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Avid Xpress Studio HD is far more expensive than the competition. That will and should dissuade some potential users, as will the somewhat steeper learning curve for most of the tools compared to Apple, Adobe, or Ulead. But consider what you're getting: three industry-standard, time-proven editing interfaces in Xpress Pro, Pro Tools LE, and Avid 3D, and solid DVD authoring technology from Sonic in Avid DVD, that are continuing to evolve and grab features from their high-end siblings.
When Avid introduced the Avid Xpress Studio a little more than a year ago, it solidified a commitment to Xpress and, by extension, the event videographer market. It's an audience with whom Avid has had, over the past decade anyway, something of a lukewarm relationship. After all, Avid is the clear market leader in premium editing systems for major motion pictures and television studios, and endowing affordable editing software with additional features is a potential risk to that higher-end business.
Yet Avid increasingly has struck a clever balance with Xpress, both as an adjutant editing station-off-lining, offloading, or in-the-field laptop editing-for higher-end systems and as a very capable standalone editor for smaller studios. Although event videographers aren't likely often to "finish" on a Media Composer or Symphony, Xpress' innate tie to those higher-end products essentially guarantees professional performance and future advancement in a very affordable software editing application.
The just-released Avid Xpress Studio HD brings HD support to a bundle of five compelling tools that specifically target the smaller, single-station studio and event videographer. Make no mistake: Avid is still a premium brand and Xpress Studio HD carries a price more than twice that of competing bundles. For some, the tools here will be overkill for the work they do. Still, the Xpress Studio HD Complete bundle is a best-in-class solution that demands a closer look.
Avid Xpress Studio HD comes in two flavors, Avid Xpress Studio HD Essentials ($3,495) and Avid Xpress Studio HD Complete, ($5,995). Both include the same five software applications. The difference is that the Complete version adds two important pieces of hardware, the Mojo video I/O box and the Digi 002 digital audio mixer, that make it a very complete (appropriately enough) and portable personal editing system. Essentials augments the software...