What is a .EDL file?
EDL (Edit Decision List) is a plain-text video-editing format listing cuts and timecodes. Read by DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro and most editors.
- Did you know
- EDLs date back to the 1970s, when they controlled tape-based video editing machines.
- The most widely supported variant is the CMX 3600, named after the editing systems whose layout became the de facto standard.
- The classic CMX 3600 list can hold only 999 events, a hard limit inherited from the tape-era hardware it was designed for.
- An EDL is just plain ASCII listing reel names and timecodes, so it is the lowest common denominator passed between Avid, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
- Originally an EDL drove physical tape machines, telling them which reel to play and exactly when to start and stop recording.
- What Analyser shows you
- Visualise editing timelines exported from Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Avid: CMX3600 EDL, Final Cut Pro FCPXML and OpenTimelineIO (OTIO). Renders the tracks with clip blocks positioned by timecode, plus durations, clip names and frame rate.
- Open a .EDL file
- Drag a .EDL file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It opens entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.
- Related formats
- .FCPXML · .OTIO. See all supported file types.