Avid Media Station|PT 2.7

[Phill Barrett]

Hi,

Is it possible to upgrade Avid Media Station|PT 1.8.2 to Media Station|PT 2.7? I see 1.8.2 is downloadable but can find no option to download 2.7 or upgrade to it.

My problem is I would like to be able to convert Quicktimes to Avid pictures to use with a Mojo, and have been offered a licence/dongle for 1.8.2 but I understand that version won't run on an Intel Mac, and I don't have any Motorolla Macs any more.

Avid don't make this easy do they! I've already installed OSX10.4 as a dual boot on my oldest MacPro to be able to run Media Station, but am also told that Media Station requires Protools HD hardware to be attached so that precludes from buying a G5 or what ever just for this purpose as my Protools cards are all PCIe.

Is Avid Media Station|PT 2.7 basically the same software as 1.8.2, just able to run on an Intel Mac?

Any thoughts on this, or how I might get round it would be very much appreciated as I seem to have hit a dead end at the moment.

Thanks,

Phill.

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Hi Phil

I am in the same boat. I have MS 1.8.2 and this is upgradeable to a full Avid Media Composer Soft (ie no hardware) which runs on OSX intel (and I believe concurrently with Pro Toools - although I wouldn't risk it my self).

This will do all the converting from QT to Avid MXF you want, and allow you you to video edit to boot!

I believe the conversion upgrade is about £400. Phone Tina at Scrub.
I might do the same tomorrow myself.

Cheers

[Postman]

As Mike says, run (do not walk) from MediaStation. Its best value is as an upgrade path to MediaComposer. Just check the Avid site for compatibility of dual installs on Mac. MC4 and PT8 are tested and supported, but i'm not sure which versions/machines off the top of my head (I wouldn't want to be locked to specific versions, which may hinder upgrades to one or the other, a trap I found myself in several years ago.)

A nice benefit about dual install for you is that you can run the MOJO from either app, which will be quite handy. Media Composer 4 should recognize it and run it without problems.

[Buccanears]

see http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?navi...5&itemid=37195

Mac and PC too.
+1 definitely run away from MediaStation
just got to watch out for any firewire bus issues if your Mojoing

[Phill Barrett]

Thanks all for the help. I have no idea why Avid seem to make this so complicated or why Protools and Avid video products can't co-exist under the same OS instalation without risking problems, but then I'm just a humble end user so will just have to lump it I guess.

Let me know how you get on with the upgrade Mike, be interested to hear.

Any idea if Avid Media Composer Soft has any specific requirements in terms of hardware or Mac OS? In an ideal world all I want is something simple to run on a transfer room Mac to transfer QT to Avis and vice versa, so have no need to directly stream that to a Mojo, or edit or anything else really. Just provide the Protools rigs in teh studios with the required picture format.

Out of interest what's so bad with Media Station?

Thanks again,

Phill.

[Buccanears]

see http://www.avid.com/products/Media-C...quirements.asp

MediaStation was compatible with PT up untill PT7.4, then it went AWOL.

[Postman]

Out of interest what's so bad with Media Station?

It is/was Avid Express Pro that can also communicate with a 192IO, for top flight audio input without an expensive Avid interface. Where it went wrong was, most of Express Pro's editing features were disabled. You can digitize from tapes, import video files, and make basic cut/paste to prepare them for use in Pro Tools, but no effects or fades, things like that. Avid obviously wanted to squash any possibility that a Digidesign user might be able to useably edit video without buying a complete Avid product. That choice made MS worth very little more than being a file converter. Also, the one time I really, really counted on MS was when I needed to conform+digitize 8 channel tapes (DA88's) from an Avid EDL. That was a total failure, starting with repeated crashes of EDL manager (opening lists from an Avid Symphony) to discovering that there was no way the software would allow more than 4 channels at a time, and even that was a challenge.

Media Station was a mistake on the part of buyer and seller. The upgrade to Media Composer may be worthwhile if you want to keep your MOJO for a while longer, or if you're thinking about someday using Avid Video Satellite (Media Composer running as a Pro Tools satellite.)

[Audio_Vision]

I would highly recommend MC as Video Satellite with PT 8. The lock is near instant and "near sample accurate." If you are in an Avid picture edit environment and on shared storage, you can open the project directly, no capturing from tape or converting Quicktimes. And you can playback full HD projects to an HD monitor. That however is the downside, as you need the $7000 Mojo DX to do the HD playback and have HD/SD-SDI I/O for when you would need to capture from tape. Having the full force of MC at your disposal can come in handy. I've used bins from projects that were lost to auto re-digitize the sequence from tape because the client was out of picture edit time but still somehow had the bin (but not the media). So in short, what everyone else said, go for the Media Composer upgrade.

[Phill Barrett]

Thanks again everyone for the useful information. While I'm sure using satellite etc. works great, I don't need (or currently afford) it at the moment. Also, I don't need to be able to edit video or do anything to it other than convert Avid MXF to Quicktime and vice versa.

While it sounds like Media Station has severe limitations, it also sounds like it would do what I need at the moment. However I only have Intel MacPros, though one I have set to dual boot with OSX 10.4, so would need Media Station 2.7 not 1.82. Any idea how I would get it or if 1.82 is upgradable to 2.7?

Might well go the satellite/Media Composer route in the future, but probably more than I need at the moment.

Thanks again,

Phill.

[Postman]

Ask your dealer. Maybe it is still possible to get one, or hopefully someone reading this will sell you one. It was only available through a dealer when I upgraded from 1.8 to 2.7. Maybe you can find someone around here who is willing to sell you one. It is possible I still have one, I'll look.

I understand you don't need anything more than a media converter, but I suspect it will be cheaper, or equal price, to upgrade to a new Media Composer than to upgrade to MSPT2.7 through official channels, and you'd gain more flexibility to install anywhere (no HD card, no MOJO, latest OS).