What's New in Avid Media Composer 5?

A new version of Media Composer was announced at NAB, the big video show in Las Vegas in April 2010.  It will be shipping in June 2010 and anyone who buys the current version, version 4, between NAB and the shipping of the new version will get a free update to version 5.  So what new features have been added?

Windows 7 support

Now MC will work on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.  Using a 64 bit version of Windows Vista or Windows 7 is preferred but the program will work on 32 bit versions and like most editing programs is still a 32 bit program itself.   Avid have said this will be the last version to support Windows XP but there is no real reason to use XP anymore anyway - Windows 7 is clearly better and if you use the 64 bit version Avid will work better than on XP.

Output from a Matrox MX02 Mini

One area where the competition scored over Avid was that all the other programs had a range of extra hardware that let you see the picture as you are editing on a proper video monitor.  This is really important because you can see exactly what the edit is like as you do it and do not get any sudden surprises when you make your final Blu-ray or DVD disc.  Avid had the Mojo SDI for standard def and the MOJO DX for high def but they are quite expensive.  Now MC5 will output through the Matrox MX02 Mini - which are £300 is a reasonable price.  This will give you HD or SD output through composite,component, SVIDEO or HDMI and all the built-in features of the Mini - such as realtime down-scaling, should also work. This is also using the standard version of the Mini - so at the same time as working with AVID you will get a Premiere plug-in as well as WYSIWYG output from a variety of programs such as AfterEffects and Photoshop. 

The Avid support is output ONLY, you will not be able to capture using the Mini and AVID.  On the PC the Mini has it's own capture program which captures into MATROX format; we have yet to see if this footage can easily be imported into Media Composer.  It does not support the MAX version of the Min - which adds realtime H264 encoding, nor any of the higher up MX02s which have HD-SDI i/o

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. 

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.

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.

Better audio

Now MC can have stereo as well as mono audio tracks - in previous versions a stereo clip was split into two mono clips on different tracks.  You can also apply more than one audio filter at at time; in previous versions you would apply an audio filter then have to perform an "audio mixdown" where it renders the clip and adds it to the timeline, before you could add another effect.  Now you can apply up to 5 effects without rendering.  MC now supports standard RTAS audio filters; this is slightly different to the "VST" audio filters supported on programs like Premiere Pro and EDIUS, although the principle is the same and there are a lot of these filters available.

Full RGB colour space support

While some programs (like Grass Valley EDIUS for example) can only work in 8 bit colour space MC can now work in anything up to full 4:4:4 RGB colour space .  This is useful for animators and people producing high quality work.  For most users 8 bit (the same quality in which DV, HDV, AVCHD, XDCAM and DVD work) is good enough.

Revamped interface

"Evolution not revolution" is the phrase used by Avid to explain the changes to the interface of Media Composer. MC has a huge user base who have been using it for years, and like the way it works.  However new users, used to other programs, are sometimes put off by the way the program operates.  Even hardened Avid Editors will tell you to forget the way you have been working and learn "the Avid way", promising that once you do you will work faster.  Some people do and some people just give up and use something else, so Avid is trying to add in new ways of working that will appeal to non-Avid editors whilst at the same time.  So in the MC5 a new tool bar has been introduced that lets you work on video in a much more "draggy and droppy" way. 

Activate the new toolbar and you just grab the edge of the clip and trim.

Dongle support

Old versions of Avid had a "dongle" - a USB key, without which the software would not work.   If you buy an upgrade to an existing version then you can carry on using the dongle with MC5.  Avid say this is probably the last major release that will let you do so.  If buying a new version there is no dongle, instead you activate the software using the Internet, and can move the activation between different computers as needed.

Pricing and availability

The new version of MC is now shipping as a downloadable version, but we do not yet have stock of the box version with all the 3rd party applications (Boris, Squeeze etc..). If you buy the current upgrade you are entitled to a free upgrade of the Media Composer program.

We also expect prices to increase in July, but do not know the new prices as yet.

The Matrox MX02 MINI

With the arrival of Media Composer 5 you can now use the Matrox MX02 Mini for an SD or HD output from a Media Composer timeline.

You can still capture video using the Mini and the MXTOOLs provided if you are using a Windows computer, althouigh these files will need to be converted for use in Avid Media Composer.

There are two version of the Mini - the standard version and the Max version. Both are the same, with the MAX version having extra chips to speed up H264 encoding. Both will work with Media Composer, however, Media Composer will not use the MAX chips so if you just have Media Composer then there is no point currently in buying the MAX version. If you have other programs, such as Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro, then you can export movies from Avid and encode them in these other programs.