The features behind the next generation of non-linear editors. A review of Avid Xpress Pro and Final Cut Pro. I was going to just review Final Cut Pro this month but I didn't want to leave you PC people out in the cold.

Many of you may be asking yourself, why should I invest in a new editing system when my current system is doing the job. The answer is simple. Your competitors may gain an advantage by improving their workflow and adding production quality that rivals your current production equipment.

Let's start with Final Cut Pro 4.0

Before moving on to the new features, let me point out a couple of existing features. If you are shooting in a wide screen format (16 x 9), Final Cut Pro will automatically detect the widescreen metadata for a particular clip. This means that it will automatically resize and format your image based on your output settings. This is important, because most of us will end up presenting our product on a standard 4 x 3 monitor. If you shoot in widescreen mode, Final Cut Pro will automatically resize and letter box your video within the 4 x 3 aspect ratio. This will save you a lot of time.

Other features include the ability to set individual layers with their own composite modes. These modes are similar to the composite modes found in photoshop. They tell Final Cut Pro how each video layer reacts with the layer below it.

I also like how Final Cut Pro deals with images larger than the 720-480 DV size. You can bring in images up to 4000 x 4000. Through Final Cut Pro's motion editor you can zoom into an image without having it become distorted. This is an invaluable tool when trying to bring life to still photographs. I have heard many editors call this effect the ‘Ken Burns' effect, referring to his ability to bring still photographs to life by moving throughout them.

New features in Final Cut Pro include the ability to map any menu function to the keyboard. There is also a new row of configurable buttons that can be added directly to the user interface located directly above the timeline window. The user interface windows are now dynamically configurable. Grabbing the edge of any windows will make the other windows adjust accordingly to fit the desktop area.

The real-time capability has been significantly enhanced. Depending on the speed of your machine, Final Cut Pro attempts to play as many layers as possible without giving you an annoying dropped frames message. I was able to play 3 picture in picture effects all at the same time without a problem. Keep in mind, you must still render your final sequence before you output to tape. However, there are now some effects that will now play directly back to tape without having to render.

Another really great feature is the ability to perform time warp effects directly to the timeline. This allows you to create slow motion effects that ramp up or down in terms of speed.

The Audio filters have been improved allowing real-time monitoring while you adjust the filter settings.

Most importantly are all of the bundled applications that come in the same box when you purchase Final Cut Pro 4.0. Two programs in particular are ‘SoundTrack' and ‘LiveType'.

While editing in Final Cut Pro you can add sound locators that will directly transfer over to the SoundTrack program. You can then use SoundTrack to create royalty free music scores and loops. The program literally has thousands of music samples that can be mixed together to form a music score. Even the most novice should be able to create a decent sounding music bed within a couple of minutes.

LiveType is another stand alone program that allows you to create incredible looking type with all sorts of animated attributes. The program is powerful enough that you can create your own complicated text effects, or use one of the many presets to customize as you see fit.

Another invaluable application that ships in the box is ‘Compressor' which allows you to encode projects directly to MPEG-2. This will come in handy if you plan on authoring a DVD for distribution. Final Cut Pro 4.0 now ships with a wide range of different codecs, including support for Panasonic's DVCPRO 50 over firewire. There is even a 10 bit codec allowing for high quality rendering of composited effects.

‘Cinema Tools' is now bundled for those who wish to create a cut list to go back to film or 24fps to HD.

For those of you not familiar with the original Avid Xpress DV, it features the same style editing interface that Avid users have come to love. This means the learning curve from one system to another is minimal. All the projects and media are compatible with Avid's existing Media Composer product line.

It even features a high end color corrector that was originally found only on Avid's higher end products. The color corrector now features ‘AutoCorrect' which can correct an entire sequence with one click. It does this by adjusting the white and black levels for each clip to fit within legal broadcast limits for NTSC video. It also features a ‘NaturalMatch' command which can match skins tones of two corresponding clips.

