCaffrey wrote:
Peter Chamberlain wrote:First check Michael, does the Ppro xml import correctly into a new project in PPro?


Good suggestion. And no it didnt.



Definitely not a good sign...

I tried importing the XML for my full project and got an error message saying Premiere encountered a generic error. I then tried importing my test XML containing just the first five minutes of my project. This did import, but my audio was either offline, or it seems the left channel was offline for some even though the right channel was online. So apparently the answer is no, it will not even come back into Premiere correctly.

No idea where to start with addressing either issue.


If premiere can't import its own exported XML, then it seems like the next place to go is Adobe support.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 4:36 pm

Jamie LeJeune wrote:
Rakesh Malik wrote:In the meantime all I can recommend is to make sure that you don't have any merged clips in your edit, and also that you have only one video track.

Those are good and necessary suggestions. Here are some others that will help you get that sequence out of Premiere cleanly:
- Avoid AAF. Adobe is aware it's a mess and they don't care, so use XML instead. It's still pretty crap, but it's far better than their AAF.
- Collapse/commit all multi-cam clips
- Make sure there are no nested clips, no dynamic links
- Make sure your stills all use the "set to frame size" option NOT the "scale to frame size" option
- Make note of any clips where you've changed the frame rate using "interpret footage" in the Premiere browser. You'll need to set those clips to that same frame rate in the Resolve media pool later.
- Media manage into a single folder only the clips in the Premiere sequence that you want to move to Resolve
- Export your XML from the new media managed sequence
- Set the Resolve project settings to the correct sequence frame rate BEFORE importing anything
- Import the managed media BEFORE importing the XML (though in rare cases doing it the other way round works better, no one knows why)
- When importing the XML, uncheck "set project settings" and uncheck "import media". There will be a dialogue box that pops up allowing you to choose the folder in the Resolve media pool where you previously added the managed media.
- If the media is from consumer cams where the timecode for every clip starts at 00:00:00:00, be prepared for a lot of manual conforming of clip timecode conflicts.

MixingLight.com has a useful series of videos on how to get an efficient conform between Premiere Pro and Resolve. Definitely worth watching.


Thanks for the suggestions. I will try these. Some of them I've already learned the hard way, like setting the project frame rate first! ugh.

I saw the mixinglight site too and saw they had some videos on conforming. Today I made the plunge and signed up for their free trial, only to realize, in order to access the actual video series on conforming, such as in the case of the In the Shadow of Giants project, I have buy it for $44. So I have written that off. The videos available to me in the free trial dont seem to be addressing any of my issues.

/\/\ichael
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 4:45 pm

Michael McCaffrey wrote: Today I made the plunge and signed up for their free trial, only to realize, in order to access the actual video series on conforming, such as in the case of the In the Shadow of Giants project, I have buy it for $44. So I have written that off. The videos available to me in the free trial dont seem to be addressing any of my issues.

The $44 is only if you want to download the exact practice footage they use in the tutorial videos. You don't need their footage, it's just a convenience for new students who don't yet have their own. You can view the whole series of videos with your trial account. Just do a search on the site for "conform" and every single video they've ever done on conforming will show up for you to view.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 4:51 pm

At some point in PPro 2017, Adobe really broke their XML export in regards to stills. As noted in other forum posts (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=60025), Premiere is now tagging stills with the wrong frame rate, which is knocking other media - including video - out of place in the timeline.

There is no easy, complete fix, but a workaround I have used is to bake in all of the stills (export them as QT files and edit them back into the sequence in Premiere before exporting XML.) The other option is to duplicate your Premiere timeline and delete all stills to create a video-only timeline. This should import correctly into Resolve. You can then create another stills-only timeline and import that separately. It will probably be wacky, but most of the stills should be there and you can do some cutting and pasting with your video-only timeline to get a complete conform.

I feel your pain!
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 5:13 pm

Jamie LeJeune wrote:
Michael McCaffrey wrote: Today I made the plunge and signed up for their free trial, only to realize, in order to access the actual video series on conforming, such as in the case of the In the Shadow of Giants project, I have buy it for $44. So I have written that off. The videos available to me in the free trial dont seem to be addressing any of my issues.

