Before purchasing anything, I need to know which product is best for me: Xpress Pro, Liquid, or something else? A colleague of mine has Avid Xpress Pro. I thought that could, amongst other things, open avi files and edit or combine them (i.e. apply effects, convert, transitions, etc) which is what I need.

However no matter what I try, and can't seem to get even the simplest .avi file opened in Avid Xpress Pro. It says "The format of test.avi is not supported for import." although the avi doesn't rely on any fancy codecs or whatever (plays fine on the same system in media player). Adobe After Effects is also installed on that system and it works fine with the same avi file.

Maybe I'm just missing something, after starting a new project am I supposed to do File -> Import and then select the .avi, or something else?

Any help would be much appreciated!
Or is Avid Express Pro not what I need? Which of the Avid products would suit best?