Do more™ with Avid Xpress Pro.
Real-world, real-time DV, SD, HD* and film editing for Mac and PC systems. One app has it all.

Open Timeline.
Use more of the industry's most popular formats more ways. With Avid's unique Open Timeline technology, you can use more of the industry's most popular formats more ways, including P2, XDCAM and other tapeless media—and do more with them. Only Avid Xpress Pro software lets you combine multiple formats in their native form – DV, SD, HD* and film -- on one timeline, in real time. When you're done, encode them anyway you want: WMV HD, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), MPEG 2, Flash, and more.

Media. Immediately.
media management tools Avid media management tools are used to manage the world's largest, most demanding projects. Find exactly what you're looking for every time, and never slow down for even the largest and most intricate projects.

Integrated 3D titling with Avid Marquee
Avid Marquee remains the only directly integrated 3D and advanced 2D title solution, and it's now available for Avid Xpress Pro systems on Mac and PC.

Powerful 24p and film features.
With Academy Award® winning Avid Film Composer tools built right in, Avid Xpress Pro software has what you need for every kind of 24-frame editing, including film and both SD and HD 24p video.

Collaborate locally. Collaborate globally.
Start with Avid Xpress Pro software, and there's no limit to where you can go. Add seamlessly integrated 3D animation, Pro Tools audio, audio and video hardware, and more. Connect with the smartest shared storage and collaborative tools in the business. And Avid Total Conform makes it easy, fast, and affordable to give your project the same professional finish of today's big-budget productions.

 For more information on Avid Xpress Pro give our knowledgeable Avid Xpress Pro sales experts a call at 800 323-2325

Click here for all the latest Avid Xpress news on the Videoguys Blog!

Avid Xpress Pro with Avid Mojo

Avid Mojo hardware: portable, professional real-time video and effects for Avid Xpress Pro systems

Avid Mojo brings the power of Avid's Digital Nonlinear Accelerator (DNA) technology to Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress Pro HD software. Compact enough to take on location yet powerful enough to serve as the core of a video-editing suite, Avid Mojo hardware connects to both laptop and desktop systems with a single IEEE-1394 cable and, unlike other NLE add-on hardware, lets you capture audio or video while also providing output of the same source. Its real-time DV and analog I/O ports deliver simultaneous output to both client monitor and tape, real-time downconvert of HD output for display to SD monitors, and optional uncompressed SD over component analog.

Key features:

• DV, S-Video, composite, and optional component (4:2:2) input and output
• Simultaneous output of accelerated video and effects to both client monitor and tape
• Hardware DV codec frees host computer for additional processing – no matter what your computer's real-time performance, Mojo makes it better
• Hardware scaling of draft resolutions provides unsurpassed performance with uncompromised image quality
• Add uncompressed graphics and animations to DV25 projects in real time, without re-rendering to lower quality format
• Single-cable FireWire connection to laptop and desktop computers
• Bi-directional signal flow for monitoring during capture

Avid Mojo and Avid Xpress Pro

Avid Mojo provides much more than simple I/O. Its hardware DV decompressor means that more cycles are available to your computer for other tasks, such as effects processing. That means more real-time effects output and more real-time video streams, simultaneously output to both a broadcast monitor and to tape. Mojo's hardware decoder also scales up draft resolution video for display on a broadcast monitor, providing unsurpassed performance with uncompromised image quality. No matter how strong your computer's real-time performance, Mojo makes it better.

Additional benefits for Avid Xpress Pro HD

Avid Mojo offers additional benefits for Avid Xpress Pro HD software. Its ability to display HD video on an SD monitor is perfect for producers who want to use HD content for SD output, such as standard-definition DVD, as well as producers who want to take advantage of HD capture without having to upgrade every component in the studio at once.

• Display HD images on SD monitor
• Capture DV50 with normal pulldown via component analog.
• Capture to a native digital file and then output directly to DV50 over IEEE-1394 with the proper pulldown.

