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Avid's Xpress DV v2.0 was one of the big (stories at this year's NAB. It was clear Avid found religion and crowds circulated between the altar of Apple and Avid. What had once been a turnkey hardware/software solution for under $10,000 was now software running on Windows 2000 computers. To make a point, Avid demo'd the new version on laptops.
This is clearly the year for anywhere, anytime editing. Two years ago, three mobile systems were available: Media 100's laptop-based system; Fast's proprietary portable, and Ocean System's luggable Avid Xpress NT solution. This week I've tested four systems running on a laptop and haven't even begun to exhaust the mobile possibilities available.
Avid has two Xpress DV software bundles. The basic Xpress DV package includes Boris FX Ltd, Boris Graffiti Ltd., Sonic Solutions DVDIt! LE, and Media Cleaner EZ. Xpress DV outputs DVD, Real Media, QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, and DV formats. The PowerPack version adds Avid's DV Filmmaker's toolkit and ePublisher companion edition, Pinnacle's Commotion DV3.1.1 for compositing, Knoll LightFactory AVX plug-in for lighting and flare effects, Avid's Stabilize Effect AVX plug-in, and upgrades Sonic's DVDit! to the SE version. The toolkit consists of FilmScribe with Matchback for editing 24FPS originated material, Script-based editing, Dupe Detection, which flags re-used shots, AutoSync for synchronizing double system sound, and film-style effects that mimic opticals. Upgrades from version 1.0 cost $599 for the PowerPack version and $399 for the basic package.
Our review was done on an IBM A21P Thinkpad (street price $3,200), which is a Pentium III 850 MHz laptop with 128 MB of RAM, a 32G HD, 15-inch Active Matrix screen, 16 MB ATI Rage Mobility 128 graphics card, and DVD drive running Windows 2000 Workstation. The memory was upgraded to meet Xpress DV's requirement of 256 MB. The other requirements are Windows 2000 with Service Pack 1 and an OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 card. An ADS Technologies Pyro 1394 Port for notebooks PC card provided 4- and 6-pin Firewire connections. Xpress DV can take Firewire input from the camera and record to a Firewire drive from Maxtor or VST. The minimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768, at true color settings, with a refresh rate of 75 MHz. Xpress DV is copy protected with...