AJA Kona 3 – Mac Pro – PAL Land

[Simon Blackledge]

Rory,
We have a decklink hd extreme. We currently hire our digi decks in. (PAL)

I captured with TC without issues by just using a single sdi on in and one on out… thats it.. nothing else. No drops.. no sparkles. This is SD only. Not done HD capture yet apart from an xbox :-/

Bob, your posts are pure class dude.I totally see your point.And I respect your experience greatly. We are purchasing the AJA Gen10.

What I don’t get is why it worked for us without sync. (we did hire BB just tried it without first and it was fine)

Si

[Bob Zelin]

Rory –
there is no one, more than me, who wants you to plug in the Blackmagic HD Pro, and see what happens. You can ultimately prove all of us wrong. Please let us know what happens when you plug in the Blackmagic HD Pro.

Bob Zelin

[Nick Franco]

Hi Bob

after reading all these posts i have just ordered the AJA Gen 10, i use the Kona LHE and i’ve never experienced the problem Rory has had and i’m london Based in Pal Land. however i’m using the DVW A500P and the edit to tape function Black and code hasn’t worked for me i hope the Black burst will help.

loved your rant make a lot of sense

Nick
1185films.com

[Bob Zelin]

1) the GEN10 is a great product. It will not only provide PAL black and bars for you, it will provide tri level sync for the future (and NTSC black in case you get an out of country job

2) you need the DWP power supply from AJA with the GEN10. If you did not order this with the GEN10, it won’t work

3) when you get your GEN10, make sure that your AJA Kona Control Panel in the control tab is switched to External Reference, and not internal, otherwise it will appear to do nothing.

Bob Zelin

[Rory Hinds]

So the BlackMagic Decklink card does the same thing… I’m eating my hat at the moment.

This is driving me mad and having replaced all the components I’m not sure how to solve this.

Bob do you have any ideas?

Only other things I can think of is to replace the monitor and HDLink.
However a direct feed from the VRT works find so I would say the monitor and HDLink are fine.

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com

[Rory Hinds]

So the BlackMagic Decklink card does the same thing… I’m eating my hat at the moment.

This is driving me mad and having replaced all the components I’m not sure how to solve this.

Bob do you have any ideas?

Only other things I can think of is to replace the monitor and HDLink.
However a direct feed from the VRT works find so I would say the monitor and HDLink are fine.

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com

[Bob Zelin]

Rory –
from all of these posts, I am confused about your HD VTR (if you even have an HD VTR). You have said (I think) that if you work in SD PAL, and lock your Digi Beta VTR and Kona 3 to PAL black, everything works fine, but if you work in HD, it does not.

OK – EXACTLY what is your HD setup – I know you have the Kona 3 and a standard PAL black gen, but what is your HD VTR, and do you have trouble when you digitize the footage into the FCP system, or do you have trouble when you output the footage from the FCP system back to the HD-VTR. And once again – EXACTLY WHAT MODEL # of HD VTR do you have ?

I ASSUME that even when you are working in HD, that you are working at a normal frame rate, and not working at 23.98 (your Kona Easy Setup is not 23.98) – because if you are, you will need the tri level sync gen. However, if you are working at a normal frame rate (even if you have 23.98 tapes), your Sony or Panasonic or JVC VTR should do the pulldown for you to a normal frame rate, so you can continue working with your normal PAL Black Generator.

ALSO – please tell me the exact model # of the PAL Black generator you are using.

I am SO HAPPY that you had the luxury of being able to afford to get the Blackmagic Decklink HD Pro, so we could eliminate this from the equation of trouble shooting. It’s easy to say its the AJA or Blackmagic problem, but if you don’t have the money, it’s hard to make these determinations.

Please answer my questions about your HD VTR, your Black Generator, and the frame rate you are working at in HD, and I will resond.

Bob Zelin

[Rory Hinds]

Hi Bob

Thanks for helping me with this, I can’t figure this out for the life of me.

1) HD VTR is the Sony HDW M2000. We hire this in on project thus I don’t have access it it all the time. We have a Digibeta DVWA500P in house all the time, this is mine.

2) I work in normal frame rate of 25p or 50i. The AJA Kona Control is set to 1080i25.

3) My Black & Burst is a DVC BBG5
https://compositevideo.co.uk/product-detail.asp?id=1548&catid=76&manid=50&quantity=1

I have a AJA Gen10 on its way to me so thats another component to eliminate.

At the moment the HD deck is not with us although I do have one coming in on Friday.
So my setup now is

– REF in from the BB into the Kona3.
– Output from Kona3 into Digibeta DVWA500P and Output 2 to HDLink connected to LCD
– I open a PAL 25fps SD clip with AJA TV and view it on LCD via HDLink
– This looks fine without any Sparkles.
– Then I open a HD 1080 25fps clip captured in 10bit Uncompressed and play it in AJA TV viewing it on the LCD via HDLink.
– This appears with Sparkles and the image drops out sometimes but not always.

What do you think?

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com

[Bob Zelin]

Rory –
Is the framerate of the tapes 25fps, or 23.98 fps. The HDW-M2000 Sony HD VTR has no ability to do a pulldown to a normal framerate. You must tell me, or you must find out, if your tapes where shot at 24p (it is typical for users of HDCam cameramen to shoot at 23.98 or 24p with the Sony CineAlta, and other Sony HD cameras). It is very important that you find out this information.

There are several “fixes” to this. If you have 23.98 fps tapes, you should lock your system to tri level sync (both VTR and AJA or Blackmagic), however a MUCH BETTER FIX is to rent the cheaper Sony J-H3 VTR (player only) to digitize with. This VTR has the 2:3 pulldown feature built in, so you can operate at normal frame rates – then you don’t need to worry about tri level sync.

I can’t answer anything else until you tell me how your tapes were shot (23.98 or 25).

Bob Zelin

[Rory Hinds]

Hi Bob

It was shot at 50i 25fps no 24 or 23.98.
This I know for sure as it was a major requirement on this show.

I did do a test where I have the HDLink in the same LCD as my Mac desktop and switch between the inputs to view the different feeds.

If I play the QT file in QT Player on the Mac and watch it fill screen all is good.
If I play the file via AJA TV or FCP via HDSDI into the HDLink and view that feed I get the sparkles.

Kind Regards
Rory

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com