Just for a lark, I went back and found my post from October 1, 2006 EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO. Man, I almost nailed it exactly! Now all we need is more affordable/scalable third party hardware or cheaper versions of the same from AVID.

As someone who re-entered the video world after a fifteen year abscence back in '01, I shopped around the NLE market. FCP was definately out, as I had no interest in Macs, and all my other software was PC. I wanted to be able to edit FILM, dammit, and learn skills that would translate UP to the broadcast/film market. BUT money was tight.

Avid XpressDV was my choice, but WITH THE POWER PACK. Seems like I paid $2300 or so for the deal.

Fast forward over many 'upgrades' and I have shelled out an additional five hundred or so dollars... and I still have Avid XPress Pro. Yeah, it chapped me royaly to see the 'bonus pack' included after I shelled out extra bucks for it.  Meanwhile, I watched the Indy market and the 'boutique' houses all go with FCP.

Recently, I went to a User Group meeting here in San Francisco. There were probably twenty five to thirty users there. AND THEY WERE GIVING AWAY A FREE COPY OF MEDIA COMPOSER as incentive. I know that's why I went.

MOST in attendance were all over forty. Lots had broadcast experience. There were almost no 'young, hip, indy' types in the audience.

I've got to tell you, it looked like a room full of dinosaurs. Yeah, I'm fifty one... so add me in. But I've been 'burned' by upgrades, paying more, and seeing others get more for their money when they buy in for the first time. I can understand Avid's dillemma of protecting the high end who've already spent a bundle.

They announced... FINALLY and probably too late, a great effort to get back into the media schools by offereing composer for educational institutions for 250 dollars a copy.

They even made a half hearted effort, by offering great deals like the recent 'upgrade' to MC for 2500.

Sorry Avid. These are half measures. You are shovelling against the tide.

Here's my sincere take on what needs to be done.

One product.

Period.

Scalable with hardware.

Period.

So this means everyone owns a copy of "Media Composer" software. ( I really DON'T think you should rename it.)

What's the big fear? The big fear is that you will piss off people who are already bought in. How to avoid that?

I don't know the actual profit margins involved, so I'll just have to toss around numbers. But I know that if Avid is willing to let copies go to institutions at 250, and special promotions at 2500 for FULL COPIES of MC WITH BORIS -

It. Can. Be. Done.

Here's what I think. You offer a 'consolidation' deal. Everyone WITH XpressPro gets it 'upgraded' or 'unlocked' or whatever it takes to get Media Composer for... oh, I'd go for five hundred dollars. That's double your price for your institutional copies.

Oh, but what about all those people who just spent five grand on THEIR copy of Media Composer???

Simple. All they have to do is provide proof they've bought it at full retail price, and they can BUY A SINGLE ADDITIONAL COPY OF SOFTWARE ONLY for Five hundred bucks. THis is a ONE TIME ONLY OFFER>SO all the stations and boutique shops who had the Extra scratch to get MC in the first place, can now be placated by owning TWO copies.

So for an additional $500 dollars, those with Express Pro get their copy upgraded to MC. And those with MC get a SECOND COPY for $500.

And the final result? Everyone on the same page. Everyone with the ability to scale by purchasing faster computers, Mojo, Adrenaline, Decklink, Aja, whatever...

Just. Like. Final Cut Pro.

And everyone is editing on the FULL INDUSTRY STANDARD NLE - Unlike FCP (at least for the moment.)

Do it.

Trust me.

 Could you write another one saying the upgrade is $129.00

Just kidding.  I think this is great.  I will definately bite and get the upgrade.  I have purchased upgrades since 3.5.  I still think Avid has one of the least expensive product updates in the industry.

Chris

 I've already ordered mine, it's a hell of a deal!

 This to me is a huge step in the right direction and I am looking forward to upgrading to MC. Thanks Avid!

SCORE!!!

Finally!

Thanks Avid!!

 I suspect that you may have to wait awhile to find the upgrade for sale in the Avid store.

I do not think it is a fluke there is a big "Find a Dealer" link on the page that promotes upgrade.  I am going to guess that Avid is trying to steer us over to their dealers to give them a piece of the action.

A careful review of the MC specs reveals that they still want us to run MC on approved systems.  Making sure to let the dealers have a go at trying upsell us on hardware is not a big surpirse.  And rest assured that the dealers will be bending your ear as they remind you that buying the software only upgrade and running it on non-approved boxes comes with very limited official support.

Make no mistake, this is a big upsell.  One that I will almost certainly take advantage of.

Romeo Echo

Strike one Romeo....

See this big forum upgrade that's happening right now? that has more to do with the delay in the Avid Store posting than any conspiracy theories you cook up.

 So Mojo works with MC. Phew...

Always wanted MC. For $495 USD? I'm in!

Great news!!

I can't wait to upgrade!!

Thanks Avid!!

 "A careful review of the MC specs reveals that they still want us to run MC on approved systems."

Why a "careful review"?  Did you expect Avid to say, 'hey, run our software on any old system'?

This thread should probably be stickied.


In my opinion this is great news, I think one of Avids problems have been all the different versions which are confusing and unneeded. Dropping DV and Free were both good moves, and now with moving to MC completely I think things are definitely looking much better, especially with the considerable price reduction, and such a deal for users to upgrade to MC from Xpress. The site overhaul is also very nice, another step in the right direction. I believe Avid's next two major issues they should focus on will be getting good hardware support (even on "unsupported" hardware), that will be extremely important, along with good, positive product advertising.

 No.  But it seems to me that AXP served a certain section of the market for Avid.  With less features to support and less system resources to consume, they seemed to be less ardent about running it on a non-certified system.

It seems to me that Avid always made a bigger effort to sell certified or turnkey MC workstations than it did with AXP.  Take a look at the dealers list and how many dealers can sell AXP vs MC.  The MC dealers are always higher level dealers that I am sure were picked because of their ability to (or interest in) deliver(ing) turnkey solutions.

By eliminating AXP and stretching MC over to serve the DYI (for lack of a better term) market, it will be interesting to see to what extent that changes.

Online Store upgrade link here:

 Return the Vegas if you can. Panny offers a free piece of software that will transcode your AVCHD footage to P2 mxf...Good Luck!

Sorry to bang on about this  but - what does this mean for 720p25 support?