Avid Mojo and Avid Xpress Studio Complete

As part of Avid Xpress Studio Complete, the ultimate content creation suite, Avid Mojo extends its power even further. In addition to all of its uses with Avid Xpress Pro software, Avid Mojo also provides the following:

• Display video images from Avid Pro Tools LE on client monitor
• Sample-accurate sync with Digidesign 002 hardware allows perfect mix-to-pix
• Display real-time 3D camera views from Avid 3D on client monitor
• Display Avid FX composite window, including accelerated OpenGL previews, to client monitor

Avid Mojo for Digidesign Pro Tools and Softimage XSI

Customers of Digidesign Pro Tools and Softimage XSI can also take advantage of Avid Mojo, with full-screen video output to client monitors.

• Display video images from Avid Pro Tools LE on client monitor
• Sample-accurate sync with Digidesign 002 hardware allows perfect mix-to-pix
• Display real-time 3D camera views from Avid 3D on client monitor
• Display Avid FX composite window, including accelerated OpenGL previews, to client monitor

Advanced Productivity Tools
Edit DV or the 15:1s offline resolution with real-time transcoding and timeline mixing. Access 24 video and 24 audio tracks with unlimited layering, use 2D & 3D OpenGL technology-based video effects, utilize JKL edit and trim controls, extend & replace edits, group and gang clips. Customize keyboards, toolsets and every parameter of the interface more professionals use than any other.

Automatic Expert Color Correction
Powerful, real-time color correction capabilities like patent-pending NaturalMatch, 3-pane correcton windows, before and after split-screens, and customizable waveform and vectorscope monitors including luminance and chrominance display to check safe color levels, three ChromaWheel HSL color offset wheels, four ChromaCurve interactive graphs with multi-point controls for intuitive adjustments to color balance, and HSL master controls (hue, sat, bright, contrast, clip, invert) with safe color warning - make your masterpieces look their best - without requiring you to become a professional colorist.

Advanced Software Experts
Powerful software experts like and automatic OneStep AutoCorrect color correction, DV Scene Extraction, NaturalMatch, One Step Dynamic Storyboards, Quick Transitions, AutoSave, SuperBin and ExpertRender free editors to focus on the creative process, not on the technology.

Professional Audio, Titling, Compositing, and Effects
Best of class audio tools include real-time audio mixing, dissolves & punch-in, EQ, automation gain, DigiDesign AudioSuite enhanced titling and keyframable 2D & 3D effects.

Powerful Film Support
Award-winning Avid Film Composer technology, 24p film support, support for Panasonic AG-DVX100 24p camera, 35:1p, 28:1p and 14:1p offline formats, are all built-in.

Avid Total Conform
The perfect companion product for any Avid Media Composer, Symphony or DS user - all projects, bins and sequences are bi-directionally compatible - and support both OMF and MXF file formats.

#3 - Avid Xpress Pro & Avid Mojo A couple of years ago Avid started the software based real-time NLE revolution with the introduction of Xpress DV 3.0. (Outstanding real-time performance with no special hardware required, just an off the shelf FireWire card for the I/O). Well, the engineers at Avid certainly didn't sit still and watch as their competition jumped into the marketplace. Instead they leapfrogged them with Xpress Pro, blew them away with the Avid Mojo Digital NLE Accelerator, and then cut their legs out with a new improved and lower cost Xpress DV 4. I think the message is clear – Avid is out to dominate the prosumer low-end professional NLE market. So far, all I can say is "Watch Out," because the new Avid line up offers a top-notch solution for every level of digital videographer. With Xpress Pro, Avid has added a bunch of new tools that the more professional editor has been demanding. JKL keyboard shortcuts make trimming clips easier than ever. The already superb color correction has been made even better with a new expert automatic color correction tool that can color balance your entire video for you with the click of a mouse. Xpress Pro now supports 15:1s and other off line Avid editing resolutions for compatibility with all Avid systems new and old. Better still, all of the Avid PowerPack goodies – Image Stabilizer, Film Tools and Illusion FX are included in Xpress Pro. So is Sorenson Squeeze and Reel DVD le! Hands down the best new thing about Xpress Pro is Mojo. Mojo is an EXTERNAL device that attaches to your laptop or workstation via FireWire. What Mojo then does is nothing short of remarkable. Real-Time analog & DV output for up to 5 streams of video! WOW! Want even more – how about the ability to capture and edit uncompressed video?!? With Xpress Pro & Mojo you can mix DV and uncompressed footage in the same timeline. No need to waste disk space when DV quality is all you need. You only use uncompressed when you really need it – for heavy-duty title and graphics and for complex compositing.

