Adding a Kona LH card in middle of a project. A good idea?
by J. Moulins
on
Aug 13, 2006 at 7:00:11 pm
I'm working on a feature-length documentary. I've captured many hours of HDV material to a G5 Dual 1.8gb (PCI) with a SATA Raid. The material was captured via firewire to FCP. It takes upwards of 14 hours to output 90 minutes of material back to HDV, or to burn a DVD.
I see now that people have been upconverting to DVCPro HD on capture using the Kona LH card. Unfortunately, that's not an option for this project.
Two questions:
1 - Will that card work with my G5, as it has only PCI slots?
2 - What benefits would this card bring on this project, given that the material is already on the system as HDV files?
Re: Adding a Kona LH card in middle of a project. A good idea? by walter biscardi on Aug 13, 2006 at 9:24:15 pm
[J. Moulins]"Two questions:
1 - Will that card work with my G5, as it has only PCI slots?
2 - What benefits would this card bring on this project, given that the material is already on the system as HDV files?"
LH works on all PCI-X G5's. That's every G5 up to the Quad.
The card will bring zero benefits if you don't intend to re-capture everything to DVCPro HD except I think it allows realtime playback to your external monitoring. You'll still require the hours upon hours of rendering before you can output to tape.
HDV is just a terrible format for Post. Great for aquisition, but it's not made for editing. We're in pre-production right now for a series to be shot on HDV and we'll be converting the Componenent output of the Sony HDV deck to HD-SDI via an AJA Converter so we can convert everything to DVCPro HD for Post.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
http://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network's "Good Eats"
HD Editorial for "Assignment Earth"
"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" - Adam Savage, Mythbusters
Re: Adding a Kona LH card in middle of a project. A good idea? by Shane Ross on Aug 13, 2006 at 10:57:59 pm
[walter biscardi]"LH works on all PCI-X G5's. That's every G5 up to the Quad"
Not quite Walter. There are several G5s that for some reason only have PCI slots, not PCI-X. Many people have gotten zinged with this. When I bought my Dual 2Ghz G5, I was told to make darn sure it had PCI-X, for if it was PCI then I couldn't install any capture cards.
J, I am sorry to say that if your machine is PCI only and not PCI-X then no capture card will work with it.
Re: Adding a Kona LH card in middle of a project. A good idea? by Rennie on Aug 14, 2006 at 7:55:04 am
The first G5's, I think a 1.6 sp and the 1.8's were pci. The first DP 2 GHZ was pci-x but the second version only had one pci-X and 2 pci's (go figure) I think it was incentive to buy the 2.3 and the 2.7 machines. The first kona card is pci but then I think it is os9 only (remember that, os9) There must be some pci hd cards around real cheap on ebay.
However given the new g5's and their great prices you will be throwing money away fixing up your current machine. This is a great time to upgrade BUT after you finish your current project.
Are you using dvdsp 4? As I understand it (pg 22 of the manual) DVDSP4 is supposed to work practically natively with hdv files, just import them in. It only seperates the audio on import. .I would think this would be a faster process.
Re: Adding a Kona LH card in middle of a project. A good idea? by J. Moulins on Aug 14, 2006 at 6:43:57 pm
[Rennie]"Are you using dvdsp 4? As I understand it (pg 22 of the manual) DVDSP4 is supposed to work practically natively with hdv files, just import them in. It only seperates the audio on import. .I would think this would be a faster process."
Outputting to DVDSP 4 still requires 12+hours of rendering for a single-pass burn.
