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MAC ENABLED--Avid announces that version 3.0 of Xpress DV will be available on the Mac OS X and Windows 2000 operating systems, and will feature realtime capabilities.

Feb 5, 2002 12:00 PM, By Bob Turner

The big question has been answered. Avid Xpress DV will be available on the Mac. But whether Mac- or PC-based, the new version features new capabilities. I was given an exclusive preview of version 3.0 by Doug Hansel, Avid’s Xpress product designer. Charlie Russell, Xpress DV product marketing manager, assisted. Doug Hansel did not want to require a hardware upgrade for the new Windows-based version of the product. He told his team he wanted the new software to perform well on a 750MHz Pentium III laptop platform with a minimum of 256MB of RAM. (I strongly recommend at least doubling that.) “Performing well” means creating an environment in which creative decisions are made in realtime. Almost all video effects (with the exception of plug-in effects), even motion effects, are previewed in realtime.

Please note that “realtime” means much more than a single transition or effect – it could mean multiple layers. There are now eight video tracks, and I was surprised at the performance levels for realtime compositing on the somewhat dated 750MHz on which my demo was presented.

“I told my team that I wanted to get it right at this lower speed, because I wanted to keep current Xpress DV customers in the fold -- not make them repurchase gear if it wasn’t absolutely necessary,” explains Hansel, who adds that as the processing power of the platform increases, the compositing and effects performance also increases.

Improved user interface
The big changes to the user interface, or UI, are some of the most exciting things about this version release. The two goals for this UI appear to be to make it easier for those who have used Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and others; and to make the interface more like that of Media Composer.

Hansel explained the design goal. “We are really trying to bring Avid’s mindset into one UI without putting all the tools from Composer into Xpress. You can have a one-screen Avid or a two-screen Avid. That is this design team’s goal, as opposed to slicing the UI into products as we have in the past. We need to take a single UI and get the maximum we can out of it. Actually change it based upon how you use it instead of by product name.”

As Hansel talked, I watched him edit with the system. On his laptop screen I saw a layout similar to what a single-screen Media Composer might look like. There were two monitor windows (Source and Record/Timeline), and when he double-clicked a clip in a bin, it popped into the Source monitor. If he double-clicked a sequence, it popped into the Record/Timeline monitor -- something that doesn’t happen on the Media Composers I work on, but should. Then he went to the top toolbar and selected a new category, Toolset, which provided a pulldown with several custom desktop layout settings including: Basic, Recording Layout, Effects Layout, Audio Layout, Source/Record Layout, and others. He selected Basic, and the desktop appeared the way I expected the Xpress interface to look. He chose Audio Layout and audio mixer and audio tools replaced the old-style desktop. He went to Effects Layout, and an effects mode filled the desktop. Then he went back to Source/Record Layout and entered Trim Mode. A Big Trim window similar to Media Composer’s appeared.

Hansel then right mouse-clicked to access a large four-screen Slip/Slide Trim window. “We are trying to make things easier to find without further cluttering the UI,” he explains. “Just trying to use the UI the best way we can. Avid editors know how to find a Slip or a Slide mode. But for all the new people – how do you get them into Slip mode or Slide mode? Well, now you can right-click and get into more stuff easily. We are using the right-click feature more than ever!” He also demonstrated that Preferences are now located under Edit on the top toolbar because that is where FCP and Adobe editors expect to find it.

Another improvement in the interface is the addition of tabs in the Bin window and the Project window. The user interface now features what Avid calls a Superbin mode. In addition to the tabbed structure, if you click a bin in the Project window, the single bin visible changes to the bin selected. If you double-click, you can open the bin separately. The concept behind this change and many of the others is to maximize the limited desktop workspace, making it as efficient as possible.

In my opinion, one of the best added user interface features is a new advanced keyframe effects interface. You have your normal Avid interface mode where a keyframe can be added for all parameters, but now there is an expanded, more powerful and complex second-layer interface where you can add keyframes to individual parameters. In addition, programming keyframes can be set in a number of ways with a right mouse-click. You can keyframe a single parameter, all parameters, all open parameters, or all enabled parameters. This concept will be available on all Avid Xpress, Media Composer, and Symphony systems.

If you have tried to view the camcorder or VCR output as a “full resolution client monitor” (as opposed to a scaled video overlay available on some platforms), you know there is a delay for the digital-to-analog conversion process between the images visible via this device and the audio from the timeline/platform. This can be a problem on several DV edit systems, including those with required hardware cards. Avid created a Desktop Play Delay setting that allows you to synchronize that video to the laptop audio and internal video.

Something else I found elegant is the way this version supports dual monitors. There is an auto-sensing feature so that if you plug in a dual monitor setup, it automatically reconfigures to maximize the increased desktop space. There are far too many small UI improvements to mention all of them in this column. The bottom line is that the new user interface is easier to use, and the desktop is cleaner and more efficient.

New DV codec
Avid has also designed a new DV codec. In past versions of Xpress DV, Avid used the Canopus codec, considered by many to be the best of the breed. But considering the compositing features available in this version of Xpress, Avid started from scratch and created its own DV codec to improve image quality and performance.

