So what are you guys doing who have Avid Xpress Studio Complete and decided to go to MC?

1.) Upgrading to Mediacomposer - but sticking to the version 2.8 and running the whole package on one machine?

or

2.) Upgrading to Mediacomposer 3.0 and putting the Pro Tools on another machine

or

3.) doing something else

 I'm still debating what my next move is going to be.  The first thing I've got to do is get a new machine, and I can't decide if I should get the xw8400 or the 8600.  I'm buying a house, have a full-time job in the aviation industry, and am doing editing on the side, so it's not my primary source of income.

I'm leading toward getting a new video box, MC 3.0, and running Studio Toolkit with it on one machine and Pro Tools LE on another machine, since I'm getting my music studio up and running again.  And since I've got the Digi 003 (which isn't compatible with the Avid editors), I think running on 2 boxes is the best solution for me now.

It's high time Avid figures out what it's going to do regarding an Xpress Studio replacement (be it Media Composer Studio or whatever), and works whatever programming magic it needs to do in order to allow MC 3.0 to play nicely with PT LE on the same system, and working together.  Let's hope something amazing is in the pipeline, because this is LONG overdue.

Take care.

We have been using MC for about a year and a half... with Studio software (toolkit)...the dongles have licenses for all the Studio programs as well as MC...basically a MC with toolkit scenario.

ProTools on a separate dedicated system...

I expect, based on Avid CEO's comments about addressing compatibility issues, that an upcoming version of MC will reinstate Pro Tools co-installs after the driver issues have been resolved.

Time will tell.

 I agree with you about us (hopefully) seeing a compatibility fix in MC...and hopefully soon.  And what a joyous day that would (will?) be!

So as not to mince words...it is "compatible" just not "co-installable."

Just to follow up a bit...

We just got a new MC 3.0 retail box. It includes Avid FX 5.8 (new version), BCC 5.0, Sorenson Squeeze 5, Smartsound SonicFire Pro and Avid DVD 6.0. Basically MC with Tookit bundled, sans Avid 3d which was EOL'd. So, I guess that answers some questions, fwiw.

Good value for the money!

Hijacking one second:  why did Avid kill off Avid 3D again?  It had great potential if they just would have spent a little time/money on its R&D...  It would have been perfect for me and other editors of whom softimage XSI is WAY out of their league...

If you remember, Jake...I was working on a project in Avid 3d and I found a particular bug that rendered it unusable with regard to texture projections. I worked with Softimage support and the fix was not forthcoming. I believe they decided that it was too broken to fix.

http://community.avid.com/forums/p/22618/126765.aspx#126765

Anyway...Softimage|XSI is a much better solution.

http://community.avid.com/media/p/276410.aspx

Personally, I wish they would bring Studio back with XSI, ProTools and Digitranslator, etc.

Yeah, I remember.  Too bad that they decided to just kill the product instead of fix it.  XSI is WAY too deep a program for my needs.  Avid 3D was plenty good for me...until they tore out the the modeling tools.  :(

I also with they'd bring back a form of Studio as well.

There are several FREE 3d programs available that are SO much better than Avid3d could ever hope to be. It's simply not worth thier (or our) time for them to bother. Based on the quality of Avid 3D, I'd say that even with years of development, they'd never make anything nearly as good as Blender, for example.