REVIEW: AVID MEDIA COMPOSER V.4.0

Post by Jonathan Moser

Since last month’s comprehensive review of Media Composer V.3.5 by AlphaDogs’ Terrence Curren (see postmagazine.com) is still fresh, I’ll just touch on the newest features of 4.0, which are pretty significant.

I’d also like to extend my thanks to Mr. Curren and AlphaDogs, who have been beta testers on 4.0 for several months, for providing additional feedback for this review.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Avid’s new 4.0 release, which runs on Mac and PC, isn’t in the feature set…it’s in the price. At $2,295, it’s $200 cheaper than the previous version (but still almost $1,300 more than its chief competitor, Final Cut, which runs only on Macs).With new Media Composer releases occurring about every six months, it’s clear Avid is aggressive about regaining not just market share but the marketplace. V.4 is the most dynamic release in years.

MIX AND MATCH

First, the big news: With this release, Media Composer finally catches up (and surpasses in some respects) something FCP editors have been familiar with for some time — the ability to mix different frame rates, formats and resolutions thanks to a feature called Mix and Match, all without transcoding. Avid’s implementation of this is quite different than FCP’s, offering wider control over the way fields and frames are handled. Plus, rendering is not required to play back mixed material. Play back is smooth, not jittery. Plus, MC4’s handling of the 2:3 pull-down in 24-frame material is true 2:3, not 4+1, eliminating mastering problems. read more...