AJA Kona Support in Premiere CS5.5

[Jim Curtis]

My experience with my LHi and Pr CS5.5 has been disappointing. There’s a lot of lag/delay, which makes editing with an AJA preset and watching the results on my attached monitor a very slow process. Scrolling the timeline is not smooth, very jerky, and there are long durations between the frames that are displayed, even with ProRes footage, for which the LHi is purportedly optimized.

I have taken to working in a native Sequence to do all my off-lining and mixing. And then just copy and paste my sequence into an AJA Sequence when it comes time for color-correction or screening on the big calibrated monitor. Fortunately, this is usually pretty fast, unless I’ve set up Submix audio tracks with effects (and I do this often – it’s one of the things I love about Pr.). Those don’t get copied over to the pasted-in sequence.

I can’t imagine doing this in an ad agency or big edit room environment, where the clients want to see a big screen picture all the time.

There’s a reason that Avid charges so much for their hardware. You get full-time big screen performance with fluid timeline scanning on their systems using their codecs. So, I have just learned to lower my expectations with Pr, FCP and AJA, and work around the shortcomings.

Jim Curtis
jamesphilipcurtis.com

MacPro 3,1; 2×4 3GHz; 32G RAM all the same brand; 10.6.8; QT 7.6.6; FCS3; CS5.5; MC 5.5; Kona LHi in PCI slot 3 (9.0.3); Primary display: 30″ ACD; Monitoring: Kona LHi SDI to AJA HDP2 converter to HDMI on the HP DreamColor.

[Tom Daigon]

Jim for the moment I am also working in Adobe sequences, but hoping that external monitoring is resolved one way (third party) or the other (Adobe).

This issues will eventually (some are already looking to Avid for alternatives) piss off some of the higher end users (facilities, boutiques) that Adobe doesnt want to lose.

Adobe, I know your plate is very full, but this one could have tragic consequences on your new found popularity.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digita / Areca 8tb. raid

[Walter Biscardi]

[Jim Curtis] “I have taken to working in a native Sequence to do all my off-lining and mixing. And then just copy and paste my sequence into an AJA Sequence when it comes time for color-correction or screening on the big calibrated monitor. Fortunately, this is usually pretty fast, unless I’ve set up Submix audio tracks with effects (and I do this often – it’s one of the things I love about Pr.). Those don’t get copied over to the pasted-in sequence.

I can’t imagine doing this in an ad agency or big edit room environment, where the clients want to see a big screen picture all the time.

There’s a reason that Avid charges so much for their hardware. You get full-time big screen performance with fluid timeline scanning on their systems using their codecs. So, I have just learned to lower my expectations with Pr, FCP and AJA, and work around the shortcomings.”

We’re using the following work-around in our shop while we wait for AJA to update the drivers / plug-ins….

Set the Player to Adobe. This means the output to the AJA card is disabled when viewing materials in the Source Monitor. We listen to the audio via the Mac output and view the material in the Source monitor.

Set the Audio Hardware to anything BUT the AJA Kona board. This eliminates the audio drop outs when editing in an AJA sequence.

Set the Mac System Prefs > Sound to anything BUT the AJA Kona board.

Yep, these are pretty lame workarounds for the moment but I’m now editing with clients in the room who are definitely enjoying the native workflow. From what I understand the bulk of the issues are actually in AJA’s court right now as they work through new drivers / new plug-ins for us.

As for Avid, you are aware that Avid hardware is AJA, correct? In fact most all NLE’s use AJA hardware in some fashion or another.

Avid is gearing up to support the AJA Kona boards natively with Media Composer 6 so pretty soon you won’t have to pay a premium to get “Avid native hardware.”

So whether you go PPro or Avid, you’ll be able to use your Kona boards. Right now, for us the solution is PPro since it operates with all of our hardware. Avid will get another look as soon as they support the Kona boards.

But we’re already delivering broadcast HD projects out of PPro. Yep, the AJA Sequences are a bit wonky right now, but it’s not causing any client issues or editor issues to slow us down.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Javi Aledo]

Any solution for lag problem when scrubb on Premiere thru Aja Kona 3?

CG, Music, Photography, Programming…
https://www.JaviAledo.com