Are Dongles Backwards Compatible?

[Michael Hancock]

Yes, they are. Everything I’ve heard is that if your system is blessed to run a higher version than you want, you can run the older version.

I work on an older Xpress Meridien–one day I did a dongle dump to see what version I was using…turns out I was using 5.0 when I had been blessed for 6! Downloaded the 6.0 version and suddenly I have color correction, marquee, and a few other goodies unlocked. If need be I could definitely go back to 5.0, but I never will. Ever.

Mike.

[Dave Schweitzer]

Mike, is the CPR ftp the place to find older versions like you did? I’ve got a friend from school whom I also work with running Xpress 4.5 under OS9.
Like you, I took a dump recently and found his dongle will go up to 5.5. But where can I find the installer? The ftp site doesn’t have any versions older than 6.x.

[Michael Hancock]

I got mine from the CPR site, but I just checked and you’re right–there is nothing older than 6. If you’re wanting a different version I would try emailing Avid and asking them if it’s still available.

One thing to note–if you’re talking about the older Meridien Xpress sytem–there were sometimes hardware upgrades necessary to run higher versions. I was lucky and my box was spec’ed for the upgrade–why we didn’t already have it I don’t know. If you don’t have components necessary for a higher version (and your dongle dump might not take into consideration the hardware you already have) then upgrading won’t help.

Again, I’d write to Avid or post on the Avid forums to see if one of the gurus there knows a little more about what’s required hardware wise and where to get the upgrade.

Good luck, and when you wrote “Like you, I took a dump recently…” I about fell out of my chair laughing. What a way to put it!!

Mike.