Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 RELEASED

[DavidBeier]

Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 RELEASED

New improvements:

• Mac Pro support The Avid Media Composer and Avid Xpress Pro editing applications are now available for the Mac Pro systems.

• 720p/50 Support Avid editing applications now support the 720p/50 format.

• Sony® XDCAM Workflow Improvements You can now export media to an XDCAM device.

• Panasonic® P2 Workflow Improvements You can now copy your P2 card to a FireWire® Drive or network drive, import clips and media directory from the P2 card, [/b]or write your sequence back to the P2 card.[/b]

• AudioSuite plug-ins The editing applications now nclude the Time Shift Audio Plug-In.

• Scrolling Timeline You can have the Timeline scroll over the position indicator while you play a sequence.

• Advanced Keyframe Improvements Allows you to adjust your view of advanced keyframe graphs.

• MXF vs. OMF default media. In previous releases, the default media type in the Media Creation settings was set to OMF. The default media type is now set to MXF.

• Adding Text to Multiple Clips Allows you to enter the same comment to several clips at once.

Greet news. I'm annoyed that frame extractions for 1080p aren't here yet but I've been told that their coming. I'll wait to upgrade when that happens.

No HDV 24 Frame support at all.

Ok, I don't meant for this to sound as elitest as it does, but this really doesn't shock me considering the standards of what Avid tends to support. It's an elitest program and the same way it won't take in a lot of lower quality codecs and file types because they figure their users aren't going to be all that interested in that (if I really need to edit something with crappy video I'll take it into Premiere), Avid probably doesn't think it's worth it to spend a lot of time messing with stronger HDV support. I don't know if this is a good move or bad one but it shouldn't surprise anyone. Personally, I think it depends on how well the various cameras are selling (sales data would be great). If tons of pros are getting the JVC HD100 and the Canon A1, the yes better HDV performance should be a priority. On the other hand, if most of the HDV users are shooting weddings with Sony FX1 and Z1s, then 24p support is kind of moot.

 

[cre8tive]

Anyone want to report on the ease of editing straight from the card with the new release? Is it vastly improved? On the level with Edius Broadcast or still tedious work-arounds?

Why can't Final Cut be released on PC... sigh.

I really like it. No need for using the Media Tool and dragging clips anymore. I've asked Avid to come up with a podcast, etc., showing how good this is. With all the effort they are throwing into NAB, don't know if we'll see anything soon.

If you are going to NAB (I'm booked on a job out of the country this year), stop by the booth and get one of the demo guys or Avid engineers to show you how well it works. Avid has put a lot of effort into improving this workflow.

Regards,

Cre8tive

 

[cre8tive]

Right. So again, it doesn't support any of those modes properly. C'mon, Avid, it's 2007...

Barry,

What do you mean by "properly?" I've been editing 720p/30p, 1080i/30p, 720p/24p and 1080i/30p projects for quite a while now. My projects all seem fine to me.

Regards,

Cre8tive

 

[Barry_Green]

What I mean is, you can't edit those projects at their proper frame rate. 1080/30p for example: Avid makes you edit it as 1080/60i. A big deal? Maybe, maybe not, depends on what you do... if you overlay graphics, then yes it might be a very big deal; interlaced graphics over progressive footage. 1080/24p: Avid again makes you edit it as 60i.

Every other editor out there lets you edit the footage as what it is (except for 1080/24p 2:3 pulldown; nobody but Canopus properly supports that IINM); Avid is making you edit all those file formats non-natively. If it doesn't bother you, that's fine for you, but it's still inferior to the way other editors let you work.

 

[c3kings]

This from avid forum today:

There is a 1080p/25 project workaround for 720p/25pN material shot on the HVX200 camera. This starts with the creation of a 1080p/25 project and continues with the following steps:

1.drag files to avid mediafiles/mxf/1 or open mediatool from a 1080p/25 project type and read the p2 card directly
2.drag 720p25pn files to an open bin in the 1080p/25 project type
3. edit using open timeline
4.transcode as needed for final output

it should be noted that in the format column it will still read 720p/50 but the media is 25fps and will work in this project type due to the avid open timeline

Paul,

It doesn't work for me. Please help.

I opened a 1080/25p project, but in the Media Tool, it shows the clips as "Wrong Format." In the bin, it is labeled as "Unsupported (HD720p/50)."

Does your way work with only Avid version 5.7? I am using 5.6.4.

Thanks.

King

 

[Paul Llewellyn]

King,

The workaround isn't mine. I read about it on the avid forum the day that 5.7 was released.

It is for 5.7 which I'm still waiting to try as it isn't yet available to buy on the avid uk site. Sometime today hopefully.

 

[c3kings]

King,

The workaround isn't mine. I read about it on the avid forum the day that 5.7 was released.

It is for 5.7 which I'm still waiting to try as it isn't yet available to buy on the avid uk site. Sometime today hopefully.

I see, Paul. So, it seems that it is only for version 5.7. For 5.6.4, I am just out of luck. I cannot do any 720/25pn editing with Avid yet.

 

[Paul Llewellyn]

The workaround in 5.7 works. The only real hassle so far is the need to transcode before export.

Can anyone tell me why it is that I can export without transcoding if I apply an avid effect over the sequence? I exported as a QT ref file. How does the whole transcoding thing work?