Features
Avid Xpress Pro Features
What’s New.
Universal Mac support. Since version 5.7, every Avid Xpress Pro system contains the same version of Avid Xpress Pro for the Mac and Avid Xpress Pro for the PC. The Mac version has been updated with a Universal version that fully supports both Intel and PowerPC-based systems.
Version 5.7.2 adds support for:
- Mac OS 10.4.9
- Apple QuickTime 7.1.6
- Mac Pro with eight core processing (dual quad-core
Sorenson Squeeze 4.5. Not only has Sorenson updated Squeeze Compression Suite to run natively on Intel-based Macs, but now encoding on Squeeze 4.5 is up to 3 times faster than with prior versions. Improvements have been made in On2 Flash (sold separately), MPEG-2, and many pre-processing features.
Enhanced workflows for XDCAM and P2. New support for bit rates of 18 and 35 Mb/s offers more flexibility to balance picture quality and recording length when capturing XDCAM HD. Version 5.7 offers the option to write back to XDCAM and P2 media via FireWire. (P2 write back on PC systems and PowerPC-based Macs only. Intel-based Mac systems to be supported in a future release.
720/50p support. Well established in Europe, the popular 720p50 format displays twice as many frames as are minimally necessary to achieve the illusion of motion. The faster frame rate is ideal to capture action sequences and fast-moving sports without blurring.
Open Timeline. Want to work with more than one HD format at the same time? Or mix HD and SD footage? Maybe even have some film footage in the mix? Skip the pain of transcoding. Only Avid Xpress Pro software allows you to combine video and film formats and resolutions in their native form, on the same timeline, in real time.
Edit faster. Avid Xpress Pro software features the most flexible, customizable editing toolset you've ever seen. Best of all, everything is designed for speed, accuracy and, above all, the protection of your work. Drive edits with your mouse or your keyboard; unique model editing means that you can edit as fast as you think.
Customizable toolsets. We know the best way to edit is your way. Every workspace can be arranged to suit you and then saved—so that they reopen the same way, every time. Customize keyboard shortcuts and settings for additional controllers like the Digi 002 audio control surface. Take these settings with you and use them on any Avid system, anywhere in the world.
Real-time Avid multicam editing. Avid offers the industry's most powerful real-time multicam editing with the industry's only mixed-resolution clip grouping capability: mix HD, uncompressed SD, DV and film, each in their native format, with no transcoding required.
Custom metadata and Custom Sift. Out of the box, Avid Xpress Pro software tracks more kinds of metadata than anyone else. You can also add as many custom fields as you want: simply click in a bin column heading and type away. Use any of these provided or customized fields as the basis for media-based searches across projects and volumes to find information far beyond the reach of OS-level searches.
Script-based editing. Changes to your screenplay are automatically reflected in your editing timeline. In fact, you can edit without touching the timeline at all. Arrange paragraphs to arrange scenes and trim clips when you trim words from your script.
Equally powerful on Mac and PC.
No cost to switch platforms. Use the most powerful machine you can find, on the platform of your choice—Universal version for PowerPC and Intel-based Macs or Windows XP. With both platforms included in every box, you can work on one platform at work, another on the road, no problem. Change your platform later? Just take the software with you.
Easily move projects from Mac to PC. Just moving from a desktop to a laptop is extremely difficult for other non-linear editors. With Avid, it’s easy—even if the computers are different platforms. Now you have maximum flexibility to start your project on a Mac notebook, move to a PC desktop, and then back again.
Tap into Mac OS X effects. With Noise Industries’ Factory Tools (Mac only) included with Avid Xpress Pro software, you can take advantage of nearly 100 real-time, flexible effects that you won’t find anywhere else.
No learning curve. Take any freelance job on either platform without hesitation. The Avid Xpress Pro interface and feature set are nearly identical on Mac and PCs. Your customized user settings are also dual-platform: save the user settings file to a USB thumb drive to bring your customized settings to your next job.
More cameras. More formats.
Sony HDV. Native capture of HDV material means no transcoding and no quality loss. Key support for Sony formats, including 1080i/60, 1080i/50, and 1080i/30f.
JVC HDV. JVC’s HDV cameras support SD via DV format recording and HD via HDV format recording. Avid Xpress Pro software supports all SD DV formats, as well as the 720p/29.97 HDV resolution.