The $44 is only if you want to download the exact practice footage they use in the tutorial videos. You don't need their footage, it's just a convenience for new students who don't yet have their own. You can view the whole series of videos with your trial account. Just do a search on the site for "conform" and every single video they've ever done on conforming will show up for you to view.


Thanks. Was able to pull up the videos.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 5:38 pm

Miraculously, no one seems to be complaining about this on the Adobe forums, so I just made a post:

https://forums.adobe.com/message/9758598#9758598

If anyone want to go over there and click on "I have the same question", it might get more attention.

Thanks.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 5:48 pm

Robert Arnold wrote:At some point in PPro 2017, Adobe really broke their XML export in regards to stills. As noted in other forum posts (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=60025), Premiere is now tagging stills with the wrong frame rate, which is knocking other media - including video - out of place in the timeline.

That hasn't been my experience with PP 2017, and I've conformed a few dozen projects containing stills. Perhaps there is something else in your workflow that's causing it. You might try setting the "interpret footage" frame rate on the stills to match your sequence frame rate in Premiere and see if that makes a difference.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 7:17 pm

Jamie LeJeune wrote:
Robert Arnold wrote:At some point in PPro 2017, Adobe really broke their XML export in regards to stills. As noted in other forum posts (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=60025), Premiere is now tagging stills with the wrong frame rate, which is knocking other media - including video - out of place in the timeline.

That hasn't been my experience with PP 2017, and I've conformed a few dozen projects containing stills. Perhaps there is something else in your workflow that's causing it. You might try setting the "interpret footage" frame rate on the stills to match your sequence frame rate in Premiere and see if that makes a difference.


Good idea. Im wrestling with what to do with these still images being way off right now. With an AAF the stills are in the right place but have no scaling info. With an XML they are in the wrong place and even the wrong duration but do have the correct scaling info.

So I went to go set a test image to interpret the settings, and the option is disabled. On all my images. I cannot change any of the interpret footage settings. Maybe because its a still? I dont know. Never seen this before. Go figure.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 10, 2017 10:07 pm

Jamie LeJeune wrote:
Robert Arnold wrote:At some point in PPro 2017, Adobe really broke their XML export in regards to stills. As noted in other forum posts (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=60025), Premiere is now tagging stills with the wrong frame rate, which is knocking other media - including video - out of place in the timeline.

That hasn't been my experience with PP 2017, and I've conformed a few dozen projects containing stills. Perhaps there is something else in your workflow that's causing it. You might try setting the "interpret footage" frame rate on the stills to match your sequence frame rate in Premiere and see if that makes a difference.


When is the last time you updated Premiere? The bug wasn't present in an older 2017 version, but is extremely easy to reproduce in the latest. See my full description at the end of this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=60025

I'll try the Interpret Framerate thing in Premiere. I've been working with XML roundtrip from Premiere for at least 5 years, and I've never had this problem until the latest version(s) of Premiere.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 5:17 am

Been at work 14 hours today. Spent the last 8 hours re-building my entire premiere project in Resolve. Did spend a few hours testing XML imports this morning and with a handful of painful work-arounds, made the determination that it would be possible to get my sequence into Resolve if I spend a couple days conforming. So I went for it. Now its 10PM. The moment of Truth. Imported my flattened XML from Premiere into Resolve, had it re-link to the media in the media pool and....

Easily 97% of the audio is re-linked to the wrong clips. I started playing one interview clip and instead of his voice I heard rap music. Like what in the world!?!? Have a 20min long 2.5 animation sequence (all made of .mov files) a about 40% of the clips in that sequenced decided to link to a pond5 b-roll shot of old faithful. All my sound effects, throughout the sequence decided to link to a clip of thunder and rain.

Scrubbing forward, still see lots more of old-faithful. About every single .mov that has been rendered in the computer as a VFX shot or some animation has linked to the shot of old-faithful. 99% of the camera audio from interview clips etc is completely silent. No audio in those clips whatsoever. Except for the one clip with the rap music? Thismorning I was able to get the right audio back in and synced by finding the clip in the media pool and selecting "Conform Lock Selected Clip to Timeline." Worked well on many clips. So with some tedious work and time, it could be accomplished. Tried that same technique this time.. and.. it never worked. Audio is still WAY out of sync, by many minutes, and this is the real killer. A closer look and I see all my still images have also linked to the old-faithful clip and faithfully slid out of position down my sequence several minutes from where they are supposed to be positioned.