One of Avid's existing strong suits has been the amount of real-time effects available without any additional hardware. Virtually every effect that ships with Xpress DV will play back in real-time. The Avid Xpress Pro product takes the amount of real-time effects available to a higher level. Another added plus is the ability to play selected thirdy party plug-ins in real-time. Boris FX's continuum offers over 80 real-time effects that show up within the Avid's effect palette.

The most important feature in Avid's Pro product is the implementation of real-time 3D. This means you can now manipulate your graphics and video elements in 3D perspective. What is even more impressive, all of the 3D moves are performed in real time. The system uses an open GL graphics card to perform the calculations in real-time. Therefore, it is important that you configure your system with a compatible open GL graphics card if you want real-time 3D capability in your Xpress Pro system.

My next favorite feature is the ability to group up to four clips together to work in software multicam mode. You can view up to four cameras simultaneously in the source window. Dragging through them will keep all of the cameras in sync. With Xpress Pro you cannot play all the cameras simultaneously in real-time, but you can drag through them so see which shot you want to cut to. This in invaluable if you need to work with synced cameras.

When you purchase Avid Xpress Pro, you will receive installers for both Macintosh OS X, and Windows XP. The Avid Xpress Pro software is protected with a hardware dongle, and you will only receive one of them, but you can move the dongle from one computer to another without a problem.

The Xpress Pro also supports the Panasonic AG-DVX100 camera with support for 23.976p and 25p. However it is important to note that when recording a progressive format, the Avid Xpress Pro only allows you to record at 35:1, 28:1, and 14:1. These are listed as progressive resolutions within the record tool as 35:1p, 28:1p, and 14:1p.

Although it is an additional add-on, it is definitely worth considering the Avid Mojo box. These box allows for Composite, S-Video, and Component I/O. In addition, when the Mojo box is connect, the Avid Xpress Pro allows you to record video at uncompressed or 1:1. Video recorded at 1:1 is recorded at a 4:2:2 color space rather than DV's infamous 4:1:1 color space. This means you will be able to obtain cleaner effects and composites. This is most noticeable when trying to pull a clean chroma key.

With the Mojo box connected you will have real-time video output to an NSTC monitor. This means all of your standard real-time effects within the Avid Xpress Pro software will automatically be seen through the Mojo's output. This is an incredible time saving feature since you will not need to render your effects before final output.

The Avid Xpress Pro allows you to mix resolutions on the same timeline without having to render. This means you can generate all of your titles and graphics at 1:1, and mix them with DV footage. It is important to note that you have have the Mojo box connected in order to obtain the 1:1 option for generating titles and graphics.

Both Avid and Final Cut Pro have announced hundreds of new features within their applications, and I have touched just on a few of them. Visit their respective web pages for a complete technical sheet on all the features. Bottom line is, both products offer some amazing and unique features. If the Macintosh is your choice of a computer platform, you can load both applications on the same machine. You can then use each application with its specific advantages. This concludes the review of Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress Pro.

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Final Cut Pro

MAC Only System Requirements

Macintosh OSX 10.2.5 or later G4 Processor 500MHz 384MB RAM 14GB of disk space DVD ROM

Avid Xpress Pro

MAC System Requirements

Mac OS X 10.3.2 on single or dual processor G4 or G5 systems. Earlier Mac operating systems, including 10.3.0 and 10.3.1, are no longer being tested or qualified. 1 GB minimum system memory for Avid Xpress Pro used with Avid Mojo 512 MB minimum system memory for Avid Xpress Pro software only A graphics adapter supported by Apple Apple native FireWire, included with all qualified systems 40 GB or larger internal IDE boot drive CD or DVD-ROM drive

PC System Requirements

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 on PC systems 1 GB minimum system memory for Avid Xpress Pro used with Avid Mojo (1.5 GB for 12-stream performance in version 4.5) 512 MB minimum system memory for Avid Xpress Pro software only (1 GB for version 4.5) A qualified graphics card (specified per system above) An IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port or qualified DV In/Out Card (see below) 40 GB or larger internal disk drive CD or DVD-ROM drive