Avid Xpress Pro HD

As computer systems become faster and cheaper, software editing systems continue their NLE market domination. Avid Technology is keeping its rivalry with Apple Computer going with Xpress Pro HD, the latest upgrade to the company’s software-based NLE system. Xpress Pro fans will now find many features they’ve long been asking for finally implemented in this version, along with some impressive new features. As we covered Xpress Pro HD’s Multicam editing capabilities in our August issue, we’ll focus on the other new additions to Xpress Pro HD in this review. In an upcoming review, we’ll look at how Xpress Pro HD integrates into Avid’s Xpress Pro HD Studio Complete suite of applications. Although Xpress Pro isn’t available yet in a Mac OS version, it should be in the near future; I tested the Windows XP Professional version.

Without question, the most significant addition to Xpress Pro HD is its new file format editing and display capabilities. With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Avid has finally been able to add in support for the DVCPRO 50 format. Also added in is support for Sony’s XDCAM, Panasonic’s P2, DVCPRO HD, as well as the standard high-definition formats (1080i/p and 720p).

Yet Xpress Pro HD truly shines in its ability to merge all of its supported video formats on one timeline – something that Final Cut Pro has never been able to touch. This is an amazing time saver when it comes to conforming video footage from multiple sources.

Avid’s new DNxHD codec also brings some impressive file-shrinking capabilities to Xpress Pro HD. DNxHD is a compression format recently developed by Avid that reduces HD to SD data sizes, yet maintains incredible image detail.

HDV fans, however, are out of luck – Avid doesn’t plan on releasing an HDV-aware version of Xpress Pro HD until the end of the year. In the meantime, if you want to do HDV editing right now you’ll have to look to Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Digital’s Vegas products.

On a different note, Xpress Pro HD has added some impressive titling and FireWire support. In addition to the basic titling software, Avid’s slick Marquee title generator program is now integrated into the Xpress Pro HD software. Marquee can create impressive 2D and 3D animated titles, while providing sophisticated control over many parameters.

Finally, Xpress Pro HD can capture and output DVCPRO 50 over FireWire, as well as output real-time effects directly through FireWire. This was something missing in previous versions, which required an Avid Mojo to display effects in real time.

Unfortunately, Xpress Pro HD has inherited the installation and compatibility woes of nearly every Avid product ever released. Over the past decade, we haven’t found a single Avid product that didn’t require major time spent with tech support to make it work. It took nearly four days of solid tech support, many blue screens of death and plain old trial-and-error work to get our Xpress Pro system to play nicely with our approved PC system. At least Avid has excellent tech support folks.

Once Xpress Pro HD was working (and nothing changed on the hardware side), the software worked like a champ. The lesson here is that Xpress Pro HD needs a computer system dedicated to itself, with very few other programs in residence.

Another annoyance is that Avid is still hanging on to the modal interface from the days of old. I’ve mentioned before that having to switch in and out of color correction, effects and editing modes is a waste of time. While this is a truly difficult task, Apple has shown with Final Cut Pro HD that innovation can lead to market share.

The addition of improved Multicam editing, Avid DNxHD codec, the new Marquee title generation program and support for new video formats makes Xpress Pro HD a good, solid upgrade to an already great editing system. Also, Xpress Pro HD has hooks to hardware support, so you can add uncompressed video output with the Avid Mojo and high-end audio mixing with the Digi002 audio interface.

First-time users be warned: This is a professional program. It’s defined as tricky to install, hard to learn and fairly expensive to maintain. Still, when you do finally master the software, you’ll be amazed at the quality and creative options you’ll have.