← PODLAB / The appsUSER MANUAL · BETA · 13 OCTOBER 2026
POUCH
Post Office Universal CDL Handler
Convert colour metadata in Avid ALE files into per-clip CDL files.
Prepare the ALE
Export an Avid ALE containing ASC_SOP and ASC_SAT colour columns. Keep an original copy. POUCH validates the slope, offset, power and saturation values and writes a separate CDL file for each valid clip.
Export CDL files
Choose the ALE, then choose a destination folder. Select Clip, Scene-Shot-Take, or Both for naming. Click Export CDL files. When complete, choose Show export folder and review the report.
What you receive
Each export creates a new POUCH batch folder. The ale folder contains an unchanged copy of the input, cdl contains one CDL per valid clip, and export-report.csv records exported and skipped rows. Existing batches are preserved. Duplicate filenames receive numeric suffixes.
Resolve skipped clips
Read export-report.csv for the reason. Missing or invalid SOP/SAT values and missing naming metadata can cause a row to be skipped. Correct the ALE or select a naming mode supported by its metadata, then export again.
If an ALE is rejected
Check its sections, field counts and colour-column names. Supported encodings include UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, BOM-marked UTF-16 and Windows-1252. A wholly invalid batch produces no export folder.
Check the handoff
Spot-check clip names and colour values, then test the resulting CDL files in the receiving grading application. Processing is local. The documented universal build includes Python and Tk; no separate Python installation is needed.
