Is Avid really worth the price?

[Flintstone]

I've been looking into Avid Xpress Pro a bit lately, and by all appearances, it looks like a real kick ass NLE. But one impressive thing about Avid Xpress Pro (and Mojo for that matter) is the price tag attached to it. Really! Aside from the “standard” Avid interface that allows you to be compatible with all other Avid products, what does this product really do that is far superior to other NLEs that warrant this hefty price tag?

[Jive]

I haven't used the latest version of any Avid product, but back in the day when I used Avid, I couldn't find anything incredibly spectacular about the workflow that warranted the price. *The price is what it is for the pretty much the same reason it's always been high: the Avid name, and everything that infers.

Just to note, it looks as if the lower priced NLEs (Vegas, Premier, FCP, etc.) are now making Avid feel the heat what with their latest price drop of their DV NLE. *These other programs are increasing in useful features while remaining at the same price-point, therefore their value increases, while Avid remains pretty much the same.

[MichaelP]

The workflow offered in Avid products is far ahead of other editing systems depending on what you are doing. I would agree that in a songle station, all in one editing system there is a lot of competition, but at the higher end of film and television, there are many features in the workflow that are unique to Avid editing systems. Examples of this 50 editing systems sharing the same media at the same time at NFL FIlms delivering programming days after the games are played. Folms like "The Matrix" and Lord of the Rings depending on the same technolgy to allow multiple editors and assistants sharing the same media at the same time (not just sharing storage as in other solutions). Tracking more than a single timecode in the editing application - such as 24, 25, 30, ink numbers, playback TC, KeyKOde, 65mm foermtat, all forms of pulldown (not just "A" frame), linking footage to a script for digital lined script interface, AutoSync based on common timecodes from many sources, grouping of multiple cameras, multigrouping of multiple group clips for multicamera work, free logging applications, EDL's that reflect pulldown cadence of a 24 inside 30 NTSC so that color correction and other downstream processes can be applied to the images with no flash frames as a reult. Ability to capture ADVANCED pulldown even when flags are damaged or not present (as in a dub process or over SDI/Analog), Ability to create a negative cutlist that reflect more than just dissolves and cuts, but layers, keys, as well as shaped based effects at any resolution. Cutlists that are created in HTML for collaborative workflow with active hyperlinks across lists to QT movies, ablity to generate alllists as TAB delimited to feed scannera and telecines for retransfers to HD or 2k workflow, ability to relink any sequence to any new transfer even if timecode chamged (tracking KeyKod internally, not in a separate database) etc. etc. Some of these are never considered until the program you need to deliver needs them... and then you realize their value.

Michael