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Free Version of Media Composer Still to Come
Avid Says Free Pro Tools First Offer Has Driven Subscriber Growth
…the company boasted more than 60,700 paying individual subscribers,…
The long-delayed launch of a similar free Media Composer First offering is now scheduled “later in 2017,…
Avid reported a net income of $5.2 million in the quarter, compared to a net loss of $4.4 million in the year-ago period.
Hmm, are they almost as big as an flagship Apple Store now?
“We are very excited about the emerging opportunites that the Nexis open architecture provides,” Hernandez said… He pointed to the integration of Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro with Nexis products as examples of new customer opportunites that are opening up.
This may be the best way to grow their business at the moment.
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17 Replies
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Oh great, now every high school kid can get media composer for free and cut award winning movies, because you have to have media composer to cut award winning movies…. ????
That free version has been promised for 2 years. I will believe it the day I download it.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
The dilemma has been how to make it useful in a way that users will want to edit with it and then migrate to the paid version – without making it so useful that they stick with just the freebie. That’s a fine – if not impossible – balance. Hence, the long delay and corporate tap-dancing. I’m not holding my breath either.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hopefully its an easier path to install and use.
Every update has been a PITA for us due to our want/need dongle 😛
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[Eric Santiago] “Every update has been a PITA for us due to our want/need dongle”
Well, it’s a lot easier without the dongle, but updates with MC are not always as painless as with FCPX or Premiere Pro. However, updates don’t often break existing projects either, so plusses and minuses.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Why wait when Resolve is free? ????
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True. Why would one want to use a crippled version of MediaComposer when they can get a fully functional Resolve for free. At best a free Media Composer becomes nothing more than a trial for someone who may have a motivation to move up to paid/subscription. This may well be another ill timed Avid move. Consider that by the time Free MC is out Resolve may have yet another update further improving its editing tools.
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[Oliver Peters] “However, updates don’t often break existing projects either, so plusses and minuses.
“On a related note, I think bins created in the latest version of Avid are still usable in Avid 5.5 (which came out in 2011, IIRC). In terms of backwards and forwards compatibility I don’t think any NLE comes close to touching Avid. Of course as someone brought up a while ago that could be part of Avid’s dilemma because users don’t necessarily have to update in order to trade projects/bins with each other.
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[Andrew Kimery] “that could be part of Avid’s dilemma because users don’t necessarily have to update in order to trade projects/bins with each other”
If you look around at the market, the bulk of Avid editorial is “offline” editing for films and TV shows, as well as “online” editing/finishing for reality TV and broadcast news. All of this is HD or less and doesn’t really use many of the newest features. If you have to finish in 4K, then cut in MC at HD resolution and finish in Resolve with a simple roundtrip (or just master from Resolve). Free supports up to UHD.
That being said, MC 8.8 is pretty good. If you work in a true collaborative environment – defined as 2-4+ editors on the SAME project – nothing touches Avid.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “If you work in a true collaborative environment – defined as 2-4+ editors on the SAME project – nothing touches Avid.”
Which makes me wonder how a free feature limited version of Media Composer has an sales value. Perhaps this is their dilemma and, in part, the reason for the long delayed release.
While Avid didn’t write the headline, I think the mentioned Nexis integration is far more important.
Why is free Media Composer even being considered? -
Actually, not quite. I’ve found that is sequences use newer features and/or effects not present in older versions, then opening a bin from a very new version (like 8.x) in a very old version (like 6.x) can cause unpredictable results, ‘Assertion failed’, or sequences simply don’t open.
It’s probably rare to never, that one needs to open a project worked on in a newer MC in an older MC, but still bin compatibility isn’t universal any more.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India
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