Bottom line: if you're serious about HD editing, you can't go wrong with Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.0. It's everything you would expect from Avid, and more. Xpress Yourself (in HDV) It's difficult to discuss an Avid product without paying homage to the company's pre-eminent position within the professional video and film editing world. Avid's flagship video editing solution, the Media Composer, has long been the de facto standard in the film and broadcast television world--at least among those editing firms that can generate enough income to afford its $24,995 entry-level price tag. Nonetheless, trends in the video and film editing industry have moved away from the centrally-controlled, hugely expensive, full-featured video editing suite that belongs to a major production company, and toward the less-expensive independent shop running low-cost hardware and software. A few years back, to keep up with this trend, Avid released its own (relatively) low-cost editing software, dubbed Avid Xpress. The most recent version of the Xpress software family, Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.0, is the subject of this review. It's worth noting that Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.0 has enough bells and whistles to generate a review larger than this entire issue of Videomaker. Because we have other things to do in this issue besides discuss this product, we'll focus our review on the high points of this version of the software, and point you to Avid's Web site (www.avid.com) for further inquiries.
To summarize our findings, we'll say right now that it's a real gem, worth every penny of its $1,695 price tag. Furthermore, its attractive educational pricing ($295) make it a real steal for film and television students and teachers who want an inexpensive way to learn the basics of the Avid editing interface. read more...
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