sep:

a medical institution around here

Beleive me Andrew, they will be sick, and I can't imagine the discussions they'll have with the (our) reseller. 

 Apart from the obvious performance improvments it will be interesting to see what the new software inhancements are.  Kind of feel that the hardware is playing catch up to the competition.

 The new hardware price still won't be close enough in price to blackmagic to really compete as an option for those with only a small amount of cash.

Is it the Avid's goal to compete with them ? 

 Avids goal is to make money for it's share holders.

If they don't want to loose market share like they have over the last years then yes they need to compete like they never have done before. Customers do have a choice and have exercised it in numbers.

I have to say I am more than just a little irritated by this. Way, way back in December (four months) we spent nearly $15,000 upgrading two Adrenaline systems with HD cards, assurance, etc. We were told by Avid and our reseller this would lead us down 'the great path' and fulfull or desperate needs for full HD support. After getting it installed and actually using, we were quite dissappointed by its lack of performance and capabilities. Can we work with it? Well kind of - sort of - the job eventually gets done. But, these things are no where near the holy of holies we were sold. But, now!!! Just buy again, right? Everybody wants to make sales quotas but we're an educational institution. Have a conscience, when you know things are about to change - signifcantly - then tell us "Now, isn't the time to drop $15,000. Just wait six months." It's not like we can just pass along the costs to our clients.

Charles

Have Avid said anything about helping people who bought this year?  It seems like not a bad idea to do something.

The trouble is that Avid is really trying to walk a very fine line here.  They're trying not to undermine their high-end clients by depreciating the value of their equipment too dramatically, while trying to make prices attractive enough to hit the FCP/Premiere/Edius crowd.  It's going to be hard, but they really do have to gain market share.

In fairness to your reseller, he almost certainly didn't know what was in the wind.  The next issue is going to be upgrade pricing.  Xpress Pro users who have migrated to MC are used to $50.00 upgrades.  What will Avid's policy on upgrades be now?

 Anyway, this might be a lesson. Avoid to buy anything which is older than 4 or 5 years. In particular when NAB approaches. We had our national audio-video exhibition last November here. Rumours of new Avid products already could be perceptible.. 

jwrl:

Have Avid said anything about helping people who bought this year?

Hi,

When they announced the Xpress Pro to Media Composer upgrade pricing a few weeks back, they made the deal retroactive to anybody who bought at the old price after 1 January 2008.  I don't know anything about the hardware pricing, but hopefully they'll do something similar.

jwrl:

Xpress Pro users who have migrated to MC are used to $50.00 upgrades.  What will Avid's policy on upgrades be now?

No word yet, but I know there have been several threads on the forums where this has been brought up already, and I saw a post on the L2 from Marianna that mentioned some "new thinking" on their assurance programs (no details; just that they're thinking about how to go forward with assurance), so they're aware that people are worried about what the future upgrade pricing will be.

good luck,
Carl

jwrl:

The next issue is going to be upgrade pricing.  Xpress Pro users who have migrated to MC are used to $50.00 upgrades.  What will Avid's policy on upgrades be now?

3 months back an Avid poster here attempted to justify $995 (5 times the software only price) for an upgrade using the value of upgrading the Adrenaline as a reason.  Now the Adrenaline is worthless, replaced by something said to be able to do most of the things we were promised for the Adrenaline at NAB 4 years ago, will we still be asked to pay 5 times the price a MC software only buyer does for each upgrade???????

Especially given the software only buyer can subsequently add Avid hardware and still pay a software only upgrade price under current policy.

AndrewAction:

For me a much more appropriate question would be what is MCA upgrade policy going to be.

3 months back an Avid poster here attempted to justify $995 (5 times the software only price) for an upgrade using the value of upgrading the Adrenaline as a reason.  Now the Adrenaline is worthless, replaced by something said to be able to do most of the things we were promised for the Adrenaline at NAB 4 years ago, will we still be asked to pay 5 times the price a MC software only buyer does for each upgrade???????

Especially given the software only buyer can subsequently add Avid hardware and still pay a software only upgrade price under current policy.

I have to agree with you about each point. Yes, I am also anxious about the Adrenaline upgrade policy, I allways have the feeling I am on the wrong side, ie the "sufferer" in those cases ! 

 Speaking as someone who works in a facility paid for by American tax dollars and which has invested heavily in Adrenaline, I sure hope I'm safe to assume that support for Adrenaline will continue for a least the next five years, as seems to be a common practice with Avid when a product reaches EOL.

BLKDOG, can you shed any light on this?

Thanks, as always.

Larry Rubin:

I'm safe to assume that support for Adrenaline will continue for a least the next five years,

I am questioning the upgrade policies that are totally inequitable and have been ignored by Avid for the last 3 years.

Here is the stupidity. If the policy continues I will upgrade one of my Pro's for to MC $495 and attach the Adrenaline to that system. $495 + $195MC software upgrade keeps my Adrenaline functionality AND saves me $200 on a current MCA upgrade.

After Monday release of prices I will probably add a DX box to the MCA dongle assuming the DX upgrade price (if they are going to get any customers) will be more appropriate than current MCA upgrade prices.  If not another Pro will be upgraded and DX box added leaving the current MCA dongle where it is today as a fully functional MC 2.8 (now software only)

Interesting stuff.  I'm very curious to see if Avid has finally fixed the flaws that they've been saying they were "going to fix" since 2004. 

Sunday/Monday's announcements may just jumpstart my editing fires again, and lead me to buy that new HP xw8600, a new DX product, and get the new MC upgrade...

Wonder where Studio Toolkit/Studio stands?