Hi

Just reflecting around Avid. I have edited mostly in Premiere and FCP, but I know at many tv stations and feature film companies they work in Avid.
So knowing Avid isn't bad if you want to be able to jump in here and there.
But is there any Avid solution that really works without buying hardware for at least $10.000? I'm thinking both DV and HDV.

Here in the states, the Avid Mojo SDI is $2500. (that's the software AND Mojo combined) You can get a tricked out certified workstation for $5000 from a number of suppliers that would more than handle it with plenty of storage. So you're at $7500 for a great XpressPro system. For ten grand, you could probalby get a Media Composer system... minus an adrenaline, but with a Mojo.

Those are US Dollars, based on prices delivered here in the U.S. Don't know about European prices and delivery/taxes etc.

An Avid that will do both DV and HDV only can run you as little as $4,500. That being $3000 for the computer, and $1500 for Avid Xpress Pro. Avid Xpress Pro will edit both DV and HDV,and gives you lower DNxHD resolutions as well. You can buy secondary monitor and see full quality 1920x1080 output. The only reason to have mojo is if you want to do uncompressed SD, or if you need realtime preview to an NTSC monitor. The Mojo does absolutely nothing for you in HD though. Well I gues it's supposed to downconvert HDV on the fly for you to an NTSC monitor. I haven't used it like that so I couldn't tell you how well it works.

Now you can take the same computer and put the Media Composer on it and be at about $3000 for the computer and $4000 for the MC software which I think is a pretty good deal. If you are in DV/HDV land then hardware is not really necessary.

Chris