Anyone using Avid XPress Pro HD on a PC?

[BigMike]

Just wondering how Avid Xpress Pro 5.2 is working for you folks.

Barry tried the codec and it rendered very slow. Is anyone out there actually using this software without any hardware acceleration?

I went to a seminar and someone asked about XPress DV Pro HD and the speaker said "It works..." then in the same sentence mentioned "Nitro" and "Adrenaline." Makes me wonder.

Is it buggy?

What are you experiences?

Thanks!

 

[JanBee]

Bugginess heavily depends on how extensive you're using Xpress's features. I know people who run it flawlessly. They use it for single-format-footage with simple effects only. A very good friend of mine who just finished a 50 minute documentary with 120 hours of source footage, different audio sampling rates, and numerous effects (adaptive masks, ramps, color correction) swears he could make ANY Xpress Pro and Adrenaline (which is the SAME software, just a different licence key) 10 times a day. Easily. NO. It was/is not a matter of certified hardware. It is buggy software.

I decided I could live with bugs as long as I know how to avoid them.

But you will find out that Xpress has some other flaws (beyond bugs) that I (personally) can not live with. Examples: You don't have an audio peak meter for your source audio tracks. Just for the two master outputs. Crazy! That's something my old Media100 had 8 years ago and what I need everytime I do a mix-down. Another example: Display of the audio waveform is ridiculously slow - you can't really use it. Everytime you zoom or pan in your time line: wait, wait, wait.

The list continues.

Unfortunately.

 

[jazzx]

I gave a shot to AVID Xpress Pro HD again recently after finally managing to make it play on my machine (A64 3200+ 2gb Ram, no special Hardware) and it worked fine and in realtime with effects with 720 and 1080 mxf's and I thought that's cool.

But then I started learning it, downloading tutorials and getting the crack of it, well it turns out it just isn't for me, I dunno maybe because in a way it "reinvents" editing especially when putting transitions or adding effects, even the preferences are set differently than in any other NLE I've used. The only thing I really liked was the trimming tool. I will probably use AVID only only if it's absolutely necessary and my hands are tied.

I had a similar experience (HDV) with Edius, with the difference that Edius is really, really fast and less quirky but seriously featureless and inacessible for my taste, but then again perhaps I should give it more time. I'm confused on Edius right now.

Recently I bought a mac mini, it's an 1.25Ghz 1gb 32mbVGA one. I've loaded Final Cut Pro 5.04, tried loading a 720p DVCPRO-HD mxf and then another 2 on the same timeline, color corrected one and guess what, they all played fine! now that's impressive!

My experience comes from Premiere so I guess Final Cut for me is great and then some. I really hope PP2 supports MXF, cause I believe AVID just isn't much for people not professionally trained on it, while Premiere, Vegas and FCP seem to be more on the "sensible usability" people tend to relate to.