Of course everything Liquid can do right now, plus...

• improved DVD authoring (multiple audiotracks, subtitles etc.. as Smetvid already said: pinnacle has the know how (and the codebase), so put it in the product. I don't want to use Liquid first and then DVDit Pro. One app to rule them all..... ;-)
• a DolbyDigital-EX & DTS(-ES) creator
• Autosave is fine to me. It already saved my butt a couple of times. Give them a possibility to switch it off if they want. Plus: to avoid 54 undos, add a windows-like snapshot or project restore feature which allows to store before you start any experiments. I know, this has exactly the same effect as saving the project like Lews said. But this would be from within the project and you wouldn't have to store and load again.
• a Premiere-like moviestrip timeline view. In Premiere you don't have just a picon at the beginning and the end, you have it all over the timeline which makes it easier to find the moment you are looking for.
• Back in my old DC30 days Miro used to ship a utility called Asymetrix 3Dfx with the board. I'd like to see a whole new Title Deko including such 3D abilities.

One of my biggest peeves with the current Liquid timeline is that if you have a picon at the beginning and end of a clip and you apply a transition, the picon goes away. The transition needs to overlay the picon not make it disappear.

 

LewS:

One of my biggest peeves with the current Liquid timeline is that if you have a picon at the beginning and end of a clip and you apply a transition, the picon goes away. The transition needs to overlay the picon not make it disappear.

 

EEWWWW good one!  That would be really nice!

obdan_van_darg:

Of course everything Liquid can do right now, plus...

• improved DVD authoring (multiple audiotracks, subtitles etc.. as Smetvid already said: pinnacle has the know how (and the codebase), so put it in the product. I don't want to use Liquid first and then DVDit Pro. One app to rule them all..... ;-)
• a DolbyDigital-EX & DTS(-ES) creator
• Autosave is fine to me. It already saved my butt a couple of times. Give them a possibility to switch it off if they want. Plus: to avoid 54 undos, add a windows-like snapshot or project restore feature which allows to store before you start any experiments. I know, this has exactly the same effect as saving the project like Lews said. But this would be from within the project and you wouldn't have to store and load again.
• a Premiere-like moviestrip timeline view. In Premiere you don't have just a picon at the beginning and the end, you have it all over the timeline which makes it easier to find the moment you are looking for.
• Back in my old DC30 days Miro used to ship a utility called Asymetrix 3Dfx with the board. I'd like to see a whole new Title Deko including such 3D abilities.

Hey I still have one of my old DC30 boards.  Pretty darn good board for it's day.  It's funny thinking we had a 4:2:2 card way back then and then we had to go down to 4:1:1 DV when it became the norm.

Resizable timeline window.
On a laptop or single screen there is not enough real estate for the timeline. The two top windows are too large. It's fine when you have 2 screens.

garton:

Resizable timeline window.
On a laptop or single screen there is not enough real estate for the timeline. The two top windows are too large. It's fine when you have 2 screens.

use quarter size under the inlay quality menu.  That shrinks the viewers and makes the timeline area bigger.  Sure it isn't adjustable but on a small screen there are not very many adjustments you could do anyway.  On a small screen chances are you would shrink the viewer down to that size anyway.

OLD- 

(1) Containers - use them all the time very useful - would be good to be able to see more or the contents of the container directly on the timeline maybe a semi-transparent shading rather than the current purple/brown solid colour.

(2) Project and timeline templates

(3) Backup and Restore

(4) Timewarp

NEW:-

(1) Ability to use properties of a clip on timeline to adjust its length (currently can only be done on clip in rack)

(2) Two/multi-pass encoder   cf CCE basic

(3) Timecode Plugin - that allows continual overlay on timeline without having to fuse first.

(4) Ability to drag and drop a new transition onto a range of selected ones to change type more easily.

(5) RT output via BOB (both SD and HD).

(6) Better / more focussed media management - all project related files in one place

(7) Multi Master Viewer mode - for example with a time line containing two overlayed and synched video tracks - would be nice to be able to scrub the timeline and monitor video of both tracks simultaneously - one in source and one in master viewer perhaps. Obviously to an extent an alternative to using multi-cam feature. Can this be done now??!