Conclusion? No person on earth would attempt to conform this. I'd be looking at an entire re-edit. I have no clue how anyone gets a Premiere sequence into Resolve. None. The sequence is so butchered, its unrecognizable. As much as I'd like to grade in resolve, and even finish my edit in Resolve because I loathe Premiere so much (this is yet another reason why), Im unable to do so because Adobe has me 100% trapped in Premiere land.

And because I know everyone will wonder, why do you need the audio in Resolve for the grade? Well, Im not 100% done with the edit yet. So why then move everything to Resolve instead of just staying in Premiere? The answer to that is, I would crash the BMD website if I made a list of all the reasons and tried to post them here. Plan was to grade and finish in Resolve anyhow. Premiere is like Alcatraz, and I NEED to escape!
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 6:01 am

Michael, do you have access to Media Composer? One idea would be try going from Premiere to MC and then from MC to Resolve. I've heard that MC to Resolve is pretty solid. And Avid usually does very well with AAFs.

Just an idea. And good luck.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 6:07 am

PeterMoretti wrote:Michael, do you have access to Media Composer? One idea would be try going from Premiere to MC and then from MC to Resolve. I've heard that MC to Resolve is pretty solid. And Avid usually does very well with AAFs.

Just an idea. And good luck.


Thanks. Thought about that earlier. We dont have MC but I could download a trial version if it allows exporting of XMLs?
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 6:25 am

Michael McCaffrey wrote:Easily 97% of the audio is re-linked to the wrong clips. I started playing one interview clip and instead of his voice I heard rap music. Like what in the world!?!?

My advice here is: don't bring the individual audio sequences into Resolve. If the video has been conformed (mostly) successfully, then I would render the audio out of Premiere as a single flattened file -- like a 2-channel or 5.1-channel mix -- and then bring that into Resolve and sync it up with the picture.

Typically, I ask all my clients to give me some kind of a video countdown or a 2-pop two seconds prior to start of program with a corresponding beep on the soundtrack, which has been pretty standard in the film business for 90 years or so. Assuming the sound is at the correct speed, it should lock up and stay in sync for the duration of the entire project.

When clips (sound or picture) don't conform correctly, usually it boils down to 1) no timecode, 2) conflicting timecodes, 3) conflicting clip names, 4) speed issues, or several of these at the same time. When all of these problems are solved, it conforms very quickly with no problem, and will work in Baselight or Resolve or Avid or Premiere or Final Cut Pro or anything. These are longstanding editorial issues that any post person has dealt with for a long time, so it's not so much a Premiere problem or a Resolve problem... it's an industry problem.

The next time you run into this, rather than sit down for 14 hours of heartache, one thing you might try is to hire an experienced assistant to come in and do the conform for you. Even though I know how to conform projects myself (and have done it many times), I would always rather somebody else go through the drudgery of checking everything thing and setting it up for me so that all I have to do is come in, sit down, and start color-correcting. I don't always have that luxury, but when I do I'm reminded of the value of a good assistant who can make my life that much easier.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 3:48 pm

I wonder how difficult it would be to write

- A converter that will take prproj XML data (it's zipped these days) and convert it to FCP XML and/or Resolve DRP, or
- A plugin/extension for Premiere that will export a timeline to a DRP

It's ridiculous to have to jump through all these hoops.
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Jamie LeJeune

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 4:01 pm

Micha Clazing wrote:I wonder how difficult it would be to write

- A converter that will take prproj XML data (it's zipped these days) and convert it to FCP XML and/or Resolve DRP, or
- A plugin/extension for Premiere that will export a timeline to a DRP

It's ridiculous to have to jump through all these hoops.


The company Intelligent Assistance has already written an app called SendToX that will convert from PP XML to FCPXML. But if the data in Premiere XML is bad, it won't make any difference. Garbage in, garbage out.

BTW If you do need to go from XML to AAF or get a sequence from Avid into Premiere or FCPX, Resolve itself is a great Swiss Army Knife for sequence translation. And it's free. I use it for this purpose all the time.

