STILLS
About stills import,
both Edius and Avid don't support CMYK.
This is frankly a little annoying if you haven't checked before that all your images are in RGB mode.
As often, Avid features more options on the import-behaviour, but I find Edius to be more user-friendly when it comes to render still imagery.
-AVID
In Avid, the way you import stills matters a lot, and it's also the case with any other material so what I write here is valuable also for motion footage.
As the still will normally be in RGB mode, you can dialog with Avid to see how this will be integrated.
-If you tell Avid that the source image is in RGB mode, Avid will import the image within the broadcast "legal" black and white.
-Now, you can also fool the software and impose to it that you want to keep the super-blacks etc...then you fool Avid saying that your image is already a 601-709, it will import with the "illegal" values.
-There is third option that is usefull in the case you face banding. It will remove it but the "price to pay" is a little more grain added.
-you can-have also tell the software how to behave in the case that your image was prepared for the output format or not, the nature of the pixels, squared or not, etc...
this would be a little long to put on this post but the dialog box is quite clear about it and it's fast.
but as always, many options means that the users have to really know what they are doing and "stupid" errors can occur easily if one doesn't look carefully to the dialog box options.
-you can pre-assign a duration for your still
-you can choose if you want Avid to take the alpha chanel or not, and if you invert it or not (can be usefull)
then you can tell if that's part of a sequence.
CAUTION:
Avid doesn't import by default the sequence in the desired order in the bin.
Tho_mas gave me the solution in another antique thread: sort by name: in the Bin click on the column "Name" and press cmd+E (strg+E on PC respectively).
In Avid, this is very important that you learn the bin options seriously. When I started, I just wanted to cut and no took time to understand the all bin capabilities, and then
issues can occurs and I was barking against the software when it was me.
Learning the bins in Avid is a must because they are really powerfull.
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Edius:
Edius is really powerfull when it comes to deal with still imagery (on the quality side).
Edius is also a WYSIWYG editor. That's a powerfull feature. If you conect a proper monitor to it, you see while you cutting the final result. There is no degradation in the viewer.
To be short, it's very much like the Avid but more straighforward. Less options at first but you can always come back later and parameter.
Also, Edius is 10bits default and its engine does a really good job in adapting still imagery in a motion color-space.
Be carefull in Edius: if you update in PS the still, it will be updated in Edius Also automatically. This is a good and bad thing, it depends.
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SUPER IMPORTANT
Edius does not (this is a big and one of the only downside of Edius) recognize PS layers ! Booo Grass Valley, bad !...it would import a merged PSD (but would maintain the alpha channel).
I don't want a merged psd to be imported.
Ok, one can always create the sequence from PS from the layers but it's an unnecessary step.
Avid in that aspect is the correct way! It has several options on importing a layered psd, you can tell it for example that you just want it to import selected layer(s), etc...the dialog box is clear without "hidden" stuff.
Layered Tiff is not supported.
No rendering needed in both.
