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Aja or Blackmagic for HD
First time poster here at the COW, but a long time lurker.
I’ve worked on and off as a producer/director/editor for 20 years now, owning Avids for sometime. My work over the past 5 or 6 years has strayed away from video and into multimedia and advertising as a creative director, thus my Avid has gotten “long in the tooth.” So I’ve been using FCP 6 to cut the occasional DV project using firewire.
Recently got a gig to produce and edit a program in HD and need advice on an I/O board. I already own a new Mac with plenty of RAM (8 gigs) and plan on adding another CalDigit RAID.
Any advice as to which board (or breakout box) is best suited to HD editing would be most welcome.
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11 Replies
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Both are good cards. It all depends on your workflow, because they have strengths and weaknesses. I like AJA because it can upconvert SD to 720p…which I need more than I care to admit. Decklink doesn’t do that. Nor does Decklink cross convert 720p to 1080i, or vise versa. But if you don’t need that, then you can look at the slightly cheaper Decklink cards. I have friends who swear by them.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
AJA Kona is infinitely more flexible and does everything in realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Wow, you guys are fast! Thanks for your responses.
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Ditto on what Shane and Walter said. But if you don’t need cross converting, the the Decklink cards are a lot cheaper and good for what it can do. In my mind, since we’re talking $1000 vs $3000 (with KBox), and not tens of thousands, the ability to cross and up convert is worth the extra money for me.
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Television Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com -
I just want to add that I don’t know of a single company in any industry that has better support than AJA. My theory is that it’s not just the hardware you buy, but you buy into the company and their support. If you care about that type of stuff, AJA is a great fit!
-Russ
Russell Lasson
Ridgeline Digital Cinema Mastering
Universal Post
Salt Lake City, UT -
Just my 2c worth – I have a BM Multibridge and so far am very happy with the price/performance ratio. It will cross-convert 720 to 1080, and upconvert SD to HD. Haven’t tried cross-convert, but the upconversion looked fine to me.
I run a small boutique shop and for the money, it fulfilled my needs. I hope that it will continue to do so – if not, I’ll pay the extra (at least double) for AJA. They’re both good products, you really can’t go wrong with either IMO.
Jason
_________________________________
Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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also consider the matrox mxo2
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My career path is very similar to yours, right down to the recent HD client. I went with a kona card, and can’t say enough good things about it. In addition to customer support, which is PHENOMENAL, aja products are much more commonplace (among my clients at least), which makes compatibility between your system and your clients a non-issue.
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Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful responses.
Stu, your point in particular seems relevant. If nothing else I’d like to be able to rely on the advice of colleagues in my area and I know a few that run both Aja’s Kona and IO.
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“which makes compatibility between your system and your clients a non-issue.”
Please explain in exact details and facts on how there can be a difference in output that would make things incompatible.
Gary
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