Special Educational Pricing for Avid Xpress Pro In order to purchase any of the products featured on this page you must provide proof that you are either a student, educator or an educational facility. Educational facitities are required to provide a Purchase Order for your purchase Educators are required to provide copy of your ID Badge or pay stub Students will be asked to send a copy of your student ID and/or a transcript Fax in your back up 516 671-3092. Single copies of Avid Xpress Pro for Education are specially priced for institutions at $295. XPRESS PRO EDU $295.00 Students and faculty looking for copies of Avid Xpress Pro may also purchase the software for $295 The single seat EDU/Student pack includes: Avid Xpress Pro software for both Mac OS X and Windows XP Professional Avid Xpress Pro online documentation and product tutorial DVD Digidesign® AudioSuite, Avid Total Conform, Avid FilmMaker's Toolkit, Image Stabilization, IllusionFX, and Avid Pan & Zoom One license key (USB dongle) Avid Xpress Pro for Education does not contain any third-party software XPRESS PRO Student Pack $295.00 Avid Mojo EDU $995.00 Additionally, Avid offers a number of bundles that are geared towards schools seeking multi-system installations: Avid Xpress Studio Essentials EDU $995 This new package of integrated software and hardware from Avid, Digidesign, Softimage, Boris FX, and Sonic Solutions can be had for the affordable price of $995 Xpress Studio Essentials EDU $995.00 Avid Xpress Studio Complete EDU $3995 Similar to the Essentials package, the Complete version of Avid Xpress Studio swaps out the Digidesign Mbox with the Digi 002 control surface and includes the Avid Mojo DNA hardware. More real-time power and control for only $3995 Xpress Studio Complete EDU $3995.00 Avid Xpress Pro for Education - 10-pack $2,795 Save even more when you outfit your classroom with 10 seats of Avid Xpress Pro for Education. Priced at $2,795, this bundle includes all the editing software listed above plus ten license keys (USB dongles) and one printed set of documentation. Attention Educators!! For a bid / quote on Xpress DV EduPack single & multi-seat licenses Email Dan@SpecialtyVideoSupply or go to the SpecialtyVideoSupply website.

Videoguy's System recommendations for Xpress Pro & Mojo

Reality Check - as long as you give Xpress DV or Pro enough horsepower you should get great results and have a VERY stable system. Sure, we've run into some hardware to avoid over time, but overall if you stick to an Intel chipset and a 2+ Ghz machine, you're going to get great results with Xpress Pro. Xpress Pro & Mojo are very new, so our database is still being built, but here's our best info to date. Here are some do's and don'ts.

1. Get a P4 Hyper-Threaded CPU (2.4 Ghz+) It's much easier to build a powerful P4 box for NLE than an AMD. Why? We've found that chipsets for AMD machines require more tweaking and tuning then a P4. If you're going to go with AMD make sure you load all the latest bios updates and patches first. These are not always easy to find, so do your research. Warning: We do not recommend motherboards using nVidia chipsets for NLE.
2. Get plenty of RAM, and get the fastest your chipset supports. RAM is still cheap. Get a gig of it.
3. For now the OpenGL real-time 3D performance of Pro is only working with nVidia based graphics cards. Get a dual head one with 128 megs of RAM. So far we haven't seen enough of a performance boost to recommend 256, but this will change as prices fall.
4. Firewire. Make sure it's a TI based chipset. The ADS Pyro is a great choice here. If you are going to use Mojo and an exteranl firewire drive you'll need to have two firewire ports in your system - NOT on the same card. So get two Pyro cards. Install them at least 2 slots away from eachother. This should get them on different PCI buses and eliminate and bottlenecks. Should you run into issues, try moving one of the FireWire cards to a differrent slot.
5. Storage. SATA is cool for your dedicated video drive. We have not had the chance to test any SATA RAID controllers. In the past we have found that some EIDE RAID controllers hit the PCI bus pretty hard, so they may create bottelnecks with uncompressed video from Mojo. This may be the same for SATA RAID controllers. A single idedicated internal 7200 RPM EIDE or SATA drive is adequate for real-time DV editing with Mojo. It will also allow you to use uncompressed video. With uncompressed you will find that you eventually reach a clip length that starts to choke your system. If you plan on using uncompressed w/ Mojo often, go with SCSI. SCSI controllers are really good at what they do, and they have minimal impact on your PCI bus.
6. Xpress Pro and Mojo are scalable, so give them the most powerful system you can afford for best results. The more powerful your computer the more layers of video you'll be able to handle in real-time. With dual P4 3Ghz+ hyperthreaded CPUs and a GB of RAM you are going to get results that will blow you away!! That said, on a single P4 1.8 with 512 Megs of RAM you'll still have a pretty good system. You wont get as much real-time performance, but your editing may not require it. If you push beyond the real-time capabiliteis, Xpress Pro & XDV have intelligent rendering that will only render those segments of your timeline that require it.
7. Laptops. This is where we change our tune. Make sure you use an Avid recommended config or it's eqivilant. Many laptops involve custom hardware that can interfere with throughput. Note: Sometimes the same laptop is sold under different brand names. If this is the case and you can save some bucks - go for it - just make sure it is the same core hardware.