Resolve isn't the weak link here, it's Premiere. Adobe is so focused on keeping the whole workflow inside their Creative Cloud app ecosystem that ensuring their XML and AAF exports are good is simply not a priority.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 5:24 pm

Micha Clazing wrote:I wonder how difficult it would be to write

- A converter that will take prproj XML data (it's zipped these days) and convert it to FCP XML and/or Resolve DRP, or
- A plugin/extension for Premiere that will export a timeline to a DRP

It's ridiculous to have to jump through all these hoops.


Agreed. I thought about 7toX. It converts a FCP7 XML which Premiere exports, to a XML 2.0 which is more robust, and which Im assuming may translate better into Resolve. Anyone tried this route? Nevertheless, something written specifically to export a Premiere sequence would be ideal. Ive heard vegas is now able to open sequences directly from a .prproj file. How amazing would that be to open up from Resolve and import?

If BMD wants to grab a lot of Premiere users, making it easy to transition from Premiere into Resolve ought to be one of the best ways to do it.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 5:31 pm

Marc Wielage wrote:
Michael McCaffrey wrote:Easily 97% of the audio is re-linked to the wrong clips. I started playing one interview clip and instead of his voice I heard rap music. Like what in the world!?!?

My advice here is: don't bring the individual audio sequences into Resolve. If the video has been conformed (mostly) successfully, then I would render the audio out of Premiere as a single flattened file --

When clips (sound or picture) don't conform correctly, usually it boils down to 1) no timecode, 2) conflicting timecodes, 3) conflicting clip names, 4) speed issues, or several of these at the same time.


The reason I need the audio clips is because the edit is not yet 100% complete. Mostly there, but I still need the ability to freely make several editorial changes.

Regarding the TC issues, how should I go about adding timecode to media that has no generated TC (for still images, rendered VFX & animations and sound effects. Basically everything that didnt come out of the camera)? Even if there is a way to add TC to these clips, its sounds like a horrifyingly tedious and time-consuming process if TC needs to be added to each clip individually one at a time...?
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 5:39 pm

Michael McCaffrey wrote: how should I go about adding timecode to media that has no generated TC (for still images, rendered VFX & animations and sound effects.

As Mark already wrote above, the simplest way to do that is put all those elements on one track, bake it out as a single video file with timecode, and then chop it back up into the timeline. I do this all the time when I need to work quickly on a difficult conform. However, if there are a ton of dissolves, it can get tricky.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 5:53 pm

Jamie LeJeune wrote:The company Intelligent Assistance has already written an app called SendToX that will convert from PP XML to FCPXML. But if the data in Premiere XML is bad, it won't make any difference. Garbage in, garbage out.

SendToX only converts an FCP XML from Premiere to an FCPX XML. Like you said, the damage is already done. What I was referring to is that if you rename a Premiere CC .prproj file to .prproj.gz and open it with an archiver like WinRAR, you will find an XML file inside that is native to Premiere. So I meant converting from Premiere native project to FCP XML, or preferably directly to Resolve DRP.

The file format doesn't look extremely complex, although it's undocumented and Adobe likes to change things between versions. Luckily at least the format itself is versioned (which is why Premiere rejects .prproj files generated by newer versions of Premiere-- I've managed to get projects to open in "incompatible" older versions in a pinch before by simply lowering the version number in the XML file).
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostFri Aug 11, 2017 6:16 pm

Micha Clazing wrote:I meant converting from Premiere native project to FCP XML, or preferably directly to Resolve DRP.

The file format doesn't look extremely complex, although it's undocumented and Adobe likes to change things between versions. Luckily at least the format itself is versioned (which is why Premiere rejects .prproj files generated by newer versions of Premiere-- I've managed to get projects to open in "incompatible" older versions in a pinch before by simply lowering the version number in the XML file).

Cool. Let us know when you crack it. I'll be the first to line up and buy a copy of an app that could do that :D
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 2:01 am

Michael McCaffrey wrote:
PeterMoretti wrote:Michael, do you have access to Media Composer? One idea would be try going from Premiere to MC and then from MC to Resolve. I've heard that MC to Resolve is pretty solid. And Avid usually does very well with AAFs.

Just an idea. And good luck.


Thanks. Thought about that earlier. We dont have MC but I could download a trial version if it allows exporting of XMLs?


