Upgrading Kona 1 system

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Upgrading Kona 1 system
by BrAd S on Sep 28, 2005 at 4:14:45 pm

Where to even begin...?
I know, you're saying, "why didn't he upgrade long ago?" I'm confined to a corporate structure that cares not.

Here's about what we have:

Dual 1Gig G4 with 2 Gig RAM
OS X 10.3.9
Kona SD (1) Card, Blackmagic drivers
Quicktime 6 (latest v6)
FCP 4.5

I've been lost in the divorce between Kona and Blackmagic.
- Anyone upgraded to FCP 5 and Tiger with a similar set up? Blackmagic says it "should work."
- Recomendations if it won't?
- If I get a new Kona card to replace this old one, and then get away from the blackmagic drivers/codecs, how will my older archived projects function on the new system? I've been told the only option is to do somekind of batch convert (using what?). But if Blackmagic were gone off the system, would the restored project not work at all, or just need to render everything to play?

Lots of questions I know. But if someone here doesn't know, then I don't know who would.

Thanks,

BrAd

Praise to the COW

BrAd Steiner
ImageWorks Media Group

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Re: Upgrading Kona 1 system
by Bob Zelin on Sep 29, 2005 at 1:27:53 am

Hi BrAd,
I normally recommend AJA products, but I think that even AJA might approve the following recommendation. You obviously have a system that supports the Kona SD (Kona 1), and you could seemlessly migrate to a current Blackmagic Decklink SD card for $295 list price. Tell management that you want $295 for a Blackmagic Decklink SD card, that would bring your system into the current world - JUST LIKE THEIR ACCOUNTING AND BILLING SYSTEMS. If they say no, that they can't justify this expense, then QUIT TODAY, because if your department can't make back $295 by lunchtime, then something is wrong. However - if they say "no problem - is $295 all you need to upgrade? " - then say "wait a minute, I'll be right back", and spec out a nice AJA Kona 2, an AJA I/O LA, an I/O, or some full featured product that will make you and your department happy. Everything I mentioned is not that expensive.

PS - isn't BrAd spelled BraD ?

Bob Zelin

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Re: Upgrading Kona 1 system
by Luke Maslen on Sep 30, 2005 at 8:20:35 am

Hi Brad,

Kona SD support is included in the DeckLink 5.x series drivers for use with Tiger and Final Cut Pro HD 5.0. You can find the latest details in the Kona SD support note.

So you should be able to continue using your Kona SD in your new G5. It should work fine but if it doesn't, please let us know. The DeckLink 5.x drivers use the Apple codecs rather than Blackmagic codecs. Your old 8 and 10 bit files should open fine in to FCP5 without any transcoding as both Apple and Blackmagic codecs were written to the same 8-bit 2vuy and 10-bit v210 standards. Any of the compressed codecs, including DV, DV50 and PhotoJPEG are also Apple's codecs and so will require no changes.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

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Re: Upgrading Kona 1 system
by BrAd S on Oct 3, 2005 at 8:35:09 pm

THank you for the help. That gets me going in the right direction. We're going to try the FCP 5/Tiger/Quicktime7 upgrade and pray. If it doesn't work, a Decklink card should be our next try.
But any idea about compatibility between our Blackmagic 8-bit files and a new Kona 2 or Kona LS files. The both supposedly use the Apple Uncompressed 8 bit codec as a base, but will they play nice together?
If I go with a Kona 2 card, will I be able to restore old media digitized with the Kona SD (using blackmagic 8-bit) and use it on the Kona 2 (or LS)? Renders? Batch format changes? Screwed?
Love to know. Thanks

BrAd

Praise to the COW

BrAd Steiner
ImageWorks Media Group

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Re: Upgrading Kona 1 system
by Luke Maslen on Oct 6, 2005 at 4:52:38 am

Hi Brad,

It shouldn't matter which card you use. All of your legacy media should continue to work fine with a new system no matter which card you choose :-)

We've always used open standards and QuickTime is a key part of that. QuickTime makes it easy for different users to open files captured with different hardware and software systems and that is why it should not matter which card you choose. Mac users are really lucky in this way compared with Windows where some applications support certain technologies but not others. On Mac OS X, you can count on all video applications supporting QuickTime and this makes it easy to share files around and collaborate with other Mac users.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

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