Philosophical question

I have always been curious, why does one have to jump through the hoops to conform media in Resolve.

I understand that Resolve is built on the assumption that user wants to completely preserve timing of the grade and the windows, in such a way that it always refers to an absolute timecode, an absolute frame of the footage, so if the re-edit happens the timing of the grading events is not going to shift. This is of course immensely useful. This of course also causes an incredible pain if one has to work with the footage that came from a format that does not support timecode or the reel names. Automatic conform is pretty much impossible.
There are of course workarounds such as an incredibly useful QTChange and now Adobe Prelude. Both of the above allow for the Timecode rewrite as well as the Reel/Tape name creation and /or change. Unfortunately both of them have to work with QuickTime files. QuickTime is not a robust platform. Changes that you make with these pieces of software do not always "stick". One is then forced to manually conform. That gets very old very fast on the long-form projects.

Now consider this: when I open a FCP XML in an Adobe Premiere Pro I get my timeline pretty much intact. Yes, I can lose some effects, some transforms, and sometimes speed changes, but the timing of my edit remains intact. Same is true for the back trip from PPro to FCP.
So why can't Resolve do that?
I hear you saying: "but Dima, you will lose your key-frame alignment in Resolve if the edit changes". True.
However I would like to have an option of being able to conform projects with no regard to the Reel names and or the timecode, just as it happens between the PPro and FCP. Most time I spend in a project in Resolve is not spent on the actual grading but rather in a conforming window. I would rather move a couple of key-frames around, copy and paste grades rather than manually conforming 1128 shots which can get rather overwhelming. Sometimes I am the last link in the film chain, and nothing will happen to it after I am done with it. And more often then not it is not even about the absolute match to the cut for the purposes of finish. Very often one desires to have an exact cut for the context of the grade, as the Master timeline would be rendered out as the individual clips to allow further editing.
Please respond if you see any logical flaws, would love to hear from BMD guys as well.

I've had minimal issues getting FCP XML's in and out of resolve 8 & 9. It's pretty robust in my point of view. If its a really crazy timeline (pip, insane layering, variable spd fx). I just export a media managed project, import XML, and render with source file names and reconnect from my project. Easy peasy lemon squeesy.

Of course this is from someone who had to deal with final touch back in the day...

Joseph Mastantuono
http://www.goodpost.net
Color Grading & Post Production Consulting

I think the problem is with formats that don't support real time code and reel names.

And 5dtoRGB is your friend, and you should convince your clients to use it. Gets reel names based on file names into your 5d clips.

That said, I do wish filenes were taken into account. I feel like today in the modern post workflow filenames are more important that reels or time code.

Joseph Mastantuono
http://www.goodpost.net
Color Grading & Post Production Consulting