Avid | Avid Studio (http://www.avid.com/US/products/avid-studio)

Overview
Transform your HD videos, photos, and audio files into rich, multimedia experiences with Avid® Studio movie production software––featuring the same technology used by top Hollywood editors. Edit like a pro with sophisticated photo and video correction tools, a powerful library that organizes all your media in one place, unlimited timeline tracks for advanced effects, and more. In-depth training materials get you started quickly, and the included templates, effects, and transitions provide fresh inspiration for each new project. Integrated disc authoring and a variety of export formats make it easy to share your production with family, friends, and the world.

Key Features
Sophisticated movie editing tools, including markers and keyframes
Powerful media management library to organize videos, photos, and audio files
Media editor to apply corrections or effects to videos, photos, and audio
Unlimited timeline tracks for advanced editing and compositing
Professional add-ons and plug-ins (valued at over $2,000):
Red Giant Plug-in package
Complete Avid content package
100 additional HD video transitions
Comprehensive collection of how-to videos from Class on Demand™
Motion Titler for adding animated graphics and text
Audio tools for professional sound quality
5.1 surround sound import/export functionality
AVCHD burning; DVD and Blu-ray disc authoring and burning tools
5' x 6' green screen sheet for chroma-key effects

They position it between Pinnacle and Media Composer.
Avid | Avid Studio (http://www.avid.com/US/products/avid-studio/upgrades)

Only $169 and that includes many professional plug-ins (i.e. Red Giant Magic Bullet and Knoll Light Factory)

sounds interesting

i wish there was an apple/mac version

ymmv

be well

rob

It is a turbo version of Pinnacle Studie with a lot of extra effects filters thrown in. So it is the same Pinnacle engine. Studio is nice software if you have the right hardware.

Avid Liquid was a marvelous editing software, now condensed into Avid Studio. Well, I thought when I first read "Avid Studio": Hey, they are back on track but, no........unfortunately they let Liquid it die.

This costs only 180$. What is this a consumer-ish editor?

It is a turbo version of Pinnacle Studie with a lot of extra effects filters thrown in. So it is the same Pinnacle engine. Studio is nice software if you have the right hardware.

I am interested in finding out where you got that information, Jos - that Avid Studio is built on top of the Pinnacle Studio engine. Any weblinks handy?

This German beta-tester (http://www.videoaktiv.de/Praxis+Technik/EDITING-Hintergrundinfo/Avid-Studio-1.0-erster-Test.html) seems to be saying that Avid Studio was developed from the code base of Avid Liquid 9, and then given an interface similar to Pinnacle Studio. But my German is really, really rusty.



FWIW: Here's the press release (http://www.avid.com/US/press-room/Avid-Elevates-Home-Video-Creation-with-Expanded-Lineup-of-Consumer-Video-Editing).

I haven't used my german skills for a while...

The article reads:

Entwickelt wurde das Avid Studio in München, zum Teil von dem Team, das schon für das alte Fast 601/Purple/Silver beziehungsweise das bis exakt vor einem Jahr weitergeführte Liquid, verantwortlich zeichnete. Der Programmcode der eingestellten Software hat überlebt, denn er arbeitet bereits seit der Version 9 unter der weitgehend unveränderte Oberfläche des Pinnacle Studios. Mit dem neuen Schnittprogramm, setzt Avid dennoch ein anderes Zeichen: Das Schnittprogramm soll nicht nur bei der Oberfläche neue Wege gehen, sondern ist abermals komplett neu programmiert.

translates roughly to

Avid Studio was developed in München, a part of it by the team, responsible for the fast 601/Purple/silver interface that has been used in the now-discontinued Liquid. The program code has survived, and is since version 9 under the mostly unchanged interface of Pinnacle Studios. With the new Avid Studio, Avid doesn't only go new ways with the interface, but it is also completely reprogrammed.

No corrections! Good job :-) They refer in vers. 9 to Pinnacle Studio. But yes, it looks like consumer stuff.

Interesting to learn that Liquid may have survived in some form at least.
I had to migrate to Media Composer when Avid discontinued Liquid.
But Liquid was a hugely elegant, intuitive and efficient example of great software design. I miss it badly.
If the Liquid team have designed this it is well worth checking out.

Richard I concur. I couldn't justify the upgrade to MC so continue with Liquid, a little frustrating now that 3rd parties no longer support their products which worked perfectly well before.

However, I've recently upgraded my z1s to ex1rs and I'm having the devils own job getting my clips into Liquid. The mods in the old forum (well one in particular) are frankly useless - one line answers - one for example which said simply that "plug-ins in Liquid were never very good" - not exactly a great help.

I wonder if there's enough of Liquid in Avid Studio to make it worthwhile - on the other hand included free with my new camera is a copy of Vegas 10 PRO. I don't mind the learning curve but I'm sure I'll miss things like not having to save. On the other hand again apparently it take native EX1R files straight in and I've got three 64Gb cards waiting to be worked on.

I'm still using HDV cameras, and it will be hard to beat Liquid's workflow. I took the upgrade offer to Media Composer, but am not using it for real work. I wanted to cover the bases for when I eventually shift from tape to card based, likely AVCHD format.