Cheers

Andy

 

I will look to compile a comprehensive list and repost it here this weekend. There have been a lot of great requests.

 

An inexpensive hardware solution for REALTIME analog output just for preview purposes.

BOB, Firewire out and PCI-700 are not 100% in sync with the inlay video, Chrome Xe is too expensive for a simple preview, older products are not supported by LE7 anymore, so there's a gap to fill.

I hate resized windows but if you are going there, be sure to have a way that we can use to lock positions.

 >>use quarter size under the inlay quality menu. That shrinks the viewers and makes the timeline area bigger. Sure it isn't adjustable but on a small screen there are not very many adjustments you could do anyway. On a small screen chances are you would shrink the viewer down to that size anyway.

Thank you. I didn't know it existed. That's all I wanted. Took me a while to find the "Q" though. (inlay quality menu)

Ok some of you may think my hair is finally starting to get to me but I would like to see support for TDK Pro to still work in the new product in the chance that some of the features are taken out of the new title tool.

To me it sounds like the new text tool is going to be kind of flashy and cool looking but that doesn't mean it is going to have the same great level of 2D text control like we have in TDK Pro.  Liquid always had an opening in the program to add new title tools but they just never did it.  It would be nice if this feature was still there and we could choose to use TDK Pro if we wanted to.  I like some of the features too much to just get rid of them.  Now hopefully the new title tool will do everything TDK Pro can do now plus all the flashy stuff but in the chance that it does not I would love to still be able to use TDK Pro since I own a few copies.

LOL - I agree, though.

.vob import even not supported!

Ok, I risk being flamed by the wizards who have spent years plumbing the labrynths and catacombs of this convoluted software.  My wish would be for a user interface that was more direct, intuitive, and organized than what we see.  I know, and my hat is off to you, that you have spent a huge amount of time learning the ideosyncratic paths through the maze, and once done, it all seems simple. 

From an occasional user's standpoint, it is all but impenetrable.  (Disclaimer: I am a Final Cut professional, know and love it for:  it has a logical, intuitive workflow.  It is complete. It works.  Did I mention, it works, faithfully, quickly, efficently of computer resources,  unlike some software I could mention?) 

 Specifics?  How about the thead we had on the Avid board that came down to, " high quality doesn't mean high quality, don't use it!"?  How about the non-standard Windows interface?  Running man???  Tiny, obscure icons?  Dozens of apparently identical PIP filters, known only by numbers?  A title program that must be the most obscure and least-documented application ever written?   If the successor product is to be successful, newbies have to be able to follow along and pick it up rapidly. Or they won't buy it.

This requires a logical, not built-onto-until-it-teeters, interface.  I picked up (grudgingly, but I have to) a fair working ability with Premiere CS3 in a short time because it has a very easy to follow, logical, and accessible user interface. It's no Final Cut, but you can learn it from scratch because someone who knew human - machine interaction designed it.  Liquid, I think, was programmed by people who knew how to make it FUNCTION but not how to make it FUNCTIONAL.

If I sound critical, sorry.  I know that tons of great work has been done with Liquid, and it has great features for the price. I know you love and respect it and don't want anybody to say anything that's not politically correct.  But the slope, as it is currently designed, is entirely too steep.  I have put on my asbestos suit, go ahead, get testy.  There, I had my say.  

 

I'm not going to flame you - some of what you say is correct (and some... not so much). It is true that the interface lacks conventions we've come to expect from MAC/Windows based applications, but Liquid does make extensive use of context menus which goes a long way to helping you 'on your way'. What's interesting is that once you do learn the interface, you can accomplish great things VERY QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY so to say it lacks a 'human factors' design is quite incorrect - there's no way that it could be so efficient and functional without considering editing workflow and human interaction with the product.

