Preparing to use AMA (Avid Media Access): Getting the plug-ins

AMA allows you to almost immediately begin editing with file-based video, without first having to go through another process, such as Transcoding or Importing. Essentially, you point Media Composer directly to the native files, and because of AMA programming/architecture, it recognizes them and links to them. However, Media Composer needs to be given the ability to recognize the files first. This is done by installing free plug-ins for each camera and/or video format (note that the QuickTime AMA plug-in is an exception and is installed by default). Using plug-ins means that they can be updated at any time independently from the Media Composer program, and, as new video formats are created, their AMA plug-ins can be made available by the manufacturer at the same time.