Avid has now released the latest  issue of Avid Xpress Pro. This release, which is available for both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs in addition to PC systems, includes additional codec support and a number of quality improvements over the previous version 5.7.7. Avid Xpress Pro v5.8 is available free of charge to all registered customers of Avid Xpress Pro 5.7.x and Avid Xpress Studio 5.7.

* Support for VC-1 codec. This release adds native support for the Microsoft VC-1 codec. You can import, playback, render, mixdown and transcode in native VC-1 resolutions. Please note that VC-1 support is currently not available on Macintosh Power PC and playback-only on MacPro platforms.
      Please refer to the Avid Xpress Pro v5.8 ReadMe document located on the avid.com Knowledge Base for a detailed list of the capabilities and limitations of VC-1 support in this release.
    * Mac OS X support. This release supports Mac OS 10.4.11. Support for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) will be added in a future release.
    * Quality improvements. Refer to the Avid Xpress Pro v5.8 ReadMe document located on the avid.com Knowledge Base for a detailed list of improvements in this release.