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Upgrade to Nitris DX or AJA ?
We are about to begin a full upgrade of our AVID Adrenaline based suite are seeking some input from the group on two options we are considering.
We are currently Media Composer 4.+ with HP 8600 2 Xenon 3. CPUs. Mostly Digi Beta, some Beta SP & DV. Lots of After Effects. We are going to MC 5.5 as part of full HD upgrade to P2. No other HD decks other than XDCAM drive & Blu-ray. WIN 7 64.
Here is the big question ….. should we take advantage of the Nitris DX upgrade deal with its I/O advantages, and try to get another year or two out of our HP8600 ? Or go the new AJA route and invest the Nitris cash in a top of the line new HP.
We understand the AJA I/O limitations, but we won’t really need most. Any analog input can go through the Digi-Beta. Won’t the advantages of the far greater CPU power of new HP dramatically outweigh any acceleration provided by Nitris DX hardware ?
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1 Reply
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A few notes:
The Nitris DX only accelerates DNxHD acquisition and playback. If you pay $2495, you can get the forthcoming AVC-Intra accelerator card for the Nitris DX for enhanced acquisition & playback.
It will also allow you to capture analog with deck control. If you loop your analog decks through your digibeta, deck control will be less then optimal.
Avid is also offering big discounts on Adrenaline trade-ins.
That being said, Avid will periodically stop qualifying older machines as their software matures. This means your 8600 will “expire” sooner. 5.5 requires 6GB of RAM, and the next version of MC (6) will also be 64 bit only. Thus, you have a few minor upgrades already.
After Effects is memory & CPU Intensive. A faster machine would certainly benefit you.
Me? I’d get a new PC (regardless of your IO choice), download the 30 day trial of MC 5, and buy an AJA IO Express. Beat up on it. If you like it, you’re golden. If not, you still have your Adrenaline, which you can trade in towards the purchase of a Nitris. The IO Express can then be used on a side station or re-sold. It’s a minor investment compared to the other gear.
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
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