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Avid Xpress Elite Upgrade Paths
Okay for years now I’ve been trying to upgrade my Avid Xpress Elite 4.2. We purchased the entire G4 867 based system from B+H, and of course their response to any questions about purchasing upgrades for the software resulted in a complete stone wall other than are you sure you just don’t need an new system.
I work for a University and the stickers on the boxes tell me I have to keep the darn things till 2008 whether they are chugging along or not, so I would like to be able to upgrade the darn thing so that I don’t have to keep switching between OS 9 for Avid editing and OS X for everything else I do.
I got ahold of an Avid rep at a trade show a year or so ago and although he pretty much admitted that the Xpress Elite is the red headed step child they left in the car at the mall and then took a flight to the Bahamas, but that their was an OS X upgrade for it, and it did invclude the color correction tools that were on the Xpress DV evil child.
So I call B+H never heard of it doesn’t exist are you sure you don’t want Adrenaline? I called VCA and they hum and haw and dicker around for a while, and then say well you better call Avid cause we can’t find the dual 1.25 G4 that we wanted to sell to you along with the lowsy software upgrade.
Avid says oh yeah we have that it’s $995 call B+H or VCA.
So before I go completely ballistic, anybody have any experience in upgrading an Avid Elite 3D from OS 9 to OS X? I understand that I will have to go back to Panther to get it to work, is this correct. Also when I bounce between OS 9 and OS X I only get support for one monitor in OS X, is that the Avid card or should I be able to upgrade the graphics card to support dual monitors in OS X? And of course lastly has anyone done a Sonnet motherboard upgrade on a G4 867 and gotten success with running Avid Xpress Elite on OS X?
Thanks for any help in advance.
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5 Replies
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Elite?
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Yup Elite.
It’s a Meridian Hardware Avid. Before that crazy Avid Xpress DV, there was Symphony, Media Composer, and Xpress, but because of the damn software based product that they sucked the Xpress name onto they refered to the Meridian based Xpress as the Elite.
It’s been an awesome platform for the price point at the time, and has 1:1 SD compression so can really put out some nice broadcast material, but I just want to stick the bugger on OS X.
So it is not not not Xpress DV or Xpress DV Pro or Xpress DV HD Pro or any other flavor of software only Avid editing product.
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Hi
I have an Avid Xpress Elite that I upgraded to OSX about two years ago. I’m currently running version 5.8 on a 933 G4. I have a Meridian 2 card so that was the fastest machine I could use when I left my 533 G4.
I also wanted to switch to OSX in a bad way. The color correction in 5.8 is very nice and to be able to use the nice X features like idvd using only Quicktime reference movies was even nicer.
But alas, it hasn’t been all great. 5.8 and my Medea drives never got along at all. For the past two years I’ve had major kernal panic crashes every 4 or 5 times I’d try and digitize. Avid tech support and Medea both blamed each other. I finally gave up after 6 months or so and now I just adjust my work flow to minimize any damage that the crashes might do. I’m stuck on OS 10.2.6 while the rest of the Apple world is on 10.4 because Avid and Apple can’t get along. And because I refuse to pay $2,000 a year for 10 phone calls I don’t get the software upgrades that come along with tech support. I’ve had version 6 of the Xpress software sitting on my desktop for the past year, ready to be upgraded, but not daring to because I don’t know what further damage it might do to my system. I read that it was very buggy and caused bins to dissapear randomly.
So there ya go. If the situation is right for you, I’d upgrade, as long as you have Avid drives. Just beware that you’re only slightly prolonging the death or your system. I myself am one big client check away, which should be here in the next month, from switching to Final Cut Pro. I always said that I’d give up my Avid before I’d give up my Mac, and after 10 years on various Avids, that’s what I’m doing.
Tim
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You don’t know what you’re missing. Avid on Windows XP is great and about 2 keystrokes different than Mac. Microsoft does not have a conflict of interest with Avid so there are no development issues and Avid is surging forward on Windows.
Personally, I can’t get too faithful to operating systems. I am also not alway anxious to upgrade my OS or my software until I know that other people who have more time to waste than me have proven it to be reliable. I used to like being bleeding edge, but that doesn’t pay the bills when I am down for days because I just had to install the latest upgrade for nice to have, entertaining features that do not impact my editing environment.
It used to be that the Mac had the longest shelf life, but now I wonder about that as they move towards Intel. Will the G5 you buy for FCP be able to runs OS 11? Will Apple continue to develop the OS for legacy CPUs once they switch to the so called dark side?
My biggest consideration now is service and support for the computer. I went through hell and downtime with Mac products that had to be sent away for weeks to be repaired. With HP computers, they show up at your door the next day and fix the problem. They will also make good with the customer for wrong information given out by their tech support. This is the kind of service that keeps your business running. HP has my loyalty. Dell is very similar. I have had great success with both brands. Mac or PC is irrelevant to me. Performance and service is everything.
Dennis
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Yeah,
So anyway I have this Mac Avid System that I have to have until 2008. It works great I would just like it to work greater.
I’ve got FCP as well, but find Avid much better for my editing style and workflow. I will push forward with trying to get Avid to sell me some software, and making sure it will work on my boxes, and get back once I do.
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