Is the Mojo DX the Only Way to Monitor HD?

[Dino]

Yes. Avid is a closed system. You have to use their hardware. The Mojo DX is supposed to be their cheap product. The Nitris DX is the premium box. The only cheaper, but less reliable (and constrained) option is to find a used Adrenaline box that has the DNxcell board.

While the hardware is generally considered to be wildly overpriced, it is definitely significantly more cost effective than any previous Avid effort. I am however hopeful that this is a short term issue. Avid has already dropped the price of the Mojo DX and should be taking a close look at what they will be offering next. Almost no one is pleased with the prices of these units.

Media Composer does off the ability to use a second (or third) computer monitor as a program monitor. there have been anecdotal reports of using an MXO off of the monitor out to feed a real video monitor or using the ability of say a Decklink board to act as a desktop extension. These are both essentially tricks and not supported by Avid. I cant speak to the color accuracy of the outputs in these situations. I will soon be in a position to test both of these propositions and will certainly post my results here.

I doubt Avid will be able to completely open up to third party vendors. However there is some precedent. The Avid DS now ships with the AJA Xena as its hardware set. Hopefully we will see some concession to reasonability by the time Media Composer 4 ships (next year?).

[Shane Ross]

Yup…the Mojo and Nitris DX…and Adrenaline…are the only ways to get HD out to an HD monitor. There are no third party FULL RESOLUTION options. I say that because the MXO will work with Avid in getting an image onto a broadcast monitor, but it will be acting as a computer monitor. Because the MXO connects via DVI, you can put the full screen playback option onto the MXO, and that will output SDI or Component to a monitor. But the full screen playback was meant for computer screens and is in no way full quality. Just a solution to getting an image onto a broadcast monitor.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Chris Davis]

[Dino Sanacory]
…there have been anecdotal reports of using an MXO off of the monitor out to feed a real video monitor or using the ability of say a Decklink board to act as a desktop extension. These are both essentially tricks and not supported by Avid. I cant speak to the color accuracy of the outputs in these situations. I will soon be in a position to test both of these propositions and will certainly post my results here…

Thanks. If you think about it when the time comes, you could also put a post on this thread just saying that you posted a new thread about this. That way my e-mail would notify me to take a look… Also I’m not familiar with Decklink.

[Shane Ross]
…There are no third party FULL RESOLUTION options. I say that because the MXO will work with Avid in getting an image onto a broadcast monitor, but it will be acting as a computer monitor…

For FCP, the MXO to ACD would be fine for my purposes (my limited understanding is that this combo allows 1920×1080 footage to be monitored at full resolution with fairly accurate color, at least in FCP). Is there something about Avid that specifically tries to make this NOT work for relatively color accurate full resolution HD monitoring, as it would in FCP?

Thanks,
Chris

[Shane Ross]

[Chris Davis] “Is there something about Avid that specifically tries to make this NOT work for relatively color accurate full resolution HD monitoring, as it would in FCP?”

Yeah…Apple works with Black Magic Design and AJA and Matrox to allow their hardware to work with FCP, as Apple doesn’t make that hardware. But Avid does make the hardware, so they have zero incentive to allow other companies to make hardware to do this. IN fact, they have every incentive to make it NOT work. Apple makes money by having FCP work on Apple products only…so you have to buy a Mac, and a good one, for it to work. Avid only makes the software and the capture cards…so to make money they make their capture hardware the only hardware that works.

I don’t blame them. And lately it is more affordable. Not long ago a fully loaded Avid system (offline cutting only) would run you $65,000 to $80,000 dollars. Symphony’s more.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Chris Davis]

[Shane Ross]Apple makes money by having FCP work on Apple products only…so you have to buy a Mac, and a good one, for it to work. Avid only makes the software and the capture cards…so to make money they make their capture hardware the only hardware that works.

Makes sense. Avid sells their overpriced capture/display hardware, and Apple sells overpriced Mac Pro’s (don’t mean to start a “discussion” here about the Mac Pro, but looking at the lower price of the new Intel chips and the higher price of the 2009 Mac Pro, that’s the only view point I can arrive at).

One followup question: do I need some kind of Avid hardware just to turn, say HDV or AVCHD into DXnHD? If so, would the Mojo SDI do it, or would I need a Mojo DX? (FCP allows such conversions using software only).

Also, just a little curious if the MXO2 or AJA Kona 3 basically does everything that the Mojo DX does, even if only for FCP

Thanks,
Chris

[Shane Ross]

[Chris Davis] “do I need some kind of Avid hardware just to turn, say HDV or AVCHD into DXnHD?”

TO capture direct to DNxHD, yes. But you can always capture natively then transcode to DNxHD after the fact.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Chris Davis]

Got a side question, mainly just curious. On other forums, Avid folks tend to agree that the Mojo DX is way overpriced in comparison to FCP or Premiere-compatible hardware. I’m wondering, what is the FCP “equivalent” of the Mojo DX. Of course all hardware is different, so nothing will be exactly equivalent, but…

Would the Matrox MXO 2, for example, do for FCP most of what the Mojo DX does for Avid MC?

-Chris

[Shane Ross]

MOJO DX is SDI only…no component. And is a very basic box. The only RT it adds is by taking the processing of the anamorphic formats off of the computer and onto itself…shouldering the effort. ALL capture cards that I know of do that.

Heck, the cheap DECKLINK SDI does that, for $400. Yup…FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS…not $4000 or $8000. Get the $700 Decklink Studio and you have additional Component and composite in/out.

https://decklink.com/products/decklinkstudio/

You can get the AJA Kona 3…top of the line card…for $2400. And it runs circles around the Mojo DX.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Chris Davis]

Yeah, I had seen your review here of the Kona 3. It’s a mother…

So the Mojo DX box does for Avid MC about what the Decklink does for FCP, and that’s it? Sounds like the MXO 2 with FCP is much better than the Mojo DX for Avid. Interesting marketing on Avid’s part.

-Chris

[Todd Rollenhagen]

Nope 🙂
You can add a second video card.
-Connect that video card to your HD monitor
–Set your full screen playback to that video card/HD monitor
—Edit with Full Screen video playing and there ya go.

It takes some tinkering but we’ve had it running that way for about 6 months now.
Our 3 monitor configuration is..
~Left monitor (Bin Monitor) coming off the second (bottom) card but when configuring make screen 1 (far left)
~~Right monitor (Time line) coming off the first (top) card port 1, and have configured the screen as #3 (far right)
~~~HD monitor (Full Screen Playback) coming of the first (top) card port 2, and have that one configured in the middle of screen 1 & 3.

The only draw back is, the expansion the mouse must cover to get between 1 & 3 (but it’s worth $4,000). We use a track ball or a Wacom tablet to help eliminate the delay.

Hope this helps

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