CPTK gone in PT11 - Upgrade to PTHD11?

[nigelpry]

bitanga,

I last heard from Marianna via email on 11th June.

[bitanga]

Are we being swept under a rug, are they waiting for people to forget and this whole debacle to blow over?

How long does it seriously take? I am expecting that they won't have a positive answer for students that bought into the CPTK.

[marianna]

Apologies folks on the delay in responding to the student topic.

it's been kind of a crazy few weeks for me. We lost a very special Pro Video moderator and friend 2 weeks ago. Larry was part of the Avid video moderator team for 8 + years and worked for the Pentagon Channel. His passing has been tough for me and a lot of his peers in the video business. Nice tribute to Larry here http://community.avid.com/forums/t/119644.aspx ( 17 pages and counting).

This week I have been in corporate working on the launches of PT 11 and MC 7 so email responding is not realtime. You need me - ping Bruce as he knows how to reach me.

Students who purchased Pro Tools at the educational discount and are eligible for free or discounted upgrades unfortunately are not eligible for discounted pricing on the CPTK to PT HD11 upgrade. Why? Since neither CPTK or Pro Tools HD were ever offered at student discounts, those products are not eligible for student pricing.

Option for students with PT + CPTK include:

1. Upgrade to Pro Tools 11 under the applicable student plan (some are eligible for 4 years of free upgrades, some are eligible for a discount) and have the flexibility to run Pro Tools 11 without CPTK, and run a co-installed version of PT10 with CPTK
2. Upgrade to Pro Tools 11 HD for $ 599 US MSRP
3. Upgrade to Pro Tools 11 under the applicable student plan (some are eligible for 4 years of free upgrades, some are eligible for a discount) and leave behind the CPTK feature set.

Thats the scoop.... and this wont change.

Marianna

[louieshowers]

I am deeply sorry for your loss Marianna. Hang in there.

Sincerely,
Lou

[nigelpry]

That's very disappointing Marianna, and not strictly true either.

I bought CPTK, and MPTK before that, in the Digidesign Education Store, which was the only route by which students got educational discounts prior to Avid taking over. I have two personal friends who did likewise, so I am by no means alone. I guess there are many others in a similar position.

Can I ask that you point this out to the newbies at Avid, who appear to have no knowledge of this history, based on your statement.

For students who got into Pro Tools after the Avid takeover, well they decided the CPTK investment worthwhile precisely because it was marketed as version independant, so there was no reason to believe that it was a deadend purchase that would not work in future versions. That you make no allowance for them, is very disapponting, and pretty short-sighted in my opinion.

It seems you aren't interested in supporting the next generation of Pro Tools users, unlike your rivals, such as Steinberg, who offer educational discounts on all products, upto and including Nuendo.

I'm very unimpressed that Avid, via you Marianna, has taken so long to respond, and then only with such an ill-informed and unhelpful kick in the teeth for students.

At a single stroke, you've further alienated a section of your customer base that was already smarting from the decision to abandon CPTK without warning.

I hope you are proud of yourselves. Well done Avid.

[EricWillhelm]

I so, SO don't want to have to enter a learning curve again after so long. I get so close to ALMOST biting the bullet and blowing my money on the HD upgrade. Then I think about life down the road, and how it's most certain, given the history, that I'll be kicking myself for having done so, as I catch myself in a new, costlier upgrade path. OR forced into some other upgrade scheme where I once again have to cough up another surcharge on top of the upgrade fee for the privilege of maintaining this or that feature set. (to maintain extreme track counts!)

So far I'm leaning toward Nuendo. I really wish i could hear something to convince me it would be worthwhile to stay put, but I ain't holding my breath.

[Kurzweiler]

I was a mature student at the time of the Avid take over and opted to pay full price for CPTK as I was building a studio at the time. I did have HD2 on order when they were being sold at discount: before 3rd party Hardware supported/worked. The AVID representative apparently lied to my sales rep when asked how long HD would remain current hardware. . .

Pro tools 9 was released and for allot of people at the time (me included) CPTK was a more attractive option (yet still expensive). It was always marketed and sold as a hardware-less HD.

I now find myself requiring a new computer to run protools 11(HD) and was initially informed I would have to pay $999 (now $599) for the privilege.

I still remain dismayed at the lack of response to questions asked on this thread. Some obviously can't be answered but some form of "chiming in" from Tony et al would somehow be more useful than just damage control and pricing alterations IMHO.

[Avidfan]

Hi, I am a student and bought PT10 student version+CPTK. I am eligible to receive free upgrades for up to four years, (now 3 years). My question is what happens when I get my free copy of PT11? Will I still be able to upgrade my CPTK+PT11 bundle to PTHD11?
As I understand PT11 comes bundled with PT10.
If I upgrade to PTHD11 will I lose the eligibility to receive my free non-HD PT upgrades?
(assuming that another PT is released withing the eligibility period).
I much appreciate the response.
Thank you.

[Bill Denton]

See post #1654 on this thread...

[nigelpry]

Avidfan ... by way of a more helpful reply ...

1) If you intend to upgrade to PT11HD then don't claim your free student upgrade to PT11 vanilla, just buy the PT10 +CPTK to PT11HD upgrade when it becomes available. This resolves the issue of whether you can upgrade PT11 +CPTK to PT11HD, or if you can only do it straight from PT10.

2) As for future upgrades, I suspect you won't be able to get free student upgrades anymore, as you won't have a vanilla licence to surrender. You'll only have a HD licence, and when iLok.com tries to swap your PT12 licence with an existing PT11 licence it will be looking for a vanilla licence. And even if it did allow that surrender, you would be exchanging a PT11HD licence for a PT12 vanilla licence, which I'm guessing wouldn't be all that attractive to you.