Is Media Composer now only available as a subscription?

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Mervyn Small
5 years ago
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1 Media Composer FAQ Is Media Composer now only available as a subscription? Not at all. Many of our customers prefer the flexibility of a subscription, as it provides the lowest cost of entry to the industry-standard video editing toolset especially for professional independent editors and moviemakers. In fact, you can now get Media Composer starting at only $20/month. Subscriptions also make it easier for facilities and media organizations to add extra editors as needed for a project, without having to purchase a full software seat. That said, we will still offer new Media Composer perpetual licenses (now known as Media. Composer Legacy Perpetual) through This gives you more choice get access to the latest Media Composer or Media Composer Ultimate toolset as needed on a low-cost monthly, annual, 2-year, or 3- year basis. Or purchase a perpetual license and own the software outright. See the Media Composer License Comparison Guide for more information about the latest Media Composer licensing.

2 My facility has a lot of freelance editors coming and going. What s my best option for adding Media Composer? Avid offers Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate monthly, annual, 2-year, and 3- year subscriptions, as well as Media Composer Ultimate floating license offerings, making it easy for you to scale your workgroup as needed even at a moment s notice. With subscriptions, you can add additional Media Composer seats on a month-to-month basis when production demands extra editors, and scale them back between jobs. With floating licensing, you can quickly and easily distribute licenses across your facility on demand from a single, centralized server, making deployment quick and easy. And because Media Composer Ultimate editors can collaborate both locally and remotely, you can extend your production beyond the walls of your facility. I rely on being able to edit in real time, but high-

3 res media files are huge. Thanks to the Avid DNxHR codec, Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate can handle real-time 2K, Ultra HD, and 4K editing, with support for resolutions up to 8K. You can get multiple streams of playback when using lower bitrate DNxHR compression levels, depending on your system configuration. To use higher bitrate DNxHR compression levels, you will need a high-performance workstation and high-speed connectivity to your storage system. Media Composer also plays several formats natively, included ProRes and XAVC media. For optimized performance with other formats, you can convert/transcode your original camera source material to DNxHR in the background while editing. There are so many different 2K and 4K formats, and I need flexibility. Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate support a variety of high-res formats, including 2K DCI, UltraHD-1 (or UHD-1), and 4K DCI, and it supports a wide range of frame rates, including 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94, and 60. Transcoding media and rendering effects take a long time and I can t afford the extended wait time that 2K/4K will bring. Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate offer background transcoding and rendering, enabling you to continue working without the wait. This is especially valuable since 4K media can take 4x longer

4 to process than HD media. Your exact transcoding and rendering times will vary, depending on your computer, storage bandwidth, the specific codec, the frame size, and the frame rate. I work with high-res and HD media will I need to choose between DNxHR and DNxHD, and what about ProRes, XAVC, and other formats? You can use all supported codecs together simultaneously in Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate. DNxHR is completely backwards compatible with DNxHD. And because Media Composer can also decode Apple ProRes, Canon XF-AVC, Panasonic AVC-I, Sony XAVC, RED, and many other formats, you can mix DNxHR, DNxHD, and a wide range of other media types in the same timeline. Avid seems to have done away with providing upgrades for Media Composer how do I get all of the new features going forward? If you subscribe to Media Composer or Media Composer Ultimate, you have access to all new software releases as they become available throughout your subscription. If you own a Media Composer perpetual license (now known as a Media Composer Legacy Perpetual license) and have an active Media Composer 1-Year Software Updates + Support Plan (formerly known as an Annual Upgrade and Support Plan) you also have access to all new software releases as they become available be sure to renew

5 your plan annually to continue receiving the latest updates. How often will Avid release new updates for Media Composer? The great thing about no longer having to tie features to a major software release is that we now have the flexibility to release new tools, features, functionality, and fixes as soon as we develop and test them. That s why we ve been releasing and will continue to deliver a steady stream of updates throughout the year. You must have an active Media Composer or Media Composer Ultimate subscription or 1-Year Software Updates + Support Plan to receive these updates in your Avid Account. Can I still get Media Composer through my favorite reseller? Yes, you can purchase Media Composer and Media Composer Ultimate subscriptions, Media Composer Legacy Perpetual licenses, and floating licenses from your local reseller as before. However, monthly subscriptions are only available through the online Avid Store. With a subscription, can I use Media Composer on more than one computer if I m at work and then want to take a project home on my laptop? No. Whether you have a monthly, annual, 2-year, or 3-year subscription, your Media Composer or Media Composer Ultimate license can only be used on a

6 single computer.

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