Which Media Composer to Buy?

Hi,

I'd like to upgrade to Media Composer for a job. I have xpress pro that ran on an old g4. I now have a macbook pro that is a few year's old running Snow Leopard 10.5.8 and it won't run xpress pro. Do I upgrade to an old version of Media Composer that would run on my current laptop while waiting till later in the year to buy the newest Mac release? If I do that and buy the older version of Media Composer, would I have to upgrade twice to get to 6 once I buy a new Mac? If so, are both upgrades $600?

I've come to learn that Avid's sales team doesn't carry as much knowledge as one would think, so that's why I'm posting here.

Thanks,

Sandy

my macbook pro is a 2.4 ghx intel core 2 duo with leopard. i suppose i could upgrade my osx. i dont think i could run 6 on this if i upgraded to lion though, right? maybe i just upgrade to snow leopard and get 5.?

thanks!

You can currently only buy MC5.5 or MC6 from Avid. They don't sell upgrades to older versions.

However, if you have XpressPro, you probably have a dongle for that. If you upgrade that dongle to the current version of Media Composer for 599, you can subsequently use that dongle to launch any older installed version of Media Composer. So an MC6 dongle will allow you to run MC4, MC5, any version.

If you buy the upgrade you will receive an activation code (for the newer software licensing system), but you can trade in that license key for a dongle updater at avid.com.upgrade. This gets you an .avd dongle updater file. You then open the Avid Dongle Manager on your system, with the dongle attached, and you update your dongle with the .avd file (done in less than a minute).


Also consider that there is a limited-time offer to upgrade your Xpress Pro or Media Composer to Symphony-software, which includes Boris Continuum Complete 8, at 995. A super sweet deal.

If you have a Final Cut Pro license, you can even use that to crossgrade to Symphony with BCC8, also for 995, and then you get to keep your Xpress Pro (and FCP) as well. See http://www.avid.com/symphonypromo for details.

[sandy shapiro] "if i buy mc6, i can update my xpress pro dongle and download mc4 to run on my current computer, then when i have my new computer - a few months down the road - i can open up mc6 with the same dongle for no extra cost?"

Yes. You can upgrade your Xpress Pro dongle to Media Composer 6 and it should allow you to run previous versions of Media Composer with that dongle. Basically, version 6 will be a high as you'll be able to run.

Do note, though, that when you purchase the upgrade you'll need to request a dongle blaster when you activate MC6 - do not switch to software activation. It will disable the dongle and you won't be able to up run previous versions.

I'd also recommend that you take full advantage of the Symphony offer if funding allows. It's Media Composer but with a richer color correction toolset. It's not a Resolve, but depending on the work you do might be everything you need, plus it comes with Boris Continuum Complete v8, which the Media Composer 6 upgrade doesn't come with.

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Michael Hancock
Editor