Article: Media 100 Steps Out with Suite 1.5

	Media 100 | Media 100 HD Media 100 Steps Out with Suite 1.5 Nick Griffin gives COW members a passionate 4.5 Cow review of Media 100's Suite 1.5. From a relevant history lesson to the latest version of the super-speed Media 100, Nick urges readers to wake from their 'Rip Van Winkle' sleep and see what Media 100 can do now. Review   05/03/2010 Author: Nick Griffin

What are you saying, Matty? One of the premises of my piece is that there are many people here on the Media 100 COW who are asking questions / having problems with versions that are MANY years old. I simply don't get how anyone can NOT stay current with the software that they use to earn their living when it is comparatively sooo inexpensive to do so. I have to assume it's because they don't realize what features/capabilities are in the current versions.

Does M100 have the same market share / buzz as FCP? Not even close and not even by a long, long shot. But that doesn't make it dead. There are any number of people out there making a living using Media 100, including me and now that it's in the hands of the Boris organization it's being updated at a much faster rate than are most products serving this market. Hardly seems dead in that regard.

Why did I come back to Media 100 from FCP? Because Media 100 is much quicker to use for so many tasks and many types/styles of editing. For me it's the better product, IMHO.

[Chris Pettit] "I have spent days and torn my hair out trying to sort out compatibility problems that occurred after an upgrade."

Chris-
As Bill Clinton said, "I feel your pain." However there is less pain, in fact MUCH less pain (usually) when going up a single version rather than attempting to jump a decade. This is not just true of Media 100, but almost all software.

Media 100 Suite requires the Leopard OS so you'll need a machine able to run it. We recently upgraded to Adobe's Creative Suite 5 and it wasn't until the box arrived that I saw it required the Intel chip set. That forced a scramble to switch out the final PowerPC machine for our Intel Octocore. The good news was that M100 Suite 1.5 has both a PPC and Intel version so we were able to easily keep both seats operating. This is not the case with the CS5 products and especially not the case with Final Cut Studio. If you don't have an Intel machine you're not moving past CS4 and FCS 2.

Chris, you've gotten a good long life out of your Media 100 system and it's time to bite the bullet and get a new Mac and upgrade to Suite 1.5 -- you will be pleased with the many, many improvements. But make the change safely by keeping the old one around until you're fully debugged and running without problems. Fact of the matter is an old Mac isn't worth very much so why NOT keep it around for a while?

As to going HD, you will be pleasantly surprised how simple that is. The biggest obstacle will be the need for a fat and fast RAID. We bought CalDigit and have been quite satisfied. I understand that their latest generation is stupifyingly faster. (See David Weiss review here on the COW.)

As to:
[Chris Pettit] "I am very interested in using the Sony Z7 in tapeless mode"

This question will be lost buried this far down in a thread. Re-submit it as the start of a new thread and you're likely to get some answers.

Hi Nick,
Sorry, I've been away and did not repost to clarify.
I'm in agreement with you on the upgrading.
My point is, if they want to regain market share or create some sort of buzz, they (the Boris Folks) will need to market the Product.
It isn't on anyone's radar screen at all, unless you happen to already own a Media100 system.
I'm ok with being "the only guy in town" on Media100. However, I bet that they can not sustain for long without selling the newly developed systems. We have all seen what happens when the development at media100 exceeds the sales.