AVoption|XL Requirements — Macintosh Systems

AVoption|XL Requirements— Macintosh Systems

Please Note: AVoption|XL has unique compatibility requirements. If the information on this page appears to contradict information listed elsewhere in these Compatibility Documents, please adhere to the information listed on this page when configuring a system which includes AVoption|XL.

Important Information: For updated slot order information with the latest qualified configurations, refer to the AVoption|XL Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website. For further compatibility information when used with Expanded Systems, see the Supported Optional Expansion Chassis web pages for your system in the Compatibility Documents.

Digidesign PCI Card and Hardware Supplied with System

  • Meridien Digital Media Board

  • Break Out Box with Analog Video I/O board installed

Digidesign Software Supplied with System

  • Pro Tools® 5.1.3 (for Pro Tools|24 MIX systems)

  • Pro Tools® 5.3.1 (for Pro Tools|HD systems)

  • AVoption|XL Software (provided on separate CD)

  • DigiTranslator 2.0™ more information on DigiTranslator

Required Hardware Components (not supplied)

  • Pro Tools|24, Pro Tools|24 MIX, or Pro Tools|HD system

  • Universal Slave Driver (USD) with Pro Tools|24, Pro Tools|24 MIX

  • SYNC I/O with Pro Tools|HD or Pro Tools|24 MIX

  • Digidesign Qualified SCSI Accelerator:
    Pro Tools|HD SCSI Accelerator Requirements
    Pro Tools|24 and MIX SCSI Accelerator Requirements

  • For Video Storage: Only one SCSI card (described above) is required for both audio and video storage when 3:1 is the highest desired video quality, although Digidesign recommends a second SCSI card for optimum performance. When 2:1 or 1:1 (uncompressed) video resolutions are required, a second SCSI interface dedicated to video storage is required — namely, the ATTO ExpressPCI Ultra-3 LVD SCSI HBA card (EPCI-UL3D).

Optional Hardware

  • Serial Digital Interface - Optional interface that installs onto the Video I/O board installed in the Break Out Box. This interface gives AVoption|XL Serial Digital (SDI) input and output capabilities.

Optional Software

  • FilmFrame™ — Combined with AVoption|XL, FilmFrame now supports import, editing and playback of 24P and 25P video clips created on Avid workstations. Please see your Digidesign dealer for more information about this great new feature.
    More information on FilmFrame™ for Macintosh systems

Supported CPUs — Pro Tools|HD Systems

Supported CPUs — Pro Tools|24 & MIX Systems

Each of the above Computers requires either the Digidesign 13-Slot Pro Tools Expansion Chassis or a qualified Magma Expansion Chassis.

RAM Requirements — Pro Tools|24 and MIX Systems:

  • Total System RAM Minimum 256 MB
  • Pro Tools Preferred Allocation 100 MB
  • DAE Preferred Allocation 60 MB

RAM Requirements — Pro Tools|HD Systems:

  • Total System RAM Minimum 256 MB
  • Pro Tools application "Preferred Size" memory allocation set to 134 MB
  • DAE is no longer an independent application, and therefore requires no additional RAM

Expansion Chassis

  • Important Compatibility Documents: For updated slot order information with the latest qualified configurations, refer to the AVoption|XL Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website. For further compatibility information when used with Expanded Systems, see the Supported Optional Expansion Chassis web pages for your system in the Compatibility Documents.

  • Important Cooling Issue: If you install the AVoption|XL PCI board (Meridien Digital Media Board) in either the Digidesign 13-slot or Magma chassis that is older than the rev G models, you must install the additional cooling fan (Digidesign part number MC201) in the chassis. The newer rev G Digidesign & Magma 13 slot chassis (identified by serial numbers that end in "00G") no longer require a fan kit with AVoption|XL.

  • WARNING: SBS (Bit3) chassis are not supported in any configuration with AVoption|XL. If you install the AVoption|XL board (Meridien Digital Media Board) in an SBS (Bit3) chassis, you run the serious risk of damaging the board.

  • AVoption|XL and Avid Unity MediaNetwork — Requirements & Slot Order

  • Avid Unity MediaNetwork for Pro Tools currently does not support playing video from Avid Xpress DV clients.

Drive Compatibility

  • Audio Drives: AVoption|XL can be configured with any audio drives qualified for use with Pro Tools in general. Refer to the Pro Tools TDM Hard Drive Minimum Requirements page for details.

  • Video Drives: Avid rS drives, iS Pro drives, iS Plus drives or SCSI LVD DigiDrives are fully qualified.

  • About Avid MediaDock: At this time, the Avid MediaDock is not officially qualified for use with AVoption|XL. Additionally, LVD (Low Voltage Differential) drives are required on AVoption|XL systems where compression levels of 2:1 or 1:1 (uncompressed) are desired. Many of the models listed above are available as LVD drives.

  • About Firewire Drives: The DigiDrive FireWire 80 (as well as other firewire drives) are not qualified for use with AVoption or AVoption|XL. AVoption and AVoption|XL require SCSI storage for recording and playback. However, you can use the DigiDrive FireWire 80 to back-up your video storage SCSI drives.

Third Party Video Capture Cards: QuickTime capture/playback cards are not qualified for use in AVoption|XL systems.

Maximum Performance Guidelines

Compatible Dual-Channel SCSI HBA card (see above)

Total System RAM: Minimum 256 MB

Use one SCSI Channel for Pro Tools audio storage and the second SCSI channel for video storage. If Compression levels of 2:1 or 1:1 (uncompressed) is desired then a 2nd Compatible Dual-Channel LVD SCSI HBA card is required and video storage should be connected to this controller.

Note: AVoption|XL supports "plug and play" compatibility with many Avid systems. When "inheriting" a drive containing audio and video data from an Avid system, we recommend you connect this drive to the SCSI channel dedicated to video storage. There is no need to copy the audio data from such a drive to your dedicated audio drives, however we recommend that you not record any additional audio tracks onto this drive.

Virtually all the testing for AVoption|XL was done with a baseline of 32 tracks of 24- bit/48k audio and one stream of uncompressed video data (record and/or playback). These test configurations generally included one drive for every 16 tracks of audio. One way to achieve higher track counts is to dedicate more drives to the audio tracks.

On a supported configuration, you should be able to easily achieve this performance baseline, even with a high degree of edit density on each track. The higher the edit density, the more heavily taxed will be the storage subsystem.

You may find much better results than this baseline, since Digidesign's performance tests are designed to stress the storage subsystem more heavily than the average "real world" usage. In several cases, our test group was able to continuously record or playback 48 audio tracks and uncompressed picture simultaneously.

There are other possible steps that can be taken to maximize the performance of a Pro Tools system with AVoption|XL. For more information, refer to the AVoption|XL Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website.