However, I may opt for a card based storage system that attaches to my HDV cameras. Properly shot HDV footage is fine for the clients I usually get. Then I can continue to use Liquid for another couple of years. Having footage from the timeline go to a web ready format or to DVD with one click saves a lot of time. I can deliver some projects to clients the very next day.

Nevertheless, I am extremely interested in the new Avid Studio. If it supports multicam and multiple monitor editing environment comparable to Liquid, I'll buy it. Done deal. Especially since it apparently supports native AVCHD editing. That would be my most likely type of camera, given current revenue from my business, that I would switch to from HDV, at least in the next two years.

It is pretty inexpensive, so not much risk should it not work out. Of course, maybe MC's workflow is better than it seems to me. Maybe I haven't caught on yet. But I've used plenty of software packages since the early eighties, and didn't take this long to come up with efficient ways to do my work. Yeah, I can do the work in MC, but it takes me longer than Liquid.

, and is since version 9 under the mostly unchanged interface of Pinnacle Studios. With the new Avid Studio, Avid doesn't only go new ways with the interface, but it is also completely reprogrammed.

It seems to say they tossed out the wonderful Liquid human interface that is/was very close to Composer and used the toy Pinnacle interface. That would lead one to think the Liquid engine was retained.

Unfortunately, the Liquid engine was a multi-part beast. Some was very old.

Then it seems to say it's completely reprogrammed.

So hopefully they mean by that the engine was cleaned-up.

But, if it has Pinnacle interface IMHO it's another Avid failure that can't compete with iMovie and Vegas Movie Studio. (I leave out Premiere Elements because it has zero real time capabilities. It's like going back to the late 1990's.)

Nevertheless, I am extremely interested in the new Avid Studio. If it supports multicam and multiple monitor editing environment comparable to Liquid, I'll buy it

.

I doubt that multicam will be offered at $169.00 price point. That would be too good to be true.

When Pinnacle Studio 10 was introduced, Pinnacle stated Studio was totally "re-written" around the Liquid Edition "engine". Studio 10 as introduced was a MESS, but after a couple of updates most things kind of worked out.

I started out with the original Pinnacle StudioDV that came free with a 1394 Firewire port card I had to put in my computer to handle the first Sony Digital8 I got. I upgraded to Pinnacle Studio 7 and then each version up through 12.1 which I run now.

I noticed the offer to upgrade to Avid Studio.

Interesting to learn that Liquid may have survived in some form at least.
I had to migrate to Media Composer when Avid discontinued Liquid.
But Liquid was a hugely elegant, intuitive and efficient example of great software design. I miss it badly.
If the Liquid team have designed this it is well worth checking out.

Richard,

I too, took the upgrade to MC5 but I am having the hardest time learning it. I have the NX5 and a PD170 and am shooting HD and SD 4:3 with the NX5 so I can still edit with liquid. How are you and others learning MC5?

Dan
Forever Moments Video Productions (http://www.forevermomentsvideo.com)

I doubt that multicam will be offered at $169.00 price point. That would be too good to be true.
I tend to agree with David's logic, on the other hand I wonder if anybody knows if there's the possibility of a third party plug in that will offer a multicam operation - I seem to recall that early versions of Premiere had such an option.

Richard,

I too, took the upgrade to MC5 but I am having the hardest time learning it. I have the NX5 and a PD170 and am shooting HD and SD 4:3 with the NX5 so I can still edit with liquid. How are you and others learning MC5?

Dan
Forever Moments Video Productions (http://www.forevermomentsvideo.com)

I've had to make a clean break from Liquid as much as possible and force myself to learn MC. Liquid was certainly much easier to learn than MC. I have found that learning the keyboard shortcuts and using them is the key to efficiency in MC (for your basic cutting). I'm still learning my way around the effects editors.

The one thing I've had to get reasonably proficient at is figuring out how to get different format media in the same project. Where you could injest any resolution directly into any project in Liquid you can't do that with MC. You can only injest video into a project that matches the project setup resolution/framerate. After you have the media in a BIN you can open that BIN in the main project. Not exactly a streamlined workflow.

I'll be interested to see what is going to happen with the new Avid Studio product. I was a member of a team of users that was working on the Liquid replacement project before Jan left Avid and the organization of the project changed. We weren't exactly beta testers but more like focus group participants. We got to see NextGen while it was being written and looks like the UI being shown is the same as what we were shown. It was a radical departure from Liquid and more like Studio. They did say the new version would complete the merger of the underlying engine between Studio and Liquid.

One of the features they teased us with at the last meeting we had was the speech recognition. You could search your media library for phrases from a text search box. I see that is now an option in MC 5.5. Curious to see how much of what they showed us will make into the released version.

If some of what we were shown makes it into Avid Studio it will be really nice. Not having multicam editing would be a big negative in my book. They were also not going to support so called "professional" camera workflows like P2 and XDCam. The group lobbied heavily for those to be included. They seemed to soften to the idea. I hope they decided to not exclude those camera options.