AVID To Offer Free DV Editing Software

[Jerry Jones]

Ulead, Adobe, and Pinnacle aren't going to like this one bit:

http://www.digitalproducer.com/2003/01_jan/news/01_06/avidfree0107.htm

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[paulw]

You may be correct.

"Avid Free DV is a streamlined version of Avid's award-winning video editing software with capabilities that include two video tracks, four audio tracks, basic trimming and editing functionality, and up to two streams of real-time effects. When Avid Free DV users are ready for even more horsepower, they can step up to Avid's professional line of products, including Avid Xpress(R) DV software and Media Composer(R) systems, and take advantage of the fully functional Avid editing interface and toolset."

It will upset Ulead as it will be aimed at the Video Studio end of things. Maybe they should also release the source code so that it could be ported to Linux. Wonder if the MAC version will run on Linux??

[paulw]

PS.

It says WIN XP and MAC OSX. I wonder what there is different between using it on Win2K ans WinXP?? I thought that they were basically the same apart from eye candy and WPA

[Elie]

Paul, that's what everyone thinks about WinXP, it has similairities obviously for compatibility reasons, but it is way different in code.

Oh BTW, this AVID Free DV is probably going to be a very scaled down NLE to the point where it won't effect Adobe or Ulead.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for

Cheers,
Elie

[Dr Mordrid]

If it just has 2 video + 2 effects streams and 4 audio tracks it's only a half-assed competition for VideoStudio, and with the next version of VS it may not be that either.

Dr. Mordrid

[Sciascia]

Funny that this is posted here today. A friend of mine just brought in 2 brand new 2G Hz laptops with Express DV 3.5 installed. 120G external firewire dirves and built in DVD burners. He thought that they needed to be fully built and configured, but we booted it up and everything was good to go. He is goig to let me play with them for a few days with a couple of XL-1's. I am stoked to say the least. The Avids that we have at this job are a little long in the tooth the say the least, the laptops have more HP and sotrage than the MAC ones we have. Supposedly we are going to get a few of these systems in the future, but that always seems to be a lot further away than I like.

Preliminary tests proved to be a very sweet system. I prefer Avid stuff over everything just because I am more familiar with it, put that experience with a cheap firewire controller and a very cheap (comparatively) camera and it is a match made in heaven. No more $30,000 cameras and $45,000 VTR's to mess with!!

I can't wait to go to work tomorrow.

[IM_Riktar]

Since alot of firewire cards come bundled with Editing software already I wonder how much of an impact this would really have?

I am probably missing something here (As usual) but for the life of me I can't see what. Unless this drops the price of firewire cards.

[Jerry Jones]

AVID is the de facto industry standard software for broadcast television.

Those who are contending this free software won't 'compete' against current for-sale editing software packages are missing the point, entirely.

The significance of this marketing move is that AVID knows people will download what is free.

And Avid's logic is that enough people will try this 'industry-standard' interface and be 'hooked.'

This move will put a free, industry-standard software interface into the hands of people who might otherwise not be willing to shell out the money for Xpress DV.

It's a gamble; but it may very well hook enough people to the point where they'll spend the dollars later to buy Xpress DV.

I think it might actually work... IF... the free software is especially stable and bug free.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Elie]

I agree with your logic Jerrold, we'll see what happens!

I may even try it myself.

Cheers,
Elie

[Brian Ellis]

If it's as good as Avid Cinema was ... well, it won't be worth downloading! Avid is, as you say, a market leader for pros, but that cuts little ice at the lower end. As for it being free, well, so is Netscape 7.0, an infinitely superior product for browsing and e-mail client that makes the MS IE/Outlook range of products, equally free, look like a set of toys but does that make Netscape any more popular?

OTOH, if the Avid product is bundled, in place of VS, then that would not bode well for Ulead.

[landrover]

Brian,

don't be so pessimistic. Avid Cinema is long long gone. And if the free DVexpress is only half as good as Avid's other products, it will be a treat for any serious video enthousiast.

landrover

[Brian Ellis]

Landrover

Maybe, but it illustrates how a bad experience sticks in one's craw for years and puts one off a company's products...

[landrover]

Brian,

I quite understand, and I ditched Avid Cinema after about half an hour of experimenting straight out of the Marvel box, but I am very satisfied with the Media Composer and Xpress workstations my employer has. Glad I didn´t have to pay for those machines myself, though...

landrover

[vlad the inhale]

Interesting . . . this is exactly what Alias/Wavefront did with the Maya Personal Learning Edition last year: attempt to get people hooked on the (expensive) pro version by giving away a stripped-down free version. It appears to have worked for A/W; I wonder if it will work for Avid. I also wonder if this is Avid's way of getting a feel for the mass market interest in an Avid DV editing program, and thus a prelude to a possible price cut for Xpress DV (after all, the market for sales to people who will pay a premium for Xpress DV just because it's an Avid must be pretty saturated by now)

[Sciascia]

Well after playing with the full version a little bit those Xpress NT and Media Composer users wil be happy to hear that it is basically the same thing. I doubt that the free version will be nearly as bad as Cinema was, it was terrible, but you have to remember when that came out, what was it like 4 or 5 years ago. A lot has changed since then. We used to have to rely on HW compression and now that is a thing of the past. And no one had a DV cam or had even heard of one. Avid realized that while they had teh big market with Media Composer and such that there was a lot of money in the smaller industry. After XpressDV took off it was apparent that there was an even lower scale market to exploit, I am sure that they will have something in the same price range as MSP or Premiere. Only problem is that MSP bundles so much in their editing SW that Avid will never be able to compete with the feature set in the same market. Until last year they didn't even have a real way to export to MPEG2 without going through hoops. I think that there are to many R&D dollars to invest to get competiitive with Ulead and they are too far behind at this point to make it cost effective. Unless they went with a scaled down slightly improved Cinema type of app that could go for the sub $300 (more like $99) then they aren't going to be stealing a lot of customers. MSP is overkill for most novices, but at the price range the extra room to grow is the big selling point.