Re: XDCAM workflows using AJA Kona LHi

[Krzysztof Kalukin] "So, does that mean that they posted information which is not true? "

No. As I mentioned earlier, the Kona will take thin raster scaling to full raster HD off of the duties of your computer processor. For example, in 60Hz countries, DVCPro HD is recorded 960x720 for 720p video. Of course, full raster HD is 1280x720. The Kona will take this anamorphic scaling out of the hands of your MacPro processor and leave it on the Kona card itself. Same goes for HDV. I would also imagine that the dynamic rt acceleration is taking the scaling of the whatever video is being played back and putting that on the card. Dynamic rt sometimes cuts the scale of the video in half (thus lower resolution) to help with playback. Some codecs are better suited for rt than others. ProRes is highly optimized while XDCam is not. FCP is a software based NLE and any rt is really dictated by the speed of your machine, the speed of your hard drives, and the codec that is used.


[Krzysztof Kalukin] "Now, how can I make down conversion from 1080i to SD using Kona but using file as an output?"

The Kona is a capture and output device that connects to other base band video devices. If a file is your target, then you would either layoff and SD version to tape, and then recapture that tape. Or if you have another FCP system at your disposal, you would go Kona to KOna or Kona to ioHD or whatever. The Kona delivers uncompressed video over it's video outputs, it is not a device that records a Quicktime file while it is outputting. Make sense?


[Krzysztof Kalukin] "Currently I do not have any recorder which would have SDI or HDMI input, does that mean that I cannot use Kona to make HD/SD conversion?"

You said you have BetaSP, correct? You could go HD to SD via analog component. The Kona manual spells out how to do a down convert pretty well.


[Krzysztof Kalukin] "I make easy setup to AJA Kona LHI - Apple ProRes 422 HQ and then bring the clip on the timeline saying Yes when asked to conform."

When you hit yes, this means that you are editing in XDCam as you told FCP to conform the the sequence to the codec going in. Use the ProRes 422 easy setup that matches your format and frame rate, drag an XDcam file to the timeline and then hit no. You will now be in a ProRes timeline. I find this is the easiest way to edit XDcam material (without transcoding it first) as you are now working in an i-frame world. You will have to get used to the rendering.

[Krzysztof Kalukin] "Perhaps it would be better to acquire footage by SDI to ProRes?"

That's one way to do it, or you can do a software transcode to ProRes using compressor before you start editing.

Jeremy