Oh Avid Media Composer why have you deserted me?!?

[digitard]

Warning: Ramble version 1.0 (not upset, just felt like rambling).

So I just started film school. I'm 29, and decided I just wanted to go back to school and learn film. Probably won't turn it into a big career, but I wanted to just understand and know how everything works since I'm so into film/photography and wanted to at least be decent at it... if it only applied to my home stuff (pics of the kid growing up, family video's and maybe some indie stuff).

So I figured I'd go back to school. My first class is based around AVID Media Composer. I thought cool because I know AVID and FCP are the 2 big dogs so understanding both is a great way to find little things in each I like. Plus for students MC is only 299 bucks... can't beat that.

So I start class (10.5.8) with MC loaded on my Macbook Pro. I figured I love to work from home, where I'm most creative with those random late night thoughts on how to improve something, so I'd load it on my MBP in case I want to change a project without having to shelf the idea for 12hrs til I can hit up the school studio.

Then Snow Leopard came along. So you're saying you're going to give me increased performance, a few gigs of space back, and better 64bit/Dual Core support for 29 bucks? Hell, even if it doesn't I'll spend it hoping it does...lol. So I dropped Snow Leopard on (which I'm very happy with). Then... Avid doesn't work with Snow Leopard...lol

The good news is they already have an FAQ on AVID's site saying they're working with Apple on multiple products to get them SL compatible. I expected that, but I was still hoping it would work because I'm about to dump about 2hrs of raw footage onto my 1TB Firewire 800 drive (required for class) as my first assignment (to create a 60 second PSA using the raw footage they shot for it in any way you want). Since I'm going to San Diego for the weekend I figured I'd work on it in the car or hotel if I'm bored in between events. Alas that looks like it's not going to happen.

TLDR: Avid MC rocks and it's cheap for students. It's the core of this class (my next one focus' on FCP). It doesn't work on my now updated 10.6 SL install.

That's all... come on AVID! Get a movin'!

 

[mcpryon2]

Welcome to the world of Avid. Common practice is if you get MC working on a computer, do not install anything else, unplug it from the internet, and never update it again.

It's not as bad as it used to be, but you just don't upgrade an OS and expect Avid to play nice.

 

[digitard]

Welcome to the world of Avid. Common practice is if you get MC working on a computer, do not install anything else, unplug it from the internet, and never update it again.

It's not as bad as it used to be, but you just don't upgrade an OS and expect Avid to play nice.

hehe. Well I figured "big company. core software offering to consumers. maybe they'll actually build something that works with the newer SL builds to have a pre-patch ready they can tweak". Apparently not.

Guess I'll just keep using my school systems, and anxiously await my FCP geared classes.

 

[LethalWolfe]

hehe. Well I figured "big company. core software offering to consumers. maybe they'll actually build something that works with the newer SL builds to have a pre-patch ready they can tweak". Apparently not.

If Apple provided prerelease builds of SL for Avid to test I'm sure Avid would have released a patch day-an-date w/SL. Lots of non-Apple hardware and software gets temporarily 'broken' by a variety of Apple updates because Apple doesn't do a lot of testing in house and they don't share much w/third parties. A year or so ago a QT update, required for some new iTMS functionality, broke After Effects. Granted Apple released another update pretty quick (inside of 7 days I think) but it was just another example of the ProApps being the red-headed step children at Apple.


Lethal

 

[romanaz]

If Apple provided prerelease builds of SL for Avid to test I'm sure Avid would have released a patch day-an-date w/SL. Lots of non-Apple hardware and software gets temporarily 'broken' by a variety of Apple updates because Apple doesn't do a lot of testing in house and they don't share much w/third parties. A year or so ago a QT update, required for some new iTMS functionality, broke After Effects. Granted Apple released another update pretty quick (inside of 7 days I think) but it was just another example of the ProApps being the red-headed step children at Apple.


Lethal

Why cant digidesign (owners of avid and pro tools if I'm not mistaken), buy into the developers program like everyone else? Adobe hadinformation about cs4 and cs3 on launch day. I've asked this to the certified avid instructor at my uni and I can never get a straight answer. I see it as digidesign being lazy as hell. And that's why I will never buy avid or pro tools. I don't need that ********. Not to mention they are charging my uni to take machines running avid 3.0 to 3.1.x (forget the number). Whatever happened to charging for big number releases?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Why cant digidesign (owners of avid and pro tools if I'm not mistaken), buy into the developers program like everyone else? Adobe hadinformation about cs4 and cs3 on launch day.

