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Need to throw a mac based Avid MC setup together fast – will my current mac pro work?
Hey all, I’m a film and television editor who used to cut in Avid 4 – 5 years ago (also had certified training) on the east coast but since moving out west to LA, haven’t had any clients ask for it or post houses that run Avid, it’s been all FCP. So, I get a call from one of my favorite post houses from yesteryear back on the east coast and they’re swamped and want to send a ton of broadcast reality television work my way. They’ll be setting up all the projects, doing all the capturing and online, it’s just up to me to edit. They’re running MC 3.5 but said they plan to upgrade all their Avids to MC 4 “when it’s released next week”. So, I need to throw together an Avid setup and am really hoping my current system that I have FCP on will work easily with both. Here’s my two big questions:
1. If they upgrade to version 4 and it is released next week, would it be safe to assume that if I go out and buy MC 3.5, it would be a big waste of money and I should wait for MC4 (because I’d guess it’s not a free upgrade from MC 3.5 AND that MC 3.5 wouldn’t open a project setup for me in MC 4).
2. These are my system specs – I don’t need mojo compatibility or anything else, I don’t even need to output to a television for client review – I just need to be able to edit on my monitors, pre captured footage. Will it work without any horrible hiccups? Here’s my system:
Mac Pro dual dual 3.0
OSX 10.5.8
12 gig memory
ATI Radeon HD 3870 (512 mb ram)Displays – I can arrange these in whatever config will work best but currently have them setup as – two 24inch Dells joined with a Matrox Triplehead2go so that my mac sees them as one 3840×1200 monitor connected into a single DVI port, 42 inch plasma connected via the second DVI port. Not sure if MC has a Digital Cinema Preview for computer monitors like FCP but without a Mojo etc…
Sonnet Tempo E4P (I would guess they’ll be sending me a FW drive but I’d prefer to then do a direct copy to a SATA drive to be working off of, I hate FW drives).
Any help you could provide would be greatly and amazingly appreciated. If there’s something incompatible (my only big worry is my video card), could you recommend me something cost effective to make this setup work?
Thank, you, much.
Bryan
FCP / AVID EDITOR
Features : Television
http://www.DefiningFilms.com -
3 Replies
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You can check the Avid certified configurations at https://www.avid.com/mc.
As far as I can tell, you have a pretty decent machine, and it’s on the list, except for the graphics card. That does not mean it’s going to be a problem, especially since your card is 512MB, chances are it will run just fine. The one officially supported for your machine would be the GeForce 7300 GT (which is 256MB). If it turns out your graphics card is giving you trouble, then you could put that one in (I don’t think it sells for more than 70 bucks now).If there is indeed going to be a new release within weeks, and you buy MC 3.5 today, it would be very, very likely that you will fall in the usual “grace period”, meaning that this new version would be free of cost for you.
The thing that you should worry about as well is the right OS/Quicktime combination. For 3.5.4, Avid wants you to be on 10.5.5., 10.5.6 or 10.5.7. 10.5.8 has not (yet?) been qualified. Might work, might not. QT should be 7.5.5 or 7.6 (not 7.6.2 for instance). Again, using different versions than specified might work, might not work. If you’re running different apps, you might want to create a separate drive or partition running the right combo of Avid, OSX and Quicktime.
But here’s the even better news for both your questions: you can download a 14-day free, fully functional trial version on the Avid website. This will allow you to install and try the software on your machine, and test if it works out. I’m betting it will, but why not take the free test ride?
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Job – bah (slaps forehead) – I guess I fell into the stereotypical freakout and post before thinking category. Thanks so much for the information about the demo. I downloaded it as well as their test project and everything seems to run buttery smooth (I’m on Quicktime Pro 7.6.2). Is version 4 going to be a radically different interface or anything? I’ve done many searches on it and can’t seem to find any literature on the new version or a set release date but this post super has deep Avid ties and they generally know exactly what’s going on…
FCP / AVID EDITOR
Features : Television
http://www.DefiningFilms.com -
[Bryan Roberts] ” Is version 4 going to be a radically different interface or anything?”
Those that know can’t say, and those that say don’t know (or they’re breaking their NDAs).
3.5 just came out a few months ago–if Avid releases 4.0 in the next week I’ll be incredibly surprised (and really happy). You aren’t finding any information about it online because it doesn’t exist. Avid is a publicly traded company and has to play by certain rules, and one of those is that they don’t announce release dates for their software.
Michael
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I’ll be working late.
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