Will AVID offer a discount to Edition users who Upgrade to Xpress Pro?

[Paul Peltekian]

i dont see why not??? unless they plan on keeping the entire pinaccle line.
but i doubt they will. they’ll use some ideas and code and then probably rid themselves
of the headache.

who knows that the future holds?

[Oliver Peters]

Remember that the acquistion doesn’t begin to get final until summer. Until then it will be business as usual – including competition – for both.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oakmozart]

Indeed. In fact, Pinnacle will be strutting its stuff and showing off its newest products at NAB, plus CONTINUING development on its existing products! Once (and IF) the merger papers are signed and Pinnacle becomes Avid’s property, then all bets are off.

Betcha an ice-cream Sundae that Liquid Edition gets killed-off, with its best features that are missing in XPro being added to XPro!

[Oliver Peters]

[oakmozart] “Betcha an ice-cream Sundae that Liquid Edition gets killed-off, with its best features that are missing in XPro being added to XPro!”

Probably correct, although Edition also falls into the consumer side of Pinnacle which is part of why Avid says they want Pinnacle. My guess is that Liquid (blue, chrome) goes away and that Edition gets an Avid-ized interface which gets sold in consumer channels. Just of SWAG, of course.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Ran]

As someone who works with both applications on a daily bases
I can tell you that Edition 6.1 has more to offer than xpress pro HD.
I wouldn’t pay a penny for an upgrade.
I hope that Avid will integrate into the pro line all the great
things that Edition does and Avid doesn’t.

Ran

[Oliver Peters]

[Ran] “As someone who works with both applications on a daily bases
I can tell you that Edition 6.1 has more to offer than xpress pro HD”

Ran,

I think that’s in the eye of the beholder. Specifically Edition offers these technologies over XproHD:
– HDV support
– Instant Save
– Background rendering
– Long-GOP editing
– Surround support
– Integrated DVD authoring

All of these are valid, but I think that the only part of this that Avid might value and may not be able to quickly duplicate is the Long-GOP and HDV support.

On the other hand, mixed resolution editing, such as HD with SD, feel far more responsive on XProHD than Edition. If you deviate from the timeline format in Edition, the responsiveness of the media that’s in the “other” format is extremely slow when you try to scrub through it. So technology is one thing, but effective implementation of it is entirely something else.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oakmozart]

Oliver-

As a longtime reader of most of the major industry rags, I’ve read most all of your reviews and articles (mainly in Videography). In that time I’ve grown to realize that you truly DO know what you’re talking about when it comes to the industry/editing and I’ve learned a great deal from you. I respect your opinions greatly and value the opportunity to be able to openly chat with you here on these forums. Kudos to you for being so available and thank you!

I do not understand, however, how you view Liquid Edition as a more “consumer” app than XPro HD, when Edition offers many of the features of XPro, and even more…several of which are only available in Adrenaline, Symphony, or DS. With a product that offers most all XPro’s offerings, plus things like a secondary color-correction toolset (absent in XPro and Adrenaline), full Timewarp-esque motion effects (Adrenaline and up), background rendering (missing in all Avid products, except DS Nitris + RP option), timeline-based transfer modes (asininely missing from Avid products minus DS), etc. I fail to see how 2 competing products could occupy the same spot in Avid’s product-line and still be profitable. Maybe if they stripped Edition down to its bare bones and gave XPro the stripped Edition options it could be. But if they did that, then what’s the point of having Pinnacle Studio? Pinnacle has said outright that Studio is one of their biggest income generators at this time and is a large part of what’s keeping them profitable. To me, Avid should pull an “Elastic Reality” by stripping all of Edition’s features that are missing in XPro and implement them in future versions of XPro. I’m curious as to what your thoughts are on this matter. And just to clarify, this is NOT an “Avid vs. Edition” thread, since I’m an Avid guy and likely always will be until I die. At the same time, I respect Edition and will use whatever NLE is available to me to complete my projects.

Would like to know what you think about this.

[Ran]

Oliver,
My main point was that edition is a full professional application
that is capable of doing almost everything that XPRESS PRO HD does
and much more.
I surly respect your knowledge of both products, but describing edition as a “consumer product” doesn’t do justice to Pinnacle and to the product itself.

Ran

[Oliver Peters]

[Ran] “but describing edition as a “consumer product” doesn’t do justice to Pinnacle and to the product itself.”

I agree. I don’t mean to denegrate it as “consumer”. I say this because Pinnacle itself markets Edition through its consumer channels as well as pro. Check out their website. Since it falls under “consumer”, it might survive the Avid purchase.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com