MOTUnation.com

This is EXACTLY what I need....... thank you MOTU, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

http://www.motu.com/video-products/hdx-sdi/

Dude! With an $850 street price and your Sweet H2O discount? Go for it!

It does look very nice, btw. Thanks for the alert.

*sigh* ......this is a firewire connector away from being exactly what I needed, although I have to wonder if it's supported in DP as apparently the V4HD isn't.

as an audio interface YES, but not the video part of it...at lest on the V4HD. I am soooooo sitting on the fence here, I have one in our warehouse, but I don't know. The reason is there are other things I'm needing more importantly for the house (and well, the studio too). But it's right here---I can go home with it TODAY!!!!! I HATE MY JOB!! LOL

You're a lucky man, Brad. You must be livin' right.

BradLyons wrote:This is EXACTLY what I need....... thank you MOTU, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

http://www.motu.com/video-products/hdx-sdi/

I already commented on the "So what?" aspect of this introduction on another post. But, by all means, please do take one for a test drive, and come back and report on it.

It's closest competition seems to be the Matrox MXO2, as it IIRC, is the only other HD box that can be used with a laptop card slot. Firewire just isn't fast enough for uncompressed (or lightly compressed) HD, which is why the V3HD and the AJA HD IO are not taking the industry by storm. On the PCI side, one would be daring to choose MOTU over AJA in this category, because of price, features, reputation for customer support, and AJA's already sterling reputation for reliability and timely bug-zapping.

If MOTU, the also-ran in this field, wants to establish ground, They need to price their products like they do their audio hardware. If $850 is in fact the street price - which it wasn't when I first looked a month or so ago - then they may be onto something... if it works as advertised, and MOTU can overcome their rep for dreadful customer support. BTW, Dave Roberts is the presence of MOTU on the Creative Cow MOTU forum. That's a start.

There's no mention of DP compatibility on the MOTU pages... just support for FCP and Premiere. And what about Apple SoundTrack Pro or Logic or Adobe's DAW? That would be a nice bonus for sound track composers.

Currently, I'm using an AJA Kona LHi, which is PCIe only, but at $950 supports HDMI 1.3 (DeepColor) compared to MOTU's 1.0, and just about every other option more or less the same. I don't see anything about simultaneous monitoring of HD and downconverted SD for the MOTU. The AJA does this nicely. This can be invaluable if you already have a calibrated SD monitor you can use to reliably color correct with, and use the HDMI out to drive a consumer grade HDTV. I see nothing at all on the MOTU pages about cross conversions, up or down.

And when I sent an email question to AJA Customer Support, I got an email response in less than an hour. Try that with MOTU. Also, AJA will cross-ship an exchange to you. Very few companies offer that awesome level of support, which is pretty darn important if you're using these products for your living.

On a positive note for MOTU, if I had to have a laptop-capable solution, I would strongly consider this over the MXO2. Matrox doesn't exactly have a great rep for customer support either, and that MXO2 is just ugly, with wires coming out of three sides.

IMO,
Jim

Those boxes are NOT audio interfaces, however...and that's the key here.

BradLyons wrote:Those boxes are NOT audio interfaces, however...and that's the key here.

The HDX-SDI is not an audio interface either. It's audio inputs and outputs are not exposed to Core Audio like the V4HD's inputs and outputs are. Currently, the HDX-SDI's audio I/O only works with Final Cut Pro.

1nput0utput wrote:

BradLyons wrote:Those boxes are NOT audio interfaces, however...and that's the key here.

The HDX-SDI is not an audio interface either. It's audio inputs and outputs are not exposed to Core Audio like the V4HD's inputs and outputs are. Currently, the HDX-SDI's audio I/O only works with Final Cut Pro.

And Premiere.

One of the issues you might face using a video IO box as an audio interface is that some hardware IO is set up for 48 0r 96 KHz operation only. eg, the AJA Kona will work with DP, but not at 44.1 KHz.

And I don't see a Word Clock input on the rear of this unit.

That looks like a video piracy tool.

1nput0utput wrote:

BradLyons wrote:Those boxes are NOT audio interfaces, however...and that's the key here.

The HDX-SDI is not an audio interface either. It's audio inputs and outputs are not exposed to Core Audio like the V4HD's inputs and outputs are. Currently, the HDX-SDI's audio I/O only works with Final Cut Pro.

Right...but that's how it will be used by myself and others that use it. For example I'll be recording via a Sennheiser EW152 headset wireless microphone through whatever micpre/compressor/eq chain I pick along with a stereo mix from ProToolsHD along with a Shotgun microphone going through a pre.....that's (4) channels of discreet audio I'll be recording along with the video, simultaneously into FinalCut----thus why THIS box fits a huge ticket and makes perfect sense.

1nput0utput wrote:

BradLyons wrote:Those boxes are NOT audio interfaces, however...and that's the key here.

The HDX-SDI is not an audio interface either. It's audio inputs and outputs are not exposed to Core Audio like the V4HD's inputs and outputs are. Currently, the HDX-SDI's audio I/O only works with Final Cut Pro.

And see, that's what I don't understand about what everyone's saying about the HDX... I asked Dave on the Creative Cow forums if DP would recognize the HDX... He responded:

"The HDX-SDI does not support Apple Core Audio protocol. The audio features of the HDX-SDI are supported specifically by Final Cut Pro on the Mac. The HDX-SDI does not provide audio I/O to Digital Performer or other Core Audio applications."

Well, I had already ordered the HDX, so I tried it anyway in DP... Low and behold:



Not only does it show up, I can record and play back audio! With effects. So whats the big deal? I love this box! The main reason why I got it was to monitor in Final Cut, though I discovered I can monitor in After Effects as well! Awesome! Now if I could monitor video in DP, that would be killer...

I also wish it would upconvert/downconvert automatically without you having to use pulldown menus...

Terra303 wrote: I had already ordered the HDX, so I tried it anyway in DP

What bit depth and sample rates does it operate in DP? What about video?

Jim wrote:

Terra303 wrote: I had already ordered the HDX, so I tried it anyway in DP

What bit depth and sample rates does it operate in DP? What about video?

So far the only combination I've tried is the one I normally use (24bit/44.1k)...

As far as video, I haven't been so lucky... Although the HDX (and all of it's size/frame rate combinations) shows up when you select the video output destination, I can't get any video to output to it. I thought at first it was like FCP, where you have to make sure the the HDX's output settings match the size and frame rate of your sequence, but even after making sure, I get no video playback. Maybe there's a certain type of compression setting I have to make the video in order for it to work...