Today we’re excited to announce that Avid Artist | DNxIV is now available from your local reseller. Combined with the latest update to Media Composer (8.10), the DNxIV interface is the perfect portable solution for independent editors and smaller post-production and news teams.
Avid Artist | DNxIV
Avid Artist I/O interfaces are designed to offer extensive format support to future-proof your production by allowing you to easily capture, monitor, and output SD, HD, 2K, UHD, and 4K content.
Compared to the 2RU, rackmountable Avid Artist | DNxIQ, the Avid Artist | DNxIV offers much of the same connectivity, but in a smaller, more portable form factor.
Both Avid Artist I/O interfaces offer high-speed Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, providing up to 40 Gb/s of bandwidth to deliver the smoothest performance and operation. Both interfaces offer a wide range of analog and digital I/O to plug into today’s diverse media productions, including SDI, HDMI, XLR, RS-422 and timecode. While you can purchase Avid Media Composer 8.10 to work with either interface, you can also use another creative application, like Apple Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro.

So apart from being different sizes, what’s the difference between DNxIQ and DNxIV, and which applications are they best suited to?
Avid Artist | DNxIQ | Avid Artist | DNxIV | |
I/O | 3G, 6G, 12G SDI | 3G, 6G, 12G SDI |
SDI monitor output | ||
HDMI 2.0a | HDMI 2.0b | |
LTC In/Out | LTC In/Out | |
Device Control (RS-422) | Device Control (RS-422) | |
Audio Punch-In | Audio Punch-In | |
Composite / Component Connectors | Audio Break-out Cable with 8 I/O | |
AES/EBU, XLR Audio | Reference Input/Internal Clock | |
Optical Fiber SDI (video & audio) | ||
Form Factor | Rack-mountable | Desktop |
Host Connectivity | Thunderbolt 3 | Thunderbolt 3 |
PCIe Gen 3 | ||
Format Support | SD, HD, UHD, 2K/4K DCI | SD, HD, UHD, 2K/4K DCI |
DNxHR Encoding | Hardware encode | Host CPU encode |
Miscellaneous | Use with Davinci Resolve | |
Universal Mastering | ||
LCD Panel on Front |
There’s a simple reason for the DNxIQ being a bigger box – it has more extensive legacy connectivity, boasting banks of component and XLR connectors. Built-in encoding to Avid DNxHR allows you to edit massive 4K files with ease and you get real-time format and frame-rate conversion on output and playback, thanks to hardware-accelerated Universal Mastering.
In short, if you work with a wide range of older and newer equipment from different manufacturers, and desk real-estate is no issue, then the Avid Artist | DNxIQ is the workhorse for you.
The Avid Artist | DNxIV, on the other hand, is more portable, and much more a product of the digital age than a bridge to the analog one. It offers quad SDI and 8-channel surround sound monitoring, so it gives you 5.1 or 7.1 directly out of the box, as opposed to having to split it out of the HDMI or SDI signal, as you would have to do with the Artist | DNxIQ.
Whatever your production environment, whatever resolution you’re working in, there’s an Avid Artist interface for you.
What’s New in Media Composer 8.10
Together with the global availability of the Avid Artist | DNxIV, we’re also launching an update to Media Composer, Avid’s professional tool to acquire, edit, and deliver 2K/HD to 4K/UHD to 8K and other high-resolution content with great speed and ease.
Besides support for the DNxIV interface, Media Composer 8.10 offers the following new features:
Refreshing Locked Bins
A new bin lock icon color (yellow) has been added that indicates the owner of the shared bin has made changes to the bin. The bin title provides a status in parentheses indicating that the locked bin has been modified. If you click the yellow icon, the bin refreshes and the new refreshed bin displays the updated content and returns the icon red.
A new bin lock icon color (blue) has been added that indicates that the owner of the shared bin lock has released the lock and the bin is now available for read/write. If you click the blue icon, you now control the bin and the icon turns green. You can make changes in the bin until you release the lock or close the bin.
Other features include Additional List Tool Timecode Output Type, Fast Import of XAVC-I, and support for macOS High Sierra 10.13.2. Get more details on these features, changes and improvements in the ReadMe and What’s New documents on our Media Composer Documentation page.
Media Composer 8.10 is now available for all customers who have a Subscription, Floating or Perpetual License with an active Upgrade and Support plan. As soon as you connect to the internet, your Avid Application Manager will notify you about the availability of this new version. If you don’t have an internet connection on your system, just download the latest version from your Avid Account or the Video Download Center.