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Broadcast quality
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[Brandon Carter] “Now, the question that no one has answered yet…what exactly does the capture card do, whether we are talking a Kona or Black Magic etc… On the capturing side I mean…I know the purpose for the card in regards to using the Beta Recorder, but what does it do for the capture end of the process? “
It’s the I/O device for the computer. You connect your video devices to it and it passes video and audio back and forth between the computer and your video devices, including your broadcast monitor.
In the case of the Kona LHi, you can capture any source video to pretty much any format that FCP supports. So you can capture your DVCAM material to 8bit Uncompressed, ProRes, DV50 and so on. Up-Convert SD to HD, Down-convert HD to SD, Cross Convert 720 to 1080 and vice versa.
Most importantly, they give you a video feed to your broadcast monitor which if you’re delivering to a broadcaster is a must. It’s a much better way to feed a monitor than through a firewire camera or VTR.
Finally, the biggest reason why we have the AJA Kona 3 in our shop is it allows us to convert multiple sources to one format for editing. We edit with DV, DVCAM, DV50, DVCPro HD, HDV, BetaSP, DigiBeta, BetaSX, sometimes all in the same project. The Kona 3 allows us to capture everything to one format, one frame size during ingest.
For example, the documentary I’m working on now. BetaSX, HDV, DVCPro HD, BetaSP and DVCAM material is being used. The majority of it is DVCPro HD shot in 720/60, with some shot in 24, 30 and some 1080i/60. I’m capturing everything to 720/60 ProRes during ingest so I only have to edit in that format and everything runs in realtime. Without a Kona 3 (or LHi) I would have to convert everything that’s not native to the timeline in Compressor or try to render it in the FCP timeline. Not nearly as clean and certainly not as fast as realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Ok… I’m pretty well convinced to go ahead and purchase the UVW-1800 and do all conversions myself. Now…I’ve heard about the Kona cards and also the black magic. What are the pros/cons of each? What type of wire connections do I also need to purchase? Finally, we have not been using a broadcast monitor. This will connect through the card as well? I hate to sound so ignorant, but what is the monitors purpose? Adjusting colors? I think we have done well with our production so far, especially considering our limited knowledge. At this point we are simply trying to make it to the next level. Thanks for all the wonderful information! BTW, I am using a MAC PRO.
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double post
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[Jeremy Doyle] “Why would you want the shift fields filter on. It’s going from SD to SD so it should maintain lower field dominance.”
Uhh, my bad. I was forgetting that the OP is in the States rather than here in PAL land.
Brandon, disregard that bit of my post – the rest still stands!!
Jason
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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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Hi Brandon,
Capturing with an AJA would improve your DV footage due to the Chroma filtering that the video card use when going from 4.1.1 (4.2.0) to 4.2.2.
However if you don’t have a KONA or ioHD, you can achieve a very close effect by using a Chroma filter.
Nattress have a very good one: Chroma Smooth/Sharpen.
Setting your sequence with “High Precision YUV Rendering”, and “Render Motion Effects: BEST” should help to get a better process.
Cheers,
Rafael -
Brandon,
If you’re on a budget I’d look at Blackmagic or the new Matrox MXO2. Either will do the job.
Konas are excellent cards, some would say better than the BM but for me there’s not a lot in it. The Kona 3 will cross-convert SD to HD with excellent quality (as will the MXO2 and the latest incarnation of the BM top-of-the-line card) but you’ll pay for the priveledge. If I were you I’d start with a budget and see what you can afford, bearing in mind your needs later. Walter deals with all formats in his shop so the K3 makes perfect sense, but for a smaller outfit you’ll probably find one of the BM cards suits you fine. It does me, and I’m doing broadcast HD on it.
As to the monitor, it will enable you to see an image which is accurate both in color and level (when correctly set up) and indicate to you if there are any obvious gotchas in terms of field order or artefacts that may not show up on a computer screen. A good quality Sony will set you back maybe $500 secondhand, more if you plump for something like a PVM 20L5 (or the smaller 14L5) which can cope with HD too – good for future proofing. I’d look for a 20L5 if you can, just make sure it’s not knackered. If you’re unsure find a friendly local engineer who will have a look at it for a few dollars. The JVC DTV1710 is a good performer too, and commands less secondhand than the Sonys seem to.
HTH
Jason
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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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Ok so would this card be what I need?
Blackmagic Design Decklink SP – Uncompressed 10-bit Analog Video Capture PCI Card with SDI Output for Apple Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro with Real-Time Effects Support – NTSC/PAL – Mac/Win
Or
Blackmagic Design Decklink Extreme – Uncompressed 10-bit Component and SD-SDI Video Capture PCI Card with Analog Monitoring for Apple Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro with Real-Time Effects Support – NTSC/PAL – Mac/Win
Also, it appears that they come with a series of cables. Is this all the cables I will need to hook everything up?
Again, really appreciate everyone’s help!
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[Jason Porthouse] “Walter deals with all formats in his shop so the K3 makes perfect sense, but for a smaller outfit you’ll probably find one of the BM cards suits you fine. It does me, and I’m doing broadcast HD on it. “
Actually if you’re on a budget, look at the AJA Kona LHi. It has almost all the features of the Kona 3 at half the price and it does everything I described earlier in realtime. I just outfitted 8 broadcast suites with LHi’s because they don’t need the 2K features but they do need all the realtime conversion features. I only use AJA products in our shop because they work and they work well.
As for connectivity between the card and the devices, you’re looking at standard BNC cables for video, Analog XLR for audio and RS-422 cable for device control on the UVW-1800.
As for why you need a broadcast monitor, well it’s the only way to correctly see your colors and images. The Canvas display in Final Cut Pro is essentially a proxy image, not full quality so you have no true idea what your material looks like unless you view it on a proper broadcast quality monitor. The Kona LHi can feed to this monitor either via Component or SDI.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Ok now I am confused….I just talked with a tech from one of the well known companies we order much of our equipment from. He recommended simply using a Blackmagic intensity pro card. Anything more he said would be wasted money. Is this going to do what I need?
Also I just bought a UVW 1800! So I’ll need to connect it and also a monitor.
This has turned into about 1000 more questions than I anticipated, but i appreciate all the help.
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[Brandon Carter] “He recommended simply using a Blackmagic intensity pro card. Anything more he said would be wasted money. Is this going to do what I need? “
Yes, it will. All capture cards (AJA, Matrox, Black-Magic, MOTU) downconvert HD to SD well. The BMD card will be fine, and do what you need.
Wasted money? Dunno, how much is great tech support worth? Hardware upconvert capabilities? Black Magic is getting better, but AJA has solid tech support, as does Matrox. Piece of mind is worth more to me. I hope BMD is better than they used to be…I hear they are.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
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