The trial version of MC is full featured. Also, I believe you can rent MC for something like $50 a month.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 2:22 am

Didn't they recently introduce even a free version?
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 2:50 am

Jamie LeJeune wrote:
Michael McCaffrey wrote: how should I go about adding timecode to media that has no generated TC (for still images, rendered VFX & animations and sound effects.

As Mark already wrote above, the simplest way to do that is put all those elements on one track, bake it out as a single video file with timecode, and then chop it back up into the timeline. I do this all the time when I need to work quickly on a difficult conform. However, if there are a ton of dissolves, it can get tricky.

I would say create a special render with A/B rolls and handles, and then you can handle dissolves very easily.

Another factor (which I only now understand from the o.p.) is that the project is not yet locked. If that's the case, then I would question the need to bring it into Resolve just yet, and instead wait until it is locked.

If this isn't possible, then the workaround for me would be to divide the project into smaller reels and then do the re-edit on those individual segments. Anything that didn't originally have timecode, render it out and import that into Resolve with a known embedded source name and timecode. Ideally, prepare a reference file that displays record (program) timecode, plus original source file name and source timecode at the top. When in doubt, this will confirm that the right clip is in the right place at the right time.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 7:11 am

Thank you Mark for the detailed breakdown of your method. My apologies for oversimplifying and misrepresenting your original advice.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 7:36 am

Uli Plank wrote:Didn't they recently introduce even a free version?


But it's limited with number of tracks and codecs. i'd run with the full version for something like this.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSat Aug 12, 2017 3:17 pm

The free version doesn't include xml/aaf export, AFAIK.

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 1:17 am

OK, sorry, didn't check that. What a lame 'free' version compared to Resolve!
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 1:28 am

Ya, BMD is setting that standard rather high.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 3:30 am

Actually I did try bringing an XML into MC last year. Didnt work because it wouldnt re-link with all my .r3d media. Apparently there is no way to import an edited sequence into MC and AMA-link to red clips. Id'd have to transcode 6TB of red media to DNxHD or something just to get an XML into MC so I can get it into Resolve. So thats not happening.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 11:37 am

Try finishing the edit in Premier, grading in resolve with experience too individual clips and maker unique with prefix, and re-importing and reassembling in Premier on a video track above your original ungraded tracks, copying any effect settings from the original to the graded. Use the audio from the ungraded project (lock those audio tracks while you are importing). Then do your final render from Premier. Sounds complicated but it goes quickly once you get the hang of it.

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 7:27 pm

1 Clip.

Tried doing an XML from Premiere with 1 single solitary 4 second clip with. No effects. nothing. Exported as an XML into Resolve, and in Resolve the audio that came in for the clip is from an interview with an entirely different person. Point being, as much as I try to "simplify" my sequence or do things one track at a time, none of that will work. There is something inherently wrong with the XML and if one clip doesnt work, there's no hope for anything more. Let alone, hundreds and hundreds.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 7:52 pm

Micha Clazing wrote:
Jamie LeJeune wrote:The company Intelligent Assistance has already written an app called SendToX that will convert from PP XML to FCPXML. But if the data in Premiere XML is bad, it won't make any difference. Garbage in, garbage out.

SendToX only converts an FCP XML from Premiere to an FCPX XML. Like you said, the damage is already done. What I was referring to is that if you rename a Premiere CC .prproj file to .prproj.gz and open it with an archiver like WinRAR, you will find an XML file inside that is native to Premiere. So I meant converting from Premiere native project to FCP XML, or preferably directly to Resolve DRP.

The file format doesn't look extremely complex, although it's undocumented and Adobe likes to change things between versions. Luckily at least the format itself is versioned (which is why Premiere rejects .prproj files generated by newer versions of Premiere-- I've managed to get projects to open in "incompatible" older versions in a pinch before by simply lowering the version number in the XML file).


This didnt work for me. I renamed the project, and tried 3 different archival apps. All of them just show "test.prproj" inside and extract the Premiere project. No sign of any XML or even anything inside the actual .prproj file.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 11:36 pm

Update:
1. Tried using SendToX to Export XML from FCPX. Failed because FCPX crashes every time on import.
2. Tried opening my XML in Media Composer and exporting to Resolve. Failed because 70% of audio and video clips are missing from Resolve on import.
3. Tried downgrading to an earlier version of Premiere to export a new XML from an earlier version. Failed because the earlier version of Premiere reported a generic error and could not open any of my XMLs from the 2017.1.1 version.

