So is there any news out there on what Media Composer 3.0 might be offering?  Will it be a significant update?  I tried a search but haven't come up with anything on the board.

Here's hoping for at least a facelift to the GUI, which is looking (and feeling) very long in the tooth compared to the other NLEs out there.

Only small changes in the GUI. Couple'a icons. Most of the changes are under the hood and they're really quite well done.

HamNCheese:

which is looking (and feeling) very long in the tooth compared to the other NLEs out there.

To hell with needless cosmetics concentrate on rolling out more under the hood improvements that allow us to earn more money, more efficently and with less headaches.

Then we will have more quality time to feast our eyes on the ageless wonders of the mountains, forests oceans and coastlines.

It's not "needless cosmetics."  A modern interface makes a program faster to work with, easier and more intuitive to learn, and will keep Avid a viable product for the future.  If Avid wants to stop losing market share to Final Cut Pro, a facelift is probably the most bang for the buck they could get.  At many things they already have more going for them under the hood than the competition, but Avid's interface still looks and feels stuck in the 1990's.  At the very least the program is overdue for scalable/dockable windows and a more extensive implementation of tabbing.

 

HamNCheese:

Here's hoping for at least a facelift to the GUI, which is looking (and feeling) very long in the tooth compared to the other NLEs out there.

Which one ?

There are surely many things that may be reproached to Avid, but the interface is the Avid interface, and doesn't actually annoy me, but here's MY opinion ! 

I want it to talk to me like Hal and say sorry when things don't work. In all seriousness I'm itching to see it and the new hardware.

Blue Crow:

I'm itching to see it and the new hardware.

me too. Luckily for me there's a demo scheduled by some resellers in town next tuesday. I can't wait to go.

 Yeah once you learn the unusual Avid GUI, they shouldn't change it too much. Like each Photoshop rev is kinda a pain as you figure out how they switch things around in the Tools palate.... and you're not sure why. How about a MCA rewrite from the ground up! You guys are probably tired of hearing me say this, but if they could assimulate the real time attributes of Discreet Edit, like total real-time audio sample plots, panning and levels - all easily edited without going into the hamburger menu. And in general, much more real time performance and less rendering would be great, better media management, and a decent character generator, and we're still having a heck of a time being able to do a Digital Cut in HD. And taking from FCP a few tricks, like being able to view audio plots in the source viewer and being able to trim without going into Trim mode. That's all what I want for Christmas.....2010. But I'm digging the new DX hardware and look forward to what 3.0 will offer.

The changes may not be cosmetic but they are substantial. Right now I'm running 6 layers of DNxHD in RT. I'm getting 4 in real time just off of my FW drives! Very responsive, very solid. When you hit the space bar, it stops and when you hit play, it plays.

Thin raster support is nice and RT downconvert to any frame aspect you need is brilliant. Also RT 10 bit playback in the timeline now. Multi-Line TC burn in including any source code you want and lots more. Still a few bugs to work out but I'm getting happy. I was a little disappointed, at first, in the lack of substantive GUI changes but after working with the system for a while, I'm much happier with the improvements under the hood.

 Blkdog - I'm curious, right now if you do anything while the timeline is playing, say like mark an in-point, or turn off monitoring of a track, MCA stops. Does NitrisDX fix this annoying attribute?

BLKDOG:

I'm running 6 layers of DNxHD in RT. I'm getting 4 in real time just off of my FW drives! Very responsive, very solid. When you hit the space bar, it stops and when you hit play, it plays.

Thin raster support is nice and RT downconvert to any frame aspect you need is brilliant. Also RT 10 bit playback in the timeline now. Multi-Line TC burn in including any source code you want and lots more.

These are the sorts of things I want to see. Practical improvements for my workflow.

Blkdog

Are you running MC3 on a Mojo DX or Nitris DX to get that HD performance?

Perhaps I am alone here. And not to get too far off topic. But the few things mentioned above about what folks like from FCP's interface are things I don't like.

While using the keyboard, all of my "on-the-fly" needs are met. In-points have never stopped playback. I'm not a fan of the "play forever" mode, in any program that uses it.

"Trimming without Trim Mode" isn't really trimming then. Just shortening clips in the timeline leads to more button clicking and mouse dragging, which is tedious to me and is avoided in trim mode. FCP eventually saw this and put in a roller tool that has to be activated, and then it becomes a mode... that trims.

FCP and most programs are tab happy. Tabbing everything takes up valuable screen real-estate and gets the least amount of use. Drop down menus can be added to over time without cluttering the screen. After all, I can only work on one thing at a time.

And the FCP timeline is the most unpleasant thing about it. Sure it's got great response time, but it's crowded and it's messy. And it's always felt "slippery" to me. Like editing a greased pig with gloves on, or something to that end.

These are my opinions, and Avid *could* stand to run the hot iron over their interface here and there. But they should also take note about what FCP does poorly and NOT implement those things. On the flip side, if anything ever does change as noted, Avid will most certainly let me change my user profile to turn those things off if I don't like them. Sometimes that alone is worth the price of admission.

So much for trying not to get off-topic...

Fazz Powell:

if you do anything while the timeline is playing, say like mark an in-point, or turn off monitoring of a track, MCA stops

No Avid product has ever stopped playing when you mark an in point if you do it from the keyboard and I've had 'em all. If you clicking the mark in in the interface, of course it stops.

Anytime you click on the interface playback will stop. that's as designed and I don't see that changing.

NICKB:

Blkdog

Are you running MC3 on a Mojo DX or Nitris DX to get that HD performance?

Nitris Nick. However, MC with Mojo has ten times the performance also. It just isn't DNxHD accelerated like the Nitris is.