Avid 3.5
 

Avid Releases version 3.5 of the Media Composer Software - Avid Community

Avid has just released today - Avid Media Composer v3.5, Avid Symphony v3.5 and Avid NewsCutter v7.5 - and the new editors are now available for purchase.

NO MORE DONGLE!!

Native XD Cam Support

Ketframable color correction

NO MORE DONGLE!!

here are some early reactions from the blogsphere:

Avid - dongle free in 2009 (and other advancements) Studio Monthly By Scott Simmons
It looks like it’s almost time for another round of updates for Avid and their Media Composer product. In addition to the MC these feature updates also apply to Avid Symphony (to v3.5) and NewsCutter (to v7.5). And it looks like these updates are going to be good ones. It was just last year at NAB 08, an NAB where they didn’t have a presence on the show floor but rather offsite, that Avid introduced what many of use who use Media Composer see as by far the best version of the product: version 3.0. It wasn’t full of flashy new fonts and eye candy and didn’t really add any revolutionary new things to Media Composer. Okay, Avid FX on the Mac was new and the realtime implementations of the timecode burn-in and the subcap tool are very nice but the real advancement in Media Composer 3.0 was speed and stability. I think what Avid delivered last year was an application that just worked. And it made editors more productive. What more could an editor ask for? Turns out, quite a lot …
Studio Daily Blog Avid - dongle free in 2009 (and other advancements)

Splice Here - Media Composer 3.5

Avid is releasing Media Composer 3.5 today (with parallel updates to Symphony and Newscutter). It’s a big release and should have something for everybody.

Here’s an overview, based on an Avid conference call, Friday. There are some revolutionary changes, and some more pedestrian improvements, as well.
Media Composer 3.5 Splice Here

I just love the way new product bling is promoted by vendors without revealing the full ramifications. In this particular case, yes you can replace your Avid dongle with online activation, HOWEVER, this locks your installation to that one computer. Avid will allow additional installations, but, you'll need an internet connection to transfer the activation from one computer to another.

You'll have to pry my dongle from my cold, dead fingers.

Avid Dongle - you either hate it or love it. I'm glad to see it go.

Several users types - educational facilities, rental houses, training centers - ave pointed out to Avid that they still need a dongle. I think Avid was a bit surprised by this, but they are listening. I have feeling we may have a 'dongle' option down the road.

Gary

Yeah, the dongle is a mixed blessing/curse. Ever loose one? They can be replaced for the full price of a copy of the software. Ever BREAK one? I bent mine, a few days after I got it. I was putting the computer into a new housing, and 'scrunch' - bent it forty five degrees. It still functioned, but I knew I couldn't trust it. Shipped it back to AVID and they replaced it, but it's a scary thing.

It's handy to move quickly between machines - your deskstation and laptop for instance. Which is great. The new system seems to require you to 'logon' to activate the computer you are using at the moment - a bit 'big brotherish' for me - but its not any different than trying to activate more than one copy of OS for instance. Meh... I'll worry about it when I get the newer computer to upgrade.