AJA Kona 3 – vs – Black Magic Design Equiv

[Shane Ross]

[Dan Sheridan] “I’ve been recommended the AJA Kona 3 card to capture footage from a component input”

FYI, the Kona 3 doesn’t capture Component footage without an adapter. SDI In only. The Kona LH is what you’d be looking for.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Dan Sparks]

Dan,
Very happy with my Blackmagic HD Extreme card. I also capture component, in my case Betacam SP. I found an inexpensive solution to capture DV and HDV footage in SD quality to the BMD card with the Convergent MI. Big difference in picture quality. And when I do migrate to HD in the future, the card has the capability.

Dan Sparks

Tricom Video

[Dan Sheridan]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for this – It’s very useful… do you think I would be able to connect up a standard component cable for example via additional BNC connectors, as I am looking to take the source output from a video games console…

[Dan Sparks]

Hi Dan,
I’m not an expert on what the signal of video game consoles is on their component outputs. My hunch is it is either standard or HD component depending on the console and should work fine. You might try posting over in the Blackmagic forum on the COW and see if someone over there is familiar with this use of the HD Extreme card.

Good luck!

Dan Sparks

Tricom Video

[Dan Sparks]

Hi Dan,
I’m not an expert on what the signal of video game consoles is on their component outputs. My hunch is it is either standard or HD component depending on the console and should work fine. You might try posting over in the Blackmagic forum on the COW and see if someone over there is familiar with this use of the HD Extreme card.

Good luck!

Dan Sparks

Tricom Video

[Russell Lasson]

First off, do you need to capture in HD formats or just SD formats?

If you need HD:

The Kona 3 isn’t a good option if you are going to capture component. I’d go with a Kona LHe. I like Kona because their support rocks. But I’ve also picked up some Decklink cards over the years that have worked well.

If you only need SD:

Buy a used Decklink card off ebay that has component in (Decklink Extreme or SP or other).

-Russ

[James Mulryan]

NAB indication– AJA booth right across from Apple. Black Magic, somewhere in the corner.
AJA rep indicated that they have more hardware based processing, AJA guy also said SATA raids not so good, SCSI or Fiber Channel produced bettter results. SATA interfears with processing cycles, especially if they are software based. AJA is much more expensive, but considering RED and APPLE are sleeping with AJA…..

[Gary Adcock]

[James Mulryan] “AJA rep indicated that they have more hardware based processing, “

that would be correct, Aja does all of their processing in hardware.

“AJA guy also said SATA raids not so good, SCSI or Fiber Channel produced bettter results. SATA interfears with processing cycles, especially if they are software based. “

Fiber and SCSI are better for High end work than using any software based raid of any type – mainly do to having actual hardware redundancy for your files. However for Single workstation setup, SATA arrays are quickly taking an edge, with powerful performance and lower cost that any other storage.

“AJA is much more expensive

Not when you consider there is a reason why companies like Media 100, Autodesk and Avid all use or recommend some form of AJA hardware in their highest end workstations. Aja Products have Out of the box reliability and performance, and world class tech support, and there is a reason almost all of the leaders in this forum use AJA boards.

(I do not know about russell or tom but all of the rest of us do)

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Russell Lasson]

[gary adcock] “(I do not know about russell or tom but all of the rest of us do) “

I have both AJA and Decklink, but I’m really only considering AJA for future purchases. (unless I buy a intensity card for home editing to a HDTV)

-Russ

[Bjørn Holmgren]

This might be a regional thing. We are in PAL land, and Black Magic has always been rock solid. We have lots of them. AJA on the other hand have made some lemons, the IO never worked properly in PAL.
Regards,
Bj