Hi, I've been using Liquid for about 6 years, my current version is 6.1.  Last week my 4 year old computer spiked & the motherboard & power supply went down in the blink of an eye.  Yes I know, no UPS!  I had become complacent because it's been so stable, I had a separate OS for Liquid, lean & clean, no internet access etc.  Anyways, where to go from here, at least hardware is faster & cheaper than it was 4 years ago.  I'm hopeful if I install XP & Liquid on a new machine that I'll be able to open my Projects.  I had a couple of large Projects on the go, one was a wedding. 

I don't know the status of the hard drives yet, the tech at my store has been very busy. Data & render files were on a separate 1 terabyte drive to the OS drive,but I can't remember if my Projects folder was on the data drive or not. It was configured Raid 0 so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to retrieve.

First thing I'll buy is a UPS.  Any suggestions with respect to hardware & OS?  I figure I'll stick with XP for the moment so I can install Liquid 6.  Still in shock!  

Everything else aside I do not think 6.1 is going to work with a new graphics card. Liquid 7 had issues with DX 10 hardware cards until a patch was released. You may have to find a copy of 7.2 -No longer for sale officially, you will have to find someone who has one.

Computers last only 4 years of so today, hard to say if powerline conditioning would have prevented your failure, still, not a bad thing to have one... 

Thanks for that TVJohn, precisely the kind of issue that prompted my post.  However my stepson bought a new computer just a couple of months ago & uses Liquid to edit his volleyball & surfing footage, XP platform, seems to work ok.  So there is still no upgrade path for Liquid 7?  I see it available on Ebay, I'm happy to take that route, I like Liquid, I know my way around it & have a work flow that I'm comfortable with.  My main issue with Liquid 6 is that key frames for the Keying Editor don't change gradually.  Has that changed in 7?

The upgrade path for Liquid has been announced by Ms. Kirk Arnold, the CEO of Avid in this discussion thread http://community.avid.com/forums/t/80907.aspx .  You must be registered with Avid by March 10th, 2010 for any version of Liquid in order to be eligible for this very good deal.  Liquid is now officially dead in the water (pun intended!).

Wow, this is terrible timing for me!  I'm between a rock & a hard place.  I can't upgrade in order to take advantage of the Avid offer, can't even purchase & register in time, &  I presume my Pinnacle Liquid registration is insufficient to qualify me.

Smallan:

Wow, this is terrible timing for me!  I'm between a rock & a hard place.  I can't upgrade in order to take advantage of the Avid offer, can't even purchase & register in time, &  I presume my Pinnacle Liquid registration is insufficient to qualify me.

As described in the Avid announcement, all versions of Liquid are qualified for the upgrade to Media Composer

Thank you Tomas, that's a relief.  I read the info in a hurry, rushing off to work.  I'll take the time now to read more thoroughly.

No matter what anyone says if it works for you you don't need to change but an upgrade will benefit your workflow as L7 is even better than 6. Since Liquid is end of life and not supported anymore the price on e-bay should be very good for you! It will still run on your computer you know it and if it does everything you need go for it! I use it at our church and everyone who trains with me is amazed at how well it works with all of the different video formats we run into. In any case as long as you make sure you have the correct patches for the hardware you will be using Liquid 7 is a GREAT tool to have in your toolbox...... My 2 cents.........Edd

Smallan:

Thank you Tomas, that's a relief.  I read the info in a hurry, rushing off to work.  I'll take the time now to read more thoroughly.

Al,

Make sure that you can log in with your e-mail and password here: http://apps.pinnaclesys.com/cdb/register/updateprofile.aspx.  If you have problems getting into that page, e-mail Marianna right away for help, otherwise you could miss out on this fantastic offer.

Also make sure that when you do go into that page, you click on the check box that says "Please keep me updated on news and special offers for Pinnacle products I own or those in which I have indicated interest." otherwise you will not receive the e-mail with the details of the upgrade deal.

Thank you for the tips, Im all registered & opted in for the upgrade.  Had I not been able to retrieve my Projects folder I may have gone for Avid MC right away, cut my losses & gone with a new computer, new NLE, new learning curve, new day, new me etc (lol), despite not knowing much about Avid MC4, but apparently my Projects folder is intact so I should be able to get Liquid back up & running so I will pursue that option & take my time to learn a little about AMC4 before making a decision. 

On the one hand this seems like a very exciting opportunity, but my feelings of lament are probably felt by many Liquid users. 

I take the point about Liquid 7, I expect it's purchase price will plummet over the next few months, making it an attractive option, despite discontinued support.  I think that the way it has been engineered would give a user many years of satisfactory output.  I not only feel proud of my results with Liquid but I actually enjoy working with it, the way it's laid out & allows me to organize & draw on the various elements & manipulate & combine them for a pleasing result.

Anyway, as I go about the process of rebuilding I will, like many others I expect, do some background research on AMC4 to see if it may be right for me.

I am also inerested in the Keying Editor key frames situation.  Not sure if I can explain.  Example: Two identical clips on a timeline, one above the other.  I apply a blur to one & a Keying Editor effect to the other.  I freehand draw an outline, say around a person, at keyframe 1, then expand the size of the outline at keyframe 2.  In Liquid 6, keyframe 1 continues till keyframe 2 & SUDDENLY jumps to key 2, you can't gradually ease to keyframe 2 as you do in other FX editors, 2d & 3d transparency fx for example.  Don't know if that's clear, I'm not great at explaining myself in writing, especially not having Liquid open! 

 I expect that AMC4 would have a very extensive & sophisticated effects set.

OK, time to get back to putting together my new computer.

