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Avid DV vs Xpress Pro: need help choosing.
Hello,
My main use of the software will be for: Documentaries, Event Videography that will include subtitles and multilanguage dubbing for a nonprofit organization. Color correction is important for me. DVD Authoring is also important, although I don’t mind purchasing a dedicated application like DVDLabPro.
Given I will not be working with HD or outputting to film or using multiple angles, what do I lose by going with Avid DV? The price point seems like a great value. I don’t want to buy Xpress Pro and end up using only a small percentage of the feature set and pay so much for it. Besides it seems like the upgrading at a later date from DV ($299) to Xpress Pro ($999) ends up exactly as much as buying Xpress Pro now.
Thanks in advance for your input. -
4 Replies
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You might want to check out Avid Liquid. You can’t take footage from a Liquid to another Avid (like Xpress Pro, Media Composer, Symphony), but it’s an all in one package for everything from editing and graphics to DVD authoring. I’ve never used it so I can’t attest to it’s power, but it seems pretty popular. As long as you don’t think you’ll be needing to finish on a higher end system or anything, you might want to look into it. It seems to be reasonably priced too.
Mike.
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aloha
i got xpress DV in august and now would now like to have pro. it is a good system to learn on but i am worried that i may not be able to put out DVD’s in the best resolution. even though i have done the upgrade to the sorenson squeeze lite version(useless)that came with the xpress DV. you might keep an eye on my post yesterday and see what people have to say. also what kind of a camera are you planning to use?best
tito
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If you plan on doing everything yourself, go with Avid Liquid 7. It has more features than XPro does, including secondary color-correction, timewarp, 3D warping, masking, surround sound, etc. Very powerful application.
If you plan on working with other people in post (“collaboration”), such as finishing on a higher-end Avid, working with compositors, audio folks, effects artists, color-graders, etc., then DEFINITELY go with XPro.
XPro offers many more features than XDV and is WELL WORTH the extra money!!! For starters, as of XPro 5.5 due this summer (target date is June), you will have the full Avid Film Composer toolset…the exact same toolset that most Hollywood films are cut with, that, up until now, used to cost $25,000 to get via an Avid Media Composer Adrenaline system. It cost even more back in the old Meridien days! I realize you said you won’t be outputting to film, but this is huge in and of itself.
Other improvements over XDV include 3D effects, HD support, 24p support, Marquee Title Tool (far better than the standard Avid Title Tool), multi-cam (4-streams of RT), Timewarp FX presets (canned, can’t be tweaked, but better than nothing).
It goes deeper: XPro offers support for Mojo, which allows you to work with uncompressed video…meaning BETTER RESOLUTION and higher-quality output. You can work with more resolutions, too, including 15:1s offline for your rough-cut to save disk space.
This is but merely scratching the surface!
Also, XDV’s future is extremely uncertain, and looks as though it’s going to be killed. You might as well spend the extra money and get a product that is going to continue to see a healthy life as it gets upgraded and improved constantly.
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Thanks for all your responses, certainly a few angles to think about… To answer an earlier query…we will probably end up using something like a Sony PD 170 or a similar model from Canon.
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