OK, I will go on record how much I HATE the Avid “dongle.” This is a little USB device that connects to your computer that enables the Avid software to work. Don’t have this, your software won’t work. Period.

I mean, I know why it exists…to stop piracy. FCP claims over 1 million users, and I have no doubt that there are another 500,000 copies out there that were downloaded or installed from a friends disk. So I get it, but I still don’t like it.

Why? Because I misplaced mine. I have been testing it out on my laptop mainly, so I kept it in my backpack. But then I was flying to New Jersey for a week, then off to Montana. I didn’t want to lose it so I put it somewhere for safe keeping. Where? I hadn’t a friggin’ clue! I spent 6 hours tearing apart my office, bedroom, living room…pretty much the entire house…looking for this thing. I finally had the time and resources to begin my testing and review of this new version, and now I couldn’t find it.

This was pissing me off. FCP doesn’t do this to me. Premiere doesn’t do this to me. Why the HECK does Avid? My ability to work is tied to a $5 hunk of plastic. Lose it and getting a replacement means a lot of money and time. At least it used to. I recall working at a production company where they lost one, and a post facility that lost one. The replacement cost a pretty penny, and the bays were down for days. And those were computers that were locked down. In this day and age of mobile editing, the dongle isn’t attached all the time nor locked to the desk with a cable, so losing it is more possible than ever.

Anyway, my wife found it. She searched my desk and found a pouch that contains my Elgato Turbo.264 and tucked inside the OTHER pocket was the dongle. Worse part is, that I don’t recall putting it there. Now I need to figure out some way to secure this to my backpack or something.

So now I can start testing out the new Avid Media Composer 3.0 software. And what I think is cooler, is that my next job might have me editing on an Adrenaline or older Media Composer, so I can compare features and speed.