If you’re an Avid Media Composer user then this is an update you might want to know about. This version 5.5.3 of Media Composer (as well as NewsCutter v9.5.3, and Symphony v5.5.3) was released August 17 and qualifies several versions of Mac OSX including the Lion release of 10.7.0. These are big downloads, weighing in at around 2 gigs. An Avid forum post announced the release. This is a pretty quick update for Media Composer as far as Lion support goes. Note that this is qualified for 10.7.0 and not the 10.7.1 that was just released.
Here’s the post from the Avid Community forum:
Media Composer 5.5.3 and Symphony 5.5.3 are now available from the Avid Download Center.
This release is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6.7, 10.6.8 v1.1, and 10.7.0 (Lion). NOTE: 10.7 is only qualified for local storage at this time. The 10.7.1 update released August 16, 2011 is also not supported at this time.
This is a maintenance release that is free to all owners of Media Composer 5.5 software. It includes over 75 bug fixes, including new plug-ins for the AJA io Express that corrects the “Legends Audio Communications Error. Hardware Underrun” errors. You should consult the README before installing the software.
It also contains 30-day trials of both ScriptSync and PhraseFind.
As always, please deactivate your software, uninstall the previous version, install 5.5.3, activate your software.
Note that last line if you’re using the internet authorization instead of a dongle. The Avid licensing faq might come in handy here as well.
You have to log into the download center to download the update. While there you can also grab the Read Me that lists some of the many bugs fixed. Here’s a few I noted:
Bug Number: UDevC00158958. A fix was implemented to improve poor playback performance in some AMA workflows.
Bug Number: UDevC00157848. Previously, you could copy and paste only one locator at a time.
Bug Number: UDevC00159501. Exported file names with 32 characters are no longer renamed “Untitled.”
Bug Number: UDevC00158908. (Macintosh) Occasionally, when trying to quit the editing application, the system would hang. [Thank you!]
Bug Number: UDevC00158355. If you duplicated a sequence, you would lose the audio track monitoring selection. For example, if you created a sequence with 4 tracks, then turned off two tracks and duplicated the sequence, the duplicated sequence would show all 4 tracks enabled.
Bug Number: UDevC00153864. Automatic Duck AAF files did not import into the Avid editing application v5.5.1.
Bug Number: UDevC00156132. The Pan & Zoom effect produced a vertical jump in the path toward the last keyframe when set to Spline.
Bug Number: UDevC00147272. In previous releases, Animatte effects might not have exported properly.
I went to download the update but the ‘net seemed agonizingly slow tonight giving me an estimate of 3 – 4 hours so I’ll be installing it later … and upgrading to Lion to see how it runs. Stay tuned.