Hidden Benefit of using Cineform in Avid
 

Most people familiar with Avid media Composer know that Avid will transcode long form GOP input media(aka import) to Avid's proprietary mxf codec before you can drop it on the timeline. Avid will NOT, however, allow output to the Quicktime Reference Movie with long form GOP; like the files captured from a Sony EX1. This is a huge disadvantage because QTRef doesn't really encode, it uses the native footage as reference, which saves tons of rendering time.

I discovered that a hidden benefit of transcoding with Cineform Neo HD, before importing into Avid, will allow use of the QTRef output, with little to no image quality degredation.

Gotta love, Cineform. Thanx guys.