Which Avid Platform?

[Carlitos]

would I be at a disadvantage if I went from DV Xpress straight to Liquid 7?

.- Liquid is a totally different interface than the rest of the Xpress/Adrenaline family you are familiar with.

The only thing they have in common is the AVID logo when you open the program.

So if you buy Liquid, you’ll have to learn a whole new program from the start.

[Oakmozart]

If you plan on doing everything yourself on just one computer at home, then Liquid may well suit you, as it’s an “all-in-one” application. However, if you plan to finish (or have your project finished) on another Avid system, you’ll be wisest going with XPro HD, since the transferability is almost seamless from XPro to another Avid (except DS, which does pretty good conforming, though it takes more work).

If you also plan to work with multiple different people (sound, editing, effects, onlining, etc.), then you’ll be best going with XPro HD as well.

Good luck and my hat is off to you.

[Patrick Bronte]

Thats oakmozart! Its a hard job doing it all yourself, especially being so disabled but you cant let it slow you down. Your advice is really appreciated. Its really hard over here in New Zealand to find good help/advice/teachers when your just a little fish starting out on your own. It may appear that this little country has a “booming” film industry with lots of people working within it but it is still hard to be taken seriously.
With the help of caregivers, I’ve interviewed over 140 war veterans over approximately 400 hours of DV. Despite all the encouragement from our Cultural and Heritage department to collect such material, they still don’t want to help me. If I could move my arms I would have torn all my hair out. So I say bugger them and keep recording new interviews with our veterans. This is my main focus and the doco comes a very close second.

I really hope you don’t mind helping me sort out a few things? I can use DV Xpress so I’ve decided its best to upgrade to Xpress Pro 5 because the interface is similar to DV Xpress which, will allow me to get into it without a whole heap of extra stuff to learn. And (as your advice recommended) I will be working with other people [for sound and effects] and I will need to have the project go through an online edit. Liquid may be something to get once I’ve mastered.

I’ve just blown all my savings to get some decent hardware for the whole editing and DVD burning process. I bought a new laptop with a fair bit of grunt (I still need to get the RAM up to 1.5G) and a new desktop that’s not to bad (I need to upgrade the RAM from 1 to 2G). The plan is to set up the desktop along with an old DV Cam deck to create an editing suite/workstation dedicated to the editing process and burning DVD copies of the interviews to the respective families and use the laptop for everything else while still having the ability to use Avid to edit stuff while on the road etc. These two machines will no doubt need some additional hardware to get things running smoothly but because I’m so ignorant I’m not sure what?!! I’ve search help files etc from the Avid website but it would really help if someone just told me straight.

So far I’ve tried loading Xpress Pro onto the laptop but I get the error message:
Exception: ADM_DSOUND_MIXER_OPEN_ERROR
turning up and killing it. I don’t get this because my old laptop that I bought three years ago ran Xpress Pro 4 no problems. It was a 2GHz Toshiba with 512MB of RAM. Although my new laptop is only a 1.8GHz it is a new generation “mother board” that is supposed to be just as, if not faster than the old 2GHz Toshiba Laptops. The RAM I have is also supposed to be faster.

Here I’ve listed all the hardware I’ve got to create my “own ULTIMATE editing suite”. Can you please tell me what else I need to purchase to get both my laptop and desktop up to standard to run Xpress Pro 5.

The specs for the laptop are:

Toshiba Tecra Series – Intel Centrino Duo
MSATOTOAIV10
Genuine Intel[R] CPU
T2400 @ 1.83GHz
1.83 GHz, 521MB of RAM – I have more RAM coming to get it up to 1.5G
Graphics by ATI
Sound Device: Realtek High Definition Audio

The desktops specs are:
HP DX7200
P4 630, 3GHz
1G RAM – I have more RAM coming bring it up to 2G
XP Pro
Graphics: Intel 945G, 128 Dedicated.
Sound Card:

The DV Cam is a Sony DSR-11 with Firewire connections. We use PAL over here.

So apart from the extra RAM what else do I need? This is really getting to me because I need to get into it. DV Xpress was great, just plug in the dongle and away you go. That was on my old laptop which feel off my knee and died. Insurance did help with the replacement but 3.5 isn’t compatible with this new laptop, it comes up with an error message going on about how the audio wont work. This proved to be true. So I really have no option other than upgrading.
My hair may still be in place because I cant pull it out but my finger nails are getting a beating.
Your help would be extremely appreciated.
Best Regards,
Patrick.

[Patrick Bronte]

Thanks Carl. Thats good advice.

[David Frisk]

I had that same error message when I first loaded Xpress Pro onto my desktop. I also had a RealTek soundcard. I spent like $30 on a simple Creative Soundblaster soundcard and the problem went away and it allowed me to boot up Avid. I’m not really sure if you could switch out a sound card on your laptop though.