As most of you already know, Avid is offering Final Cut owners their MC 5.5 for $995 (offer expires this Friday). My question is...If I were to purchase it and install it on my Mac Book Pro, is that all I need to start editing or would I ALSO have to buy some Avid hardware like Adrenaline or Nitris? What is the purpose of this hardware?

Media Composer will run as software only (even without a dongle). You only need hardware if you want video i/o. MC 5.5 will now support some non-Avid hardware like the AJA i/o Express and one of the Matrox boxes if you need to capture from or output to tape.

'Tis a wise editor who masters Avid...

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Temporarily mix down audio tracks with Command-Option - R !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

You don't even need Avid hardware anymore for I/O. Avid supports the AJA Io Express for capture and monitoring and the Matrox MXO2 Mini for monitoring only. The Avid hardware though will get you some additional hardware acceleration that the 3rd party devices don't provide.


-Andrew