Avid Xpress DV 3.5 for Mac OS X

[Gary Bettan]

Avid Announces Immediate Availability of Avid Xpress DV 3.5 Video Editing Software for Macintosh OS X and Windows XP
Only Digital Video Studio with Expert Color Correction Toolset, Revolutionary Real-time Architecture and Software for both Mac and Windows in the Same Box
Los Angeles, CA - June 26, 2002 - Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced immediate availability of Avid Xpress® DV v3.5 for Mac OS X and Windows XP. Now on the Mac platform for the first time, this portable, affordable, professional DV studio brings the industry-standard Avid editing experience and toolset to everyone who wants to edit digital video. Also new to the Avid Xpress DV product is an expert color correction toolset, featuring patent-pending technology capable of automatically matching skin tones between scenes with a single click.

"Xpress DV 3.5 is an important release for Avid because it fulfills our commitment to bring the industry's most powerful DV editing studio to the Mac," said David Krall, Avid's president and CEO. "And, we have taken our commitment to Macintosh users a step further by ensuring that Xpress DV's real-time architecture is supported on all G4s - laptops, desktops and even the new iMac."

"Most of the world's video editing is done on Macs and Avid's new Xpress DV product will further cement this," said Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. "Avid has a long history of serving the professional video editing community, and this new version of Xpress DV taps the power of Mac OS X and the G4 Velocity Engine to bring professional-level editing capabilities to even more Mac users."

Avid Xpress DV v3.5 Summary
Avid's real-time architecture - offers more than 100 infinitely customizable real-time effects, titling, compositing and color correction with multiple, simultaneous streams - all in software - all without rendering. Customers can create richly layered compositions such as a moving title with a dissolve, a color correction effect, and a picture-in-picture overlay simultaneously - all in real-time.
Real-time expert color correction tools (built on patented technology derived from Avid's professional Avid Symphony™ finishing system).
Customizable workspaces that allow customers to personalize every aspect of the industry-standard Avid editing interface.
Versions for both Macintosh OS X and Windows XP operating systems in the same box, so professionals can easily move back and forth between systems they use most often.
Support for all qualified Macintosh computers with Mac OS X v10.1.4 or later and 400 MHz G4 processor or higher. Avid's revolutionary real-time architecture even runs on the new iMac and all Apple PowerBook G4s.
Support for qualified systems running the Windows XP Professional operating system.
Affordably priced - USMSRP $1,699 for the standard configuration and $2,499 for the PowerPack.
New Color Correction Features
Patent-pending NaturalMatch™ technology, capable of true color-to-color matching without the use of grayscale values to approximate color tones.
A three-window view that includes previous, current and next frames, along with reference frames and split-screen mode, to let editors precisely correct colors between shots.
Customizable, advanced vectorscope, waveform monitors and histograms, including luminance and chrominance.
Three ChromaWheel™ HSL color offset wheels (shadows, midtones, highlights).
HSL master controls (hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, clip, invert).
ChromaCurve ™ interactive graphs with multi-point controls (red, blue, green, master).
Beta Customer Feedback
"With Avid Xpress DV on my Mac, I can now move projects from my PowerBook to a Media Composer® or Symphony™ with ease. I don't lose any of the project info, and we save lots of time by not having to convert EDL's," said Emmy®-award winning Editor Herbert Bennett of Video Arts in San Francisco. "Avid is already the industry standard for editing at the high-end of the market, but tools like this mean that every editor can affordably join the Avid family."

More About Avid Xpress DV v3.5
More information about Avid Xpress DV v3.5, including complete pricing, upgrades, list of features, the new color correction toolset, and system requirements, can be found at www.avid.com/xpressdv.

[Chris Hurd]

I would like to see a serious, objective comparison of Xpress DV 3.5 and FCP 3.

[Joe Redifer]

While it is good that this is now on the Mac, I think they could have found a better name than "Xpress" It makes it sound like they are only trying to apeal to 13 year old kiddies. It doesn't sound professional at all.

I can't wait for

Avid XTreme DV

Avid Tight-Bangin' Phiggidy Phat DV

Avid 3|33T3 |7ox0|7z DV (The hacker speak words are "Elite" and "roxorz")

[Steve Nunez]

Xpress also suggests it's a "low end" version of something...to me anyway.

FCP seems to have the entire industry abuzz- this Avid Xpress would have to be something awesome to get people to abandon FCP....but who knows with it's "Hollywood" acceptance- Avid will likely rival FCP!

FCP user til the end..............

[Gary Bettan]

Make no mistake about it - the reason XDV is now on Mac is to steal back all the FCP users Avid feels they have lost.

This will be no small task, as the FCP users are a vey happy and loyal bunch. That said, XDV offfers dramatically more real-time performance and features. The new real-time color correction expert toolset is taken right out of Symphony. There are no compromises here at all.

I'm really a PC guy, and that's my expertise. While I've dabbled with Mac and tried FCP, I am by no means an experienced FCP user. So I'm going to leave the head-to-head comparisons to those who are.

