Hey Guys,

My work flow is to AMA link then transcode everything in. So I end up with a lot of AMA fles on a 1 hour doc that arn't doing anything. I'm wondering if there's any reason I should keep them. I tried making separate bins for just the AMA files but that creates a lot of extra bins. Any thoughts on deleting the AMA files.

Thanks Greg

They are useful if you ever have to transcode again.

Let's say you first transcode the material at a low quality codec for offline.  When you are ready to get the full rez, having the original AMA links makes life easier / faster.

I generally make a folder labeled LINKED FILES.  I separate linked and transcoded files into bins, moving the linked bins into that new folder.  I then ignore until needed. A little bit extra work up front but very useful at the end in may workflows.

Jef

What Jef said. The other option is to click the bin's hamburger menu "Set bin display" item, and select to hide the AMA clips there. If needed You can show them up again.

You don't need the original AMA bin you transcoded from.

You can just re AMA link all those sources into a fresh bin if you need to access them again.

That said they take up little space so a Folder in the Project called AMA sources and dump them in there.

Or if you want to streamline then save bin copy as and save the bins in a folder with the AMA source clips.

My typical workflow every project:

-Create a folder called something like zLINKED-RAW so they're just thrown to the end of the bin list.

-Put any linked media into bins in there.  They are stored on a separate drive.

-Duplicate these clips.  Put them in a folder/bins/whatever that I call "EDIT RAW"  or something along those lines.  These are what I actually edit with.

-Create another folder called "Media Encodes" - this is where I put the transcoded media in different bins for different resolutions.  Ideally these media files are stored on a separate drive from the linked media.  I generally don't actually use these clips in any sequences.

The idea is I have three sets of clips - clips that always link to original files, clips that always link to encoded files, and clips that I use for actual work - I can link these between either set of media as I go.

This way, as I work with my "edit raw" media, I can freely link it back and forth between media on the two drives.  When I want to clear media, I can link my work clips to the media on my "linked files" drive, check to see that it worked, and then delete the clips and media from my "Media Encodes."

It works for me, it might not be the best fit for everyone.  What I DO want to see is an easier way to tell the software "I want to link these clips back to the LINKED media" or "I want to link these clips to the highest-quality AVID media" regardless of which drive they reside on.  Otherwise, the software sometimes gets confused during the relink process and you end up with clips that are linked partly to Avid media and partly to linked media.