Problem w/ OS X computer playback

I have the same problem with an AVI file that I ran through After Effects to convert it it Quicktime. It has the same 'bands' on the video, and the footage is all film transfer stuff. I am going to try OS 9 to get the project out the door.

thanks
dave fisher

Your post is very troubling to me. I know that it is not your fault that Apple has changed the way it writes video to the screen, but the idea that you will "probably re-visit this in the future" is simply unacceptable. How can you call the 5.0 driver a viable release when it doesn't display video properly?

The frustration you must feel with Apple is understandable. The fact that you don't see this as a problem that needs immediate attention...is not.

David,

First let me say, I love Aurora and I love FCP. I own 7 igniter cards and run a successful business that wouldn't exist without either of them. I understand the incredible opportunity that these products represent - I cut on an AVID for 8 years, so I know what the alternative costs and the astonomical bang for the buck that Igniter and FCP provide.

That being said...

I feel that we (Aurora users) have all been very patient with Aurora as they try to build a driver for OS X. I understand that the platform is completly different. And that it is a complete rewrite of the driver to work with a system that addresses hardware in a whole new way. On top of that, Apple keeps moving the target with 10.1 then 10.2, etc.

I was, and still am, willing to wait for Aurora to build a driver that works with OS X. I just don't want them to tell me that they've built a working driver, when they clearly haven't. If the video doesn't display properly - the driver doesn't work. I am more than willing to wait for all of the underlying issues to be solved - either by Apple or by Aurora.

What I mainly took issue with in Aurora's post was the idea that they would "probably" get to this in the future. Are they satisfied with the performance of the card in OS X? It seems to me that the appearance of the video on screen is either not a big issue or not even an issue at all. That sounds to me like they've given up. And I think we've all waited too long to let them do that.

Thanks,
Jason

Before you rip on our drivers for not doing what NOBODY else is doing, let's start at the beginning.

In the beginning there was QuickTime, and it was a "multi-media" standard for computer-based content. There was no specific support for hardware cards. Every manufacturer had to write drivers which would have to interact with their hardware, and handle everything from Audio sync to video frame timing.

Aurora was there. The Fuse card was our first offering, and we implemented numerous board-specific features through our drivers to make up for performance limitations of early Macs, as well as limitations in the QuickTime interface.

Igniter for OS 9 followed this philosophy also, leveraging some of the things we learned with Fuse. Over the past few of years, the QuickTime team at Apple has introduced, and improved the "Video Output Component" or "V-OUT". It was specifically designed to aid 3rd party hardware developers in implementing high-performance video playback with a simple and extensible programming architecture. Adobe Premiere 6 and up, FCP, and Recent versions of After Effects all implement this "V-OUT" technology. In FCP, it's called "External Video". In After Effects it's called "Video Preview". In Premiere, it has yet another name. Apple pushes all of their developers to implement video editing drivers using the VOUT standard.

Since our OS X driver was a complete "ground-up" rewrite, we took advantage of the latest QT advances, and Igniter supports the VOUT with two modes: One for Igniter-native Uncompressed and MJPEG formats, and one for support of "non-Igniter" formats. ADDITIONALLY, we spent weeks implementing a "Legacy" output mode for non-VOUT apps such as QT player. This is NOT a deficiency in the drivers.

Further, we're not going to appologize for doing what Apple recommends, as it makes things so much easier to implement for VOUT apps. Besides, no-one else in OS X can even output in QT player. We have almost 11,000 boards out there, of which about half are doing video preview for ProTools and other DAW apps. We implemented the "legacy apps" setting for these users. Hopefully, developers of these apps will also migrate to the "VOUT" implementation. If you want a "Player-type" app that hooks the Igniter VOUT, download "Simple-Vout" from Apple's developer site.

- Mike

Mike,

Thank you for taking the time for the detailed description of the current state of affairs with regard to Apple, QT, FCP and Aurora. I know the tremendous stress you guys must be under and know your job is not an easy one.

Heres a thought...Feel free to tell me I'm crazy.

Near the end of your post you said that other cards "show a single field. We prefer to show the entire image"

In OS 9 this was great. Igniter wrote directly to the screen and all was beautiful. In OS X (if I understand it correctly), Apple takes control of this function and prints to the screen in a different way (horizontal scale not vertical scale) thus making the screen image look (in my opinion) horrible.

That being the case, wouldn't it be helpful to add the option of setting the computer display to show only a single field? I, of course, appreciate how easy it is for me to suggest this, and how unbelievably hard something like this must be to implement.

Thanks,
Jason