We have Xpress Pro HD 5.2.4 and it is now running on an XP machine.  We have a 13" Macbook (with 2G of RAM) and were wondering about a couple of scenarios:

Can it run on an Intel Mac with Bootcamp and XP?

Would it run under Vista?

Would it run on an XP system which has been upgraded to SP3?

If we bought the Media Composer upgrade, would it work under Leopard or any of the above mentioned configurations?

As an aside, would the Media Composer upgrade from 5.2.4 only be the one time $495 and would it upgrade the software and the dongle as well?

Thank You for your time.

wil3:

We have Xpress Pro HD 5.2.4 and it is now running on an XP machine.  We have a 13" Macbook (with 2G of RAM) and were wondering about a couple of scenarios:

Can it run on an Intel Mac with Bootcamp and XP?

Hello. I'm going from memory here - I think MacBooks may not be supported. The important thing to do would be to list the exact specs of your particular model of MacBook. Items to look at would include the graphics card. In general though, for editing you'd need to be looking at a MacBookPro to have enough power overall. You may wish to browse the Avid website and look at the media composer page (or Xpress Pro page). There should be additional information there detailing supported machines. A great place to wonder and would probably answer a lot of your questions.

Intel Macs using Bootcamp to dual boot into XP will allow you to install the windows version of Avid Xpress bearing in mind the specs of the machine must be suitable for Avid Xpress. Remember though that Bootcamp can only install a copy of XP that is already at the service pack 2 level, you can't install an old version and then update it to service pack 2. When I did this, XP with service pack 3 was not available so the manuals I've read do not say if service pack 3 can work, in case you're wondering. That will be a case of finding updated info.

wil3:

Would it run under Vista?

Avid Xpress is not supported for Vista. (It may run, but there's no guarantee it won't suddenly fall over).

wil3:

Would it run on an XP system which has been upgraded to SP3?

As far as I am aware Avid Xpress versions 5.x are only supported on SP2. So it would NOT be a good idea to put it on a SP3 machine.

wil3:

If we bought the Media Composer upgrade, would it work under Leopard or any of the above mentioned configurations?

Media Composer 3 will be supported for leopard and is schedule for June time. The current 2.8.x version is Tiger (I think). For PC, Media Composer 3 is supposed to be moving on to Vista. I think therefore you can remove SP3 from the equation altogether.

wil3:

As an aside, would the Media Composer upgrade from 5.2.4 only be the one time $495 and would it upgrade the software and the dongle as well?

Thank You for your time.

The upgrade from any version of Avid Xpress Pro is the said fixed price and I seem to remember reading that this price tag and policy is going to stick.

When you say "Would it upgrade the software" do you mean upgrade Xpress Pro to Media Composer? That would be yes. As far as I'm aware, the upgrade would also provide you with a dongle update - the process of getting a special key and then you go online and get a file to update the dongle using the dongle update software included with Avid (This process I do but not nearly often enough to remember - I've got notes back at the office as prompts but not with me right now). This is rather than receiving a new dongle, if that was what you were thinking.

What I don't know is whether the dongle will still be capable of going back to using an Xpress Pro setup. I think I remember there was a thread about this and perhaps someone was able to, but I can't remember exactly. Perhaps someone else here knows/remembers better?

Some additional thoughts on your plans:

1. Since we're so close to June, if you can, it would be sensible to wait for Media Composer 3 to be available. Even though if you did buy now you'd get a free upgrade, but you may wish to skip that extra step.

2. So if you then have MC3, you'll need to look at Vista as your windows OS on your old machines and if you run bootcamp (assuming that your particular Mac is suitable for the Avid version you'll be using).

Hope that answers most of your queries.