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AJA Kona LHe and Canon XL H1
Hope that this isn’t a redundant question. Our setup is the a G5 Quad core, XSERVE RAID, AJA i/O and LHe. My question is does my picture look significantly better if i bring in the footage that i shot on tape via the XL H1’s HD-SDI through the KONA LHe HD SDI? We just want the best picture. I am well aware that once the i/O HD comes out then GLORY BE TO ALL XL H1 users!
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8 Replies
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[Gregory Dillard] “My question is does my picture look significantly better if i bring in the footage that i shot on tape via the XL H1’s HD-SDI through the KONA LHe HD SDI?”
What are you editing in? HDV? If so, then no.
If you want to convert the video to DVCPro HD or Uncompressed, then yet, it will look better.
[Gregory Dillard] “I am well aware that once the i/O HD comes out then GLORY BE TO ALL XL H1 users!”
Not sure what that means. The Kona LH can also be used to convert to ProRes HD but you need a Mac Pro (Intel) box to do this. So it’s your choice whether to get the Io HD or a new Mac Pro.
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
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Thanks Walter. No i don’t want to edit in HDV, but HD. Also are you saying (or shall i say APPLE) that i can’t use the PRO RES codec with my quad core G5? Also seeing that i have the HD SDI out of the camera into the KONA LHe SDI in, do i have camera control or do i have to do a capture now? Once again thank you for all of your advice.
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You will NOT get camera control out of your camera with the HD-SDI nor will you get audio as it is not embedded. For going directly from the H1 to the Kona, you’ll need a seperate audio out of the H1.
That said, you should seriously look at the Convergent Devices box. This box turns the firewire output of the H1 into an embedded HD SDI and an RS422 control. This is what we use and it works great.
By the way, I’m not sure if the RS422 would or wouldn’t work. The Intel Only mantra is really for people using the Kona LH or LHe with the computer doing most of the hard work. It’s possible that your computer will be fine if you buy an I/O HD, because much of the processing will be done by the card in the unit. BUT, that said, I’m not sure how this workflow will work with the above H1 workflow. I think we’ll have to wait and see.
Hope that helps.
Kevin
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One more thing:
If you’re in studio environment, and you are able to capture directly from camera to HD-SDI (without recording to HDV tape first), then your footage WILL look noticably better.
best,
Mladen -
so in essence once i have the AJA i/O HD, then i will be able to shoot directly to the drive without going to tape and it will look better correct?
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Exactly. I’ve seen this work – I think Canon actually generates ful HD picture, and then looses pixels saving as HDV. So – if you digitize live from camera, you actually get 1920 pix with instead of 1440 of HDV. You can still record your HDV of course, and have it as a backup.
best,
Mladen -
For the record i just set up my Canon XL H1 with the HD SDI and captured to the XSERVE RAID via the KONA LHe and guess what?…FREAKING AMAZING!!!!! if anyone is setup this way then that means that i am beating a dead horse, but WOW! A lot of space it eats up as i captured about 30 seconds or less and it was just over 1 GB! Really excited about the AJA i/O HD coming out! This should really be amazing for XL H1 users. I am not discrediting any of the other cameras, but IMHO there is no way that any of cameras that don’t have HD SDI out can match this camera. No way! GREAT JOB CANON as i think that the HD SDI option matches with the other high end HD cameras, but you have to have the equipment to achieve this. Just my two cents.
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You’re right – nothing in this price range matches XL H1. And IO HD working with Mac Book Pro’s means soon you’ll be able to do HD-SDI capture live on site as well as in the studio…
best,
Mladen
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