Avid Xpress Pro uses the same interface as Avid's other editors, so if you know one Avid, you know them all.

 

Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 is a high-powered video editor brought to you by the company that put the digital into digital video editing. Not only does Xpress offer a long list of pro-level features, but it also sports file compatibility with higher-end Avid gear found in edit bays around the world. But Xpress still has some annoying quirks; namely, its Mac support has been pretty iffy lately, and it also costs nearly $400 more than Apple's Final Cut Studio ($1,299, www.apple.com), which has more features.

 

Xpress's core features have been in place for years - things such as flexible trimming tools, advanced color correction, real-time video and audio effects, multicamera editing, media consolidation, and a highly customizable interface. Version 5.5's most important improvement is that it can capture, edit, and export HDV and DVCPRO HD video as well. If you've jumped on the HD bandwagon, chances are that Xpress will work with that stunning footage you've shot. Plus, if you add Avid's Mojo hardware to the mix ($1,695 to $2,495), you can also work with uncompressed SD video. Xpress still doesn't support uncompressed HD, which is something that Apple's Final Cut Pro handles right out of the box.

 

Xpress does have something that Final Cut users will envy, however: the ability to combine different media formats on a single timeline without having to render them first. Nowadays, a project's footage can come from different cameras shooting in different formats, and Xpress's ability to seamlessly mix them all together is a time-saver. Another feature we dig is Xpress's built-in motion stabilizer, which can remove (or at least minimize) camera shake. Effects packages such as Adobe After Effects or Apple's Shake can do the same thing, but being able to do it right in your video editor saves time.

 

Arguably, Xpress's biggest advantage is that it's compatible with all of the high-end Avid workstations in the world (and there are lots of them, since Avid is considered the gold standard in film and TV production). You can do the vast majority of your work using Xpress, and then take your project to a rental suite and finish it up on a high-end Avid box. For example, suppose you shot your project in uncompressed HD, but you copied it to DV video tapes and edited those tapes on your Xpress-equipped PowerBook. (Why not a MacBook Pro? More on that later.) Once your edit is done, you could take your project file to an Avid Nitris, which would automatically recapture and reassemble your edited video using your HD master tapes, and apply top-tier color correction and other effects. (You could use the same strategy with Final Cut Pro, but it's generally harder to find high-end Final Cut systems to rent, as opposed to Avid gear.)

 

 

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Xpress includes a mixed bag of sidekick applications to help polish your digital productions. For text titles, Avid's Marquee excels at creating layers of animated 3D text, with multiple light sources and other effects. SmartSound's Sonicfire Pro 4 lets you compose royalty-free music from loops and predefined melodies, and it can also change your music's orchestration depending on different mood keyframes you set (there are keyframes such as dialogue, heavy, light, and so on). Xpress also includes a full-blown version of Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite ($419), which encodes QuickTime, Flash, and DVD video using high-quality codecs.

 

But Xpress's sidekick applications don't feel as strong as the apps found in Apple's Final Cut Studio. They don't offer quite as many features, they don't share a common interface, and they don't work together quite as tightly as Final Cut Studio's companion apps. (For example, it's not as easy to pass a project from one app to another and then back again.) Finally, while PC Xpress users get a DVD-authoring app, the Mac version doesn't offer DVD authoring at all. To make a DVD, you'll have to use Apple's consumer-oriented iDVD, or buy Final Cut Studio simply to get Apple's excellent DVD Studio Pro. Having no DVD support is a problem for Xpress, and it's something that Avid should address.

 

Another chink in Xpress's armor is that Avid is often slow to bring feature updates to the Mac. Case in point: The Windows version offered HD goodness almost 18 months earlier - that's just not cool. Avid took more than four months to fully support Mac OS 10.4 when it first shipped. And, as of this writing, Xpress 5.5 isn't a Universal application, so Avid recommends that you not run it on Intel-based Macs - although the company assures us that a free Universal binary update should be available by the time you read this. It's not that Avid has bad Mac support, but history shows that Apple is much faster in issuing useful updates to Final Cut Studio (which is Universal), as well as in taking advantage of new hardware and OS features. One last knock: Xpress requires you to connect a USB dongle.

 

The bottom line. There's no denying that Xpress is a powerful tool, especially if you want to fit into the larger Avid family. But membership in the Avid family only goes so far. What Avid really needs to do is give Xpress the same attention on the Mac as it does on the Windows side.

 

COMPANY: Avid Technology
CONTACT: 800-949-2843, www.avid.com
PRICE: $1,695, $49.95 upgrade
REQUIREMENTS: G4 or faster, Mac OS 10.4.6 or later, QuickTime 7.1 or later, 1GB of RAM, 128MB of video RAM, 40GB disk space
Full of pro features. Works with popular HD formats. Compatible with higher-end Avid systems.
Historically iffy Mac support. So-so companion apps. No Universal binaries. Pricey.