by on July 7, 2011 in Blog, Products

Investigative Colorist: Why is the PremierePro to Resolve 8 Roundtrip Broken?

FCP XML v5 is the key to the Resolve 8 kingdom

For the past few days I’ve been hunting down problems when attempting to do a roundtrip between Premiere Pro 5 & 5.5 and Resolve 8.

On the surface, it looks completely do-able.

Premiere has an “Export to FCP XML” command. Resolve 8 is specifically designed for a FCP to Resolve roundtrip. You’d think it works, right?

Think again.

Here’s the problem: Resolve is designed for FCP XML Version 5. Premiere can only import and export FCP XML Version 4 (or earlier).

DaVinci Resolve 8's XML v.4 dialog box

This Resolve 8 dialog box alerts you to the XML version mis-match

Here’s the work-around: It *is* possible to move between Resolve and Premiere… but only if you own FCP which can translate up and down between FCP XML Versions 4 & 5!

That’s the short of it.

If you really want to dig into specifically what works, what doesn’t, and get a sense of the power when the XML Roundtrip does work – watch this 18 minute video where I bounce between all 3 apps to figure out what exactly is going on and what’s getting broken when.

And if you’re Adobe – I’d love to help you guys fix this problem and open up the world of XML integration between Resolve and CS5 users. I can be reached from here.  ;-)

UPDATE: If you’re a CS5 or CS5.5 user and would like to see Resolve 8 and Adobe integration – here’s the link to Adobe’s feedback page. Enter a feature request for ‘Export to Final Cut Pro XML v.5′ to enable Resolve 8 & Adobe CS5 / CS5.5 integration. Hat Tip: Tom Daigon

Special thanks to all the Tao Colorists who responded to my call for help: with a specific thanks to Clay Asbury and Pepo Klijs for working through the Premiere 5.5 XMLs!

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  • http://vimeo.com/mauoliveira Maurico de Oliveira

    well, let’s see if Adobe is aiming to pro-users and add, in response to this dead roundtrip conclusion, a fast update to its export xml functionality.
    This would be pretty well received I would say.

  • Tom Daigon

    Since fixing this with Adobe is important and these days I find they are very responsive to input, here is the official bug report link to make sure they are aware of the problem.

    https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Yup. Done.

    Thanks for the link. I didn’t find a ‘Request a feature’ menu item inside PP5.Technically – this is not a bug… unless it’s a bad implementation of FCP XML v4 (which it seems to be mostly fine… except maybe the additive dissolve thing).It’s a feature request to add FCP XML v5 to make it compatible with Resolve 8 roundtrips. If other people reading this would like to see this feature implemented – click on Tom’s link…In fact – I’ll update the post.

  • Tom Daigon

    Not that it matters, but under the Name, Email and Company lines are 2  a radio buttons …Feature Request and Bug Report. Im sure what you files will get the proper attention. Good luck!

  • Todd Kopriva

    I’ve passed a link to this post on to some folks here at Adobe so that we can look into this.

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Awesome. Thanks Todd!

  • Julian

    How about EDL? Is that a viable option from Premiere Pro to Resolve?

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Yup. EDL is viable. PP exports CMX 3600, which is what Resolve 8 requires (although I haven’t specifically tested it, yet).

    But I prefer to spoil my clients with the benefits of the XML / “Render Clips with Handles in Resolve 8″ workflow. They get very happy – which makes me very happy.

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  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    John,

    I’ve got several meetings today… but I’ll give this a try as soon as I’m back in my room!

    That would be terrific.

  • Ray T

    What I have had success with is exporting XML from Premiere Pro. Import into Final Cut. Export a new Final Cut XML (v5 XML). Import into Resolve 8 and it seems that it works correctly. Lots of steps for sure. Will keep testing other workflows.

    Ray T

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Ray,

    Correct – The Premiere round-trip requires the Premiere XML be ‘washed’ through Final Cut Pro 7. Jon’s suggested trick of opening the XML in a text editor and changing the 4 to a 5 does NOT work.

    Note: DaVinci’s latest update (8.0.1) now supports direct export from Resolve into Premiere – without stepping through FCP a 2nd time… which is 1/2 of the equation for native PP -> Resolve -> PP XML roundtrips. Now we just have to wait for Adobe to update their XML exporter.

  • Ray T

    Quick question for you. What monitor do you like for the GUI of Resolve a 24″ 1920 x 1200 or a 30″ at 2560 x 1600

    Ray T

  • Todd Kopriva

    We’re working on it.

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Ray,

    I’ve not used Resolve on a 30″ monitor. I can’t comment on how the GUI looks on that size display.

    - pi

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    We’re looking forward to it!

  • Kent Kumpula

    Where can I find “export from Resolve to Premiere”? I sure cant find it in the lite-version of resolve

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Just use the ‘export’ command.

    It’ll save off an XML that you should be able to import into Premiere.

  • Phil

    On the render page, I use the FCP7 XML roundtrip easy setup and then I export the project in the conform tab. The XML file can be read by Premiere Pro perfectly.

  • Glenn

    didn’t work for us, but was worth trying :-)

  • Phil

    I have a 27″ 2560 x 1600 and Resolve looks great on it, you can move the different area so it’s easy to make it look as you like

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  • http://www.facebook.com/camron.crouse Camron Crouse

    My first Resolve project (Resolve Lite)… Helped the client at her studio copy the media files to my hard drive,  and we exported an XML of the project – the pull-down menu only went up to XML 4, no XML 5 available (not sure which build of FCP she is using, must be an older version).  I do not have FCP at this time, is there another workaround to convert this XML 4 file to XML 5?

  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Camron – If she could only export XML 4 then she’s on FCP 6. Anyone with FCP 7 can import that XML and then re-export as XML 5.

  • http://www.facebook.com/camron.crouse Camron Crouse

    Thanks, Patrick, for the info. Looks like I’ll finally have to get FCP7. The project was shot on XDCAM HD, a codec not supported by Resolve without FCP integration: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/media/1764192/DaVinci_Resolve_8.0_Supported_Codec_List.pdf

  • Todd Kopriva
  • Todd Kopriva
  • Todd Kopriva
  • http://www.taoofcolor.com Patrick Inhofer

    Terrific. I’ll be testing out the workflow again next week and will blog my results!