Trying to understand what the Adrenaline is.

[Bill Stephan]

The Avid DNA (I/O box) is somewhat similar to an Aja I/O, but the Avid box provides additional computing power for the effects and multiple streams beyond what the PC has. An Avid system without any hardware box (such as software Media Composer) needs to render almost all effects and can handle one stream of video.

An Aja box on a Final Cut Pro system gets you really good input/output, but you need to render just about everything, as the Aja doesn’t add any processing power to the system.

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

[Avidtim]

The Adrenaline is a workhorse. I’ve used it for 4 years without any problems.

[Scott Davis]

What do you mean by workhorse. Taking out th DA/AD capabilities; what does the Andrenaline add that the MC software only version is not able to do? More realtime? If so, how much more? Etc?

Scott

[Bob Zelin]

you are being given mis information. The AVID does not provide acceleration – it is simply an input/output hardware device. All processing is done by the computer and NVidia card in your computer. 3D handling is done by the NVidia card, which is why it is critical that you setup your NVidia card as per the READ ME release notes when you install Media Composer. You can currently run “Media Composer software only” for $4999 and get as many streams without any hardware interface – this is a limitation of the computer, and the drive array you have, not the Adreanline hardware. The Adreanline DNA was call “Digital Non Linear Accelerator”, which became very aggrivating when it was released, because this product did not accelerate anything.

With that said, the Media composer is a fine product, and the AVID Adrenaline “Firebob” as it is called in the AVID’s parts list, is the most stable piece of hardware that AVID has ever released. You almost never see a dead board or power supply with the Adreanline.

AND with that said, the AJA I/O is an equivalent box, designed for use with Final Cut Pro. There is an enormous cost difference between the two products. The AVID Adrenlaine HD has an integrated HD-SDI card. At this NAB, AJA released the AJA I/O HD, at a cost of $3495, which will do everything the Adrenaline hardware does – of course, one is unique for the Media composer application, and one is unique for Final Cut Pro – so you are comparing apples to oranges.

If you like working with the Media Composer software interface, the AVID Adrenaline is the product that you want – it will let you capture and output to almost any VTR that you can think of. The quality is excellent, and is widely accepted by broacasters and professional post production houses around the world.

Bob Zelin

[Scott Davis]

Thanks Bob, That was what I came up with from reading the specs of the Avid+Adrenaline combo and a FCP+AJA combo. Both seemed equivalent yet in the Adrenaline literature (granted on the Avid website) it seemed so much more. I always wondered how the hell did a device attached by FW accelerate anything.

Scott Davis

[Tae]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand, the Adrenaline harware processes all the avid codec information, taking the stress of that computing off the processors. That frees up a significant amount of real time that would be absent minus the box.

https://www.avid.com/products/dna/faq.shtml

Even the Mojo does this.

[Bob Zelin]

this is my answer to you. If you are running a current AVID Media Composer, your product will work without ANY interface hooked up to it (no Adrenaline, no Mojo) – current products with version 2.6 or 2.7 will run without the Adrenaline box. So, right now, disconnect your Adrenaline (it’s only a firewire cable), and start your media composer, and run your project, just on the computer screens. Do some 3D effects, without your Adreanline hooked up. You tell me.

I am not saying anything negative about the AVID Adrealine – it is a fantastic product, and is well worth the money, if you want to use the Media Composer interface- which is fantastic. You may love Media Composer, and hate the Final Cut Pro interface – that is ok. But I hate when people say “my toy is so much better than your toy, cause it does this and that.”, when it’s not true.

Bob Zelin

[Tae]

Bob,

I don’t think anyone is saying that. At least not here. Merely that there are some acceleration capabilities to the Mojo and Adrenaline BOBs.

[Grinner Hester]

I look at adrenaline as xpress pro with animatte for 45k.
I surely don’t see it as a work horse. Beating a dead horse, it’s buggy, clunky, unreliable, unpredictabe and is not yet ready to be purchsed by the public as a version one software, imo. We are all paying to beta test this product for them butt they are not soliciting our feedback.
It’s FCPs single best sales tool.

[Tae]

Grin,

I respect your opinion, but I can’t agree. Works like a charm for me. Do I wish it had native blending modes? Sure. Other than that, I adore my adrenaline.