Avid has released new versions of its digital video editing systems and will provide them with native support for Intel-based Macs. Media Composer costs US$4,995 with upgrades starting at $195. Xpress Pro costs $1,695 with upgrades starting at $49.95.

Xpress Pro is made for editing DV, SD and HD footage and film. It has Avid's usual standard editing environment, real-time mixing of formats and resolutions, 24p tools, multicam editing and many other features.

Media Composer provides the same editing environment that's been used for years to produce television shows, movies and commercials. Both versions have expanded format support, including write-back capabilities for the Sony XDCAM and Panasonic P2 media formats and support for the European 720p50 HD broadcast standard.

There are updated third-party applications bundled with both packages include Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite 4.5, used for video format encoding including SmartSound SonicFire Pro 4, enabling dynamic music soundtrack creation. It also comes with Media Composer specifically, Boris Continuum Complete 4.2.2, a high-end effects and filters package.

 
This version of Media Composer has ScriptSync, which is a script-based editing tool that uses phonetic speech recognition to sync text with media, and Avid DNxHD 36, a new HD codec used for offline editorial, which operates at a date rate of 36 megabits per second (Mb/s) at full-raster HD resolution.