Digi Help - AV Option & Quicktime

[elementsound]

Unfortunately I am so happy to hear others are having the same problems I am. I have gotten all the same responses from digi and avid with this qt/av incompatibility. I also need to post qts for my cients and am forced into a 6 step process to do so. Please help us!

I originally came to this post because I have only run av option to sync picture other than good ol tc. I was looking for an alternative to buying another av for my home setup and since editors dont seem to care about even sending me their omf's I realize I dont get the money out of it. I was loking into buying a third party card but was wondering if when working with qts in protools with a 3rd party card I will have the lag problems I have when I just directly import them now. I am assuming thats the point of buying a card but want to be sure.
Any comments would be appreciated!

[DigiTechSupt]

I can't say whether or not there are any plans for Quicktime compatibility with Pro Tools AV Options because I don't know. However, there are a few things to consider that may or may not have been mentioned in this string that may help clariy a few things...

- AV Option and AV Option XL was designed to give compatibility with Avid systems using the native Avid media file formats. Yes, Avid systems are able to import and export as Quicktime but it is not a native file format for Avid.

- There have been several Quicktime solutions for Pro Tools for many years and they remain to be valid solutions for Quicktime video playback in Pro Tools.

- Pro Tools is not a video editor, so expecting it to handle "any" video file format there is, is a little out of the question. It is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and therefore will handle just about any audio file format you can throw at it, as it should.

- AV Option and AV Option XL was never "supposed to" playback Quicktime and never claimed to. If you were told otherwise, then we need to get in touch with your Digi dealer/Rep or who ever told you it was and inform them.

- AudioVision PCI never supported Quicktime natively or as an import or export file format as far as I know so, I'm not sure why AudioVision keeps getting brought up here. Pro Tools, however, can import and export Quicktime with or without AV Option or AV Option XL hardware. Though it may not be officially supported you may want to try running a Miro or Fuse card in addtion to your AV Option hardware if you need to have both Avid and Quicktime compatibility.

- AV Option and AV Option XL have several great features over Quicktime (Avid compatibility, recording video directly into Pro Tools timeline, basic video editing, simultaneous video and multi-track audio recording, profesional syncronization (blackburst), 24 frame support, plugin parameter functionality during playback/looping, etc.) but these may mean nothing if you are not compatible with the majority of the work you recieve. If that is the case, then a Quicktime solution may be better suited for you. There are many Pro Tools users in Post and/or getting into Post that don't need the Avid compatibility (and other great features ) but stand to benefit by taking advantage of any one of the several Quicktime solutions.

Hopefully, this helps clarify what the focus AV Option and AV Option XL is, in my opinion. Again, I have no knowledge of AV Options Quicktime support or not in the future so none of this confirms or denies either. Feature Requests are always welcome and invited but keeping them on the positive side always works better.

Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

[elementsound]

That would be a great thing if I could use both avoption cards and the fuse card together cant wait to try it! But as I was asking in my earlier post can you tell me if those third party cards are able to display the video full screen without the lag and jitters I get now when I run quicktime without them. I mean im assuming thats the whole point in buying them but wanted to be sure before I throw down another 500 bucks to check it out. Really the great thing I love about av option is how seemless the video plays back without making my meters or software jumpy. Will a third party card act as nice?

Thanks
James