Avid Media Composer 8

For over 25 years, Avid solutions have helped the industry’s leading professionals create and distribute the most listened to, most watched, and most loved media in the world.

Ever since Avid led the revolution in non-linear editing over 25 years ago, the company has continued to invest heavily in research and development, and currently holds over 200 patents. By envisioning and delivering groundbreaking and innovative solutions that fundamentally improve the way media professionals work, Avid has become the leading technology provider and trusted strategic partner for video and audio production, broadcast, live sound, shared storage, and more.

Avid solutions have been recognized with numerous industry and technology awards, including two Oscars®, a Grammy®, and 14 Emmys®.

New features

The choice is yours

Media Composer now gives you more choices in how you acquire and use the software. Edit on premises or remotely through the cloud. Work on a Mac or PC. Access the software through a subscription, on demand with a floating license, or own the software outright forever with a perpetual license. In addition, you can configure it your way with the options you need to get the job done, from real-time remote collaboration through Media Composer | Cloud (formerly Interplay Sphere), to advanced color correction and mastering tools, iNEWS and ENPS integration, and software for creating effects, titles, and more. It’s the only professional editing solution that’s available everywhere you need it, the way you want it.

Use the tools the pros use

When reputations are on the line, professional editors have long turned to Media Composer to help them expertly manage mountains of media, simplify workflows, and accelerate the editorial process to tell the best story possible. And now the software is an easy fit for any budget through a monthly or annual subscription (or you can still buy the software), enabling you to add the media industry standard to your workflow on a low-cost, as-needed basis.

• Get access to new software features, enhancements, improvements, and fixes as soon as they’re available with a Media Composer subscription or renewable Avid Support plan
• Add additional Media Composer clients as needed on a low-cost month-to-month basis—especially helpful when a production demands extra editors at a moment’s notice
• Expand and enhance your Media Composer editing capabilities with a number of options, including the Media Composer | Symphony Option, Media Composer | NewsCutter Option, and Media Composer | Production Pack

Deploy licenses on demand

For large-scale media enterprise, post-production houses, and educational institutions, Media Composer now offers floating licensing, enabling you to purchase a “pack” of shared licenses to deploy across your entire facility using a single system ID. This enables multiple editors to use Media Composer on any number of workstations when licenses are available (not actively in use).

• Maximize your investment, as licenses are only consumed when in use and returned to the server when not, enabling additional editors to connect when licenses become available
• Offer the ability to “check out” licenses on a laptop—ideal for projects that need to be completed on the road or at home for an extended period of time
• Save countless hours of activation, installation, and upgrade time using Avid's floating license server software and your existing hardware to establish a single centralized licensing server—just activate a pack of licenses, tell Media Composer the server address, and the system will automatically request licenses from the server on the internal network
• Save money and gain more operational flexibility over purchasing individual seats of Media Composer that often go unused when the designated editor or student isn’t working
• Gain peace of mind, as all licenses are relinquished to the server when Media Composer closes or times out (if checked out past the expiration date), protecting you from theft

Toggle clips and tracks on and off in the timeline

With new clip and track playback features, exploring compositional alternatives is easier than ever. Quickly compare variations of a sequence by right-clicking on any individual video or audio clip to mute or unmute it from playback. Or try out different variations by creating alternative versions of title sequences, visual effects, and other treatments in multiple tracks and then choosing video tracks to make active or inactive upon playback. If you're coming to Media Composer from other editing software, you'll feel right at home with these features.

Speed up editing with new timeline enhancements

• Quickly add and remove trim rollers by Shift-clicking anywhere in an adjoining segment
• Easily see which tracks have reached their beginning or end points when trimming with new “end of trim” indicators
• Choose whether to select or not select filler with segment tools by Option-clicking the tool buttons any time you want to choose the opposite of your default setting
• Copy any segment by dragging and dropping it to a desired location while holding down the Shift and Option keys
• Create and save titles directly to a track in the timeline, as well as a bin

System requirements

For optimal performance and reliability, be sure that your computer or laptop meets the following minimum system requirements for the latest version of Media Composer.

Important: Avid dedicates a significant amount of engineering resources and time to test and qualify specific platform configurations. Our Customer Success and Engineering teams are equipped with these systems in our development and support labs. For an optimal experience with Media Composer, we strongly recommend choosing an Avid-qualified system. We cannot guarantee performance, compatibility, or the resolution of issues with other systems.

Windows

• Computer: Avid-qualified Windows-based computer
• OS:Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit), Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Quad Core i7 or Quad Core Xeon processor
• Memory:
  • 4 GB RAM minimum (6+ GB recommended)
  • 8 GB RAM minimum required to support Media Composer | Cloud (formerly Interplay Sphere)¹, background transcoding, background rendering, and Dynamic Media Folders
  • 16+ GB RAM recommended to support full-frame stereoscopic 3D, simultaneous background transcoding, Dynamic Media Folders, FrameFlex 4K workflows, Raw format AMA plug-ins, Long GOP media editing, and other high-performance workflows
• Graphics card: NVIDIA Quadro family² (Q600 or higher recommended), Intel HD4000, HD4400, or HD4600
• Internal hard drive: Minimum 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA drive, 128 GB SSD

Mac OS X

• Computer: Avid-qualified Mac-based computer
• OS: Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Quad Core i7 or Quad Core Xeon processor
• Memory:
  • 4 GB RAM minimum (6+ GB recommended)
  • 8 GB RAM minimum required to support Media Composer | Cloud (formerly Interplay Sphere)¹, background transcoding, background rendering, and Dynamic Media Folders
  • 16+ GB RAM recommended to support full-frame stereoscopic 3D, simultaneous background transcoding, Dynamic Media Folders, FrameFlex 4K workflows, Raw format AMA plug-ins, Long GOP media editing, and other high-performance workflows
• Graphics card:NVIDIA GeForce family² (recommended), Intel HD4000 or HD5000, or ATI Radeon family (as supported by Apple)
• Internal hard drive: Minimum 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA drive, 128 GB SSD

Additional compatibility information

• QuickTime: Avid has tested and qualified Apple QuickTime X for Mac users and QuickTime 7.7.5 for Windows users
• Windows Media Player: Microsoft Windows Media Player 12 is required to export certain formats

1. Media Composer | Cloud is not supported on systems using background transcode, background render, or Dynamic Media Folders. Avid recommends 12+ GB of RAM for Media Composer | Cloud workflows involving HD long GOP media, such as AVCHD, MPEG-2, and XDCAM. For more information, please consult the Media Composer | Cloud product page
2. NVIDIA cards are recommended; full-screen playback requires a minimum of 128 MB of graphics memory. For information regarding the graphics card supported with your specific configuration, please refer to the Avid-qualified Windows-based computer list or Avid-qualified Mac-based computer list.

What's included