Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1483)

132 Part II Project Interchange
Importing Edit Decision Lists (EDLs)
Importing EDLs into Final Cut Pro is becoming less common as more full-featured
project interchange formats are supported. However, if you are reediting a project from
an older, linear editing system, or you are having trouble exchanging sequence
information using other project interchange formats, you can use an EDL to transfer
basic edit information into Final Cut Pro.
Limitations of Importing EDLs
Not everything that can be done in another editing application shows up in an EDL
imported into Final Cut Pro. If you export an EDL from another editing application, the
following elements are excluded:
 Filters
 Motion parameters and keyframes
 Only one video track (although key events may be included)
 Any audio tracks above the first four tracks
 Non-SMPTE standard video transitions
While the above items aren’t directly part of an exported EDL, you can export them as
notes for reference.
Importing EDLs in Final Cut Pro
You can import an EDL into Final Cut Pro to re-create an edit from another nonlinear
system or re-create an older sequence originally cut on a tape-to-tape linear system.
An imported EDL becomes an offline sequence in your project, accompanied by a bin
containing master clips which correspond to all the clips in that sequence. This bin is
named “Master clips for [sequence name].” To recreate the sequence, you can batch
capture the master clips or select the sequence and batch capture all of its
sequence clips.
Important: If you name hard disks and folders with double-byte (or 16-bit) characters
(such as characters used for the Japanese language), Final Cut Pro may not be able to
either import or export EDLs. To avoid this problem, import from or export to disks and
folders with names that do not contain double-byte characters.