I give up. Im stuck in Premiere until Adobe fixes its XML export or until BMD finds a way to read XMLs from Premiere 2017.1. This is why I will never use Premiere again after this project is done. Ever. Not ever ever ever. There is literally no way at all for me to leave Premiere. Even hacking the .prproj to open in an earlier version doesnt work anymore on 2017.1.1. Im stuck in Premiere with literally no way out.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 11:45 pm

And you'll never ever be able to open that project again if you don't pay the ransom…
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostSun Aug 13, 2017 11:46 pm

Uli Plank wrote:And you'll never ever be able to open that project again if you don't pay the ransom…


Ill pay! Ill pay!! Name your price! :O

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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostMon Aug 14, 2017 9:54 am

Michael McCaffrey wrote:All of them just show "test.prproj" inside and extract the Premiere project. No sign of any XML or even anything inside the actual .prproj file.

What happens when you open the extracted prproj file in a text editor? ;)
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostMon Aug 14, 2017 5:09 pm

Micha Clazing wrote:
Michael McCaffrey wrote:All of them just show "test.prproj" inside and extract the Premiere project. No sign of any XML or even anything inside the actual .prproj file.

What happens when you open the extracted prproj file in a text editor? ;)


On the Mac, it drops the Premiere project icon in the editor, like in Text Edit.

On the PC side I can see all the code. But not sure which portion is the XML for my project or what to do with it. If I just copy/paste and save as XML or what.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostMon Aug 14, 2017 6:58 pm

I'm on a PC version of Premiere 2017. Not having problems exporting XMLs. I don't pay attention to audio though. Also not using stills or animations.

As others have suggested, a work around is to do an audio only render from premier and then import the audio track into Resolve.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostTue Aug 15, 2017 2:39 am

So I've decided to stay in Premiere till the edit is done. The XML process is a nightmare. I even made some headway buy replacing all the <timebase>30</timebase> code references to <timebase>24</timebase> in the XML code. I made more headway by selecting the option "source file name" in the conform options page. This got my almost all my video media in the right place, minus the .jpegs and stills which slide 2mins+ out of place and have to be re-positioned one by one. Doable for a grade.

What's really the pain is the audio. Every single piece of audio from A-Roll has a red triangle on it, and the only way to get it to reconform is to select the video portion of the clip, select "find in media pool" and then select "conform lock to timeline" (or whatever it is) and then it puts the right audio in place. Not a big deal, but when there hundreds and hundreds of clips to do and the entire 90 min film has to be done that way, its a pain. Add on top of that the fact that music tracks still re-link to the wrong music clips, I am looking at having to re-drop in and manually re-edit the music tracks.

The third issue is that even my simplest 90 min film (of four), when flattened, is so sluggish in resolve that editing becomes irksome again. Navigating the timeline left and right is somewhat smooth, but zooming in/out of the sequence is very laggy, making the editing experience somewhat painful, whereas, at least in Premiere things are fluid.

The fourth issue is that editing and mixing audio in Resolve is difficult. Cant easily create rubber band points and change volume or things on the fly. Lots of extra mouse movements. Probably another story if you have a mixing board and are used to doing things that way, but I can create rubber bands, change the volume up/down and move them around all while my video is playing in Premiere. Anway, hopefully Resolve will eventually get there, but for now, if I want to stay sane, I'll just have to use it for grading only.

Never did hear back from BMD despite a couple emails after the case was escalated.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostWed Aug 16, 2017 1:03 am

Michael McCaffrey wrote:What's really the pain is the audio. Every single piece of audio from A-Roll has a red triangle on it...

If the audio files are not broadcast WAV files with embedded timecode, and with unique file names, you're in for a world of hurt no matter what. Do that, and this is a solvable problem.

The third issue is that even my simplest 90 min film (of four), when flattened, is so sluggish in resolve that editing becomes irksome again. Navigating the timeline left and right is somewhat smooth, but zooming in/out of the sequence is very laggy...

Did you try my suggestion of slicing the 90-minute project into multiple short timelines?

