Avid Mojo SDI is one of several Mojo units we’ve looked at in the past few years for Studio/monthly. Each of the previous Mojo units we tested had been fraught with difficulties – everything from slightly green-tinted video on playback to driver/firmware issues. The good news is that with the SDI incarnation of Mojo, Avid has solved nearly all of the old problems. The bad news is that Mojo SDI now has a whole new set of problems that need some work.

First, on the plus side, Avid has completely redesigned the video signal path inside Mojo. This move eliminates the green color shifts in the video output, as well as other issues, caused by reprocessed video. Now, Mojo passes an SDI signal directly to the host computer via a FireWire connection. Consequently, the component and SDI output signal of the Avid Mojo SDI looks quite good.

At press time, however, the Mac-based Media Composer software was not able to digitize audio or video using the Mojo SDI’s onboard DV FireWire connection (Avid says this is not an issue on the PC). Even after working with Avid tech support for many hours to fix the problem, changing modes and power cycling the Mojo (always a precarious thing to do to an attached FireWire device), the Media Composer software just kept crashing. Once we disconnected the Mojo and plugged it directly into our computer’s FireWire port from our video deck, everything worked fine. According to Avid, the company is working on this problem and hopes to have it resolved by the time it releases the next version.

Avid reps did point out that Mojo was not designed to be digitizing hardware, but rather a basic video playback tool. While playback quality has been dramatically improved, its $2,495 tag makes Mojo SDI a much pricier option than other FireWire or even PCI video playback solutions from BlackMagic, AJA and others. Also, Avid Mojo only works with Avid NLE products- you can’t currently use the Mojo with any of your other video and graphics software programs on either the Mac or PC. Combine this with the FireWire digitizing issues, and it’s clear that Avid Mojo SDI is just not ready for prime time. While the product goal is good (a low-cost SDI video hardware interface), the Avid Mojo SDI remains too specialized and limited a device to justify its cost. If you want some advice, wait and see what improvements the next version of Mojo may bring.