AVID 3.0 ON NON-INTELS...OOPS!

EDIT: I have been at home playing more with Avid 3.0 on my Dual 2.0Ghz G5...and things seem to be going swimmingly...so I have to edit this...

While awaiting for my Mac Pro to come out of production so that I can install the new Avid 3.0 software on it (the only machine I have that is on Avid's requirement list), I tried it on my Powerbook G4 and Powermac G5, both running Leopard. Well...it loaded...and it opened. But it didn't work. I did get Avid 2.8 to work on both machines, and I did capture and edit DV and DVCPRO HD with no problems. This remains true...I cannot capture DVCPRO HD on my laptop. HOWEVER...I did import Panasonic P2 footage DVCPRO HD 720p24 and it played back fine...AND...it works for editing DVCPRO HD tape footage captured on my G5. HA!

But Avid 3.0 is a different animal.

I did try to capture footage on the Powerbook. I was able to capture DV footage, but that's it. I tried DVCPRO HD and it dropped frames like mad. Just unusable. I tried the G5...and it was better, but still, 4 frames out of 30 are gone.

EDIT: I am an IDIOT! A freakin' idiot. GOSH! Uhm, this footage is 720p24...running at 23.98. OF COURSE frames are missing. Pulldown was removed. God I feel stupid.

And every time I try to play back, the first time I press play I get an error, then I click OK and it plays...but that is no way to work. Well, a restart seemed to have fixed that. I have been editing that footage all night an no errors. Mixing in the DV I captured and P2 footage...real time. No issues. Huh. And when I went back to the DV footage I captured, the Powerbook worked for a little while, but after a few minutes it too started spitting out errors. I didn't really dig into testing until last week, that's why I didn't have any issues. So when Avid says you need an Intel, they are right. You need an Intel. I'll wager that is how they get all that speed in the software.

HA! Proved myself wrong. I have gotten this software to work on a G4 laptop and a G5 Tower. Can't vouch for the reliablility, but it does capture DVCPRO HD via firewire perfectly fine, and P2 import is slick...and works on both machines.

A friend pointed out to me that I was mentioned on a video podcast called "THAT MEDIA SHOW," episode 4 (find it on iTunes). They mention Avid 3.0 reviews from The Editblog and Splice Here, and then mention that I tested the software on my Powerbook G4, and that I got it to work. I need to clear the air here that when I claimed that I got Avid 3.0 to work on my Powerbook in this post, that I hadn't fully tested it yet. And for me to report that I got it working before I really sat down and dug in was irresponsible. I was excited that it loaded and captured some footage. And before I could play around for a bit, I had to go on two trips and wrap up a show.

Please accept my apology for my early reporting and misinformation.

I hope to get the software...and a MOJO DX...installed on this system next week so that I can really see what it can do. And I need to buy a MacBook Pro...I am just waiting for a better excuse than to test software and hardware. I don't make money doing that, so I can't justify the cost.

EDIT: OK, I read Scott's comment (thanks Scott) and decided to go back and play a little more. Turns out things are better than I thought. Missing frames were the redundant ones. Error seems to be some fluke that a restart fixed. I can edit mixed formats...all seems OK. Even on the laptop, I was able to play back P2 footage and the DVCPRO HD footage I captured on my G5. So I seemed to have jumped the gun on my "IT WON'T WORK" comments. Ahem. So in a pinch you can use Avid 3.0 software on machines that are not on the recommended list. Just don't expect them to work flawlessly. I have only been doing fiddling tonight. If I was working on a show 10 hours a day for a few weeks, issues would no doubt crop up. OK...first impressions later. I have Interview footage to capture and transcripts to wrangle so I can test out the ScriptSync features.