There are systems out there that are less expensive than AVID and do similar quality work. Media 100 for Mac and EMC Primetime for IBM leap to mind. Both offer similar or better quality than AVID, but you do sacrifice user friendliness in both cases (particularly in the case of EMC). I would say that the new res-11 and soon res-12 on EMC are near BETA quality (not BETA SP), and actually a little bit BETTER than AVID in that category. Then, of course, there is Night Suite, which claims to have D-1 quality (yeah right), and this new thing Sony is supposed to come out with the first of the year. They claim it will revolutionize everything from aquisition thru final edit. (we'll see.)