T-TAP Thunderbolt out-only interface: the details in general + with a DreamColor monitor

TecnoTur on PVC by Allan Tepper

We’ve been patiently waiting since April 2012 to find out exactly how compatible the T-TAP is. Now you can know…

Back in April 2012 at NAB in Las Vegas , the USA-based AJA first announced and showed their US$295 T-TAP out-only audio/video Thunderbolt interface, which makes a lot of sense in the age of file-based video production. Since April, I have covered the product in a few articles, and kept pressing AJA for more details, specifically with regards to very detailed specs to meet the beloved (yet demanding) HP DreamColor monitor. Finally, AJA lent me a T-TAP so I could test it myself. Ahead you’ll find AJA’s own warnings, my findings, and then my observations about where and when the T-TAP will logically fit in a system.

In this article:

• What a T-TAP does, and how could it help you?
• What applications will definitely work with T-TAP?
• What applications may work in the near future with T-TAP?
• What might work someday with T-TAP?
• What apps are unlikely to work —ever— with T-TAP?
• Will the T-TAP work properly with an HP DreamColor monitor?/AJA’s warnings/My findings
• Competition for T-TAP?
• My recommendations regarding T-TAP

What a T-TAP does, and how could it help you?

At US$295, T-TAP is a relatively inexpensive out-only Thunderbolt audio/video interface that allows you to monitor (with proper spatial resolution and proper framerates) onto a trusted (and hopefully calibrated) monitor or HDTV set with popular video editing applications from Apple (Final Cut Pro), Adobe (i.e. Premiere Pro), and Avid (Media Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony) in full screen, with its proper colors and framerates. (To accomplish some of those goals without such an interface is challenging and has drawbacks; to do all of them at all framerates requires hacking of the OS using a shareware app.) read more...