Format support

Enhanced AMA support

Traditionally Avid stores all it Media in a central media folder.  Any footage you want to use is copied into this folder - this is fine if you are capturing video from tape but not so great if you are importing files from, for exanple, a p2 card, because the importing process takes time.  So Avid introduced a feature called AMA (Avid Media Access) in version 4 which let you load clips from certain sources, like P2 and XDCAM-EX directly, without having to copy them to the central media folder.  With MC5 AMA has been enhanced and now can now deal with a huge variety of QuickTime files - including common formats like Apple Pro res.  This means it will be easier to swap footage between Avid and other programs and a lot more card-based cameras will be supported. 

XDCam HD proxy support

XDCAM-HD records a low-res "proxy" file onto the disc while also record the full HD file.  Avid can now edit directly using these proxy files, which can later be replaced with the full resolution files.  This means you can get on and edit the footage before the full resolution files have been copied on to your computer.

High Definition comes in various flavours, with HDV being just one.

HDV

Avid Media Composer supports all variations of 1080i HDV and 720p - which includes both 50P and 25P variations these days.

It supports editing the footage natively - which means it uses HDV as it came in from the camera and does not convert it to a less compressed format. You can do this after capture and converting files is easy because Avid has a tool for this operation - just select the clips and choose transcode, where the clips are going to be stored and let Avid do the rest.  Avid's own DNxHD format is the best option.  However Avid does handle native HDV files very well on an up-to-date PC so transcoding is not generally needed.  When it comes to record footage back to tape Avid will, like all programs, need to make HDV footage up into a completely new file and record the results, however, it will not remake any piece of video that does not have effects or it can avoid doing so can make HDV files very quickly. 

Sony XDCAMHD & XDCAM-EX

Media Composer supports XDCam HD at all settings. prior to version 3.5 you would need to use the Sony clip browser software to convert all files to MXF before import but with the latest version you can just bring in native XDCam-EX files and start editing immediately.  Media Composer now supports writing directly back to the SxS cards on which XDCam-EX is stored as well.

Panasonic DVCPro HD/P2

Media Composer supports P2 and DVC Pro HD extensively.  Again you can start editing directly off the cards if needed or copy the card contents to your computer quickly and then edit from the copy of the media on the hard drive.

Editing HD footage in Media Composer

When you start a project in Avid you choose a preset which defines the editing mode. However, once in Avid this can be varied between standard definition, HDV and full High Definition. Which mode you are in will then determine at what quality your effects are rendered, with which codec, and where you will see the picture.

At standard definition everything plays out through the Mojo, or to a DV device attached to the PC. At HD or HDV resolutions the playback is on screen only - if running two screens you can play the edit full screen on one monitor via the second output of your graphic card. This is not quite as good as output from a proper a device like a Matrox MX02, but it is much better than just an overlay.

You can have an HD project and edit it at standard definition with full output through the Mojo, so you can judge colour correction etc. and then at the end of the edit switch it to HD for the final render.

Avid do make some hardware to output at full HD resolution from the timeline.  The Mojo DX is a device which has HD-SDI in and out and HDMI out.  It is currently approx £7,000 with a copy of Media Composer; there are other upgrade options if you already have the software.

Once you have editing your footage you need to make it into a Blu-ray disc or some other file for web-based playback.  AVID DVD is supplied for Blu-ray authoring and Sorenson Squeeze for converting footage into other formats.

Lots of Codecs

Media Composer does have a wide variety of codecs. For standard definition there is DV and an even lower size format called 15:1s. With the latter you can capture a hour of footage and it only takes up around 1.5GB space. You edit off-line in this format and then re-capture just the sections used later at full quality.

For High Definition there are also several formats. Firstly Avid supports HDV editing in native MPEG. This is actually very well implemented and MPEG footage is very nice to use. Next there are several variations of what Avid call the DNxHD codec. This is a compressed format, invented by Avid to solve the problem of editing HD footage without choosing to use uncompressed formats which take huge amounts of space. These are practically impossible to use across a network to share with other users - something that is an essential part of Avid’s use in broadcast.

Like the Grass Valley and CineForm formats, Avid DNxHD saves each frame as a single frame, so it is nicer to use than MPEG and can do more in realtime. It is really intended for use with formats higher than HDV - if the project is in HDV mode then you cannot convert it to DNxHD and you have to switch to full HD mode to do this. However, once you have switched you just select several clips and choose transcode and leave Xpress Pro to get in with it. Once complete you get superior performance and more realtime effects, at the cost of more hard drive space used.

Realtime performance is not as good as Grass Valley EDIUS, and comparable with Adobe Premiere Pro.

If you choose to stay in the native mode, which most users will as it is actually pretty good, DNxHD still has a benefit. All effects are rendered to DNxHD, not MPEG format as with Avid Liquid, or Apple’s Final Cut Pro. This is quicker and also means that you do not risk problems rendering many generations of effects. Suppose you add an effect, render it, then add another, re-render and so on. If rendering into MPEG then each re-render adds possible artefacts because it is being saved in a highly compressed form (just like remaking footage from a DVD several times). By using the DNxHD codec Avid avoids this, and so is better for quality.

Support for Cannon DSLR cameras

Anyone can write an AMA plug-in to let Avid edit their footage so Cannon wrote one to handle footage from their range of digital SLR cameras.  Digital SLRs are growing in popularity for filming video - many, although primarily designed for stills will film full HD video.  The pictures produced can be quite spectacular so you need a way to edit them.  New settings have been added to Adobe's latest upgrade, Premiere Pro CS5, and now the footage can also be used directly in Media Composer.

Native AVCHD support

Another format added into MC5 is AVCHD.  AVCHD is becoming more and more popular and there are now professional AVCHD cameras from Panasonic and Sony.  This footage can now be edited directly in Media Composer. AVCHD is a hard format to edit so we do not know what playback is like inside of Media Composer, however if performance is bad you can always transcode the footage to one of any number of formats supported by MC including their own DNxHD.  This is really easy to do, load the clips, select them, choose transcode. Avid is also really good at switching between clips of different formats so you can always edit with transcoded footage and very easily switch back to the native footage for rendering.

Better RED camera support

The RED camera is being used for lots of feature film work and Avid supported it with MC4.  This support has been expanded with MC5 and you now link direct to the RED files using AMA. You can monitor @ 1920 x 1080 through Avid Adrenaline hardware.