Xpress Pro EOL, Media Composer Price cut 50%

[Michael Hancock]

I’ll start with a disclaimer–I wasn’t around when the Meridien systems came out. I cut on one for two years, and it was fast and stable. But I learned on an Adrenaline–version 1.0, I think, and it was stable. I’ve since cut on Adrenaline 2.5 and Xpress Pro for the last year, and haven’t had any big problems with any of them. Maybe I got lucky and was using a golden system, but I’ve never had the majority of the problems I’ve seen other people with, so I guess I never understood how buggy/unstable it was.

That said, there seems to be a big double standard. FCP sells for dirt cheap, and there’s no arguing that it’a a great value. Avid has been historically more expensive. For the longest time, the big cry was that Avid is too expensive and is having its lunch eaten by FCP. Avid was buggy with the Adrenaline release, and it doesn’t seem to have been made a secret that the last year or two was dedicated to bug fixes. Why else would a new release be a $50 upgrade? It was to fix bugs while also adding new features. But still Avid was declared too expensive, even when Media Composer software was released.

Fast forward to today. Now Avid has cut the price of their flagship product to half of what it was, and I’m willing to bet they’ll make some hardware announcements before/around NAB to try and compete with AJA et al. What’s the new cry? Too cheap! They’re screwing the customers that bought it when it was expensive…they’re giving it away…but it’s still not cheap enough? Which is it? Too much or too cheap? It’s not a studio bundle like FCP, that’s obvious. But it’s still a damn fine editing system, and if they didn’t piss off their current customers with a big price drop they’d be dead because their software would still be too expensive. They lose either way, and I guess this was their way of trying to stay in the fight. If they cut their hardware prices/release some amazing new hardware, I’d say they’re right back in the game for a while.

I guess I just don’t get it. I like cutting with Avid, much better than any other editing systems I’ve used. There’s no denying the competitors offer more products for a lower price, but their biggest competitor–FCP–has much deeper pockets and can afford to sell their software so cheap. They also sell the only hardware it will run on! $2,500 is very affordable–again, if they get their hardware figured out or opened up to third party hardware, what will be the new problem? Still too little too late? Or will Avid finally be on par/near par with the competition?

I’ll say it again–I haven’t been using Avid nearly as long as likely everyone else who has posted, but I still see this as a good thing. Perhaps this will force FCP to do something dramatic? Competition between the companies benefits everyone–hence the price cut and upgrade price from Xpress Pro.

I don’t want to sound like a fanboy, and I hope you don’t read this as an angry rant. I just saw people complaining that Avid was overpriced, then when they make their software affordable it’s just a front and they’re still a dead company. I guess time will tell. Until then, I’m buying Media Composer. For cheap. 🙂

Michael.

[Jon Zanone]

[Michael Hancock] “There’s no denying the competitors offer more products for a lower price, but their biggest competitor–FCP–has much deeper pockets and can afford to sell their software so cheap. They also sell the only hardware it will run on!”

I guess no one got caught up in the OS9 to OSX fiasco. I had to buy brand new versions of PShop and After Effects! And I’ll bet FCP users had to buy a new Intel Mac to run the latest FCP version…

Jon

“So you want to throw out the old you – but the old you is old enough to know it won’t make it better”
Del Amitri – “Make it Better”

[Ted Levy]

Grinner, always the jerk. He just flogs FCP incessantly for whatever his agenda may be, and on this thread he’s always been an insufferable asshole, with no meaningful rhyme or reason. His responses are completely predictable, because they will always be negative and demeaning.

[Grinner Hester]

Not accurate, Ted. I’m the first to praise when something is good and have on many occasions on this very forum.
My agenda is simply stay in business, man. I really have’nt a flavor preference of tools.
…I only use to.

Speak your mind but chill with the name-calling. Would hate to have to dismiss a brother.

[Ron Lindeboom]

Ted,

This is your LAST warning on the asshole stuff…

I just found this and am now watching you like a hawk.

Try ANYTHING like this again and I will shut off your account — and block you at the IP level where you won’t even be able to log-in to the COW and read it, let alone post in it.

You seem to be the one with the problem to me…

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Remember: Burt Bacharach lied. What the world really needs now is an undo button.