I'm totally frustrated with Avid's need to transcode HD masters before going to tape. In fact, it won't LET me go to tape without it, which I can accept, except when it chases its tail by saying please transcode, then does it, but the digital cut tool refuses to execute because it still thinks transcoding is needed. After nearly 20 years of driving Avids, I'm held hostage by a system that thinks it's smarter than me, which is insulting. Why can't you include an opt-out and still allow the digital cut as it does with offline media? The other agonizing fact is that most or all the material is at 220. I've taken great pains to ensure that. My projects are all 1080i, and may contain some SD footage. It's usually EX clips that are hanging it up. Will the new AMA workflow fix this conundrum? I worry that the consolidation required for those may hang it up as well. If I consolidate a sequence with EX clips, will it consolidate JUST the EX material or the whole thing?

I've also found that video mixdowns are the ONLY way to get it to roll to tape, which are a faster workaround, but I still wish the box would do HD the way it should. To any of you out there transcoding, I would say skip that waste of time and do a video mixdown. You can always trash the mixdown files if needed and still have your original media, or the other way around.  Arrgghh!

Are you trying to perform a digital cut to SD or HD? If its SD read this thread: http://community.avid.com/forums/t/66900.aspx

We are rolling to HDCAM, which then downconverts the signal and sends it through a CC encoder to a digibeta. It is the HD that is hanging us up, and video mixdowns are the best workarounds I've found. The transcoding is unfortunately inept at identifying material that needs it, or for that matter what it has already transcoded. I'm guessing this is not an issue with the Nitris system, but I'm not in much of a mood to dump any more money into my Avid systems. There's too long a list of issues Avid will never fix, and I'm sure this is another one of them. All I can do is sweat it out, unless anyone has any suggestions.   -ph!

In the Console type 'forceHDtranscode false'. In an SD project transcoding of HD material is now optional. In MC 3.5 set the Render Settings > Image Interpolation to Advanced (Polyphase). This will improve any type of image resize.

What about an HD project? Will it work in that? 

The console command will not work with SD in an HD project. If you're trying to track down SD in a HD sequence; place the sequence in a bin alone, select the fast/hamburger menu > Set Bin Display > Show Reference clips and Rendered effects.

All the clips in the sequence will be displayed so any SD can be found. Often there's a rendered effect that that will cause the issue. It won't be part of the transcode because it isn't a master clip.

This issue has gone beyond any SD media in my timelines. I'm now mixing down most of my tracks, and the transcoding has more or less become a joke, as the Digital Cut tool offers to auto-transcode it, even though a manual one has been done, and it comes back with the auto-transcode being unsuccessful. It is effectively chasing its tail. The only media that truly needs transcoding is our EX clips, and even after those are done the digital cut is still not satisfied. I've narrowed it down to a few matte keys that seem to be hamstringing it. 

I'll ask again - why can't I opt out of transcoding when I know the media is fine, just as it does when it sees offline media that is actually there as there is a rendered effect on it. The transcoding holds me hostage from mastering my show and it's based on a faulty assumption that some of the media is not HD, but believe me - IT IS. I can understand a need to handle newer media like EX differently, but find it unacceptable for it to hold me up over minor precomputes like matte keys.

This is not truly working in HD, it is working around a system that is currently wasting time and media on overkill procedures that make what should be an easy process into an added headache.