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Test Driving the Muscle Car in Avid's DNA Garage
I have more than a passing interest in the Avid DS product. After I reviewed version 4.0 in October 2001, I edited an HD show for PBS on a version 6.0 Avid DS Nitris. Avid DS Nitris with 7.0 software began shipping at the end of 2003, and I welcomed the chance to take a closer look.
The Avid DS Nitris is clearly the muscle car in Avid's DNA (digital nonlinear accelerator) garage. Unlike the other two Avid DNA products-Adrenaline and MojoNitris is not simply an external unit tethered to the workstation over FireWire. Instead, the Nitris hardware consists of two PCI-X cards connected with proprietary interconnect cabling to the external Nitris chassis. The two internal cards supply real-time codec and effects processing. Nitris is really the hardware successor to Avid's successful Meridien boardset. The external chassis includes audio and video I/O connections and analog converters. While Avid's Media Composer and Xpress Pro products have moved from hardware-based to softwarebased systems assisted by DNA, Avid DSwhich had been a software-based systemnow gains the benefits of dedicated hardware. This paradigm shift allows Avid DS Nitris units to ride the curve of Moore's law, getting boosts both from CPU performance increases and the hardware functions of Nitris' internal processing.
Picking the Right Editor
There are two Avid DS models: the full Avid DS Nitris and Avid DS Nitris Editor. Older Avid DS systems used the Equinox hardware subsystem, which provided only input and output connections; Equinox customers, however, can still update versions and add most of the current software features without upgrading to the newer Nitris hardware. New system purchasers get the Nitris hardware that adds multi-stream, real-time performance.
All Avid DS units now handle HD video (SD-only versions have been dropped), leaving the main choice between the Editor and the full version models. Purchase the Avid DS Nitris Editor version (for about $79,000 plus storage) and you'll get the same real-time, multi-stream performance and the same hardware DVE as the full version. All compositing in Editor is track- and timelinebased, like in most NLEs, so if your more demanding compositing is done using another application, such as Avid's own SOFTIMAGEIXSI, Apple's Shake or Adobe's...