I wonder if it is too late to send back the AMD box??? I'm not sure that you would save that much money over an Intel box anyway. Right now on eBay you can buy a second hand XW8400 with 8gig of ram, QuadroFX 3400 for just over a $US1000 - it may not be octocore but hey it would have worked. And you could always upgrade it.

I don't believe Avid is trying to disenfranchise a large proportion of its market share. AMD was never qualified for Xpress Pro either, so why would any informed user buy one as an editor? No offence but if you'd only dropped by here before and not after the fact, everyone would have pointed you to a different solution. And really the hardware requirements for MC v XPro are essentially the same. It's just a question of whether you want to run Mojo/Adrenaline/Nitris and whether you want to do HD etc etc. Premiere has it's fair share of problems running on different machines anyway - there is no such thing as an NLE that will "work" on every computer. Adobe has a list of recommended machines and approved hardware as well.

As far as advantages of MC over XPro just do a search on this forum - plenty of threads on that.

Good luck - I hope you decide to stick with Avid despite your problems.

Laptopeditor:

If you lower the price on MC (Which I'm glad Avid did), the perception out their amoung Prosumer-Consumer type editors who are coming off Xpress Pro or Premiere or XDV is Generic - cross hardware - General PC compatibility like they were getting in earlier versions of Premiere and other editing apps which sell for a simular lower price.

Avid has a fine line to thread. Market penetration vs brand watering down and cannibalizing high-end products (see XDV/XPro).

There is no point in trying to capture Premiere's and Vegas' low-end commodity market share. Avid makes money out of hardware that targets broadcast. Many use MC because it is NOT a Premiere. It is developed for broadcast and film. With Adobe the juggernaut at consumer/pro-sumer level, why fight 2 battles on different fronts (Apple and Adobe). Both are larger and deeper pockets than Avid.

 Also, Avid has another division called Pinnacle that is in the consumer space with Studio, which has over 10-million registered users and a 50%+ marketshare of the consumer space and Liquid, which is going to be replaced with a new program next year to better target the more advanced consumer market.

LewS:

 Also, Avid has another division called Pinnacle that is in the consumer space with Studio, which has over 10-million registered users and a 50%+ marketshare of the consumer space and Liquid, which is going to be replaced with a new program next year to better target the more advanced consumer market.

Well, my guy apparently hadn't ordered the parts yet so I was able to cancel the order.  I'll have to switch computer guys since the one I normally use only works with AMD.  Thankfully, the producer of my current film has a friend in Virgina who does intel and can probably get me a good deal. 

I still may go with the 8800GT over a Quadro since I've seen so many here who have tested it and found a fairly simple work-around (just forcing it to stay in Open GL 1.5 when Avid is running).

I still think that Avid could be a bit less rigid with their requirments.  AMD and non-Quadro cards are a huge part of the market and I don't think it would hurt to open things up a bit. Nevertheless, I guess it still is less of a headache to do some hard-ware tweaking than it would be to have to go about a whole new workflow, NLE, and media management system.

Mondo:

I don't believe Avid is trying to disenfranchise a large proportion of its market share. AMD was never qualified for Xpress Pro either, so why would any informed user buy one as an editor? No offence but if you'd only dropped by here before and not after the fact, everyone would have pointed you to a different solution. And really the hardware requirements for MC v XPro are essentially the same.

I'm sorry but I'm just confused and apparently am getting a wide variety of responses from these forums.  I and a lot of people I know where able to use Xpress Pro on AMD systems and those which didn't meet the exact specs.  When I first ask the question, numerous people tell me that MC is far pickier and it's much less likely to run without the exact specs.  Then, upon questioning if it's worth it and if Avid is sort of tossing away a chunk of their market share, then I'm told that they've got the same requirments and there's no difference.  Please, which is it? 

Also, Avid has another division called Pinnacle that is in the consumer space with Studio, which has over 10-million registered users and a 50%+ marketshare of the consumer space and Liquid, which is going to be replaced with a new program next year to better target the more advanced consumer market.

I used Pinnacle in high school but havn't touched it since.  In college we were asked to use Premiere our first year (to get our feet wet) and then move up to Avid but I ended up skipping Premiere since I found it too similar to Pinnacle (at least back then).  I'd be interested to see what they have planned for this line of software though.  Is it essentially going to take the place of Xpress Pro?

There is no information available on the NexGen product at this time or exactly what products it will replace or compete against except for replacing Liquid in the Pinnacle lineup.

MalachiX:

n college we were asked to use Premiere our first year (to get our feet wet) and then move up to Avid

Someone should tell your teachers that it's harder to learn Avid after you were poisoned with other NLEs workflows... *sigh*

macjaeger:

Someone should tell your teachers that it's harder to learn Avid after you were poisoned with other NLEs workflows.

Oh, please.  Some decades ago the UK introduced the initial teaching alphabet (ITA) because it was easier to teach reading and writing.  It resulted in a drop in literacy.  The reason was that on transition to secondary schooling students had to learn to read and write all over again.  A lot never quite made it.

MalachiX:

I'm sorry but I'm just confused and apparently am getting a wide variety of responses from these forums.  I and a lot of people I know where able to use Xpress Pro on AMD systems and those which didn't meet the exact specs.  When I first ask the question, numerous people tell me that MC is far pickier and it's much less likely to run without the exact specs.  Then, upon questioning if it's worth it and if Avid is sort of tossing away a chunk of their market share, then I'm told that they've got the same requirments and there's no difference. 

Hi,

Xpress Pro and Media Composer are very similar, and if you have a rig that uses components that Avid hasn't qualified to run Xpress Pro, you have a good chance of it working with Media Composer.

The problem for all of us is that Avid only guarantees it will work on the Intel chips and Quadro cards listed in the system requirements.  So when you (or anyone) comes here and asks if their system will work, we can only make educated guesses with no guarantees, and since we're talking about laying out a significant amount of money for hardware, nobody wants to make any promises that wind up costing someone else money.

MalachiX:

Please, which is it?

My answer is the same as I gave earlier in the thread.  If you need it to work all day every day, get a system with components that Avid guarantees will work, and you'll have no trouble.

If not, do some research on the forums (which it sounds like you are already) and find out what other people are using successfully, and you'll probably be ok.

good luck,
Carl

Camoscato has it exactly right. XPro is essentially the same application as MC (or was until V3.0) - just crippled by removing some features and effects. So essentially, if XPro worked on a particular hardware set then MC would work as well.

However you might get more errors on an unqualified hardware set, and of course if you wanted to run Adrenaline or Mojo, the hardware became a lot pickier. As of V3.0 no one can actually say if XPro worked then MC will work, because there is no equivalent.

That's why people on this board are so reluctant to point you anywhere else but the approved list.

Good luck - hope you enjoy your new system when you get it.