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Why upgrade Media Composer from 3.0 to latest?
O.K. so I am running an AVID Media Composer 3.0 and know there are later versions available (I think it’s up to 5.something). My question is, what is there to gain? For me to upgrade I will have to also upgrade my PC tower as I am currently using the HP xw4300 Workstation. To upgrade this is a couple of grand at least…with the costs of new Media Composer software and new tower I would want some pretty dam good upgrades. I currently shoot all my corporate videos on Digital Betacam and am not really sure I want to start using XDcams. A lot of folk say “But it’s NO import time”…I say big deal, all vision has to be watched when editing and choosing takes, which I do as I import. So I ask you, have you upgraded? What were the benefits? Was it worth it?
Josh Rockman
Video Production Melbourne -
4 Replies
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I do corporate video as well and have been (until this last project) using XDCCAM HD for the last year. We recently upgraded from 3.5 to 5.0. I can give you several reasons to upgrade. From a purely editing perspective Media Composer has finally addressed some long-standing annoyances of day to day editing:
The biggest of these is the ability of transitions to travel with segment mode editing. I can drag a clip across the timeline without losing any transitions attached to it.
I can also extend an edit to the in or out of another clip through any transition attached to the second clip. MC used to stop the extend before the transition start or end,forcing you do delete it, do the extend, and then reapply.
The third issue resolved is the abilty to edit from one sequence to another without worrying about “splitting the transition.”
Just these small improvements have been huge time and PIA savers.
I hadn’t thought much about XDCAM vs. tape until I started my current project which includes 100+ tapes in various forms of Beta and mini DV. After using clip based media for a year, going back to tape seemed like a pain as well. Yes it is important to look at media as it comes in but it is a faster process with disc-based media. It becomes a non-linear, instant access search instead of linear, and eliminates some of the timecode hassles that can complicate capturing from tape. My usual process is to link to a disc which populates the clips in a bin. I scroll through the clips I think I want and then choose what to consolidate to the hard drive.
The AMA feature is not perfect and has some annoyances of its own, but they are not as bad as having a batch capture hiccup due to pre-roll problems or timecode breaks.Once you have been down the disc-based media road you do not want to go back, and the efficency improvements gained by a few seemingly simple fixes (There are others, but these had the biggest impact on how I work) Make the upgrade to 5.0 abolutely worth it and necessary to stay compatible with current post-production world.
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In addition to what Jandle wrote, MC 5 gives you real time, track based audiosuite plugins – up to 5 per track. So if you have all your VO on A1, interviewer 01 on A2, etc…, you can compress/limit/EQ all the audio at once by applying an effect to the track. Plus, you have Mono and Stereo audio tracks – very helpful to keep your timeline view manageable.
If you use Animatte a lot, it’s realtime now. That was worth the upgrade cost alone for me. Mixed framerates in the timeline, and it actually works exactly like it’s supposed to. AMA is great for previewing quicktimes/XDCam/P2 footage, then consolidate the parts you want to use to your media drive.
If you’d like the functionality that, when you move the video and the audio comes along for the ride, you can do that in 5. Smart tools let you drag and drop and trim in the timeline in a more Premiere/FCP kind of way. You may like that, but you can turn it off if you don’t.
My suggestion – download the MC5 trial and give it a test run for 30 day to see if you like the changes and if they’ll ultimately save you time and money. Your machine may not be certified, but you can still test it out to see if it’s worth spending money on the software and a new machine.
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Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com -
Thank you so much for those reply’s. This morning I went to my equipment suppler and got quotes on the latest MC, a new tower (HP Z400) as well as the XDCAM EX3 with mics, sticks, cards and batteries.
Now I’m waiting on my account to advise me if the buy is better than hiring…Thanks again for the reply’s.
Josh Rockman
Video Production Melbourne -
Well, it started here with the question and now, I have the Media Composer v5.0.3 I have only had it for 3 days but am loving it. My XDCAM EX3 is also wonderful and I am getting there in regards to its settings and how to bring into the MC. I got a card reader built in to my tower and the PC sucks in the clips in mere seconds, it’s quite amazing. I’m sure in time, as I get more acquainted and skilled with MC and EX3 I will really feel the benefits. Thanks again for your posts and advice.
Josh Rockman
Video Production Melbourne
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