Oakmozart
Forum Replies Created
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Actually, if you want to remain in and output uncompressed HD, Media Composer Adrenaline HD is NOT the system you want to use…you’ll want to check out Symphony Nitris. All the power/features of MCA, plus a few extras and the ability to work with 2 streams of uncompressed HD in real-time.
However, to back up Alex’s suggestion, you might (for cost’s sake) want to cut on a Media Composer Adrenaline HD system for your offline, then online on Symphony Nitris for your final uncompressed output.
It all depends upon what your needs and final output plans are. I COMPLETELY support Alex’s suggestion to check out both a decked-out FCP system with Kona/Decklink, and then compare it to a high-end Avid system (MCA or SN).
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If you plan on doing everything yourself, go with Avid Liquid 7. It has more features than XPro does, including secondary color-correction, timewarp, 3D warping, masking, surround sound, etc. Very powerful application.
If you plan on working with other people in post (“collaboration”), such as finishing on a higher-end Avid, working with compositors, audio folks, effects artists, color-graders, etc., then DEFINITELY go with XPro.
XPro offers many more features than XDV and is WELL WORTH the extra money!!! For starters, as of XPro 5.5 due this summer (target date is June), you will have the full Avid Film Composer toolset…the exact same toolset that most Hollywood films are cut with, that, up until now, used to cost $25,000 to get via an Avid Media Composer Adrenaline system. It cost even more back in the old Meridien days! I realize you said you won’t be outputting to film, but this is huge in and of itself.
Other improvements over XDV include 3D effects, HD support, 24p support, Marquee Title Tool (far better than the standard Avid Title Tool), multi-cam (4-streams of RT), Timewarp FX presets (canned, can’t be tweaked, but better than nothing).
It goes deeper: XPro offers support for Mojo, which allows you to work with uncompressed video…meaning BETTER RESOLUTION and higher-quality output. You can work with more resolutions, too, including 15:1s offline for your rough-cut to save disk space.
This is but merely scratching the surface!
Also, XDV’s future is extremely uncertain, and looks as though it’s going to be killed. You might as well spend the extra money and get a product that is going to continue to see a healthy life as it gets upgraded and improved constantly.
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JKL Trim/Edit showed up in XPro 4.0, and at the same time in XDV 4.0.
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Why the double-post?
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What version of Symphony?
I know for a fact it’s in Symphony Nitris. I’ve heard rumor it made it in to the last release of Symphony 5.x for Meridien, but that’s unconfirmed.
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Yup. New in MC 2.5 HD is Motion-Tracking (the full Symphony tracker, including the new SteadyGlide option brand-new in Symphony Nitris). Additionally, full Timewarp/Fluidmotion, SpectraMatte (Avid’s new 16-bit HD/SD keyer–EXCELLENT), 3D Warp, Paint, Animatte, more formats, more RT capabilities, more hardware choices (Adrenaline), plenty more.
$5000 for Media Composer software-only seems a bit high to me, and kills my hopes for XPro 6’s future. Regardless, it’s still a great move forward for Avid, and will likely come down slightly in price in a year or two. If it doesn’t, perhaps XPro will.
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XPro: single stream of RT 1:1 uncompressed (your choice of that stream being for graphics/titles, or video–one or the other, but not both). Mojo and Mojo SDI support.
Media Composer: more DV and 1:1 streams in RT (dependent upon storage abilities). More format support (IMX, DNxHD, etc.), access to software-only, Mojo, Mojo SDI, or Adrenaline support (with or without the DNxcel hardware option, for increased HD abilities). Paint, animated masking, motion-tracking, SpectraMatte (16-bit HD/SD keyer), full Timewarp/Fluidmotion effects, better i/o’s with Adrenaline, etc.
XPro is very good, but MC–no matter what version–is better.
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Sweet…thanks for the clarification, Alex!
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One thing to consider, however: Mojo SDI offers nothing but professional i/o’s. Mojo (standard) offers consumer-grade i/o’s (including analog connector’s). Users must choose between one or the other. That leaves users who require both the connector’s on Mojo as well as Mojo SDI out in the cold. We must purchase both. NOT COOL. I was hoping that Mojo SDI would feature all the connectors of Mojo, only with an SDI and AES/EBU audio i/o’s as well.
Bummed on that. Also, still no proper HD support with Mojo either, Mojo SDI included. There was supposed to be a Mojo HDV announced, but it appears as though it’s either been delayed or cancelled. I’m a bit dismayed there, too.
I’m torn on the Media Composer software-only product, too. On one hand, Media Composer can now be had for a measly 5 grand. On the other hand, XPro 6 has now been greatly limited by this new “competitor.”
Regardless, Avid has made some nice strides forward, especially for the lower-end products. There is great promise here, and I hope Avid will have even better news for us next year!
Oh, and the new updates to Studio Toolkit and DS Nitris 8 are good news too. Still no PT LE 7 in Xpress Studio, but I would assume that’s only a temporary thing. If it’s not, I am going to be extremely frustrated with Avid!
XPro 5.5 is promising. Finally Mac users have HD!
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You’re kind of out of luck, since you didn’t follow Avid’s specs. That being said, your processor could likely be the culprit (Avid doesn’t like AMD, only Intel–though that doesn’t mean Avid won’t run on an AMD chip).
Grab a Nvidia Graphics card, as many users are experiencing varying degrees of issues in systems with ATI graphics cards. Any of the GeForce-series cards out there (within reason) should be more than sufficient. I suggest something in the upper 6000-series (6600, 6800, etc.).
You might try wiping and reinstalling Windows XP PROFESSIONAL (Avid XPro won’t run properly on WinXP Home) with SP2. Avid doesn’t like Premiere (or at least, it didn’t in the past, things may have changed with the newer Premiere Pro releases).
It could also be driver conflicts, too.
Those are a few things that come to mind. For further advice, I suggest you follow the recommendations on the following page: https://www.avid.com/products/xpressprohd/specs.asp
You might try searching on Ebay for great deals on a new/used certified computer to run Avid on.