LE to HD

[jamesimm]

Okay...the confusion abounds in the vast debate for those of us needing more than LE can provide. Who can tell me the most efficient way to move into HD? Do I just buy the HD1 card, one of the digidesign interfaces like 96i or??? etc etc or? Apogee? Rosetta? Native card? Or ??? Somebody PLEASE clarify.... prices are so cheap right now that any of these options seems right..
BUT If you have ben through this tell me what NOT to do LOL.
Im running a Mac. PT8.1, M-box pro, I also have purchased an additional hard drive so I can carefully migrate my LE files then install HD 8.1 and not blow up my LE. (dual core older G5)

JAMES.....

[The Dougfather]

It depends on how much you want to spend on this, is your G5 PCI or PCI-e and do you intend on keeping it.

It's the PCI-x cards that are really cheap at the moment. The flipside is that the Powermac G5 with PCI was the last machine to support those cards so you won't be able to use PCI-x cards on an Intel Mac Pro without a PCI-e to PCI Magma Chassis and they are expensive.

Looking around people are also selling process cards but many plugs won't work without accel so if you want a HD2 your going to need a core card and ideally an accel card. I'm kind of contemplating the same jump as you, but considering the fact how old the core and accel cards are i cannot help but think they must be due for a revamp soon.

Third party converters, Apogee etc need additional cards, normally additional add-ons to interface with Pro Tools HD. In light of the new HD interfaces the 192 and 96 i/o must be getting knocked out really cheap.

[jamesimm]

Yes yes yes....Im thought the same..the cards are so cheap ya gotta wonder? But on the other hand, I have no intention of starting a commercial studio that requires the latest and greatest...PC-x cards work in my machine, core and accell cards can be picked up for $800.00 a set! 96i's are $400-$600...what the heck? Im sure we are going to witness a continuing array of new "native" style cards and interfaces from Avid that will allow all kinds of cross platform ...but HD2 works great, its stable, the only bad news I can find is the 96i have some issues but,,,,,,they can be serviced....SO....I guess its fairly plain that I need to stay within the digidesign/avid family untill I can afford a whole new system...LOLO like that'll happen.... hahahaha
Whats that saying..if its not broke..dont fix it!

THX

[The Dougfather]

So that's a HD2 for under 2K, you can't even get a Mac Pro for that.

Yes, your stuck on PPC and no you cannot update to V9 but IMHO it's worth it for the low latency alone, not to mention the ADC and the TDM plugs.