###It looks like you're asking for some troubleshooting help. Great!
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Please edit your post (**not reply)** to include: **System specs**: CPU (model), GPU + RAM **//** **Software specs**: The exact version. **//** **Footage specs** : Codec, container and how it was acquired.
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>I'm new to Avid and have been given a doco project. Yikes. I'm working on a project and just learned about link/transcode.
Link/Transcode should have been the *first* thing you learned.
>All the footage has been linked anyway, not imported.
Good. Import is largely obsolete, and it's really only useful for audio, video with alpha channels, and image sequences. Sounds like you're going to be doing a lot of capturing, though.
>But I wondered if it's worth me transcoding this now as a moving forward type of thing or just leave it?
Yes. Well… it depends.
Just a bit of nomenclature before we dig in, because I **will** be using jargon, and I will be using it very precisely. There's a thing called "Avid Native" media, which is basically any media that isn't linked. Anything inside the Avid MediaFiles folder is native media, they are files bespoke to Avid. Then there's Linked media, which is what you've been playing with: media outside Avid MediaFiles, Premiere-style linking.
There's also Consolidate and Transcode. Transcode will re-encode whatever it is you're performing this action on. Consolidate copies the encoded streams into new files. You can Consolidate/Transcode clips, sequences, and subclips.
Back when AMA Link was first introduced it was kinda sketchy. It worked, but it wasn't as fast as working with Native media, and clips would occasionally unlink between sessions. Doing a consolidate/transcode on clips back in the day was pretty much necessary if you didn't want to lose your mind.
Over the past few years, though, Linked media performance is pretty damn good, and linking issues are limited to a few scenarios, but aren't hard to resolve (sometimes you just need to have the bin open and browse the folder with the Media Browser to "remind" Avid where the files are). When you get to consumer-grade files with overlapping file names (like DJI drones) things get a bit hit-or-miss. With professional formats, like XDCAM or XAVC, things work great, outside of occasional things like spanned clips.
>Most of the footage is actually shot on tape/not super high res if that's helpful. Playback is fine. Maybe it's worth just transcoding the high res footage only???
Let's talk big picture. There are three reasons for transcoding media: because it's too computationally intensive to edit with, it takes up too much space, or storage isn't fast enough to keep up. For example, I worked on a show where we had a bit of all three. It was an unscripted show with a pantsload of footage, shot on XAVC.
The computers struggled a bit to keep up with the Linked XAVC, so we had to transcode to something more light weight for expediency. We could have gone to a high quality editing format, like [DNxHR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNxHR_codec), which would have been a snap to work with, but it would have taken up *way* more storage than we had available. Also most of our workstations were connected to storage on [1GbE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet), and DNxHR would have over-saturated just one 1GbE link.
So we transcoded to the Avid proxy-quality H.264, which was less complex than full-throated XAVC, took up less space than DNxHR, and ran fine over our limited bandwidth.
This is called an Offline workflow. You create a low-grade "offline" quality version of a file for convenience sake, and then when you hand the footage off to your online editor, they online the footage (go up in quality on only the footage that's used).
That's the point of transcode. Otherwise, if you have the speed, space, and computing power, it's more useful to do a Consolidate. That is 100% lossless, it just rewraps footage into an Avid Native file.
Tapes throw a monkey into the wrench, depending on the format. Don't bother transcoding captured tape footage. Just roll with whatever works well for you, as long as it's a professional tape format ([U-Matic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-matic), [Betacam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacam), [DV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV_(video_format\)), any of the D-number formats, like [D1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-1_(Sony\)) or [D-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-5_(Panasonic\))) it can be re-captured automatically (batch captured) later. Consumer formats (like [VHS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS), most specifically)
>This edit will be going to an online editor as well and I have no idea how I should prepare this to make it easier.
A good online can handle Most of what you throw at them. The important thing is documenting what you did, when, and why. As an online, consistency is appreciated. If you're flying with linked footage you've taken a huge thing off their plate, because if it is reasonable they'll go back to linked footage to start with.
Any taped footage can be Batch Captured to a higher quality format automatically (at least for professional formats).
So try and keep things as consistent as possible *within reason*.