We've just updated our recommended systems page It's loaded with useful info for putting together your NLE computer.

Some more Avid Mojo info from the Videoguy (originally posted on the Avid WWUG 11/15/2003)

1. With Mojo hooked up to a TV monitor, you can see your effects in real-time while you are tweaking them. This feature is sometimes referred to as WYSIWYG. Being able to see the actual video with all layers on a video monitor while you are actually creating it is really important for color correction, PIP, 3D FX and titling.

2. Played around with draft mode and Mojo. WOW! I was blown away by how nice the video looked on the video monitor. You won't use it for final output, buit it means you could push your computer well beyond it's real-time playback capabilites and still have real-time video previews while you edit.

3. Avid is really hyping mixing DV and uncompressed video in a timeline. Frankly - I thought this was cool, but I didn't really understand how powerful this could be. Until now. Played around with using motion backgrounds and animations in a project. You can really see the difference in quality of the final product when you use uncompressed vs DV video for these.

4. More on uncompressed video. Played around with Squeeze and MPEG2 export. Those of you with DVD authoring and creation experience probably know this already - Fancy transitions and effects don't always look crisp and clean when you encode from DV to MPEG2. Well, I decided to do a test. I set up a few of these transitions to be rendered and saved as uncompressed video. WOW! the MPEG2 encode now looks significantly better. Note: I did not make my entire timeline uncompressed. I just selected those 'difficult' to encode segments.

5. Mojo & hardware needs. Yes, Mojo needs more power then Xpress Pro to run. But we were playing with a Dell laptop running a 1.7 Centrino and a GB of RAM & internal 7200 RPM hard drive. Xpress Pro & Mojo delivered outstanding performance. We were able to put 4 PIPs on a 5th full motion video background.

   On our new 3Ghz hyper-threaded workstation it gave even better performance. We were able to load up each PIP with motion, shadows and filters. And the nVideo quadra 750 card gave us great OpenGL 3D real-time effects.

Gary
Videoguys.com 800 323-2325
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Avid Power Pack features included with Xpress Pro

Avid Illusion FX® Pack

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• Color • Mix • Motion • Blur • Random • Blend • Crystal • Page Curl • Ripple • Film Grain • Particle Blast • Rollup • Flare • Particle Orbit • Shear • Iris • Particle wind • Sparkler • Kaleidoscope • Pattern Generator • Sphere • Lightning • Pinch • Swirl • Melt • Radial • Blur • Time code • Twist • Wave •

Avid Image Stabilization

The Stabilizer filter allows you to remove the shakes and jitter that all to often appear on our DV footage. What you do is select an area on the screen that the Stabilizer image will lock on too. The Stabilize analyzes the footage and then shifts the image around to keep your selection locked in. It then automatically crops and zooms the image for full screen playback.

The stabilzer tool that comes with the Xpress Pro is amazing. Since you get to control the area on the video that will be used as the lock in area for stabilizing, you can get exceptional results. Other stabilizers often use the foreground portion of the image, or a high contrast point. We have found that by picking an area in the background with horizontal and/or verticle lines we achieved the best results. In this footage I selected the edge of the balance beam with the climbing ladders behind it. The results were spectacular.

Avid DV Filmmaker's Toolkit