• Blogs
• Forums
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Events

 

Edit Review — Avid Xpress Pro HD

Jul 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Frank McMahon

New features include multicam editing, one-step auto color correction, and Marquee.

Sidebar
Avid & HDV: Worth the Wait?

As a desktop editor, Avid Xpress Pro HD has a rich background and each new version improves on an already impressive feature set. One of the best features of Xpress Pro HD is that it supports multiple formats (now including 720p and 1080p/i) and is able to mix them all into the same timeline in realtime. For example, you can bring in native DVCPRO HD, DV50, DV25, Sony XDCAM, and Xpress Pro HD will handle all the conversion and scaling.

Avid is looking at the future while keeping tabs on the past, because the company knows most users will probably be going through a transition from SD to HD for a while. Notably absent from the lineup of formats is HDV. [For more on Avid's plans for HDV later this year, see “Avid & HDV” on the opposite page.]

Xpress Pro HD adds multicam editing with this new version, and while it's currently limited to four different clips, the program makes it very easy to cut from scene to scene and do your “directing” on the fly. In fact, even if you have clips that are of different aspect ratios and resolutions, Xpress Pro HD performs auto zoom as well as image stabilization, so all the clips mix well together.

Effects such as color correction all happen in realtime, and you can access them at any time during the editing process. I liked the simple, one-step correction filter. Also, the color wheels were very intuitive for quick adjustments, as well as more detail-oriented hue adjusting. Xpress Pro HD has cool built-in color matching, where you take one shot that you have color corrected and tweaked to perfection, and then you map that color tone to as many other clips as you want. This is perfect for correcting a series of movies that were shot all at once and may be off-timed or not correctly white-balanced, or if you have a moody scene and you want to apply that color palette to other shots in your timeline. Xpress Pro HD makes it very easy, and like most of the tools, color collection is only one click away.

I found Xpress Pro HD also did a great job of keeping track of all my clips from different decks and from different bins. It's obvious that Avid spent quite a bit time optimizing the media management tools so you can easily deal with huge projects that involve many multiples of reels, decks, and captures.

So what else is new and exciting in this version? Obviously, the HD support is key. I didn't experience a single hiccup when I threw in different varieties of HD footage and applied effects and cut up the footage. The new addition of using existing IEEE 1394 connections for capturing DVCPRO HD is very convenient, in addition to support for other existing SD formats.

A new encoding format called Avid DN×HD allows excellent mastering quality during final encoding. But what is really special is that this format allows uncompressed HD quality in a storage bandwidth equivalent to that of SD. An immediate use for this would be for exporting encoded footage to DVD, where you would mix down HD content to an SD delivery platform.

Also new is the ability to capture and output DV50 over IEEE 1394 (this feature requires the Windows XP Service Pack 2) and you can now output realtime effects over your FireWire port. Previously, you needed Avid hardware (Mojo DNA) to achieve this, but now it's built into the software. This brings the Xpress Pro HD realtime IEEE effects up to the level of similar desktop editors in its class.

Avid has added Marquee to Xpress Pro HD, so now you have a powerhouse titler built into the program. It does true 3D text as well as 3D animations, and you can set up Marquee templates and then apply them throughout your timeline and to different projects. Marquee works great for wide-screen aspect ratios such as 16:9.

It is also worth noting that the program supports realtime compositing of animated alpha channels in file formats brought in from other programs, and these play right from the timeline with no additional rendering.

Rounding out the package is a nice bonus of third-party programs, including the always welcome Sorenson Squeeze 4, Boris Graffiti LTD, and Sonic ReelDVD. Also, don't miss the training CD. There are great video walkthroughs of every major aspect of the program.

Perhaps there needs to be a training session on installation of Xpress Pro HD, however, because I did not seem to get it. Things went smoothly at first. I installed the software, inserted the dongle (don't get me started on that) and went about playing around with clips. When I went to capture, I found that the capture window just could not find my deck. I did auto setup and manual. Nothing helped. I have several desktop editors and all see the connection just fine.

So after several reboots and a reinstall, I finally downloaded the new update, version 5.1, from the Avid website, and this fixed the problem. But this created another problem. Xpress Pro HD could not find my audio card, or rather stated that there was no audio card in my system. Shortly after the audio problem cropped up, I got a couple freeze-ups within the program. Eventually I uninstalled the 5.1 version and then went back to 5.0. With that running, I reupdated back to 5.1 and things seemed to work smoothly. These days with desktop editors I expect installation gymnastics to be a thing of the past.

Other than that point, I found the Xpress Pro HD interface less intuitive than I would have liked, with lots of tiny buttons that require investigation to find out what they do and how they tie into my pending workflow.

OK, now that I have all that off my chest, I can say that I like and recommend the program. Its mix of SD and HD and the large groups of effects and editing modes such as multicam make me believe that it could be a staple in just about any studio. I would recommend Xpress Pro HD because of its power and features. It's a fine desktop editor that continues to look to the future while providing the needed tools from the past.

---

BOTTOM LINE

Company: Avid
Tewksbury, Mass.; (978) 640-6789
www.avid.com

Product: Xpress Pro HD

Assets: Realtime color correction with built-in color matching, strong media management tools, Marquee titling software, multicam editing, mixes multiple formats in the timeline in realtime.

Caveats: Small interface buttons might require some investigation.

Demographic: Editors going through an transition from SD to HD.
Price: $1,695

---

Avid & HDV: Worth the Wait?

There's no question that HDV is on the minds of those who want to work with HD and also have to think hard about the budget. While Avid has announced support for HDV from many of its products, including Xpress Pro HD, it will be a few months before we're all able to try it for ourselves. The company says it plans to deliver HDV in the fourth quarter of 2005.

So will it be worth the wait? It might be, when you consider the level of effects quality and conform flexibility it will offer. Here's what to expect:

• Native HDV editing. Avid says users will be able to acquire native, MPEG, long-GOP HDV directly into Avid Xpress Pro HD. From there, users will be able to edit HDV material with realtime effects and features, even if they more the media to other Avid products.
• Format flexibility in the timeline. Avid says Xpress Pro HD will allow users to mix HDV with other formats and resolutions — such as DV, SD, and HD — in the same project timeline.
• Effects for DVD output. During output to DVD, effects created in HDV can suffer when an entire sequence is encoded to MPEG. With Xpress Pro HD, users will be able to create high-resolution effects, animations, graphics, and composites for output using its DN×HD codec, which is designed to enable 8- and 10-bit uncompressed HD image quality at SD (and less than) data rates. Users will be able to mix any DN×HD media they create on the timeline with other existing formats in a project.

Avid plans to roll out a public beta program for HDV this summer. This program will be designed to give customers who are running Avid HD software a chance to test-drive the HDV implementation. Users will be able to provide feedback into the development process. Avid says it will provide more details before it launches the program. Anyone already using Avid Xpress Pro HD will receive HDV support as a free update when it ships.

---

Franklin McMahon is a director/media artist who hosts a blog and podcast for creative professionals at www.mediaartist.com.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.