You asked for it, and Avid listened. In mid-October, Avid began delivering native HDV editing and workflow support in its PC-based Avid Xpress Pro 5.2 systems. Later that month, it brought the same native HDV support to its Media Composer Adrenaline systems. Says senior product manager Patrick McLean, "This is native all the way. The bits captured on the camera are the same bits that sit on the timeline." McLean adds that because of Avid’s special mastering-quality sauce- the built-in DNxHD codec that sustains multigenerational decodes and encodes while keeping file sizes small- you can layer on graphics, multiprocessed edits and comps to your heart’s content. If you aren’t ready to go all the way with HDV, you can mix and match SD and HDV formats on your timeline and even in your multicam windows (right)- without rendering. Those who purchased either a Media Composer Adrenaline HD 2.x system or an Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.x system before October 17 will receive the HDV software upgrade for free; those who own Xpress Pro version 4 will pay only $50 for the upgrade.
FREE/$50 www.avid.com