Avid’s newest release of Media Composer has a number of features that shows Avid has been listening to their customers, and making a commitment to bring their now-venerable suite of non-linear editing systems to the next level.
There are a lot of very nice features in MC5 including AMA (Avid Media Access), which allows instant, native, editing of virtually any type of media, including RED R3D files, without transcoding. Okay, there are a few catches, including the need for the editor to manage the files on disk, as they are not cataloged and ingested into the Avid mxf media folder, and for that, and performance reasons, you’ll probably want to transcode the material at some point … But there’s no need to wait for lengthy transcodes anymore when you need to look at, and cut together, a bunch of different media types quickly.
Avid’s been putting out a number of new features videos on YouTube, and they’re pretty good. The attached clip talks about the new “Smart Tool” feature, which allows you to selectively enable/disable Avid’s notorious (if you’re a Final Cut Pro Editor) modes, and select/cut/trim your media seamlessly. Frankly, it’s a lot like using FCP’s timeline, and a major enhancement to the Media Composer user experience.