EDLs are unique compared to AAF and XMLs files in that they can be read by eye!

If there is an issue effecting the automatic conforming/ingesting of material via AAFs or XMLs it can be hard to work out what is going on.

An EDL, though only supporting cuts, dissolves and basic slow down and speed ups and only one video layer at a time, it does show the names of the files it is looking for and if there is a formatting error it can be much easier to track down, EDLs, because they can be opened in a basic text editor, can be edited by hand to resolve an issue in formatting if absolutely needed.

As such, we like our clients to supply EDLs as well as AAFs as a back up.