Avid DNxHD36 mxf media not playing in Premiere

[Premiopolis]

Trying to play a sequences in Premiere Pro all off whose source media is Avid DNxHD36/mxf files.

This is admittedly a dubious workflow, so if it cannot be made to work, so be it.

BUT

I we can get this to work, it'll open some powerful and exciting opportunities that allow PPro to be integrated into an otherwise all-Avid editing environment.

Here's what we tested:

• Exported an AAF (no media, link-only, picture-only) from Avid.
• Imported the AAF to Premiere

This worked!

All the media populates, the Premiere sequences matches the Avid export. Scrubbing the timeline is fast (ish -- there are delays).  Picture quality is excellent. Premiere handles recreating an Avid-generated sequence, referencing media hosted on Avid's Nexis media server.  Even Avid-side markers import.  Very impressive.  Very promising.

This also didn't work

When playing the media picture remains frozen at the play-start point and remains so until you hit stop or begin scrubbing again.

Tried reducing the quality of playback to 1/2 and 1/4. No fix there.

Tried playing source media only, just to see. Sound plays fine. Picture always remains frozen at start-play point.

It looks like a problem of throughput or decompression delays. Any reason Premiere should be having more trouble playing these clips than Avid?

Possible culprits: OS and Premiere version
We are constrained to the following and are not permitted to upgrade:

• MacOS Mojave 10.14.6
• Premiere 15.4.1

USE CASE:

Leveraging Premiere's spectacular Panel Extension / ExtendScript automation power. Avid has nothing of the kind. If this can be made to work, it can make Premiere a valuable player even on Avid-centric workflows.

[Premiopolis · Accepted solution]

Culprit found: Premiere Playing through AJA box.