Actually Avid owns digidesign and if it was as easy as buying into a developer program to get full access of course everyone would do it. But Apple doesn't work that way. When Apple and Avid had a closer relationship Apple was more forthcoming w/info but as soon as FCP started to gain traction Apple started making Avid's life more difficult. Hell, even when Apple is your 'partner' it doesn't mean they'll actually do anything. Apple and Red had an exclusive relationship for almost a year and Apple pretty much did squat w/it.


Lethal

 

[romanaz]

Actually Avid owns digidesign and if it was as easy as buying into a developer program to get full access of course everyone would do it. But Apple doesn't work that way. When Apple and Avid had a closer relationship Apple was more forthcoming w/info but as soon as FCP started to gain traction Apple started making Avid's life more difficult. Hell, even when Apple is your 'partner' it doesn't mean they'll actually do anything. Apple and Red had an exclusive relationship for almost a year and Apple pretty much did squat w/it.


Lethal

I can see that, good explanation. Although about RED, i thought the new FCS had ProRes 4444 for red camera's and that some instructor from RED was excited about it but under NDA?

 

[djkirsten]

I know an editor that owns his own company with big-name clients that still has an old rack-mounted AVID Xpress on OS9. He has maxed that G3 (yup G3) out as much as he can but because the machine was soooooo expensive and he still gets a lot of SD work he keeps it and doesn't update to OSX. I hated it when I worked for him because its a pretty slow machine....but if I paid 70 grand for an edit machine I'd use it as long as possible.

So yes, when it comes to AVID: If it works don't touch it....or don't be surprised if that new shiny version of iTunes screws up how AVID's renders. Take a look at the System Requirements on AVID's site and you'll see how they are constantly 3 versions behind with quicktime.

 

[digitard]

If Apple provided prerelease builds of SL for Avid to test I'm sure Avid would have released a patch day-an-date w/SL. Lots of non-Apple hardware and software gets temporarily 'broken' by a variety of Apple updates because Apple doesn't do a lot of testing in house and they don't share much w/third parties. A year or so ago a QT update, required for some new iTMS functionality, broke After Effects. Granted Apple released another update pretty quick (inside of 7 days I think) but it was just another example of the ProApps being the red-headed step children at Apple.


Lethal

Good to know. I'm in no rush. I was just hoping to have the trial loaded, since it's full for 14 days, so I could play w/ my project while I was out of town this weekend. No biggie.

 

[Gymnut]

I'm a student myself and own both Pro Tools 8LE and MC 3.5.4, and took the chance of upgrading to SL, and fortunately both programs work, although I may go back to my Leopard backup once the semester begins and I encounter any problems. Hoping Digidesign releases an update or qualifies their software with Snow Leopard in the coming weeks, NOT months.

 

[AVR2]

About 6 years ago, back in my PC days, a security update for Windows XP killed Avid Xpress DV and Avid took their sweet time - literally months - sorting out a patch for it. The only solution in the meantime was to roll back Windows to remove the update.

 

[lighthouse_man]

At least it is not as bad as when you had a new Intel Mac and Avid didn't release a compatible upgrade system for a while.

 

[AVR2]

At least it is not as bad as when you had a new Intel Mac and Avid didn't release a compatible upgrade system for a while.

"For a while" - I like the understatement!

It took a year to 18 months, didn't it? I couldn't wait, so I just moved over to FCP and I haven't gone back.

 

[bimmzy]

Unity is a pain in the A...

Avid is massively overrated, and the timeline is showing its age.
the effects panel has had to be overhauled since the arrival of FCP, and like everything avid does they just stuff it on top of an already overload and messy application.

i was there in the beginning, when it only ran on a Mac II, Using it today it sometime feels like nothing has changed.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Unity is a pain in the A...

Still better than xSan, IMO. Unity is designed to work in a post production environment and has a very shallow learning curve. Neither one of those things can be said about xSan.

Apple really, really, really needs to improve on the pretty much non-existent multi-user support in FCP.


Lethal

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I had the problem of Avid breaking the sound and the only fix was to uninstall it and then uninstall sound flower to get the sound back!