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Nonlinear Editing Software
Grass Valley, $999
First: I like this software. Second: Ain't none of them perfect, and Edius isn't either. But the features and overall usability of the Edius interface make it worth a look for many users.
NLE software is much like a word processor: most editors use less than a third of an NLE's capabilities, and hardly anyone uses all of them. But everyone uses a slightly different third. Most editors have experience on multiple NLEs, but each have a favorite they're most comfortable with and find easiest to use. Edius Broadcast 4 could become that NLE for me - partially because it includes a feature called Shortcut Mapping that will configure all the keyboard shortcuts to Avid or Final Cut Pro configuration, but also because the interface itself is clean, straightforward, and well-designed. While there were a few hardware configuration issues I had to twiddle with, the overall operation of the software was quite intuitive - despite the fact that I'm not a fan of running programs via little icon buttons.
Pluses for productivity
Experienced editors use keyboard shortcuts almost exclusively, and the remapping feature makes using your favorite shortcuts a whiz. In fact, practically every aspect of Edius is configurable, including the icon buttons and the interface colors. You can save out any crazy configuration you like and import it to another Edius system. The Extras disk supplies keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Edius Pro 3. There's also a full version of SoundSoap and Adorage, a package of eye-candy transitions from ProDAD.
Edius Broadcast 4 supports SD, DV, HD, and HDV, and can mix them in the same timeline - though, of course, the timeline is basically set to one output resolution and frame rate. The software supports every flavor of HD from 1080i60 and 1080p24 to 720p24, including pulldown and Advanced modes.
Edius is set up really well for a dualmonitor display, but would be truly squeezed for single-monitor use. On startup, the stock configuration displays the timeline with source and preview windows on one monitor, with the footage bin, effects/transition bin, marker, and info windows, all of which you can reconfigure any way you'd like. Grass Valley also offers four turnkey versions of Edius...