Avid Media Composer 6: The Installation Experience

First I installed it to my MacBook Pro, on the Mac OS side, where I have not previously installed any Avid applications.  The latter is significant because from reading forums, it appears wise to remove all traces of any previous Avid installation (beyond what Avid’s Uninstaller does).

Installing and testing the basic Media Composer application:

  • Installer stated (correctly) that I had MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) yet the application was qualified for 10.7 (Lion).  From searching, I discovered that some others were nevertheless running it under 10.6.
  • The installer stated that the space requirement would be 6 GB.
  • Installation took about 15 minutes.
  • Then it did a system restart.
  • On restart, an Avid MC icon was present in the Dock.
  • Double-clicking the icon produced a prompt asking if I wanted on-line activation, use hardware dongle or 30-day trial.  I selected the latter as it seemed the least-hassle option.
  • Avid launch paused on an error message whose significance was not clear to me:
    • “ArthurQuinell-DataTrans” is in use by another application and cannot be used by Deck Control.
    • I am not sure what that means but vaguely remember naming one of my previous mobile phones as that (after an aldershot cat that used to “invade” our art-centre stage during performances, then sit washing in the spotlight – a born entertainer…).
  • Clicked [OK] to let it continue…
    • Got the same message about “Arthur…”.  Clicked [OK] to continue…
  • Finally the initial launch completed.
  • Got the usual Project dialog.  Chose [External]
    • Actually, before that, it asked for a Projects Path.
      • I defined it to be on my main external hard drive, a GRAID Mini, at the following location: [/Volumes/GRm HFS+/_App_Specific/Avid/Projects]
      • I wonder if people generally tend to put their Avid project-folder somewhere like in their Documents directory.  But my logic is that if I plug the hard drive into another Mac, it should still work there.
  • Prompted for some basic project settings.
    • Quaintly, its default display aspect ratio is 4:3 (how nostalgic!)
  • As usual, clicked the wrong thing at the wring time, resulting in a new project called [New Project].  Oh well, I am only playing/testing…
  • Selected the default Bin, [New Project Bin].
  • With that Bin:
    • Import an short existing MOV-DNxHD file.
    • Double-click that file.  It opened in the Monitor pane.
    • Clicked the [Overwrite] button, it laid-down in the Timeline as expected.
  • BUT there’s a missing expected pane at bottom-left corner.  I can see through to the desktop background (purple galaxy-space etc.).  Presumably OK but unsettling…
  • Window panes act independently e.g. re being above/below any other apps.  Similar to Final Cut.  I hated that about Final Cut also…
    • Is there a Preference for getting the whole app to work like “Single Document” ?

AMA Plugins

Effects

  • AvidFX 6.0.1 64-Bit
  •  Boris?
    • BCC
    • Boris has FEC = Final Effects Complete for Avid = Visual Effects Filters and Transitions for Avid
      • Installer said “FEC5 AVX 2   MC 2.5, XPressPro 5.5 or later:”
        • Makes me wonder if there is a later version for MC 6.0
        • I installed it but no “FEC” items showed up in Avid’s Effects Pallete.
          • Maybe it’s 32-bit and MC 6 only recognises 64-bit effects?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 16:58 and is filed under Avid, Media Composer, Sony EX XDCAM, XDCAM EX. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.