CompuServe Messages

Are there any cross platform file format experts that can answer a few questions ? I need to edit some 3DS generated animations with an Avid "Media Suite Pro". This runs on a MAC and outputs the edited material realtime to tape. It seems absurd to use analog source animation material generated on a PC and redigitize from tape, to get it into the Avid format. My questions are: 1) Is the JPEG output from 3DS binary compatible with the MAC ? (I thought this was a binary spec., but Avid support people disagree !) 2) Is the PICS animation format used by Avid an open standard ? (There is some speculation that this is a series of numbered PICT image files?) 3) Avid uses the term "Motion JPEG". (not to be confused with MPEG) Is this just a series of JPEG images combined for motion ? 4) My first obvious choice for a common binary format was TGA; but so far Avid has not been able to tell me how to convert TGAs to their PICS format. Any insight on this ? I would appreciate any help; I can get on this. Thanks in advance ! John