Why should I use my Avid Mojo?
 

At work I am in the process of setting up 3 Avid Xpress Pro systems. Each set up has the following:

Avid Xpress Pro
Avid Toolkit
HP nw9440 compaq laptop
Sony HVR-M25U tape deck
A 500Gig External HD
Avid Mojo.

O.k. I have everything set up and working, except for the Mojo. The Mojo (to me) just seems like something for digitizing from an analog source. I can hook the Sony HVR-M25U tapedeck directly in to the HP laptop via firewire.... so why would I even need to take the Mojo out of the box?

If I did use the Mojo... wouldn't I have to run analog out of my tape deck, then firewire out of my Mojo. It seems like an unnecessary step, and that throwing an analog middleman in there could possible degrade the quality (as apposed to digital firewire from the tapedeck).

As I understand it... you can use the Mojo to hook up an exteral monitor. But, on our Final Cut Pro set up, we are able to go out of our JVC deck to a monitor just fine. Wouldn't it be the same with this Avid?

O.k. So, for clarity, I'll reiterate the question: With my set up, how would I benefit from using the Avid Mojo?

As it stands (and from my limited knowledge)... if it was up to me, I'd chunk the things. My boss, however, feels "if we bought it, we need to find a way to use it".

btw. This is govt work. Lowest bidder didnt come with tech support. I'm amazed that I've gotten this far.

Thank You.

O.k. while I'm at it... I'll trow this question in as well.

As I said, currently I am going firewire out of the Sony HVR-M25U tape deck into the laptop.

After digitizing is complete... I get a flamethrower message. Now. I search through these forums here on dvinfo.net and found that if I turn off my deck while editing, I will not get the flamethrower error. Great. O.k. But tell me this: would using the Mojo kill the flamethrower errors?

And... lastly: I apologize if these topics have been covered. I did a search and read through them before posting this thread.... but I wasn't able to find anything that directly answered my "specific" questions. Any help will be most appreciated.

Thank You
b.v.

Bill,

The mojo is most useful if you are still working in DV. It works as an 'accelerator' for your effects. Many effects which are not realtime become realtime when it is attached, such as playback of uncompressed graphics.

"Avid Mojo and Avid Mojo SDI hardware expands the power and capability of Avid software with expanded I/O, hardware acceleration, and preview to a client monitor."

As you said, it also allows capture from analog sources, like VHS vcr or what have you. I think it also allows you to capture uncompressed if so desired.

It will also allow you to output without rendering your timeline.

Read about it here:

http://www.avid.com/products/dna/mojo/

My understanding from reading other's reviews, is that if you are working in HD(V), it's not as useful, though it will let you send a downcompressed signal out for monitoring purposes.

Mojo will also allow you to do uncompressed or DV50 resolution graphics (they DO look better than DV25), as well as more RT FX.

I also use mine a lot to capture from BetaSP at 1:1 resolution and master to BetaSP for broadcast.

Just to clarify, you can do uncompressed and DV50 graphics without a mojo, but you have to render to see them.

Sorry, I always thought non-mojo was DV25 ONLY, I guess I'm thinking of older versions. When I bought my mojo, Xpro basically gave you 1 resolution....DV.

Yeah, now it has this 'open timeline' capability that lets you put pretty much any resolution on it. So you can create uncompressed titles and import uncompressed graphics. I think with the mojo, however, you have the option of actually capturing uncompressed video? Not sure about that, cause I don't have one.

Yes, w/ mojo, you can capture and output at 1:1 resolution.

Thanks for the info, Mike...

Just to clarify: Mojo Analog: that is 1:1 analog component Standard Def. that is uncompressed. The mojo SDI is 10bit digital Standard Def.

Cheers.