Avid Media Composer (or simply
Avid) is a film and video editing software application. This
non-linear editing system (NLE) is the flagship product of
Avid Technology. It was released in 1989 on the Macintosh II as an
offline editing system. Since that time, the application features have increased to allow for film editing, uncompressed standard definition (SD) video and high definition (HD) editing and finishing. Since the early 1990s, Media Composer has been the dominant non-linear editing system in the film and television industry, first on Mac and then also on Windows. The Avid Newscutter, aimed at newsrooms,
Avid Symphony, aimed at finishing, are all Avid products that were derived from Media Composer and share similar interfacing, as were
Avid Xpress Pro (discontinued in 2008) and its predecessor Avid Xpress DV, which were aimed at the lower end of the market.