Thanks for the help.  Another valuable aspect of Liquid is the users community!

Al,

This offer will be good until the end of June 2010, so if you are properly registered, you still will have time to think about it and to download the 30 day trial version of MC and play with it using some of the great tutorials that Douglas Bruce "dbrgaijin" has assembled with the Liquid user in mind.

The deal ($495.00) is very good and probably worth getting even if you don't need to switch right away.  The regular price of MC is $2,500 and if you buy all the various components separately, it could be as high as $6,000.  You can always continue using Liquid until you outgrow it, and then be ready to move up to the higher (and more up-to-date) Media Composer.  This is probably the route that I will take for now (i.e. take advantage of the MC offer, continue using Liquid, learn MC in the meantime and be ready to switch whenever I feel I should).

What do you guys think about the upgrade cost of MC4 after the initial purchase of the software.  AVID updates software on a regular basic. 

 Any comments?  Liquid 7 Prosumer market.  MC4 Professional market? 

ixlor8:

What do you guys think about the upgrade cost of MC4 after the initial purchase of the software.  AVID updates software on a regular basic. 

 Any comments?  Liquid 7 Prosumer market.  MC4 Professional market? 

I believe the MC upgrades usually cost a bit more than the past Liquid upgrades ($199.00) did.  However, MC is in a different power league.

Liquid 7 Prosumer market?  I don't think so.  It is more like "Liquid 7 - no more market"!  Therefore, no more upgrades, so it is not possible to compare future upgrade costs between Liquid and MC.

Take the MC offer and use its capabilities only to the Prosumer level if you feel it is more than you need at this time.  You can always grow into it as you expand your expertise and your results.

VE7AXO:

This is probably the route that I will take for now (i.e. take advantage of the MC offer, continue using Liquid, learn MC in the meantime and be ready to switch whenever I feel I should).

I'm thinking along the same lines.

I ordered my new computer, could have spent more time researching but I want to get moving so I followed the suggestions of the tech at my shop. Goes like this.

Intel i5 650 3.26ghz processor, P7P55-LX motherboard, 4gb ram, Antec 650 watt power supply, nvidia quattro 580 graphics, 3 x 1 terabyte Samsung drives in a Raid 5 configuration, a WD3000HLFS 10000 rpm boot drive & 2 XP pro OS, 1 OS lean & clean, specifically for video & audio editing, as I had before.

It's way more expensive than I was intending, but after looking looking at the guidelines for system requirements on the Avid site I saw that they advised the nvidia quattro over a much less expensive Radeon I was considering.  I've been alerted in a post above of course to be aware that current graphics cards may not be compatibile with Liquid so if the patch doesn't work for me then I may have to temporarily use a compatible graphics card while I finish my Liquid commitments & learn to use AMC.  I was also going to ditch Raid (my dead computer was on Raid 0 ) but the tech has convinced me of the speed & safety advantages of Raid 5 & of course hard drives are much less expensive than they were 4 years ago, so I hope this will work well for me for the next 4 years or so! 

Smallan:

I ordered my new computer, could have spent more time researching but I want to get moving so I followed the suggestions of the tech at my shop. Goes like this.

Intel i5 650 3.26ghz processor, P7P55-LX motherboard, 4gb ram, Antec 650 watt power supply, nvidia quattro 580 graphics, 3 x 1 terabyte Samsung drives in a Raid 5 configuration, a WD3000HLFS 10000 rpm boot drive & 2 XP pro OS, 1 OS lean & clean, specifically for video & audio editing, as I had before.

The only things that stand out as a possible savings would be to use only two RAID drives instead of three, one XP license and to go with a smaller Boot drive.  I have the WD Raptor 73 GB as the OS drive and it is 65% empty with Studio, Liquid, Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, ProShow Gold, and a few other video and photo editing software.  I use only one XP installation and when I do any editing, I simply hold down the Shfit key when booting up.  This will keep all background programs from loading.  I also turn off antivirus checking and disable the Internet connection.  This only takes a few seconds longer, but it saves the cost of a second Windows license or installation.

On my old computer I had two 40 GB C: drives in removable caddies with a copy of the same operating system on each (one XP license) and I would simply insert and boot with either the general one or the editing one.  That may be another option for you to think about.

The two drives in removable caddies sounds like a good idea.  I already have two XP Pro OS from my dead computer so I will use those.

Raid 5 requires a minimum of 3 drives.

Wow, good that you can get away with less than 73 gb for your boot drive.

Do you know if the Boris Continuum pack which comes with MC includes motion key & motion tracker?  I expect Continuum would be able to achieve the gradual key frame masking effect I mentioned in an above post?

I've had a look at the tutorials by Douglas, he's done a great job, should really speed up the learning curve when the time comes.

Smallan:

Do you know if the Boris Continuum pack which comes with MC includes motion key & motion tracker?  I expect Continuum would be able to achieve the gradual key frame masking effect I mentioned in an above post?

I've had a look at the tutorials by Douglas, he's done a great job, should really speed up the learning curve when the time comes.

I don't know much about MC or Continuum yet.  You will have to do a bit of research or ask someone on the Avid forum for that information.  There is a new forum discussion for the upgrade of Liquid to MC here: "Avid Media Composer for Liquid Users"  http://community.avid.com/forums/299.aspx

The tutorials by Douglas are really good.  There are also some good tutorials on the Avid site.  Go to http://learn.avid.com/content/tutorials/# and scroll down to "Avid Media Composer Adrenaline HD Tutorial".

Yes. Motion key and tracker are part of BCC. MC also has its own powerful motion tracking features.

Thank you.  Disappointment is quickly turning to excitement .