The fourth issue is that editing and mixing audio in Resolve is difficult. Cant easily create rubber band points and change volume or things on the fly. Lots of extra mouse movements.

Fairlight is not there yet. Pro Tools is 1000 times better than trying to do any kind of complex editing or mixing in Premiere, but I would say that for any picture editing system. And beware of a long learning curve. This is a good reason to hire professionals and not try to do everything yourself. I continue to believe that the jobs of picture editor, sound editor/mixer, VFX, and colorist are four separate jobs that require four separate people who understand four separate disciplines. If one person tries to do it all -- particularly in one platform -- there will be compromises.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostWed Aug 16, 2017 8:02 pm

I'm running into similar issues with a conform attempt right now, though the non-filmed clips are titles generated using (I'm guessing) Premiere's titling tool. The editor is getting me a timeline export without the titles in it soon, hopefully that will work better. This conform is small since it's for a teaser trailer, but for the final film, it's going to be 80-90 minutes... I don't mind conforming it in 10-20 minute chunks, as long as each chunk conforms reasonably well rather than requiring me to basically recreate the entire edit by following the reference clip. :shock: :shock:
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 17, 2017 6:38 am

Rakesh Malik wrote:I'm running into similar issues with a conform attempt right now, though the non-filmed clips are titles generated using (I'm guessing) Premiere's titling tool. The editor is getting me a timeline export without the titles in it soon, hopefully that will work better.

Yes, the problem is that XML 1.0 cannot handle anything but the simplest titling information. (Too often, I get in titles from Premiere to Resolve and the titles come up as lower thirds or crawls, which is not what we want.)

My workaround is to have the editor create a special textless timeline, export that as XML, and let me build the entire show without titles. Then, they can render titles at the correct resolution to a format that supports alpha keying, and all I have to do is drop that flattened file as the top video track and the titles pop up just fine.

I think you'll find, BTW, this is not a Resolve problem: if you were to take this Premiere session into Avid or FCPX, you'd run into the same trainwreck with the titles. FCPX, strangely enough, uses XML 2.0 and actually is a little more robust with this kind of thing.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 17, 2017 6:49 am

Marc Wielage wrote:My workaround is to have the editor create a special textless timeline, export that as XML, and let me build the entire show without titles. Then, they can render titles at the correct resolution to a format that supports alpha keying, and all I have to do is drop that flattened file as the top video track and the titles pop up just fine.


That's where I was headed... until I ran into the next problem.

I think you'll find, BTW, this is not a Resolve problem: if you were to take this Premiere session into Avid or FCPX, you'd run into the same trainwreck with the titles.


I got the XML from the editor without the titles, supposedly. He says that Premiere re-imports it ok, though given what I'm seeing I'm skeptical. Resolve errored out on matching some files because it said the timecode extents exceeded the clip lengths, so I tried an experiment.

I opened up the XML file, looked up the first clip, and opened it. It looks to be the right clip. So I then looked for the XML stanza in the XML file for that clip, and set an in point in the source monitor, then replaced the first clip in the conformed timeline with it. Now it's the right clip, but not the right part of it.

I think the titles are still in the timeline, just disabled; apparently that's not enough to get a clean export. I'll ask him to try an entirely titleless timeline.
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Re: Relentless Problems Importing Premiere Project into Reso

PostThu Aug 17, 2017 8:21 am

Rakesh Malik wrote:Resolve errored out on matching some files because it said the timecode extents exceeded the clip lengths

If the file frame rates of those clips were reinterpreted in the Premiere browser (usually done to conform files that were shot over or under crank), you'll need to manually set the same frame rate interpretation on those clips in the Resolve media pool. I can't say that's the cause of your error message, but that was the solution for me the last time I had that message.
Marc Wielage wrote: FCPX, strangely enough, uses XML 2.0 and actually is a little more robust with this kind of thing.

I'd say the FCPX to Resolve interchange isn't just a little bit better, it's actually light years ahead of where things are at with Avid and Premiere. I kicked out an XML from a FCPX sequence delivered to me the other day, and it came into Resolve completely intact -- speed changes, text, stills, transitions, even the compound clips came across. It was flawless. I've never once even come close to that experience with an XML from Premiere or an AAF from Avid (and that's assuming Avid will even allow an AAF to be exported, as many times it simply won't, but that's another story...)
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