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Video Editing Software Review: Avid Media Composer 2.7
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11/13/2007 04:54 PM
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Videomaker by John Burkhart 
Taking It to the Top When you talk about non-linear editing,
Avid's Media Composer casts a long shadow over the entire field. As the first non-linear editing application to break into wide acceptance in the film and television industry, an entire Avid ecosystem developed at the top end of editing, and it's still there today. Most feature films and television shows are cut on Avid, making knowledge of the Avid system a prerequisite to anyone who is aspiring to a high-end editing position.
In recent years the cost of edit systems dropped dramatically, and there are now many competitors in the non-linear editing space. What keeps Avid as the choice of the majority of professional editors, and is moving up to Avid Media Composer right for you?
Cost is Relative Back in 1989, $100,000 would get you an Avid Media Composer. Now for the first time, 18 years later, Avid is separating its software from its proprietary hardware, and offering the full Media Composer in a software-only format for just under $5,000. We're reviewing this latest 2.7.3 version.
Installation Avid Media Composer runs on both Mac and PC platforms, so you can edit in your OS of choice. However, one big caveat with Avid Media Composer is that it is officially supported only on certain makes and models of Macs and PCs, which you can find on Avid's Web site. Additionally, it will run only on certain versions of the Windows and OS X operating systems, even down to the versions of QuickTime needed, and what cards can be installed in particular slots. There's a lot of research to be done before you can be sure that your current machine will run this software. This seems to be a throwback to the days when you bought an Avid system that came installed on its own computer, with specialized hardware that was used only for the Avid application itself. This concept seems a bit antiquated for a software-only release, and one hopes that Avid will offer much more robust support for running on more computer configurations in the future.
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