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Blackmagic Decklink HD vs. Kona lhe
Hello everybody,
I was inquiring about the difference’s between the kona lhe and the Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme.
We work almost exclusively with DVCProHD (and also HDV, but once we purchase a capture card, I will bring it in as DVCProHD, and those bad dreams about HDV can stop) and also will be doing some game capturing straight from an xbox 360.
These 2 cards seem pretty similiar, but the Blackmagic card is almost $600 cheaper. I read some of the previous posts on this issue and I know that Kona has a great reputation and that their customer service is unbelievable, but are there any other major differences as far as capability and reliability?
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6 Replies
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I think it’s fair to say that both cards are pretty reliable, and both work with excellent quality. Either will give you results you would be proud of. In terms of techincal differences, I understand that the Kona cards give hardware acceleration for DVCProHD – perhaps someone can shed further light on this? Personally, I doubt it will effect your workflow that much either way.
Still, you learn to appreciate a company and it’s products most when they go wrong – and that’s why we use Kona exclusively for live broadcast work. I can get a replacement card overnight and technical assistance faster than any other company I have ever dealt with – and that’s dealing with Kona USA from Europe! I’m not saying that Blackmagic are bad, I just never heard anyone praise them the way people – rightly – praise Kona. Also praisworthy are their excellent update program – they always seem to be on top of things.
The $600 extra will seem like money well spent down the line.
Ben
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Great customer service certainly cannot be under-valued. Do you have to buy any kind of a warranty plan for the support, or do they offer that with any of their cards. Also do they offer that support if you do not buy it directly from them?
Thanks Ben.
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[Ben Holmes] ” I understand that the Kona cards give hardware acceleration for DVCProHD – perhaps someone can shed further light on this?”
the Kona cards allow for realtime hardware scaling. SInce DVCPROHD and HDV content need to be rescaled to do to the in camera compression. The Kona cards allow for the square pixel adjustments normally done in software by the QT engine.
Taking this “scaling” from software to hardware allows for more realtime performance from the host system do to the fact that this mathematically intensive task is now being handled in dedicated hardware rather than stealing CPU/GPU cycles from the host processor.“I just never heard anyone praise them the way people – rightly – praise Kona.”
Agreed
just look at bob zelin’s recent post about the Kona cards
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/98/863236?
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
[Paul Ladd] “Do you have to buy any kind of a warranty plan for the support, or do they offer that with any of their cards. Also do they offer that support if you do not buy it directly from them?”
They offer that level of support to anyone that is using their products,and it does not cost anything other than the purchase price of the hardware.
There is not any additional cost or coverage available for any support issue and it lasts the life of the unit.
AJA does not sell direct to consumers.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
A while ago ,when I was investigating the possibility of buying an HD card, I read that the Decklink’s software downconversion is also of much worst quality than the Kona. This is a very big downside for the Decklink. One day or another, when always need to downconvert…
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Thank you all very much! I’ll see if I can talk my boss into spending the extra cash for the kona card
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