The Importer
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Avid Studio lets you incorporate many kinds of media in your video productions. When these are stored externally to your computer – on a camcorder tape, say, or a memory stick from your digital camera – they must be transferred to local storage before you can use them.
This transfer process is called ‘capturing’ or ‘importing’. A distinction has long been made between ‘capturing’ from tape and ‘importing’ from file-based sources, but it is less significant nowadays when most audiovisual recordings are stored in digital form throughout their lifetimes. Only when transferring from analog or tape-based sources (e.g. VHS, Hi8 or DV tape) is there still a ‘capture’ process, often involving conversion to digital form.
Because Avid Studio uses its Library to manage all source media, media files that are present on the local hard drive must also be imported into the Library. In most cases, this is handled automatically using ‘watch folders’. However, the Importer can also be used to import media from local folders that are not set up as watch folders.
We will most often use the terms ‘import’ and ‘importing’ to signify all methods of bringing images and sound into the Library for use in your productions.
After Studio has finished importing your media, you will be able to access the imported files for use in your productions. See The Library for details.