Another MOJO Question

[Bill Stephan]

There is a FW port for your VTR on the Mojo. You must connect the VTR there so that the Mojo can process incoming audio/video and send it on to the computer.

Many effects will become real time with the Mojo attached to your system.

Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City

[Oakmozart]

When you connect Mojo to your system, you will immediately notice that Xpress Pro will “leap to life.” Right now, when you work in software-only DV mode, you’ll probably notice that little “lag” (hesitation) between when you hit play in the software and when you notice your footage start playing. With Mojo, that’s gone. You hit play and BAM!!…you’re instantly playing. If you’re working with an external broadcast monitor or TV, you’ll also notice that your footage is synced between what’s playing in your XPro software as well as on your monitor. Without Mojo, the footage on your monitor lags a few frames behind your computer, as does your audio if using the speakers on your external monitor. With Mojo, that lag is gone and your footage will play in perfect sync no matter what you’re using it on. You’ll also notice far more RT capabilities on your system with Mojo, since Mojo helps alleviate much of the video effects processing (among other things) that the processor must do alone without Mojo. When you connect Mojo, it reduces the processor workload, so the processor can focus on other things (like video playback and simply running the software). You’ll also be able to create and work with uncompressed graphics/titles, which will look better than nasty, compressed, jagged DV25 titles.

These are a few of the things you’ll notice when you add Mojo.

Regarding your second question, this is where you will run into problems. Mojo is a PIG when it comes to system resources. When you plug it in, it completely takes over the bus it’s plugged into. If you plug anything else into the same bus that Mojo is sharing, Mojo quits working correctly. This is why all Avid certified desktop systems are dual-bus (or greater). The problem you will face is that to my knowledge, at this time there are no dual-bus notebooks available. (I’m sure they’re coming, but right now I don’t know of any.) Therefore, when you plug Mojo into your Powerbook’s firewire port, you’re all done. There’s no way you can use Mojo and external storage on the same bus. You’ll be forced to use media on your internal (built-in) drives and you won’t be able to use any uncompressed video resolutions. This is why a Mojo solution on laptops is a joke to me. My recommendation to you would be to pick up a certified desktop system and run with that configuration, and not with the Powerbook.

I admit that it’s quite possible that a solution has come up to remedy this problem and if one has been developed, I’d love to know about it.

[Anonymous]

I thought so, so what your saying is, vtr> fw by way of dv cable (4by4??)to mojo and the ext drive> fw card?, video has to do through the mojo….
I quess I will still have deck control through the MOJO

thanks

[Satesh Ramjattan]

I have a tech question. I am also planning to get a mojo for my axp 4.6. I would like to know how do I find out how many buses I have on my PC. i read the motherboard manual and nothing said. I have a built in firewire port in front, and I have bought a separate PCI firewire card in the back. Will i be able to connect the MOjo in front and the ext. HD’s in the back and still have a fully functional MOjo?
Thanks.

[Oakmozart]

Pretty much the rule of thumb for Intel (which is what I use, I have no idea regarding AMD) is that if you have a single-processor motherboard, you have a single-bus motherboard. If you have a dual-processor motherboard, there’s a good chance that you have dual-busses. Dual-Xeon boards are almost guaranteed to have dual busses…UNLESS you’re using the Intel 875p chipset, which is a dual-Xeon board with only 1 bus (no good).

I’ve been told by some who are more in the know than I on the newer chipsets that if you have a board with a PCI-e (Express) graphics card-supporting motherboard, you actually have 2 PCI bus segments. I cannot confirm this, as I do not have a board that supports PCI-e graphics cards at this time, nor am I as current on the new technologies as I should be or would like to be.

If you’re serious about Mojo, I recommend finding the best deal on a certified system and buying one, rather than trying to “do-it-yourself,” of which I just did. It’s more trouble than it’s worth and in the end you might spend just as much (or more) building your own system as you would on buying certified. If you buy the wrong parts, you’ll end up having to buy more appropriate ones and therefore your costs just keep climbing.

My suggestion is to contact your motherboard manufacturer’s tech support. Give them the model number of your mobo and ask them if it has dual-bus segments or not. They’ll be able to tell you for sure and if they can’t, you need to switch brands. I’ve had nothing but good luck with Asus (though they don’t build any dual-bus Xeon boards at this time). I also like Tyan, Intel, and Abit.

[Satesh Ramjattan]

Thanks alot. Do you know of any good sites to buy a certified system for a good price.

[Oakmozart]

Look around on Dell, HP, IBM and Apple’s websites. They usually have closeout computers (certified) and you can often get them for 50% off or better. A guy I know just recently got a Dell Precision 670 (dual 3.4 ghz Xeon’s, 2 gigs of RAM, almost a TERRABYTE (!!!) of internal SATA storage and a recommended Nvidia Graphics card–either QuadroFX 1300 or 1400) from Dell’s closeout website. This computer was a 2-week old returned unit and was being offered with new warranty, etc. The retail price was just a tad shy of $5000. He got it for around $2150, which is still alot of money if you don’t have it, but is still a STEAL!!

I’d start there. Good luck.

[Satesh Ramjattan]

I really appreciate your help. i’ve been editing a while, but never built my own system and pretty new to the technical side. I have a really tight budget, do you think I should just get SCSI drives instead because my PC is really new and up to date and don’t want to really get another one.

[Oakmozart]

Well, if you want to spring the cash for SCSI drives, sure…go for it. But before you do, how about posting the specs for your PC? Make/model, specs, etc.

[Satesh Ramjattan]

SOYO motherboard VIA chipset, P4 3.2, 2gig’s DDR ram, 80 gig SATA HD, 8fans, 2-120gig Firewire HD’s, Windows Xp Pro Sp2, AXpressPro 4.6.

I did the research like you said, I found nothing in my price range at HP, Dell, or IBM, so i thought about just getting SCSI drives.

You are the professional, and i really appreciate your help. What do you recommend?