Avid Knowledge Base – What’s New in Media Composer 2025.12

What’s New in Avid Media Composer 2025.12 – And Why It Matters for Altered Images Customers

Avid Media Composer 2025.12 is a focused but important release, bringing meaningful workflow improvements for editors, assistants, and post-production teams working in fast-paced, collaborative environments. While none of the updates radically change how you edit day to day, together they add up to faster decision-making, cleaner collaboration, and stronger foundations for what’s coming next in the Avid ecosystem.

For Altered Images customers working across broadcast, post, news, and corporate production, this release is particularly relevant if you rely on shared storage, transcript-driven workflows, or complex multicam and audio-heavy projects.

Here’s a practical breakdown of what’s new, and why it matters.

Smarter Transcription Workflows, Built for Real Teams

Avid continues to invest heavily in AI-assisted editorial, and 2025.12 brings two key improvements to the Transcript Tool powered by PhraseFind AI.

Editable transcripts, without breaking sync

Editors can now edit transcription text directly inside Media Composer. Corrections you make retain word-level timing and stay perfectly in sync with the media.

This removes the need to round-trip transcripts through third-party tools and results in more reliable ScriptSync, PhraseFind searches, and caption outputs. For teams working under tight deadlines, this means fewer hand-offs and less rework later in the pipeline.

Peer-to-peer transcript sharing on NEXIS

For facilities running Avid NEXIS, transcripts can now be shared peer-to-peer across shared projects. Editors and assistants see the same transcript database, reducing duplicated transcription work and keeping everyone aligned.

For Altered Images customers with shared storage environments, this is a clear win for efficiency and consistency, especially on factual, news, and long-form projects where transcripts drive the edit.

Faster Audio-Driven Editing with Waveform Maps

The Source Monitor now supports a Waveform Map that displays audio waveforms alongside video playback. This small change has a big impact on speed.

Dialogue beats, pauses, and sound cues are immediately visible without switching tools or zooming timelines. For audio-led edits such as interviews, documentaries, and promos, this makes scrubbing and shot selection far more intuitive.

Full Resolution Multicam Output for Modern Monitoring

Multicam workflows get a quality upgrade with full resolution multicam playback and output. This is particularly noticeable when monitoring via NDI or SRT, or when feeding remote review and approval systems.

For productions that rely on confidence monitoring or remote collaboration, sharper multicam output means fewer surprises downstream and more trust in what you’re seeing during the edit.

Titler+ Templates That Actually Work for Teams

Titler+ now supports improved template workflows, making it easier to create, edit, and share title templates across projects and editors.

For organisations that value brand consistency, this helps ensure graphics look the same regardless of who is cutting the project. It also reduces repetitive title creation, saving time across series-based or high-volume workflows.

Markers That Stay with Your Media

Markers can now be imported directly into source clips. This ensures that notes, timing references, and editorial intent stay attached to the media itself, not just a single sequence.

This is particularly useful when media passes between departments, systems, or editors, helping preserve context throughout the lifecycle of a project.

Foundations for What’s Next

Beyond visible workflow improvements, Media Composer 2025.12 introduces important under-the-hood changes that signal where the platform is heading.

Media Composer Extensions framework

Third-party panels are now officially called Media Composer Extensions, managed via a new Extensions dropdown menu. This is the first step in a broader extensibility framework that Avid plans to expand throughout the year.

For Altered Images customers, this opens the door to deeper integrations, cleaner tool management, and more customisable editorial environments over time.

Simplified DNx codecs and the first step toward DNx 4.0

DNxHD and DNxHR are now grouped under a simplified naming structure, making codec selection clearer without impacting compatibility.

More importantly, this release marks the first milestone toward DNx 4.0. The new standard is designed to deliver higher image quality without increasing bitrates, with bit-depth independence that supports modern HDR mezzanine and proxy workflows.

In practical terms, this lays the groundwork for higher fidelity images, fewer compression artifacts, and more flexible pipelines across editorial, finishing, and delivery.

Should You Update?

If you’re working in shared environments, transcript-driven edits, or audio-heavy productions, Media Composer 2025.12 offers immediate, tangible benefits. Even if you don’t feel the impact today, the groundwork being laid around extensibility and DNx 4.0 makes this a sensible step toward future-proofing your workflow.

As always, Altered Images can advise on upgrade planning, shared storage compatibility, and best practices to ensure your systems get the most out of new Media Composer releases.

Need Help with Avid Products?

If you’d like to discuss how these updates fit into your workflow, get in touch with the Altered Images team.

Contact us today on 01932255666

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