advice kona 3 vs LH
by Bahram Gueranfar
on
Mar 10, 2008 at 2:08:16 pm
Hi
I have a small production company in the south of France and we have been growing steadily over the years.
We are in the process of investing in a new edit station to accommodate the demands and we are looking in the KONA 3.
We are want to progressively orient our selves towards a full HD workflow and the KONA 3 seams the logical choice for the new station with regards to quality/cost.
But unfortunately our clients here still have old sources they want to use.
The new station will be partly financed with such a demand. One of our client is asking us to digitalize large amounts of footage mostly in UMATIC! (estimation 400hours +)
We want to invest in the HD workflow but we still have SD demands such as this particular case and lots of HDV. We will have to invest n the AJA HS10AVA as well.
In choosing to use the investment for the extra station as a step in the HD solution but having to use that solution for a long period of time in sd (estimation of 8 months) before, is it worth it?
Basically my question is: How long will be the shelf life of the KONA 3? Is it better to invest in the LH for the mean time?
My doubts are basically around the Dual link and the HD up conversion. We should not be tackling it before the third quarter of 2009.
We are equipped with the IoHD and due to its limitation have lost certain clients for specific projects.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by walter biscardi on Mar 10, 2008 at 2:25:31 pm
[Bahram Gueranfar]"Basically my question is: How long will be the shelf life of the KONA 3? Is it better to invest in the LH for the mean time?"
As long as there are PCIe machines, the Kona 3 will be useful. We're still running a 3 year old Kona 2 on HD Documentaries for BluRay and HD Broadcast. That card has paid for itself several times over.
We also have two Kona 3's and 2 HD10AVA converters for our HDV decks so we can ingest them directly through the Kona 3.
The big thing you lose with the LHe is the ability to upconvert from SD sources. This is huge in our everyday workflow. Also, the ability to cross-convert 720 to 1080 or vice versa is huge for us as well. This allows us to edit 720 programs natively, then simply convert our timeline to 1080i in realtime during mastering.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bob Zelin on Mar 11, 2008 at 3:30:19 am
a Umatic VCR (like a 3/4" VCR) that is not time base corrected will not work with any A/D converter, including the AJA HD10AVA. If you have a Sony BVU-900, BVU-950 or BVU-920,or an older BVU-800 with an external time base corrector like the old BVT-800, then yes, it will work, but the direct output of a 3/4" VTR (like a Sony VO-9850 or the older VO-5850) WILL NOT WORK with ANY A/D converter, including the AJA HD10AVA.
As far as the shelf life of the Kona 3 - the Kona 3 will last as long as PCI-Express lasts for Apple. Apple will discontinue the computer that you own, long before AJA will discontinue their cards. The "enemy" is always the computer company, and not the manufacturer of the software, or third party hardware cards (unless that manufacturer is Apple or Microsoft).
The AJA Kona 3 is a great safe investment - until Apple changes the computer to a new buss structure.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bob Zelin on Mar 11, 2008 at 8:32:01 pm
purchase an inexpensive Frame Syncronizer from Datavideo or Hotronics, and this will lock up your VO 5040 UMatic VCR so you can send it into a A/D converter.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bill Meissner on Mar 11, 2008 at 2:40:58 pm
>>a Umatic VCR (like a 3/4" VCR) that is not time base corrected will not work with any A/D converter<<
Hi Bob,
What does one need then to get an analog, non-TBC source into a Kona3 card?
It seems like the HD10, with composite and YC input capability, is a perfect fit for this need.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bob Zelin on Mar 11, 2008 at 8:37:27 pm
Bill -
there are many answers to this question. If you have a non TBC's source, like a U-Matic 3/4", DVD, VHS, or similar horribe composite source, the best solution is to get an AJA I/O box as the front end. The AJA I/O box will take a composite signal, and frame sync the input, and spit out a SDI output (with embedded audio). This SDI output can go into a Kona 3, and be instantly upconverted to HD-SDI.
But there are other solutions, at varying prices. If you wish to use the AJA HD10AVA, you can send your crappy source into a Frame Synchronizer (from Datavideo, Hotronics, For-A, and countless others) and send this output into the AJA converter (or anybody elses converter). Remember, A/D converters from anyone, want to see a STABLE SYNC SOURCE. People get confused between TBC's and Frame Synchronizers - a TBC will help a specific machine (like an old 3/4" VTR with external sync and subcarrier inputs), but will do nothing for a cheapo 3/4", VHS, or DVD player - here you MUST use a Frame Synchronizer. If the Datavideo DAC-1000 is $300, to me, this is cheap enough of a solution.
If you say "why can't they just build this into the capture product" - they do - it's called the AJA I/O. If you say "why can't it be cheaper" - I just told you how to do it cheaper - the Datavideo.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bill Meissner on Mar 11, 2008 at 9:02:32 pm
Thanks Bob for the good info.
I don't object to spending the money on good system components, I just didn't understand where the AJA converter fits in this process and what else is needed to get that old, historic, crap into a Kona 3.
Re: advice kona 3 vs LH by Bahram Gueranfar on Mar 26, 2008 at 9:26:00 pm
Bob,
I have an io/hd and tried capturing the U-matic with deck that has a tbc on it. I get the video but I have a lot of jump frames (back and forth) and the sound gets desynchronized over time (we say glisser in French (slide) ) . We are looking into a frame synchronizer as was suggested, but mean while I did test via a dvcam deck and worked out. Quality was crappy but no more jump frames.
It got me wondering if I could use a HVR-M35 deck as the intermediate between the Umatic and the Kona 3? Can tht M35 take the composit signal, frame sync and out sdi? Or the HVR-1500?
Any thoughts?
Kind regards
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