Canon HDV. Canon’s new XL H1 HDV camera supports SD via DV format recording and HD via HDV format recording. Avid Xpress Pro software supports all SD DV formats; for HD, it supports 1080i/60, 1080i/50, and 1080/30 HDV resolutions.
Sony XDCAM. Sony XDCAM decks and camcorders store media on optical discs with capacities of up to 23.3GB. Key XDCAM features supported include: DVCAM, XDCAM HD at 25Mb/s, MXF support, and real-time playback of select variable framerates.
Panasonic DVCPRO HD and P2 media. Start editing right away with native DVCPRO HD capture and editing. Key support for Panasonic DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD, with direct edit and write-back to P2 media.
Tapeless editing. Say goodbye to digitizing. P2 and XDCAM aren't the only tapeless formats Avid Xpress Pro handles. FireStore and Ikegami are just two of the companies providing hard drive recorders that capture native Avid media direct to disk, ready to be mounted as Avid media drives.
Better PAL support. Quickly and easily convert between 25p PAL media and 24p media simply by speeding up or slowing down picture, sound, or both.
Use the industry's first HD format designed for post production. All other HD formats are camera formats. They're not designed for compositing or animation. In fact, some of them don't have software codecs that you could render to if you wanted to. Avid DNxHD encoding is engineered to stand up to multi-layer, multi-generation editing and compositing, and use about the same bandwidth and storage space as uncompressed SD—without throwing away a single pixel. So shoot in your favorite format, and do all your processing in the only HD format that's up to the task.
720/50p support. Well established in Europe, the popular 720p50 format displays twice as many frames as are minimally necessary to achieve the illusion of motion. The faster frame rate is ideal to capture action sequences and fast-moving sports without blurring.
Manage your business, not your gear.
One-stop shopping. One-stop support. Save yourself from the multiple-vendor “blame game.” Rest assured that trained video, audio, and storage professionals are on hand to help you with anything you need, including set-up, troubleshooting, and workflow consultation.
Easy to learn. We make lifelong learning, career advancement, certification, and personal development easy and convenient. Avid Training Services include 24/7 access to Web-based learning courseware, as well as instructor led classes on-site or at Avid Authorized Education Centers around the world.
Avid freelancers. Need a hand? Professional Avid editors comprise the industry’s deepest pool of talent, proven on the most demanding creative projects. Have a hand to lend? Clients around the world have come to rely on the proven expertise of Avid editors. Avid Xpress Pro can be your first step toward a better-paying, more creative future.
Avid VideoRAID. Designed and qualified to the industry’s highest standards of reliability and performance, Avid local drives deliver uninterrupted access to your media. Avid VideoRAID arrays continue to operate at full performance, and without loss of data, should a drive fail within the unit.
Avid Mojo and Avid Mojo SDI. Fully integrated I/O and broadcast monitoring with every connection you need, including Serial Digital video (SDI), analog component, your choice of embedded or AES/EBU audio and much more. Genlock and Word Clock provide sync with external professional devices. Unlike other devices that work in only one direction at a time, Avid Mojo hardware’s bi-directional signal flow allows such flexible workflows as listening to audio through headphones and video on a broadcast monitor while recording up to 4 channels of audio directly to the timeline.
The power of the pros at your fingertips.
Automatic color correction. One-touch automatic color correction analyzes every clip in an entire sequence, and applies the unique correction that’s exactly right for each individual clip, using the same color correction found in the renowned Avid Symphony finishing system.
Patented NaturalMatch™ color correction. Sometimes the challenge isn’t just to get each shot corrected in isolation. The challenge is to use color correction to join shots from multiple locations, cameras, and lighting conditions and into a cohesive whole. That’s where Avid’s NaturalMatch comes in, making it “one-click” easy to match multiple shots any way you need, especially optimized for skin tones.
Image stabilization with auto-zoom. This one-step process corrects unwanted camera movement while simultaneously resizing the stabilized image to fill the frame. Doing it all in one pass saves time, preserves image quality, and can rescue wobbly footage.
Pan and Zoom with high-quality real-time preview. Toggle between viewing the animation output (the zoomed-in portion of the image only) or the whole image with a moving preview rectangle for maximum flexibility and speed.