Once learned... the interface is quite elegant.  I did order the Paul Mitton "Mind Meld" DVD set to learn with... it was invaluable... One thing struck me when they "upgraded" from 6.1.  I was doing a Hi Def museum installation that was to show in a theatre from an Alcorn video server... "Great" I thought to myself..."All I have to do is output to a file".  In my discussion with the HD engineer who would be placing it into the installation, he requested a specific file type.  I said "no problem, I saw that type in the Paul Mitton series when he pulled down the "make new sequence" menu... when I pulled down the same menu... it was NO LONGER THERE!!  When I called Avid about it, I finally got to the high level people who actually admitted taking it out "to limit the choices" that were "confusing people".  This is an example of the "Dumbing Down" of the product.  Another example is when I was asked to proudce a radio spot.  I went to the output section and there was no longer an option to make just a WAV file... I had to make a video and then save the audio separately as a work around to what was available before...

I use Liquid for broadcast commercials, industrials, and museum installations. and I hate to think of having to learn yet another product and interface... It's bad enough that I am in After Effects Post Grad right now... By the way... I hope the "new" Liquid supports AE as a plug in. 

I agree with most of y'all.... we want to keep we had before the Avid transition.  After all, I started with FAST Video Machine in 1992 (I still have my Fast Studio Control Box on a shelf somewhere)  I really like the Liquid BOB and the way it controls the UVW 1800 and allows component in... some stations here still ask for Beta tape... others accept and AVI.

I sure hope that Jan Piros reads these threads....

Dale Anthony Smith

www.multi-mediacorp.com

Native apple mac compatability. I have just bought a mac pro (cheapest way to dual xeons I could find) to use avid liquid via boot camp. There are few editors available for the mac by the look of things: ilife suite; final cut expresshd final cut studio, Avid Xpress and adobe premiere (which does not include ac3 as standard!). By having nextgen on the mac as well as on the pc the joy of editing in the world's best editor could reach many more people. The ease of use matched to its powerful integrated capabilities make it an ideal mac software imho. Could carve itself out a nice new niche!

I want by the hit of a button to be able to revert to Liquid 7.2 when I like.

-A quicker way of switching between the interfaces,especially from the desktop to the sequence editor interface.

-Tools to allow me insert video only or audio only clip into a sequence already on the timeline.I know i can do this now,but i'd like to do it with just one or two mouse clicks.

-I want to be able to preview in the clip viewer a sequence selected trimmed clips drawn unto my desktop before sending it to the timeline.I use the desktop a lot for trimmings,you see.

Well first of all fix the bugs and make it stable.

1. 24p support for every camera that uses 24p and or 24f
2. Better P2 and Firestore support and explanations on how to from start to timeline
3. Fix the 24f issues regaring output mon from bob which currently is an issue
4. Add TC embeded on the timeline on output to DVD or tape so clients can tell us where to edit from what TC
5. Add output option of Video_ts and iso image, so that we can preview on the pc and if okay then burn
6. More 3rd party audio controller support for fader automation
7. Add support for UAD audio plugin hardware card
8. better bob support ie black magic, matrox and all the others that premier and FCP can use that blow us away
9. Better titler
10. More involved and intuitive authoring
11. Ability to use scene detection on digitizing HDV
12. Ability to show and or hide FX and other things in your FX library
13. Cool stuff I cant think of that you are not doing anymore.

sverkalo you're so right! How could I forget this? vob import is definitely a must!

If the authoring tool is going to work the way it needs to, it shouldn't be a problem to import a complete DVD project with all the menues either.

-Dynamically scalable GUI(esp. the timeline and the viewers) via dragging.Not particularly hot on dockable GUI elements.

-Audio control during playback with the audio editor.I want to be able to create audio control nodes on-the-fly.

-Media conversions(I do that a lot from the timeline) via the GPU in the background to free the CPU for other tasks,ala ATI Video Converter.

-Timecode display in the inlays.

-Hot text timecode control,esp. by the timeline.

and please, take track selection out of the undo/redo list. it's just annoying, there's nothing useful un undoing a track selection.

SmoothRazor:

-Media conversions(I do that a lot from the timeline) via the GPU in the background to free the CPU for other tasks,ala ATI Video Converter.

Yeah, I'm dreaming about it loong loong time..

William Azevedo:

and please, take track selection out of the undo/redo list. it's just annoying, there's nothing useful un undoing a track selection.

... and put to that list all about operations with audio..