AJA & Blackmagic use same UC right?

[Shane Ross]

No…they’re different. But all the other guy has to do is load the black-magic drivers and they will be fine. They will be able to see the footage via the Kona card.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Christopher S. johnson]

Coolio. Thanks.

[Sean Oneil]

[Christopher S. Johnson] “The AJA and Blackmagic SD and HD Uncompressed codecs are transferable between systems, right? They are both Apple UC, right”

There are Blackmagic and Kona legacy codecs from before Apple had UC natively. But you’re right. Nowadays in Final Cut, both of them just use the Apple UC codecs.

The other guy doesn’t need to load any Blackmagic software unless it was captured w/ the BM codec – which most likely it was not.

The only exception is 4:4:4 RGB. I believe AJA and BM still have to use their own codecs for that.

Sean

[Christopher S. johnson]

So they will play, but…

The files I capture with Blackmagic in DV, DVCPRO-50, DVCPRO-HD, and Uncompressed SD and HD — can my client, who has an AJA Kona card, play them back and edit them with NO RT performance hit. Are the codecs exactly the same on both sides? Or are there small differences that will make green RT bars show up on an AJA?

I need my client to not notice any difference between my captures and his — in HIS FCP timeline.

Thanks for the clarification.

-Christopher

[Jeremy Garchow]

Both companies use the Apple codecs, except where Sean has mentioned. There’ll be no problems if you use the Apple codecs which all the cards default to these days.

[Shane Ross]

Then why do I hear the argument these days that Decklinks codecs are so much cleaner? IF they are all just Apple codecs….

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[John Pale]

For regular run-of-the mill Uncompressed 8 and 10 bit (SD and HD), they all use the Apple codecs.

The original Kona card, many years back, actually used a codec written by Blackmagic.
Then Apple came up with RTxtreme (and Blackmagic got into the hardware business with the Decklink). AJA, Blackmagic, and Aurora eventually switched to using the Apple codecs to allow RTxtreme support on their cards.

As Sean stated, there are also legacy codecs and 4:4:4 codecs that are not Apple supplied.

[Jeremy Garchow]

WHo told you this and where’d you hear it?

[Shane Ross]

It seems to be the basic argument in BlackMagics favor. Heard this around NAB…why it was used on SUPERMAN, because the codec is so CLEAN (might be getting into 4:4:4 proprietary territory here). I hear this all over the variety of forums (a while ago, and I cannot find examples, darn it) when researching what I wanted as a card. Back when I had an Aurora card…which ALSO has been told they have the best SD codec in the business (and working with it I noted how nice it was).

This is just one of those “I heard it around…or on the streets” kind of things.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Joe Murray]

I read a lot of forums and have never heard anyone say Blackmagic has a quality advantage, so I guess I just missed those posts. I might expect to hear it on the Blackmagic forum but I don’t have any reason to follow that one. If you can point us to any specific threads I’d be interested to read them.

Joe Murray