Those who do not understand the role of a codec in native DV should know that DV is a compressed digital video format (approximately 5:1 compression), and every time you do something to an image (dissolve or transition, color correction, DVE, key, title, etc.) you need to uncompress the video, perform the change, and recompress the video. Such uncompress/recompress operations can result in a minimal digital “generational loss.” Repetitive generations of such processing can become noticeable with an inferior codec. Avid says its new codec offers the ability to handle these “digital generations” without noticeable image loss, among other benefits.

Realtime effects
Please note that the 750MHz demonstration platform was capable of realtime transitions and effects, but all version 3.0 platforms require a final render to do a Digital Cut (outputting to DV tape) if such effects are present. My personal view is that realtime decision-making is far more important than the need to avoid a one-time render when outputting to tape. With Xpress DV 3.0, the more powerful the processor/platform, the more effects and layering can be previewed without any additional hardware required, and the faster any required rendering will take.

However, it is incredible how much performance Avid is able to get out of a 750MHz platform, and how it is able to “jeep” the performance with a few sophisticated tricks that maximize the capabilities of such a platform. There are several switches or settings that allow for better effects/compositing preview performance while requiring you to compromise on either image quality during preview or lag time with something like a RAM-preload.

When do you need these switches? One switch is called High Performance Mode. This allows you to continue realtime previews, but the image muddies up a bit (scaled back to one-eighth resolution). We did this when we tried a three DVE window of moving video - all with variable soft borders – over moving video. Our platform started dropping frames as the third window appeared, but when we switched to this mode it played back fine – albeit with a little softness of image.

Another switch was called a “spring buffer” by Hansel, but Avid named it Pre-filled Frames. The editor pre-loads a selected number of seconds of a composited segment into a RAM buffer. We set this switch to 3 seconds, and every time we went to preview a build, there was a 3-second delay before playback. The buffer allowed a full resolution preview when it would otherwise not have been able to.

There will always be times when you either want to or need to render. Expert Render allows rendered segments to be trimmed or modified, and only the changed portions need re-rendering. This capability is usually only found on high-end editing systems.

The timeline offers various indicators when you are reaching the maximum load capacity of your platform. A dotted single pixel-wide line on the timeline over a composite warns that you are getting close to exceeding performance capabilities and the red version of this line indicates you will most likely have a problem with real- time playback. A blue version indicates you have a storage issue. Whenever you see such an indicator on your timeline, you have a variety of choices from rendering to throwing one of these performance or parameter switches to continue full playback capabilities.

While mentioning performance, it is important mention that Version 3.0 now offers multi-processor support. If a second processor is detected on Xpress DV, the software will attempt to move the codec work and RT effects work onto the second processor. Performance increases of 40-50% may be attainable.

Other features
Version 3.0 also supports Avid’s Unity LANshare technology and is compatible with Ethernet networking. With LANshare, it is possible to use DV media from a remote RAID source. This is true of both laptop and desktop systems.

It is important to understand that the Avid metadata is fully exchangeable with the Avid family of Xpress, Media Composer, and Symphony systems. The system is AAF-compliant as well. This metadata compatibility makes Xpress DV an ideal low-cost workgroup component. You can download and convert to DV any media accessible from another Meridien-based Avid. This is a non-realtime transcoding process, and like everything else associated with Xpress DV, the faster the platform, the faster this transcoding process is.

Another nice new feature is a Scene Extraction tool for ingesting an entire tape at a time. It allows you to break the input into sub-clips on the fly as the tape is ingested. Also, there is a Head and Tail Fades button. This allows an editor to park on a clip and say, “I really want to fade from this point in the picture,” and instead of the editor needing to calculate how many frames is required, the editor can say, “I want the fade to end there, so figure it out for me.”

Other bundled software includes Sonic DVD Recorder fully integrated and the Sonic DVDit! authoring package. A new higher-performance Ligos MPEG-2 encoder comes with all systems. Media Cleaner does, too. The PowerPack option is still available, and I still think it is well worth the additional cost. (I would personally not own an Xpress DV without it.) Avid has added 28 cool plug-in effects to the PowerPack that were derived from the Avid Illusion.

The Mac version
The Windows version is delivering today. The Mac version will be available in Q2. (There are Mac software engineers throughout our industry complaining about the lack of good development tools, but Avid would not comment on the reasons for the delay.) The Mac version will start with a comparable version 3.0. There will be minor differences so that each product can take advantage of the specific benefits of the OS it resides on. More importantly, there is no classic mode involved with the Mac version. It is a fully “Carbonized” product -- available only on an OS X platform. Because of that, Hansel believes the product will be fully compatible with a G5 platform when it becomes available.

In closing, Avid’s Xpress DV 3.0 is an amazing version upgrade. Realtime effects and other performance enhancements will be the focus of a lot of the buzz about this product. The Mac version will be much celebrated by those who have longed for this software on their personal platform of choice. Still, the user interface and the improved codec are not to be overlooked. The UI is much more clean, efficient, and easy-to-use. Avid editors will appreciate the more “Media Composer-like” feel. Finally, while these are the big improvements, there are many smaller ones that editors will be grateful for – so many that they cannot all fit into this article. If you are looking for a DV-based editing system, you really must take this for a test drive.

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