[sw rec]

After futzing around with it for days and trying some of the workarounds from Avid tech support (that basically stopped PT 2020.3 from launching AT ALL,) I stripped out everything PT related, installed PT 10.3.10 and made sure it works (it does, even though PT10 is not "qualified" for Win 10). Then. Downloaded new 2020.3 installers on the chance that I got a corrupt download the first time. Re installed everything. If you try to enable the video engine, even before you bring a video into the session, it goes into the dreaded "unrecoverable error" loop, and won't stop until you tell it to cancel.

This is critical, because I need to be able to grab sessions from my OTHER place of employment, revise them here (social distancing, doncha know!) and eventually load them back on their system. Which by the way, is an older 10.3.8 MAC system, that WORKS. After seeing my frustration with Avid's new video engine, and seeing that 2020.3 has a problem importing .omf files, which again, are critical to this particular workflow, the manager has abandoned all thoughts of "updating" and getting the newest release. What they have still gets the job done, every day. So. Color me disillusioned, and wiser. Wise enough to say "no thanks" when my support plan comes up for renewal in June.