Expect to see a ton of articles and postings about this battle over the next few months. I predict you're going to see alot of guys go over/back to Avid. Especially the independant DV film producers. The XDV Powerpack w/ filmakers toolkit, vido stabilizer, illusions FX and now Boris FX & Graffiti is a tremendous value for $2195.

Gary
Videoguys.com

[Jeff Donald]

As a former (X?) Avid user, I am tempted to check out the new offering. However, Apple has made several interesting purchases in the past several months. I expect to see the technology from these acquisitions flow into the next version of FCP. If Apple offers no new features in next version I'll be ready to go back to the Avid.

Jeff

[Ken Tanaka]

I received this notice via email from 2-pop today.

" 2 Free DVD Demo of Final Cut Pro 3 and Avid Xpress DV 3.5:
ProMax is offering Free DVDs that include a comprehensive
demonstration of Final Cut Pro 3 or Avid Xpress DV 3.5. To
obtain one please visit our web page at http://www.promax.com
or EMAIL your request to jasonc@promax.com make sure to include
your postal address. "

[Al Holston]

From what I seen, it looks like Avid DV Exp. will do more "real time" effects that FCP3 -- I don't have personal experience with either, but I am looking at both for an editing platform on the Mac. I have "linenar" editing exp. on both manual and "computer-based" systems, (sim. to Avid sys), One of my orig. objections to other programs, was a lack of real-time without buying outboartd/inboard processing cards etc to make it happen.
Now with dual processor 1ghz sys. avail; I think the time has come for more "real-time" editing from the softwar and computer hardware itself, without the extra "boards".
Has anyone had any "hands-on" experience with Avid DV Express yet?
P.S. "Express" has been refered to as "cut down" or 2nd rate; however the primary meaning of the word is "fast" or "quick" by taking a more direct route; i.e. express bus service..." al

[Jeff Donald]

Last week i attended a demo of DV Express 3.5 and it was very impressive. It wasn't really hands on, but I saw it do a pretty impressive demo. The footage was all supplied, so it's hard to say how hard it was pushed. The real time effects are very impressive. The color correction is very good. Fixed some poorly white balanced footage etc. I'm not ready to jump from FCP yet. I started editing on Avids in '93. The learning curve and interface are much harder than FCP for most people. However, if the next version of FCP is just refinements and no stunning new features or capabilities, I'll probably jump back to Avid.

[Ken Tanaka]

Why would you "jump back" to an Avid system, Jeff?

[Al Holston]

From what I have seen so far, I am leaning towards Avid Express too, it seems to do much more for a little extra investment. Still considering all my otpions though. al

[Jeff Donald]

Avid as one upped FCP in many areas. Real Time Effects, better color correction, remappable keyboard, better media management, full retail versions of Boris FX and Graffiti, Filmmaker kit and more. The PowerPack ($2500) is equal to FCP3, Cinema Tools and Boris FX & Graffiti. The media management is superb with Avid, the best in the business. You can quickly cut out the used clips and renders, move media around with few worries of it getting lost. The remappable keyboard big. You can fundementally change how you edit, which keys do what. Then when you quit Avid the keyboard is back to normal. Avids titles are just as lame as FCP, that's why Apple includes Boris Caligraphy, Avid gives you the retail version, Graffiti. The biggest advantage FCP has over DV Express is the compositing feature. But, coming from Avid originally, I use After Effects for almost all my compositing. I haven't switched yet, but Apple had better make FCP4 a killer or I think they will lose a lot of momentum in this market. For most people I think that will mean REAL, real time effects. Avid gives you more than 100 RT effects. But i think the plan is OS X 10.2, 8x AGP video, G5 or high speed (1.4 or 1.6GHz G4) and dual or maybe quad processors, FCP4. In that order and probably in Feb or March. My dual 450 will be over 2 1/2 years old and i be ready for something new.

Jeff

[Al Holston]

Jeff,
Have you seen Mac's new rack-mount server, its a dual G-4 with 4 1200 gig hard drives and firewire port on the front (for easy access). Has faster series memory than regular G4's and comes fully configured for around $4,000. al

[Jeff Donald]

Yes, a very fast machine by almost any standards. The $4,000 unit has only one 60gig HD not the four 120gig HD, they are reserved for the $8,000 machine. It also doesn't come with a video card, but one can be added. The front FireWire sure would be handy. It has an L3 cache for each processor and uses the DDR memory you mention. Reviews I've read all talk about the speed. In a recent test it beat more expensive Compaq and HP machines by 20 to 30%.

Jeff

[Al Holston]

The vendor is SF must have given me the wrong price quote on their recently acquired G4 server, I should go back and take them up on their first quote of $4K! Thanks for the info; also I just picked up a copy of Macworld, and they have a review of the new server. It occupies 1RU (rack unit about 2") of space. but is about 24" deep.
Also looking at the recently announced Juagar OSX v2; the sound manager is ready to accept floating 32-bit, 96Mhz standard. The two together should rock!
Al.