Best way to export from Premiere Pro to Resolve?

Hi, all...

What is the most reliable way to export a timeline from Premiere Pro CC to Resolve? I don't necessarily want to round trip; I might just finish the project in Resolve. But knowing how to round trip would be useful too, but secondary.

Please provide detailed instructions.

I tried exporting and importing with Preconformed EDL, but the cuts ended up in the wrong places in the Resolve timeline.

Thanks!

Steve

Please provide detailed instructions.

DaVinci Resolve 14 Reference Manual, page 612.

OK, I read the manual, but it indicates no preference for the most reliable way. I'm looking for input from the community.

And I still cannot get the EDL import to put the cuts in the right place. Can someone please help? I have carefully followed the instructions in the manual. Version 14.3. Thanks

Do you sync by TC?
If not: do you have proper Tc and reel/tape names in the first place?
Check a few source files if they all begin with 00:00:00:00

I've not been entirely satisfied by this process, to the point where I recommend just not doing it.

Use Premiere Pro for everything, or use Resolve for everything. This works well.

And I still cannot get the EDL import to put the cuts in the right place. Can someone please help?

• ensure your resolve project frame rate matches the premiere sequence frame rate
• ensure all cuts are on a single track when exporting the EDL (will need to do a separate EDL for each track and conform separately if need be)
• make sure exported preconfomed sequence has the same in/out point as the EDL, the same timecode and the same frame rate
• Unlikely, but make sure the frame rate is not variable

If that still fails, just run the preconformed sequence through the scene cut detector to generate a new EDL - and then import that as a pre-conformed EDL.

We Edit in Lightworks then export an AAF to Finish in Resolve and it works perfectly every time. PP should be no different but we always have perfect timecode and use embedded reel names. See if your NLE will export an AAF instead of the EDL or at least an XML. Your issue is probably timecode related so if you want a painless Conform, you might want to try using a simple FFMPEG based transcoder to clean up your timecodes and embed your Reel names before your camera files get anywhere near the Edit.

That was the reason for my question. 99% of the times we see an import from Premiere going wrong, we find some amateur stuff without proper TC and/or reel names.

Hi, all... Thanks for your replies.

I flattened the multicam sequence in PP and tried again with EDL export/import and it worked. Not perfectly, because the thumbnails on the timeline in Resolve don't really match up to what's in the program viewer, but it's a minor issue. I'll color code the clips and then create clip groups for editing.

To Uli... we were all amateurs/beginners at one point. I put myself in that category for video, even though I've been a successful still photographer for years. There is still much to understand with video. This was my first serious shoot and because it was low budget, I did not use gear that can generate or sync with timecode. I sync'd via audio waveform. That's the reason I used PP in the first place. PP could sync my 3 cameras and audio via waveform to create a multicam clip and Resolve could not. I did slate everything so could have sync'd by in/out points but it was just faster to sync by audio. I'll probably do it differently next time with better gear.

I would appreciate understanding more about how to check reel name and TC so that EDL export can work properly. Thx

Steve

I didn't want to put down any amateur as a person, just hinting on problems with amateur gear. Actually, a happy amateur (which literally means something like lover) is what I am when making private projects (albeit lucky enough to have access to pro gear most times).

So, let's get to the trouble with TC and reel/tape name. Even some 'amateur' stills cameras with video capabilities have it, but often buried deep in the menus. Sometimes hard to find, in particular on Sony menus…

So first check if it's not there. If not (all your original clips start with 00:00:00:00 in the NLE), just put some fake TC in. Plus, generate reel names, which are called tape names in Pro or FCP, but it's the same field of metadata. Not all versions of MP4 can hold such data, but MOV can, so re-wrap to MOV if needed (or transcode, if your system stutters on H.264).

What I suggest then is adding the missing data. TC can be generated from the time of origin of the file, which is not precise enough for syncing, but good enough for getting in the ballpark. BTW, my favorite tool for waveform syncing is PluralEyes.

Reel/tape names can be generated from date of origin, so at least the files are 'individualized' instead of many of them looking the same to the NLE. But in Resolve (not in Premiere) you can generate metadata in many ways from variables (check the manual) too. Or you can put them in manually in either program and use that effort for organizing at the same time.

To batch insert TC I'd suggest EditReady or Mp4toQT (both can also do the re-wapping) on the Mac. On the PC the stuff from Hdcinematics would do (and many others).

If you have someone to translate some German for you, drop me a PM, I have a whole paper on the subject).

We recently completed a multicam, 'never to be repeated event' shoot with Edit in Lightworks but with Grade and DPX Mastering in Resolve. The source material included everything from older Pro ENG TV cameras shooting 1080i to toy DSLRs and even smart phones recording at silly frame rates. All material was de-interlaced, FPS corrected and transcoded to either 10bit ProRes 422 or 10bit DNxHD at 25P with embedded, unique Reels before the Edit using one of the free FFMPEG based HDcinematics transcoders.

A unique Reel Name was selected for each of the six different cameras and embedded into the file during the transcode. eg: "GH5" but with a Timecode start of 00:00:00:00 for each Reel. Any TC start number can be selected manually but it is of the utmost importance that No Two Frames in any One Reel are allowed the same Timecode. Irrespective of the number of unique Reels in your Project, if you stick to that mantra, you should get a clean, pain free Conform in Resolve every time.

