1.  I presume the HDMI out is 8-bit (HDMI 1.1), and not the 10-16 bit flavor or HDMI 1.3... yes?

2.  When running After Effects at the same time with MC, will I get a full-screen preview on all outputs of the AE comp when switching between MC and AE, like I was able to do on Adrenaline systems? 

3. Will switching back and forth between AE and MC mess up MC like it used to, or have Apple and Avid figured out how to make apps that share core resources coexist?

4.  Will all my audio applications like iTunes, Peak, Digital Performer, Logic, etc. be able to use the DX for audio monitoring and output?

Avid 99:

I presume the HDMI out is 8-bit (HDMI 1.1), and not the 10-16 bit flavor or HDMI 1.3... yes?

Yes

Avid 99:

When running After Effects at the same time with MC, will I get a full-screen preview on all outputs of the AE comp when switching between MC and AE, like I was able to do on Adrenaline systems? 

Not that I've seen but let me know if you get it to work.

Avid 99:

Will switching back and forth between AE and MC mess up MC like it used to, or have Apple and Avid figured out how to make apps that share core resources coexist?

This is an Apple thing. It's been better for me in Leopard than it was in Tiger but still hangs on occasion.

Avid 99:

Will all my audio applications like iTunes, Peak, Digital Performer, Logic, etc. be able to use the DX for audio monitoring and output?

Only if you run a line out of your CPU into the DX. I plan to use the optical out for that but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks, BD.  The tenuous co-existence between Avid and AE also exists on the Windows platform.  I've got two clients who have Adrenalines and Mojos on Windows, and when I use AE, the audio and video previews out of the DNAs, which is nice.  But, after switching back and forth a few times, I usually have to end up quitting and relaunching MC, as I become plagued with error messages.  One of my clients just tells me not to run both.  He says quit MC to run AE, and vice versa.  Fine with me, because I charge by the hour.  However, in considering DX for a home system and considering that time-wasting is on my nickel, I find this incompatiblity more onerous.

As far as this being an Apple thing on the Mac side, I'm not so sure.  I run AE with MC-soft and FCP simultaneously all the time on my home system, and there are no problems.  The problems seem to appear when using hardware.  I use a Matrox MXO with AE and FCP, and they both share the MXO for full-screen display.  I have no problems switching between them, other than the fact that the Alt-Tab program switcheroo gets defeated by sending output to the MXO by either FCP or AE.  This bug is attributed to the MXO driver, and not the OS.

But OTOH, the main problems with DNA, as I recall it is because of Apple's Firewire implementation, and the MXO doesn't use FW (It uses DVI).  So, my thinking (hoping) is that now that DX is off FW and on PCI, this may eliminate the issue.  Meantime, maybe somebody who has a DX product and AE can test it out for us.