I'm going to do some research and find out if the new $495 Xpro to MC 3 upgrade will work for older owners of MC. While I don't think it is fair that these loyal MC users pay the same price as X pro owners, it's a lot better then $995. And it includes all 3rd party software.

Gary

 Gary:

See Marianna's comments towards the end of this thread.

videoguy:

I'm going to do some research and find out if the new $495 Xpro to MC 3 upgrade will work for older owners of MC. While I don't think it is fair that these loyal MC users pay the same price as X pro owners, it's a lot better then $995. And it includes all 3rd party software.

Gary

Hopefully after Monday the current inequitable pricing policies against existing MCA and Meridian MC owners will no longer be an issue. Unfortunately the Avid employee email I have seen on the subject recently seems to suggest that we may still be far less than enthused after that announcement.  Time will tell.

videoguy:

I'm going to do some research and find out if the new $495 Xpro to MC 3 upgrade will work for older owners of MC. While I don't think it is fair that these loyal MC users pay the same price as X pro owners, it's a lot better then $995. And it includes all 3rd party software.

Gary

But I believe $995 for software, the $7,995 "upgrade" price for MojoDX, and the $12,995 hardware-only NitrisDX price are only available to those with existing assurance contracts.  To get those upgrade prices if you do not have a current assurance contract, I believe you have to pay the 25% penalty for a "lapsed" assurance contract PLUS pay for a year of assurance, THEN pay for the upgrades.  So, if a year of Assurance is still $2,000 (that was the cost last time I checked) that means it would be cheaper to buy a new seat/license outright rather than upgrade with or without the DX hardware.

REF: http://www.avid.com/promos/support/reinstatement.asp

We will be offering the MojoDX hardware alone for $7495. The upgrade to MC 3.0 would be worst case $495 per my earlier email.

Monday we go live with all options.

Gary

 videoguy, do you know what's new in MC 3.0??

Lots of ccol stuff. Here's what we posted in our new MC FAQ

What's new in Media Composer 3.0?
Avid Media Composer 3.0 is a MAJOR upgrade. Here are just some of the goodies Avid has added into the software – we'll discuss the hardware afterwards.

• MediaComposer 3.0 is a true multi-threaded application with support for Mac OSX Leopard and Windows Vista. It will run 32 bit on Windows Vista 64 but you will still get the benefit of being able to use huge amounts of RAM. Avid Media Composer 3.0 will also still run under Windows XP Pro for those users not yet willing to make the jump to Vista.

 

• CPU and GPU performance taps into all processing cores in your machine. Avid has designed something in Media Composer called Domain Management, which allows the software to identify what is the best way to handle the load and manage it between all the CPU cores and the GPU and Avid's new line of DX hardware. Media Composer does all the work, you just edit and let the software get the optimal performance from your workstation.

 

• Multiple layers of HD with support for all flavors in native rasters. This means that HDV and DVC Pro HD thin rasters are no longer an issue. You simply select the format you want to edit in and Media Composer takes care of the rest. Multiple layers of HD footage are a breeze and you can even mix formats including 720p and 1080i in the timeline in real-time.

 

• How much real-time HD? Depends on the speed of the computer. They were running demos on 8-core Macs and HP workstations. 6 layers of DVC Pro HD in real-time full resolution. I think they got up to 9 when they lowered the preview to 1/4 resolution. Then we saw 3 or 4 layers of HDV in real-time full resolution output. Even more amazing was 6+ layers of DNxHD (up to 10+ with the Nitris DX hardware). Most impressive to me was when they dragged and dropped multiple layers of mixed HD formats while still maintaining full resolution, real-time playback.

 

• You can drag and drop multiple layers of footage together on the timeline - in multiple HD formats. This was one of my favorite parts of the demo. Before this you would have to re-create a multi-layered sequence if you wanted to add a layer anywhere but the top. Now you can just grab a stack of clips and move them anywhere on the timeline. They stay perfectly synced together and you get instant real-time performance.

 

• The handling of Media Composer 3.0 is superb. When you hit the keyboard, the timeline reacts instantaneously. No delays, no waiting. Dead-on accurate response times.

BTW- Got the word from Avid - they start shipping to us on Monday!!!!!

Gary

 Here's a video demonstrating some of the new features.

 videoguy and Larry thanks A LOT! 

looks very good.

Any new stuff in the color correction tool?

 Yairorene:

Here is my evaluation of the products I had my hands on at last Wednesday's demo here in Washington.

The color correction tool in 3.0 looks about the same as the current one. The major color correction improvements are in Symphony. Scroll down about halfway on page 2.

One of the best improvements for this releas is far better responsiveness.. Hit play and start play. Some cosmetics changes and a real time TC available now same as the subcap utility. The rest you will have to find out on Monday when all goes live.

Menno

Baklap:

Hit play and start play.

Well yes, but at least on the Composer Nitris DX, I still had to use play standby to get an instant no-delay role. We have to use that alot unfortunately, when we have to hot roll straight to air from an Avid platform because someone didn't make slot! But it works well, I will say that for it - absolutely instant.

Hit play and start play.

That would be really cool, but the one short test drive I did on MC3 did no better than my previous Meridien or current SN. I've never seen an instantly starting Avid. Hit play on a Lightworks and you'll see what I'm getting at. Or hit play on a Steenbeck for that matter.

I'm glad to read about improved responsiveness, but I'm sad that 1999 Meridien speed is the 2008 benchmark for responsiveness.

True Job but Meridien needed a hell off al lot of hardware and could do half (or less) of what can now be achieved with software.. that extra eats performance by the kilo

Menno

 Thanks Larry

Well i heard not long ago that MC will have the clip name option in the color correcion tool from Symphony. That is a very important tool for me when i'm color correcting in Symphony. I wish i had it in my MC.