Although Resolve can be used as a Transcoder, it is not (yet) able to embed user selected Reel Names into the exported Timecode so as Uli has suggested earlier, highly optimised, multi-threaded, third party batch transcoders are still your best bet.

Ha! Lesson learned. Assuming I could just use audio waveform to sync (and I could), I didn't bother to reset the timecodes of all three cameras in the shoot to zero. (My low budget gear could not jam sync timecode.) Each camera had different starting timecodes, which is what likely screwed me when I tried the import/export with EDL. Sound right? I did not foresee the need to export and import projects between NLEs. I actually now don't understand why the export/import of my flattened multicam sequence worked from PP to Resolve. That sequence had TCs that were just as whacked.

By the way, what helped me tremendously with understanding this was using the oXygen XML editor. I was an information architect in a previous life and so I can make XML dance. The editor has a query function using the XPath language, which lets you run queries against your FCP XML export like "show me all the timecodes for clips from camera A". If you're curious, the XPath query I used is:

//track//timecode/string[contains(ancestor::file/pathurl, 'A1')]

Thanks to all, and especially to Uli.

Sorry, you got one point backwards: if your waveform syncing works, your TC of the clips can be whatever the camera was set to, no need to work on that. They just shouldn't all start with the same value!

Plus, many cameras generate identical file names when you change the card. If there are no reel/tape names, things can go wrong from that alone.

I don't know if this is a singular project. If so, give PluralEyes a try, there is a fully functional demo for 10 days, AFAIK. Just see what it can do for you. If you have such projects frequently, you may want to buy it anyway. Even Premiere has sometimes acted up on me when I needed waveform sync, but PluralEyes always was perfect.

Thx. I see how to set reel name (tape name) in Premiere but my question is how to set reel names. Different one for each clip? Each card? Thx

"Tape" name in Premiere is just "Reel" name in Resolve. Wonder how many are using either one these days

... but my question is how to set Reel Names? Different one for each clip? Each card? Thx

Traditionally, Reel Names were set by the camera operator in the field using the 'user bits' function of the camera's timecode generator. Typically, they set: 001, 002, etc which represented the tape number so that the on-line Editor knew which tape/s to place in the VTR even though each tape's TC started at 00:00:00:00. EDLs are very limited in their use of Reel Names compared with AAF or XML but if you keep them short - up to 9 digits alpha numeric - you should be fine.

How you set the Reel Names is up to you but we sometimes use Locations eg: London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc but with a multi-cam shoot, you could use the 'camera name' as I described earlier. eg: GH5001, FS5002, etc. Just remember to go to Resolve setup before your EDL/XML import and select reel names embedded in TC so Resolve will know where to find them. You can store that setup as a Template for future use.

If your Reel Names correspond to your Edit Bins, then finding scenes is a breeze. With a lot of Projects now 'handing off' to Resolve for Grading, it is the Editor's responsibility to organise their workflow to eliminate or at least minimise and potential Conform issues. Here in our Studio, we're happy to mentor Clients F.O.C. but since we doubled our hourly Grade Rate for fixing client related TC Conform issues, we've noticed a distinct improvement in customer edit workflows.

FYI: some Sony stills cameras offer setting the user bits, but I'm not sure if they get into 'reel'.

Another idea: since Resolve has tools to populate reel (tape) from metadata, it might be better to organize all your stuff in Resolve, send it over to Premiere by XML and finally round-trip for grading. What you see under 'reel' in Resolve should show under 'tape' in Premiere, just give it a try!

Thanks, all. Assuming I ingest and edit in Premiere Pro (PP) and then send to Resolve for grading and finishing, must I set the tape number metadata field in PP for each clip?

You only need to make sure that no two clips have identical timecode. If they have, they need to have different tape/reel information or they will not be found.

Or you rename your clips with a batch renaming utility with camera plus day in the name or in the reel/tape field. That's why I suggested starting out in Resolve, it can do this for you automatically.

In principle, just assure that no two clips seem to be the same for your XML.

Although Resolve can be used as a Transcoder, it is not (yet) able to embed user selected Reel Names into the exported Timecode

it can, as long as you export using the individual clips option

Could have been one of the reasons to implement that function.

OK, thanks. What I get from this is that for export/import to work, each clip must have a unique identifier, where the identifier is the combination of TC and reel/tape name. Reel/tape name can be null. (Thinking like a computer jock.) Sound right?

I'd suppose if no two clips have the same file name, it should work like that. But I don't know what different cameras write into that field, if it's zero or the field is not written at all. So you better test it with your cameras.

BTW, which ones do you use?

Hi. I use Sony A6500's. They do not write anything into that field.

Then care for clean sorting of a days and cards results into separate, adequately named folders. There are dozens of programs (some were already mentioned above) that can quickly write something useful into that field.

AFAIK the a6500 can write TC.

...AFAIK the a6500 can write TC.

And according to Sony's PR for the a6500, it also has 'user bits' in the TC so Reel Names or at least Reel Numbers: 001, 002, etc might be set in the field.