Frozen in Time: Avid Liquid 7

Product Review: Page (1) of 2 - 12/13/05

Frozen in Time: Avid Liquid 7 Solid technology underneath but anachronistic interface has run out of gas By Charlie White

The Liquid brand of nonlinear editing software, formerly from Pinnacle, has now resurfaced under the Avid banner after the recent purchase of the company by Avid. Version 7.0 adds a sparse few new features while carrying over the outstanding technology underneath. Avid Liquid 7.0 ($499 software-only, Pro version $999, $199 upgrade from previous versions, $299 upgrade from Pinnacle Studio) has a lot going for it if you can learn its nonstandard interface. With the addition of a few minor tweaks, Liquid 7 is hardly new?not worthy of point-release status?but is still powerful and effective in the right hands.

When you first launch Avid Liquid 7.0, you?ll notice it taking you into its own world. Once it?s launched, if you want to, say, take a break and check your e-mail elsewhere on your computer, everything is grayer throughout your Windows system. That?s because even though there was a mild attempt to bring the application toward a more Windows-like standard with version 6.0, Liquid?s user interface still harkens back to February of 2000, nearly six years ago, when Fast Multimedia first introduced this software which it called Fast Studio. Six years is a veritable eternity in the high technology industry. In those days, it was considered beneficial by some users to dedicate a machine to editing video. So, in its first iteration, Fast Studio covered up even the Start button on the Windows interface, substituting its own widgets at the bottom of the screen to control the proceedings.

Here's one of the non-standard dialog boxes in Liquid.
Unfortunately, the user interface of Liquid has not come very far since then. There are nonstandard elements throughout (see examples below), such as a check mark instead of an OK button in some of the dialog boxes, but in many others, there?s no check mark but they require you to click the x on the top right of the window. Still others want you to click on an OK that?s far from any Windows standard. There?s also the odd convention of an icon that depicts a little man running out the door to exit certain large dialog boxes. Worse, just as in previous versions of Liquid, many of the software?s functions are still buried underneath inexplicable layers of user interface complexity. And then if that wasn?t enough, numerous times the program crashed when I was switching between various parts of the user interface. On a positive note, Liquid saves each keystroke, so each time I had to restart the program it placed me in the same spot where I left off.

There goes that little man, running out, meaning "exit."
This is an interface that is exceptionally long-in-the-tooth and way overdue for a complete overhaul. Trying to make a silk purse out of a sow?s ear, Avid inexplicably decided to tout this limited user interface as a new feature, calling it a ?Single Monitor UI.? Avid says this UI optimizes the editing workspace for single monitor editors and makes it perfect for laptop or high-definition LCD displays. The truth of the matter is there are severe limitations in a user interface that can only be changed by using a group of six or seven presets, and whose windows can?t be precisely customized to users? individual tastes. This is a user interface that has fallen way behind almost all other modern nonlinear editing software applications.

Liquid 7 gives you another Start menu on top of the one from Windows.

Another non-standard interface element. Now how do we accept the changes here? Where's that check mark? Or is there an OK button?

Also touted as a new feature is the Easy Capture facility (see graphic below). Indeed, this capture tool has been greatly simplified, where capturing is reduced to clicking one button. But then it?s too simple in some instances, where there?s no way to shuttle back and forth with a slider control?moving around on a tape must be done using the simple tape transport controls provided on this minimalist interface. The space bar doesn?t stop the tape, and even the JKL keys do nothing in this dumbed-down capture facility. Is this an Avid application, without JKL control? Huh? That?s okay, though, because if you want to log shots and shuttle around the tape with considerably more precision, that facility is still available elsewhere in the software. But for Avid to tout this trifle as a new feature is telling.

This new "Easy Capture" tool was so dumbed-down it was awkward.

A welcome addition to Liquid is the ability to capture and edit DivX files. If you?re not familiar with the DivX codec, it?s a compression scheme that allows for very small file sizes while preserving high quality. But Liquid captures and edits DivX version 5, which is the old version of the software?that?s unfortunately one point-release behind the improved DivX 6.0, the current version of that popular and efficient compression program. However, it?s a big plus that Avid Liquid is able to capture and edit the DivX codec in its native form, and it worked very well in my testing.

In addition to the standard version, the Pro version, complete with that great-looking Porsche-designed breakout box, also supports Avid?s Open Timeline concept which lets you mix all kinds of clips together without having to render anything. In fact, in addition to DivX, you can import and edit DV, MPEG I-frame, MPEG IBP, uncompressed SD, Windows Media 9 and MPEG-4, as well as HDV without rendering. This is a terrific timesaver, and is certainly a huge benefit Liquid has acquired since it nestled itself under Avid?s wing.

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