Has anyone tried the AVID offer …

[Richard Cooper]

I have tried it but I couldn’t get it to take my FCP serial…. and yes it is a valid serial, all the way back to the original Studio. (actually all the way back to FCP 2 (not studio) I tried all of them but no go. need to get in touch with them personally and see what is up… maybe it is not supposed to take the dashes? (-)
Did you have any trouble with this?

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Simon Ubsdell]

It accepted my serial number OK – I gave it the FCS3 upgrade number rather than my original one and that worked for me. It then said that the application had been successful and to stand by for an email. I’d imagined this would be automated, but if not it might be that I did this yesterday (Friday) and it requires human intervention so nothing will happen till next week. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I don’t fancy having to battle it out with AVID to try and get any sense out of them!

Good luck with yours!

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Simon Ubsdell] ” I’d imagined this would be automated, but if not it might be that I did this yesterday (Friday) and it requires human intervention so nothing will happen till next week. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I don’t fancy having to battle it out with AVID to try and get any sense out of them!”

I’m sure it takes human intervention for this offer to go through. We haven’t tried it yet as we’re waiting for Avid to support the AJA Kona boards.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Andy Mees]

Mine came through straight away Simon.

From : bounce-registration@avid.com
Subject : Upgrade Code

… check your junk mail folder just in case it ended up there.

Cheers
Andy

[Simon Ubsdell]

Thanks, Andy – that’s exactly what happened. Found it now!

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Simon Ubsdell]

But typically, the check-out page doesn’t accept any of my three valid Visa cards! Looks like I’ll have to download the demo version and wait to try and talk to a human being who can sort it out – timewasting that I just don’t need right now..

The AVID website is and always has been a joke – unless I’ve always been extremely unlucky, which I suppose is possible. I’ve been using Media Composer and assorted AVID products (including ProTools of course, and way back when the much-lamented Audiovision) pretty much since their inception and their whole idea of an appropriate client interface is still as bad as it ever was. You’d have thought with the competition hotting up all the time, they’d put a bit of effort into their support operation … I’ve just remembered why I really love Apple for all its faults!

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Simon Ubsdell]

Oh and I forgot to add, that here in the UK (at least and probably elsewhere outside the US) the offer is not available for download and only as a shippable box which comes at a 30% premium, so the actual price is nowhere near the advertised $999. So amazingly typical of AVID to come up with a cheap scam like that!

Still you gotta love their chutzpah.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Ben Holmes]

Good luck with that. I notice AVID have so far only announced support for boxes using embedded audio – so no PRO-IO, or anything other than HDSDI. Seems to me that’s so they don’t hurt sales of their own (more expensive) Nitris boxes. Also, MC with Nitris offers considerably faster encoding for output than a software only solution (our own broadcast testing shows 40 x real time encoding for our tapeless system on export, and nothing like that with software only.

I don’t know how I feel about using an AVID hardware system that’s not optimised for the software – I think I’d rather just buy some HP workstations and Nitris DX boxes and be done with it…

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Simon Ubsdell]

Have downloaded the trial version for now and spent the afternoon setting it up and getting back into the swing of Media Composer after a few months not using it at all …

… and came to the realization of what insanely good value you get from Apple with FCP!!!!!

Conversely for $999 spent with AVID (or considerably more in the case of us non-US citizens, as I’ve already mentioned), you get a really, really bog-standard NLE with precious little in the way of extras – and the world’s most shockingly awful colour corrector! And don’t talk to me about the i/o limitations!

When people do the AVID/FCP comparison, they are always comparing the top of the range AVID spec with all the expensive extras. The software only version doesn’t begin to compare with the functionality of FCP – at many times the price! When you factor in the full FCS suite, the disparity becomes absolutely vast.

And it’s a loss less fun to cut on!

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Simon Ubsdell] “When people do the AVID/FCP comparison, they are always comparing the top of the range AVID spec with all the expensive extras. The software only version doesn’t begin to compare with the functionality of FCP – at many times the price! When you factor in the full FCS suite, the disparity becomes absolutely vast.”

The NLE you prefer is an entirely subjective choice. Just to be clear, there is no feature difference between the software version of Media Composer and a turnkey Media Composer Nitris DX, except for the addition of the Avid hardware. If you go one level up to Symphony, you get more advanced color correction tools, but the editor is the same. Although I would agree that Apple Color is a better color grading tool, both the Media Composer and Symphony versions include color matching – you know that “automatic” feature Apple touted for FCX at the SuperMeet? Not new at all 😉

In the US, there is a difference in the boxed set versus the download, as to whether or not the Production Studio tools are included. The retail boxed set does include them, which adds more 3rd party effects and authoring tools, including Boris FX’s BCC filters, Avid FX (which is Boris Red), Sorenson Squeeze, Smart Sound and Avid DVD. FWIW – these are all cross-platform, except for Avid DVD (Windows only). As a package, this would be comparable to FC Studio, although not every tool has a direct equivalent.

Additional paid Avid software options include: PhraseFind (like AV3 Get) and ScriptSync (unique to Avid). These cost extra because they involve licensed software from Nexidia for the dialogue search engines used in this technology.

Cheers,
Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com