$5000 for a new HDX system

[Diccer]

Rumors say Optical Thunderbolt will come out in 2012

[Emcha_audio]

I'm still not sure if optical thunderbolt will actually be a good avenue. For one thing. In the past, and I don't think this has ever been corrected, if you bent or coiled optical cables (adat), you could actually create jitters in the signal. So connecting equipment with optical cables (adat) over distance could cause problems as you couldn't pass the fibre in a corner without bending it. So unless this issue has been corrected in the optical version of thunderbolt, I'm not sure how useful this will be even for the video application possibilities.

[Craig F]

ADAT optical is/was low end cheap cable
better cable can bend but only so much

now what about dust/scratch protection for the cable ends when not inserted into equipment

our network backbone is on 10Gb single mode fiber so I have experienced some of what can happen when the termination is bad

[roberts]

Originally Posted by musicman691

I'm sure if those same studios move over to HDX cards they're going to HAVE to change out their interfaces.

Nope not true 192's work fine with HDX cards...

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by roberts

Nope not true 192's work fine with HDX cards...

Even though the specs & compatibility say so you can't really say that as no HDX cards are out yet. And remember that PT 10 is the last release to support 192's. Further remember that Avid is only selling HDX cards with the newer HD interfaces. You can't buy a 'naked' card without having first purchased a card/HD interface combo. Given that - why would anyone mix two different era a/d/a boxes? There's better specs in the newer boxes so why waste the improvements of PT10 & HDX with old tech?

[Diccer]

Don't know why anyone would talk bad about optical cable. It's thinner, lighter inexpensive and with thunderbolt you can daisy chain all the modules together. Probably don't want to step on it, but there's no type of cable should be on the walkway

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Diccer

Don't know why anyone would talk bad about optical cable. It's thinner, lighter inexpensive and with thunderbolt you can daisy chain all the modules together. Probably don't want to step on it, but there's no type of cable should be on the walkway

Do a bit of reading about the problems that arises with using optical cables. Jitters, wow and flutter, losing sync with the clock which makes your daw drop out of recording etc. The problem with optical cable is the thinner it is the most likely you will have those problems if you coil or bend them. At least that is what was the problem with the adat optical. Then like Craig said, if either ends of the cable is damaged, you can get a whole lot of other problems with corrupted data etc.

[musicman691]

All this talk about problems with fibre optic cables makes me wonder: how do companies like Verizon with it's FIOS broadband cable/tv/phone service never seem to have any problems? There system is all fiber optic either strung up on poles along with AC power mains or buried underground and this stuff is tougher than hell. Almost nothing in the way of signal dropouts when you get cable sway, and the routing does some pretty severe bends. Drops from the connection hub on the pole to the house aren't all that large diameter either.

Properly done fibre optic cable is surprisingly worry free. Just don't play rodeo lariat with it and you'll be okay.

Oh yeah almost forgot to mention this about toughness: I've seen vehicles drive over the cables when they're laying on the ground and no damage at all. Try doing that with coax spdif.

[Diccer]

Manny
Well Adat is old technology. I'm (cautiously) optimistic Intel/Apple will solve the problems with next year's release, or probable release

[corp]

Originally Posted by Diccer

Manny
Well Adat is old technology. I'm (cautiously) optimistic Intel/Apple will solve the problems with next year's release, or probable release

It's going to happen.........

Avid is only selling HDX cards with the newer HD interfaces

I've receive a price for just HDX card with sw and w/o any interface........?