Open Timeline. Want to work with more than one HD format at the same time? Or mix HD and SD footage? Maybe even have some film footage in the mix? Skip the pain of transcoding. Only Avid Xpress Pro software allows you to combine video and film formats and resolutions in their native form, on the same timeline, in real time.

Edit faster. Avid Xpress Pro software features the most flexible, customizable editing toolset you've ever seen. Best of all, everything is designed for speed, accuracy and, above all, the protection of your work. Drive edits with your mouse or your keyboard; unique model editing means that you can edit as fast as you think.

Customizable toolsets. We know the best way to edit is your way. Every workspace can be arranged to suit you and then saved—so that they reopen the same way, every time. Customize keyboard shortcuts and settings for additional controllers like the Digi 002 audio control surface. Take these settings with you and use them on any Avid system, anywhere in the world.

Real-time Avid multicam editing. Avid offers the industry's most powerful real-time multicam editing with the industry's only mixed-resolution clip grouping capability: mix HD, uncompressed SD, DV and film, each in their native format, with no transcoding required.

Custom metadata and Custom Sift. Out of the box, Avid Xpress Pro software tracks more kinds of metadata than anyone else. You can also add as many custom fields as you want: simply click in a bin column heading and type away. Use any of these provided or customized fields as the basis for media-based searches across projects and volumes to find information far beyond the reach of OS-level searches.

Script-based editing. Changes to your screenplay are automatically reflected in your editing timeline. In fact, you can edit without touching the timeline at all. Arrange paragraphs to arrange scenes and trim clips when you trim words from your script.

And if you're wondering about your camera or format support...

Sony HDV. Native capture of HDV material means no transcoding and no quality loss. Key support for Sony formats, including 1080i/60, 1080i/50, and 1080i/30f.

JVC HDV. JVC’s HDV cameras support SD via DV format recording and HD via HDV format recording. Avid Xpress Pro software supports all SD DV formats, as well as the 720p/29.97 HDV resolution.

Canon HDV. Canon’s new XL H1 HDV camera supports SD via DV format recording and HD via HDV format recording. Avid Xpress Pro software supports all SD DV formats; for HD, it supports 1080i/60, 1080i/50, and 1080/30 HDV resolutions.

Sony XDCAM. Sony XDCAM decks and camcorders store media on optical discs with capacities of up to 23.3GB. Key XDCAM features supported include: DVCAM, XDCAM HD at 25Mb/s, MXF support, and real-time playback of select variable framerates.

Panasonic DVCPRO HD and P2 media. Start editing right away with native DVCPRO HD capture and editing. Key support for Panasonic DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD, with direct edit and write-back to P2 media.

Tapeless editing. Say goodbye to digitizing. P2 and XDCAM aren't the only tapeless formats Avid Xpress Pro handles. FireStore and Ikegami are just two of the companies providing hard drive recorders that capture native Avid media direct to disk, ready to be mounted as Avid media drives.

Use the industry's first HD format designed for post production. All other HD formats are camera formats. They're not designed for compositing or animation. In fact, some of them don't have software codecs that you could render to if you wanted to. Avid DNxHD encoding is engineered to stand up to multi-layer, multi-generation editing and compositing, and use about the same bandwidth and storage space as uncompressed SD—without throwing away a single pixel. So shoot in your favorite format, and do all your processing in the only HD format that's up to the task.