Over the years that has been some lack of clarity about which video peripheral products are supported with Pro Tools.

In this article we are going to identify exactly which video peripherals are currently supported and compatible with Pro Tools from Avid and both of their video peripheral partners AJA and Blackmagic Design, as well as the products that are no longer supported for use with Pro Tools.

Avid Video Peripherals

We will start with the Avid peripherals and Avid have been busy releasing a range of Artist Series Video Interfaces.

There are 5 video interfaces in the Avid Artist Series Video Interfaces, 3 made in partnership with Blackmagic Design and 2 in partnership with AJA. All of them can be used with Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate to support high-quality video playback to a monitor with better than 1/4-frame sync accuracy.

Avid Artist DNxIO

The Avid Artist DNxIO has been discontinued, but will be supported through March 2022. It has been replaced by Avid Artist DNxIQ below.

The DNxIQ was made in partnership with Blackmagic Design and is based on their Ultrastudio video interface.

Avid Artist DNxIQ

The DNxIQ video interface offers an array of analog and digital connections to support a wide range of cameras, drives, monitors, speakers, routers, switchers, and other devices. From 12G/6G/3G-SDI, Optical, HDMI 2, and AES/EBU connectors, to XLR, LTC, RS-422, composite, component, and a headphone jack, Avid Artist | DNxIQ provides all the ins and outs you need to connect your studio.

The DNxIQ is made in partnership with Blackmagic Design and is based on their Ultrastudio video interface.

Avid Artist DNxID

Whether you’re an editor on the go, a post editor working on location, or simply budget-minded, the new Avid Artist DNxID sports a backpack-friendly design, enabling you to capture, monitor, and output HD and high-res content in the field, in the studio, or in a hotel room.

The DNxIQ is made in partnership with AJA and although is has similarities to a number of AJA products it isn’t based on any one specific AJA model..

Note that the DNxID is only supported with Pro Tools 2019.5 on a Mac. Currently it is not supported for Windows or earlier versions of Pro Tools on Mac or Windows.

Avid Artist DNxIV

The DNxIV interface is a compact unit which provides analog and digital I/O from quad 12G/6G/3G-SDI, HDMI 2, and DB-25, to XLR, LTC, RS-422, and a headphone jack.

The DNxIQ is made in partnership with AJA and is based on their 4K video interface.

Avid Artist DNxIP

The DNxIP has been designed to make it easy to connect to multiple devices across your facility using your existing Ethernet infrastructure. From IP video and audio I/O through SFP ports, to HDMI 2 and analog audio I/O, you can connect your entire studio together, without the limitations of SDI. Be aware than the DNxIP is only supported for video playback with Pro Tools.

The DNxIQ is made in partnership with AJA and is based on their IP video interface.

Avid Artist Series Video Interfaces With Pro Tools Support

Here is a table showing a summary of the support information for Avid Artist Series of video interfaces with Pro Tools. You can more details in Avid’s Pro Tools Video Peripherals Knowledge Base article.

Support Notes

• All the Avid Artist I/O video interfaces are NOT supported as audio playback devices with Pro Tools

• Avid Artist I/O DNxIP is only supported for video playback with Pro Tools.

• For Pro Tools support with DNx products, make sure you install the correct version of the drivers, which are available in your Avid Master Account as well as available for download from the Avid Download Center. 

Avid Nitris DX

The Avid Nitris DX/ AVC-Intra External Hardware Accelerator & Input/Output Unit worked with Avid's Media Composer 7, Symphony, and NewsCutter. It was more than just an input/output device, it provided hardware acceleration to your system when handling files encoded as AVC-Intra, HDV, DVCPro25 and XDCAM EX.

The Nitris DX featured SD/HD SDI, SD/HD component, composite, and S-Video I/O connectors. It also features HDMI out for monitoring. It supports ref sync in/out, Longitudinal Timecode (LTC), and Wordclock for digital audio sync.

The Avid Nitris DX was last sold by Avid on 31st May 2015 but will remain supported until 31st May 2020 and so also remains on the supported list of video peripherals for Pro Tools.

Avid Mojo DX

The Avid Mojo DX, was designed to provide a high-performance video hardware interface for their video editing software Media Composer. It could capture SD and HD digital material, and editors could enjoy real-time SD and HD monitoring too.

The Avid Mojo DX was last sold by Avid on 31st May 2015 but will remain supported until 31st May 2020 and so also remains on the supported list of video peripherals for Pro Tools.

Third Party Video Devices

This is where Avid’s compatibility information becomes a little vague. All it says is that Blackmagic Family Video Cards and AJA Video Cards are supported but it doesn’t specify which ones. It does go on to say “Third party video peripherals are tested by Blackmagic Design and AJA. Avid does not expressly qualify any third party video hardware. Please contact the appropriate third party vendor for further support”.

So we undertook some research to find out what both Blackmagic Design and AJA say about which of their products are supported for use with Pro Tools.

AJA Products

AJA have detailed compatibility charts which include a row specifying whether a particular product is supported to work with Pro Tools. The two ranges of AJA products that show Pro Tools support are the KONA family and the Io family of video interfaces.

There are all the AJA video interfaces that AJA list as supported to work with Pro Tools…

AJA KONA Family

• KONA 5

• KONA 4

• KONA LHi

• KONA 1

• KONA LHe Plus

AJA Io Family

• Io 4K Plus

• Io IP

• Io 4K

• Io XT

• Io Express

Note, that there some interesting omissions to the supported list. For example the AJA T-TAP is not supported and from the KONA range the KONA HDMI and KONA IP cards are not supported for use with Pro Tools by AJA.

Blackmagic Design Products

Last year, when we originally looked at the Blackmagic site similar information we could not find any similar information about which Blackmagic Design products are supported for use with Pro Tools. In preparing for this article we asked Blackmagic support again about support information and they provided this list of products that are supported for use with Pro Tools…

Decklink Models

• Decklink 8K Pro 

• Decklink 4K Extreme 12G 

• Decklink Studio 4K 

• Decklink SDI 4K

• Decklink Quad 2

• Decklink Duo 2

• Decklink Duo 2 Mini

• Decklink Mini Monitor 

Ultrastudio Models 

• UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3

• Ultrastudio 4K 

• Ultrastudio HD Mini 

• Ultrastudio Mini Recorder 

• Ultrastudio Mini Monitor 

Intensity Models

Intensity Pro 4K 

They also advised us that they now use a system of application icons on each of the product pages to identify support for different software including Pro Tools.

On the software side the driver for their capture and playback devices is called Desktop Video and can be found on the Blackmagic Design Support Center. Depending on which version of Pro Tools you have you may need an earlier version of the Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software. We recommend that you check the Avid Pro Tools Video Peripherals Knowledge Base article for more details.

Video Peripherals No Longer Supported with Pro Tools

Finally in this article we just want to mention those video peripherals that Avid specifically say are no longer supported and even more importantly they also state will NOT work with Pro Tools.

Avid Video Peripherals (Mac and Windows)

• Mojo SDI

• Mojo (Original)

• AVoption|V10

Third Party Video Devices

• Canopus ADVC-110 Video Transcoder

• Canopus ADVC-100 Video Transcoder

There you have it. if you are looking for a video peripheral that will work with Pro Tools, it is all covered in this article.

If you have any experiences with products that are or aren’t on this list then do share them in the comments below.