Avid released today, July 23, 2008:

·         Avid Media Composer® version 2.8.4

The editor is located on avid.com in the “Additional Support Updates” area and on the Download Center.

ReadMe

For details on what was fixed or added to the 2.8.4 editor, please reference the ReadMe documentation found on the Avid Knowledge Base. The ReadMe documents have been posted already in support of the editor availability.

Dongle information
A dongle update is not needed to install version 2.8.4 on editing systems with version 2.7.x installed.

Interplay Support

This release of the Windows version of the editing application has been qualified in an Avid Interplay™ 1.2.4 environment. Macintosh editing applications are not supported in an Avid Interplay environment.

Release

This is the last released planned for 2.8.x editor products.

A search of the Knowledge Base for "2.8.4 ReadME" yields no results. 

Searching on "ReadMe" finds the 2.7.7 ReadMe. 

Doing an Advanced Search and specifying "Media Composer Family" and "Documentation>ReadMe" returns a host of documents, 2.8.3 ReadMe being the most recent. 

EDIT:  I just found it... 

You have to do Advanced Search, specifying "Media Composer Family" and "Documentation>ReadMe" AND also choose "Sort by:"  "Date Updated"

That was a lot of work to find a document.

EDIT2:  Based on what I'm reading in the ReadME there seems to be only fixes made to edit systems connected to Interplay.  I'm assuming no benefit for non-Interplay users?

 why would I use this, as opposed to vers. 3?

If your system can't run 3.0, or you haven't bought the upgrade to it yet.

Michael.

Actually, I don't think there are any benefits to non-Interplay users.  This patch release contains fixes to address problems in an Interplay environment. 

Given that Interplay upgrades are expensive and time-consuming, this upgrade allows users in an Interplay workgroup to upgrade their editor clients easily to take advantage of the improvements.

 my reseller is telling us that any system can run 3.0  He says it may be slow, but it will run.

The rule of thumb for  y.y.x release (where x is a new value), is that don't patch it if the current version is working for you and the new version does not address your particular issues. So yes, this is most likely to address Interplay users and probably nothing new for us.

jimdingo:

 my reseller is telling us that any system can run 3.0  He says it may be slow, but it will run.

Another reason for my editing mantra...anything a reseller tells you is a lie.

Any system cannot run 3.0 and the system specs are spelled out very specifically for a reason. Sure you can load 3.0 on any CPU but it won't run well on less than the specs given. Not talking about slowness, we're talking crashing here.

 Another reason for my editing mantra...anything a reseller tells you is a lie.

Hahaha.... small change I think would be correct. I would replace the words "anything a reseller" with "many things some resellers". I've tried non specified systems and I can tell you from experience that on some it works fine on some it crashes very hard.... But it would definitly advice you to stay away from a reseller that tells you that it runs on any system...

Man THIS is why my Mac 9600 keeps crashing.   I knew I shouldn't have pushed the envelope.. it gives me paper cuts when I do!  [:'(]

BLKDOG:

jimdingo:

 my reseller is telling us that any system can run 3.0  He says it may be slow, but it will run.

Another reason for my editing mantra...anything a reseller tells you is a lie.

Any system cannot run 3.0 and the system specs are spelled out very specifically for a reason. 

 In your military travels have you met Sean Fairburn?  Just recently nominated for an emmy for his military HD work.

A question for you sir.

Will the latest release of Media Composer allow me to digitize Sony EX3 media directly to hard drives and begin editing?  And when I "output" what would be the best method?