Sleep well my dear friend.   

Now jump on the Media Composer and don't look back!!!

That's the best Avid news I've heard in years.

I could find no upgrade offer AXP to MC in the avid store. what are youfolks talking about?

Rodney

It's not posted yet. See the Post in the general Forum titled "New Communication from Avid"

Do you know if this upgrade price ($495) is going to be offered for us XPress Pro users from now on, or is this a time-sensitive upgrade offer?

I own two commercial licenses of XPress Pro 4.7 and would like to upgrade them both, but I can't swing $1000 at the moment.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

jdb

I think it's great Avid is offering this and I'll almost certainly take advantage of the upgrade, but I still honestly believe they don't get it. Avid's user base tells them they need to be able to compete with Final Cut Pro's price point so they reduce the price of MC to twice that of FCP and then get rid of their least expensive (and if I remember correctly, still more expensive than FCP) product.

I despair every time one of my clients or a new client calls and says, "we want you to cut for us and, by the way, we've just gone to Final Cut because..." and they then give one of several reasons we've all heard.

I gladly filled out that long online survey Avid sent me months ago. And I wrote a long essay at the end about what I saw as the problems (price being only one) that were jeopardizing this company and this product I've built my career on. And I got a form email back saying, "we hear you and stay tuned." And I have kept my eye on my inbox even as I have been stuck in yet another long-form doc that would work go so much more smoothly on this system so many are abandoning for inarguable reasons. And I wonder, did you really hear us?

Rantingly,

Martin

If Avid made cell phones and mp3 players, they probably could sell their software at FCP's price point.  Of if they made the computer that was required to run their software, they could sell Media Composer for $1300 and make their money on the hardware.  But Avid doesn't have the depp pockets and additional product lines (consumer product lines) that Apple does. 

Honestly, $2,495 is a much lower price point than I was anticipating, and I believe--for $1,000 more--it's now a much, much, much greater value than FCP.

My 2 cents.

Michael.

Michael,

I agree with you that MC is a superior product to FCP. My real concern is that I'm going to be stuck in a few years working on FCP exclusively because Avid can't or refuses to find a way to work within the existing market. I think price is only one of the reasons FCP is gaining in the marketplace. And, yes, I think economies of scale as well as marketing budget aid the competition, but these and other issues can be addressed by Avid and -for whatever reason- don't appear to be.

Martin

This new move is the FIRST BIG MOVE I have seen by Avid that is geared towards it's customers. Bravo. I will be upgrading to the MC software after not using my XPro software for 5 years (cutting my demo only).

A sign of the times: My new facility is dumping MC Adrenalines & a DS for all FCP HD stations in the fall. It is happening everywhere I look. Avid has been putting nails in the coffin for smaller shops for years by not being there for the customers. It's not only the price point...you get a lot more for your money with Final Cut Studio 2 and it's quicktime based...and the FCP community is awesome.

grafixjoe:

it's quicktime based.

You say that like it's a good thing.

Michael.

It is (IMHO).

I don't know what Avid's plans are to compete with FCP and the cheap (by comparison) HD interfaces, but if they don't have a plan, they're driving business away.

I don't see that there's a future for Avid in my personal business.  I'll still continue to freelance at boutiques and clients who have Avids, but I'm going to FCP and Premiere Pro for my home-based work where I can outfit a nice competitive HD suite for around $10K.

I may even sell my Avid stock now, if this is indicative of the "new thinking" at Avid.  This kind of change isn't the direction they should be going, IMO.  Not too smart to be sending customers into the arms of the competition.

Link to upgrade page here

If anyone has read the message boards, the excuses, and sarcasm from avid over the past year or so you could see the writing on the wall. MC upgrade is a great start, but a little to late for me and obviously others.  I just made the move to FCP. 

Tomorrow is too late when your competition has already crossed the finish line.

Avid not supporting the EX-1 was the last straw for me.  Another Avid issue that had a sorry lame excuse, they removed the feature to export .flv , iPhone and a few other export plugins. Avid tech support's answer was too many bugs so we removed it, meanwhile FCP has no prob with these features. If you are working on a project for SD, and shoot in HD, FCP keeps the full HD resolution so you can use it to your advantage.  AXP & MC fall short here. Avid just does not have the resources and FCP blew past Avid while they were out to lunch.

Sorry Avid, I hope you have something good to announce. In the meantime I'll be driving FCP with my competition.