Media Composer

Avid Media Composer

Media Composer running on a dual-monitor setup.
Developer(s)	Avid
Stable release	4.0.4
Operating system	Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X
Type	Video editing software
License	Proprietary
Website	http://www.avid.com/products/media-composer/

Media Composer, frequently referred to as "The Avid", is a non-linear editing system. It is the flagship product of Avid Technology. It was released in 1989 on the Macintosh II as an offline editing system. Since that time, the application features have increased to allow for film editing, uncompressed standard definition (SD) video and high definition (HD) editing and finishing. Since the early 1990s, Media Composer has been the dominant non-linear editing system in the film and television industry on first Mac and then also on Windows. Catering to the high end of the non-linear editing market, Avid is still used in almost all major film productions.

Current version

There is one version of Media Composer, to which you can add different external DNA (Digital Nonlinear Accelerator) input/output interfaces.

Avid Mojo SDI: includes Composite, S-Video, Component and SDI video, with 4 channels RCA, 4 channels AES and 2 channels optical S/PDIF audio. This interface only supports SD video formats.

Avid Mojo DX: a newer version of the Mojo with architecture offering faster processing and full 1920x1080 HD resolution in addition to standard definition video. This interface has SDI/HD-SDI inputs and outputs, HDMI outputs and stereo 1/4" TRS audio inputs and outputs.

Avid Nitris DX: a newer version of the Adrenaline with architecture offering faster processing and full 1920x1080 HD resolution (without extra cards) in addition to standard definition video. This interface also has a hardware DNxHD codec. Video connections include SDI, HD-SDI, Composite, S-Video and Component (SD or HD) inputs and outputs, it also has a HDMI output. Audio connections include XLR, AES, optical S/PDIF and ADAT inputs and outputs. It also has RCA inputs and 1/4" TRS outputs.

Recently discontinued

Avid Mojo: includes Composite and S-Video with two channels of RCA audio. There is an optional component video cable that can be added to this interface. This interface only supports SD video formats.

Avid Adrenaline: rack mountable interface which includes Composite, S-Video, Component and SDI video, 4 channels of XLR, 4 channels of AES, 2 channels of S/PDIF and 8 channels of ADAT audio. This interface also has an expansion slot for the DNxcel card which adds HD-SDI input and output as well as a DVI and HD component outputs. The DNxcel card uses Avid’s DNxHD compression which is available in 8-bit color formats at 145mb and 220mb as well as a 10-bit color format at 220mb. The DNxcel card also adds real-time SD down-convert and HD cross-convert.

Features

The Current version of Media Composer (MCSoft) has the following important features

• Animatte
• 3D Warp
• Paint
• Live Matte Key
• Tracker
• Timewarps with motion estimation (FluidMotion)
• SpectraMatte (high quality chroma keyer)
• Color Correction toolset (with Natural Match)
• ScriptSync
• Stereoscopic editing abilities
• AMA - Avid Media Access, the ability to edit with P2+XDCAM native material directly without capture.
• Mix and Match - put clips of any frame rate, compression, scan mode or video format on the same timeline

Media Composer differentiates itself from Symphony because it is missing Advanced/Secondary Color Correction and Universal Mastering.

The software is protected by a USB dongle that will operate on either Mac or Windows. As of version 3.5 the dongle is optional. By version 4, the software will no longer require a dongle.

Also included with Media Composer v3 is the following 3rd party software.

• Boris BCC 6 - Native Special effect filters that run directly in the Avid effect palette, which include secondaries, some tracking features, many applicable to titles.

• Avid FX - 2D & 3D compositing and titling software (aka Boris RED)

• Sorenson Squeeze 5.1 - Compression software to create, Windows Media, Quicktime, MPEG 1/2, MPEG 4 or Flash video

• SonicFire Pro 5 - music creation software (includes 2 CDs of music tracks)

• Avid DVD by Sonic - DVD and Blu-Ray authoring software (Windows only)

• MetaFuze - Tool to convert files (R3D, DPX, TIFF) from film scanning, CGI systems or RED camera into MXF media files (Windows only)

Software are full versions with online manuals.

History

External links

• Media Composer trial version

User groups

• Editors' Lounge Usergroup Burbank, USA