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Urgent Kona Workflow question…
I just put together a system to cut an indie feature on and was sadly led astray with some misinformation and am now up against the wall and in dire need of good advice. This is an FCP 5.1 workflow with quad-core 3GHZ and G-Speed 3TB RAID……
We are shooting HDCAM 1080p23.98
I want to capture into DVCPRO 720p23.98
then Online back to HDCAM 1080p23.98 with the final editIs this a possible and effective workflow with the Kona card? (I don’t want to change framerates)
Will I be able to external preview to a 720p LCD?
Can I preview while capturing footage?
I need to make the decision to take back the Blackmagic box I have later this morning and swap it for a Kona, but I want to be absolutely certain this workflow is correct and will work with the AJA card. The Multibridge I purchased is great but cannot downrez on capture so I am otherwise stuck with 1080 DVCPRO footage and the storage space becomes too big for the capture and Online on my system. 720p DVCPRO would be perfect.
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8 Replies
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[makkystyle] ”
Is this a possible and effective workflow with the Kona card? (I don’t want to change framerates)”Yes with a Kona 3, it can perform the cross convert. However, any Kona HD card can perform an HDCAM 23.98 conversion to DVCPro HD 1080i/23.98. Why do you want to change frame size during the offline? 1080i DVCPro HD is not all that much larger of file sizes than 720.
[makkystyle] “Will I be able to external preview to a 720p LCD?”
Yes.
[makkystyle] “Can I preview while capturing footage?”
Yes.
[makkystyle] ”
I need to make the decision to take back the Blackmagic box I have later this morning and swap it for a Kona, but I want to be absolutely certain this workflow is correct and will work with the AJA card.”You didn’t say which Kona card.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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I agree with what Walter said…
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Thanks Walter… here are my thoughts, let me know if I am off base anywhere:
DVCPRO720p23.98 is ~5.6MB/s while DVCPRO1080p23.98 is ~13.5MB/s. I have a 3TB RAID which formatted in L3 nets me about 2.3TB all in. I am estimating 35 hours of footage putting total storage needs around 1.71TB @ 1080 res. This doesn’t leave me much room for onlining into Uncompressed 10bit 4:2:2 1080p 23.98 (I also, rightly or wrongly, am a little nervous that when the RAID is that full that my read/write data rates may slow enough making ucompressed work difficult…?) I was planning on onlining and printing to tape one reel at a time to save space. We will do color work somewhere else.
If I can capture at 720 the total storage space for 35 hours ends up somewhere around ~800GB, and since I will have to online to uncompressed anyway, why not save that space?
On my Blackmagic system now, 1080 capture, cutting and playback is working fine, but there is no real time preview of footage being captured, which is annoying because you are just sitting there in the dark not knowing what is happening.
Finally is it only the Kona 3 card that can do real time cross-convert to 720 or will the LH/LHe card do this also? (I didn’t mention a specific card because I’m trying to figure out which will work… if I should switch at all… I’m worried about getting it all dialed in in the next day, I haven’t started capturing yet but will have to tomorrow).
Many thanks for your help and guidance!!!!
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[makkystyle] “n my Blackmagic system now, 1080 capture, cutting and playback is working fine, but there is no real time preview of footage being captured, which is annoying because you are just sitting there in the dark not knowing what is happening.”
Well thats silly. Isn’t your deck feeding the monitor as well as the Blackmagic system? If so the picutre plays out to the monitor while you’re capturing.
We use the Kona3 for all our work these days. Most of the shows we do right now are shot 720p and crossconverted in RT out to HDCAM 23.98 for History Channel.
I’m not saying you should take the Multibridge back, but the Kona3 has far more RT functionality being provided in hardware.
Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc. -
[makkystyle] “Finally is it only the Kona 3 card that can do real time cross-convert to 720”
Yes.
[makkystyle] “or will the LH/LHe card do this also?”
No.
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The Blackmagic card can also do the HDCAM>DVCPRO encode. But I cannot see live playback during capture, which is unsettling. Also 720p23.98DVCPRO is only 5.6MB/s as opposed to 1080p23.98DVCPRO which is 13.5MB/s. That extra 150% has me worried that I will have enough space in case this director starts to push past 34 hours of footage… he’s a first timer so I don’t want to limit what he can shoot.
update: Ended up getting the Kona3. Now I feel confident I’ll have everything I need to do the job.
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[makkystyle] “update: Ended up getting the Kona3. Now I feel confident I’ll have everything I need to do the job.
“Excellent choice. Good luck and have fun.
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Thanks everyone for your help!
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