This IS the Avid L2: [Avid-L2] Media Composer v8.5 (Mac and PC) now available

Friday, January 29, 2016

[Avid-L2] Media Composer v8.5 (Mac and PC) now available

Media Composer v8.5 (Mac and PC) is Launching Today!

All of us at Avid are please to announce the release of Media Composer v8.5 (Mac and PC) today, January 29, 2016 at 11:00 am EST.

Location of the Release: The Media Composer v8.5 release for (Mac and PC) will be available @ approximately 11:00 am EST on the Download Center (login and password required) in the Media Composer Folder within the Products List.

Full Installers: The Media Composer v8.5 release for Mac and PC are full installers.

My Avid and AppMan: Both the Master Account ( My Avid ) and Application Manager will be ready for those to upgrade if they are eligible.

Licensing and Activation: Information on Licensing, Dongle updates and Activation is listed below.

The ability to launch Media Composer v8.5 software is dependent on the status of your Avid Upgrade & Support Plan on the date this software version is released (January 29th, 2016).
Please read the How to Update Your License page before upgrading to this release as it takes into account new installs, upgrades for both dongle based and SW licensing based systems and Floating licenses.
More detailed information on the upgrade process and what works with what, is also available on the Upgrade and Support Plan FAQ page.
The FlexVersioner, as has been stated in the past, is no longer supported for this release. See the Support Upgrade article for instructions on how to upgrade your dongle based or SW licensing based System.

Documentation: There will be new documentation posted today @ approx. 11:00 am to the Knowledge Base for Media Composer v8.5.

The final ReadMe, Installation Guide, What's New, and more can be found on the Media Composer Documentation page at Launch today, January 29, 2016 at approx. 11:00 am EST
The Application manager version has not change however, the Application Manager Documentation page also has a ReadMe's and User Guide available.

New OS Support: Depending upon your hardware the qualified Operating Systems are:

Windows v7 64-bit SP1(Professional) and Windows v8.1 (Professional and Enterprise), Windows 10.
Macintosh v10.9.5, v10.10.1, v10.10.2, v10.10.3, v10.10.4, v10.10.5, 10.11

Upgrading to Mac OS v10.11 (El Capitan): (Mac) If you upgrade to Mac OS 10.11, you must uninstall Media Composer. Reinstall Media Composer after you perform the OS upgrade. If you use Avid Artist DNxIO, you must also uninstall the Desktop Video software and reinstall it after the OS upgrade.

What's New This release has a number of exciting new features and important bug fixes. See below for a highlight of what is new in this release.

Listed below are some of the new features in Media Composer v8.5.

Menu Simplification: The menus have been reorganized to remove legacy menu items and simplify the user experience.
Timeline UI Improvements: A number of updates have been made to the timeline, including enabling Sync Rollers for Sync Locked Tracks, the ability to see full segments as you drag them within the timeline as well as the effect their repositioning will have on the rest of the timeline before you commit the change, and creating a new track by dragging a segment above the timeline.
Support for 64 Tracks of Audio: Users can now create and work with 64 individual tracks of audio.
Group by Audio Waveforms: Group clips can be made based on audio waveform analysis.
HDR Support: Media Composer now includes color spaces for High Dynamic Range (HDR). This provides support for a higher range of video signal, and enables automatic color transformations for source files based on the HDR color space set in the project.
Audio Mixer Updates: You can now resize the Audio Mixer and create custom track groupings.
FrameFlex Rotation: Users can rotate the framing box in the FrameFlex source settings using the Z rotation slides, enabling the straightening or reframing of an image at the source level rather than in the timeline.
Interactive Video Frame Cache: A new Video Memory tab has been added to the Media Cache settings to allow users to save generated frames of the current playing sequence into a memory storage cache, resulting in faster response times while editing and playing back media.
UI Personalization Tools: Additional UI settings have been added to allow users to change the background color of the Project Window and Timeline, and override Bin and Project fonts and font sizes.
Bin Columns Updates: The process for adding Custom Columns as well as Multiple Columns in bins has been simplified, and you can now copy and paste the same text to multiple fields within a column.
Identifying Rendered Effects: Users can now choose to differentiate between rendered effect media and Title and Matte key effect media in the Media Tool. This is helpful when identifying media to delete.
Ancillary Data SCC Import: Media Composer now supports importing of Scenarist Closed Caption (.scc) files.
…and more!

Bug Fixes: For a complete list of fixed bugs and new features, please refer to the Draft ReadMe and Draft What's New Guide attached to this communication. Some of the bugs fixes are……

In some instances, Frame Counter was one frame off after applying a reverse motion effect speed change to a clip. This has been resolved.
If you opened the Title Tool in a certain language and then changed to input text in a different language, the editing application would freeze when saving the title. This has been resolved.
When the keyframe button in the Timeline was deselected, Timeline settings were ignored. This has been resolved.
You could not successfully drag from one bin to another after performing a Same as Source export. This has been resolved.
And more…..

How will customers obtain Media Composer v8.5: Listed below are the 4 ways customer can access v8.5.

Customers who have already installed the latest version of Media Composer will be notified of the availability of the upgrade via the Application Manager ( AppMan ). The Apps tab will also provide a link to download and install the update when desired.

New customers who purchase Media Composer will receive this v8.5 update in their Avid Master Account at Orientation


	Orientation An Avid Master Account enables you to sync your Avid Video Download and Avid Video Community accounts as well as gain access to the Avid Support Center.
	View on www.avid.com	Preview by Yahoo

http://www.avid.com/account

Customers on current and valid Upgrade & Support plans can download the Media Composer v8.5 update either from their Master Avid Account or the Avid Download Center (login and password required.)
Customers not on a current Upgrade & Support contract ( never bought one or it has expired ) must purchase either a new Media Composer Subscription or Perpetual license to receive this update.