I'm looking to get an online/finishing station and just d/l a trial of the Avid DS. I come from years of doing online with FCP/Color and totally at lost with DS.

Here are a few questions for you DS users:

1-Euh ! how do i import media into DS ? Most of my stuff is in HD ( apple prorez_HQ ).  The Prores option is installed on my XP machine.

2-Can i view my timeline via an external monitor ? or the trial is only software, therefore i'm stuck with the computer screen for monitoring. 

3-Can i use anything other than the Kona3 ? or is it the only supported i/o card with DS, and if so, can the Kona3 be purchased directly through AJA or is it some sort of OEM version by Avid ?

4-I will also be evaluating Discreet Smoke....anyone used both ? pros and cons ???

Thanks

1) As odd as this sounds, in the top left, there's a switch with a drop down - you need to set this to 'explore' your computer from inside of DS. Then you right click and capture/import anything you like. Here's a link to the 'learning collection' http://aviddssupport.avid.com/learncoll/start.htm  This here is the info for capturing from a file: http://aviddssupport.avid.com/learncoll/gstarted/PDFs/capture.pdf

2) not from the trial

3) Nope - the Kona3 is the only card.

4) Smoke and DS: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=smoke+vs.+avid+DS

Just to add a few thoughts. most everything is covered by jeff's post;

vudoo:

3-Can i use anything other than the Kona3 ? or is it the only supported i/o card with DS, and if so, can the Kona3 be purchased directly through AJA or is it some sort of OEM version by Avid ?

Once 10.5 is released it can be any Kona3, until then DS is only avb bundled with hardware

vudoo:

4-I will also be evaluating Discreet Smoke....anyone used both ? pros and cons ???

You will need to eval Smoke 2011 -VS DS10.5 the google search shows hits from the past that are not really revelant at the dawn of 2011

And if could i would try to be in place where i had options open until after NAB 2011 opens... it's a moving target & it's moving fast...

d/

By NAB 2011 You should check out the updates to the Foundry's STORM software could be a 'game changer'

vudoo:

 

2-Can i view my timeline via an external monitor ? or the trial is only software, therefore i'm stuck with the computer screen for monitoring. 

 

Without AJA card you can't feed SDI out, but you can feed your picture into a dedicated computer monitor. This way you can work on film size projects and see your picture pixel-for-pixel.

To use this option you will need the DS qualified Nvidia card. There is an option that enables this mode and it is available during the installation.

You can also click on the record viewer and press F12 to maximize it in your monitor.