Real-time animated alpha channels. Only Avid lets you bring movies with animated alpha channels back to your editing timeline with no additional rendering. Even animate the position, scale, and opacity of clips and add drop shadows, all in real time. Other systems don't even let you do this with additional hardware!
Avid Marquee: the industry’s only professional, integrated 3D title animation lets you extrude text with full control over materials, bevels, and textures. Plus, you can extrude vector graphic elements and 3D lights, even for 2D titles. A fully scriptable environment lets you automate the creation of as many titles you need, fully styled and animated, in a single keystroke.
AVX 2 plug-in architecture. Deep colorspace and advanced keyframing, including complete control over parameter curves, for both native Avid and third-party plug-in effects give you the highest resolution and most control offered by any NLE plug-in architecture.
Film, HD, and the Web: together at last.
Integrated metadata tracking. Advanced film and visual effects (VFX) tracking are built directly into Avid bins and timelines, including tracking of 24, 25, and 30 frame timecode, feet and frames, and film perf information. A single window tracks and displays all of this and more.
Real-time 24p pulldown, normal and advanced. Capture 24p media straight to disk over IEEE-1394, including the industry's first and only live capture of normal pulldown over 1394. And once you have your film files on disk, you can handle every possible pulldown cadence, not just the single one that other apps limit you to: no transcoding, wasted time and disk space, or lost timecode and metadata from destructive renders.
AutoSync and quarter-frame slip. The fastest, most flexible way to match film pictures with external audio sources, such as DAT and Broadcast WAV recorders and common timecode references.
From HDV to Blu-ray. Add in Avid Studio Toolkit (PC Only) for the most complete HD creation suite. Shoot in HDV, capture over 1394, edit with Avid DNxHD then author your own Blu-ray Discs for an end-to-end HD solution.
Publish to the Web. The partnership of Avid and Sorenson Squeeze make it painless to publish video from the editor to the Web. With an easy-to-use interface and intelligent presets, Squeeze easily produces superior quality video for all popular digital media formats. Single step delivery output, smooth integration with Avid Xpress Pro, competitive speed, and batch processing make Squeeze the best encoding solution in its class.
Media management made easy.
Avid manages media. Avid media management works better—so you can work faster— because it’s based on technology that nobody else has. It’s working all the time, automatically tracking footage as it’s captured or deleted. Easily and reliably make subclips from a single capture, track which clips have been used, seamlessly work with multiple resolutions of the same clip, share bins between projects, and much more.
Relink by resolution. You can have as many versions of a clip as you need to: offline, online, HD, SD, NTSC, PAL—anything at all. The “Relink by Resolution” command allows you to painlessly connect your edit to any of the versions of it you have the perfect way to manage your offline-online workflows or multi-format output needs.
Painless consolidation. Starting projects on one computer and moving them to another is one of the facts of life in the real world of production: from a desktop system to a laptop system, or from an offline machine to a finishing suite. Nobody makes it as easy to do as Avid. A dynamic media database frees you from having to worry about file paths. In a single step, you can choose to move only the footage you need while also transcoding to another resolution if you want. You don’t have to manually re-link on the other side of the process either! Avid handles it automatically, even if the two computers have different operating systems.
It’s all about collaboration.
Share bins and sequences between projects. Avid media management doesn’t just apply to individual projects. It understands how you’ve organized clips and sequences into bins, and doesn’t require you to lock each of them to a single project. Why do the same work twice? It’s much easier to organize your projects in the way that works best for you, once, and let Avid take care of the rest.
Avid Total Conform. When the time comes for an extra level of polish, you have easy access to the world's most sophisticated video and film finishing resources. Avid Total Conform makes it easy, fast, and affordable to apply the same professional finishing tools used on today's big-budget blockbusters. Your Avid Xpress Pro project and media open right up in Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony and Avid DS Nitris systems – every title, every effect, every keyframe, exactly where you left it, even if you start on one platform and finish on another. That means no time wasted rebuilding effects, no complicated conversions that inevitably leave something behind.
Avid Unity media networks, including Avid Unity LANshare. The smartest networked storage in the business lets you connect as many Avid editors as you need, for true collaboration at any scale. Multiple editors can mount the same volumes, work on the same project, and even use the same media files at the same time.
Collaborate across platforms. Avid Unity shared storage supports Mac and PC clients on the same network to provide maximum productivity with minimum hassle.
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