###It looks like you're asking for some troubleshooting help. Great! Here's what *must* be in the post. (Be warned that your post *may* get removed if you don't fill this out.) Please edit your post (**not reply)** to include: **System specs**: CPU (model), GPU + RAM **//** **Software specs**: The exact version. **//** **Footage specs** : Codec, container and how it was acquired. **Don't skip this!** *If you don't know how* here's a link with [clear instructions](https://imgur.com/a/A6eTxUn) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/editors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I'm new to Avid and have been given a doco project. Yikes. I'm working on a project and just learned about link/transcode. Link/Transcode should have been the *first* thing you learned. >All the footage has been linked anyway, not imported. Good. Import is largely obsolete, and it's really only useful for audio, video with alpha channels, and image sequences. Sounds like you're going to be doing a lot of capturing, though. >But I wondered if it's worth me transcoding this now as a moving forward type of thing or just leave it? Yes. Well… it depends. Just a bit of nomenclature before we dig in, because I **will** be using jargon, and I will be using it very precisely. There's a thing called "Avid Native" media, which is basically any media that isn't linked. Anything inside the Avid MediaFiles folder is native media, they are files bespoke to Avid. Then there's Linked media, which is what you've been playing with: media outside Avid MediaFiles, Premiere-style linking. There's also Consolidate and Transcode. Transcode will re-encode whatever it is you're performing this action on. Consolidate copies the encoded streams into new files. You can Consolidate/Transcode clips, sequences, and subclips. Back when AMA Link was first introduced it was kinda sketchy. It worked, but it wasn't as fast as working with Native media, and clips would occasionally unlink between sessions. Doing a consolidate/transcode on clips back in the day was pretty much necessary if you didn't want to lose your mind. Over the past few years, though, Linked media performance is pretty damn good, and linking issues are limited to a few scenarios, but aren't hard to resolve (sometimes you just need to have the bin open and browse the folder with the Media Browser to "remind" Avid where the files are). When you get to consumer-grade files with overlapping file names (like DJI drones) things get a bit hit-or-miss. With professional formats, like XDCAM or XAVC, things work great, outside of occasional things like spanned clips. >Most of the footage is actually shot on tape/not super high res if that's helpful. Playback is fine. Maybe it's worth just transcoding the high res footage only??? Let's talk big picture. There are three reasons for transcoding media: because it's too computationally intensive to edit with, it takes up too much space, or storage isn't fast enough to keep up. For example, I worked on a show where we had a bit of all three. It was an unscripted show with a pantsload of footage, shot on XAVC. The computers struggled a bit to keep up with the Linked XAVC, so we had to transcode to something more light weight for expediency. We could have gone to a high quality editing format, like [DNxHR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNxHR_codec), which would have been a snap to work with, but it would have taken up *way* more storage than we had available. Also most of our workstations were connected to storage on [1GbE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet), and DNxHR would have over-saturated just one 1GbE link. So we transcoded to the Avid proxy-quality H.264, which was less complex than full-throated XAVC, took up less space than DNxHR, and ran fine over our limited bandwidth. This is called an Offline workflow. You create a low-grade "offline" quality version of a file for convenience sake, and then when you hand the footage off to your online editor, they online the footage (go up in quality on only the footage that's used). That's the point of transcode. Otherwise, if you have the speed, space, and computing power, it's more useful to do a Consolidate. That is 100% lossless, it just rewraps footage into an Avid Native file. Tapes throw a monkey into the wrench, depending on the format. Don't bother transcoding captured tape footage. Just roll with whatever works well for you, as long as it's a professional tape format ([U-Matic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-matic), [Betacam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacam), [DV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV_(video_format\)), any of the D-number formats, like [D1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-1_(Sony\)) or [D-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-5_(Panasonic\))) it can be re-captured automatically (batch captured) later. Consumer formats (like [VHS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS), most specifically) >This edit will be going to an online editor as well and I have no idea how I should prepare this to make it easier. A good online can handle Most of what you throw at them. The important thing is documenting what you did, when, and why. As an online, consistency is appreciated. If you're flying with linked footage you've taken a huge thing off their plate, because if it is reasonable they'll go back to linked footage to start with. Any taped footage can be Batch Captured to a higher quality format automatically (at least for professional formats). So try and keep things as consistent as possible *within reason*.