Finally, Avid Media Composer Now Supports ProRes RAW

It was over a year ago when Avid announced in a press release that it would natively support ProRes RAW. Now, 14 months later, the company has released v2020.10 of Media Composer which finally supports ProRes RAW for both macOS and Windows. 

This latest version of Media Composer comes after Adobe Premiere Pro added ProRes RAW support last month. Avid adding native support for the RAW format is outstanding news as it will smooth out workflows for editors cutting with the codec. Additionally, Avid now supports macOS version 10.15.7 with this update. 

While the non-linear editor supports ProRes RAW, Media Composer currently only supports linking and playback of ProRes RAW media using the UME plug-in. Exporting ProRes RAW is not supported at this time. 

For those using macOS v10.14 and earlier, Avid says to install the Pro Video Formats package. You can download that here.

For Windows 10 64-bit systems, you will need to download the Apple SDK on your system (similar to Premiere Pro), which is available for free here. 

As of today, Avid, Premiere Pro, ASSIMILATE SCRATCH, Colorfront, FilmLight Baselight, Grass Valley Edius, and of course Final Cut X all support ProRes RAW, leaving DaVinci Resolve as the one major software platform who doesn't support the format. Even with the release of DaVinci Resolve 17, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise.

RAW formats aside, there's a lot to like about the latest version of DaVinci Resolve. 

That said, what would be nice is if users were given an option to purchase a codec pack that allows them to add specific codecs to their systems. We're not exactly sure if it's a licensing thing, or if it's a "what takes priority" thing, but if someone wanted to export ProRes via DaVinci Resolve on PC and were provided with an opportunity to do so, at least it's an option. Thankfully, there are workarounds. Hopefully in the future, there will be fewer thanks to the hardworking engineers behind the scenes. 

Avid Media Composer 2020.10 is free for current users, but if you're not one, Avid offers trial versions of their software as well as subscription offerings for $23/month.

For more info, jump on over to the Avid website.