Building a System

[Carlton Hathcoat]

Thanks, I looked briefly but didn’t see those posts, I will look again.

[David Bogie]

Not that I’m trying to dodge the question but, while you’re waiting for some helpful suggestions, you can scroll down a few pages or search on the forum. We see this same post about twice a week.

bogiesan

[Eric Johnson]

The new AJA Kona LHi is probably the card you want. let you do the analog stuff but still gives you the option for SDI when necessary.

Beyond that, what is your end product?
Are planning on cutting online? If yes, will you be finishing or will it be going somewhere else.
How much footage are you expecting for you projects?

Without this sort of information there is only so much that can be suggested without being speculative.

But other than the computer and software, and if you intend on using analog formats, the one thing you will need is a Kona card. The LHe is the predecessor to the LHi, but it doesn’t upconvert. You could probably get a cheap one when the new card starts shipping, if it will run in the new Mac Pro’s, i think it should.

The new card has HDMI and does upconverts, so it may be worth waiting for. It was just announced at NAB, so I would imagine that it will be available shortly.

Hope this helps.

[Carlton Hathcoat]

Thanks for the response. I am a producer who edits. I want to build a system, but being a producer I don’t know anything about capture cards, Graphics Cards, RAID cards etc. I just walked in and edited on a system built by an editor. I do all the post, I don’t finish elsewhere. We fully edit 2 lower budget 30:00 TV shows for broadcast. Typically we’ll capture about 4 hours of video per show. One show is shot in SD (Beta), the other is shot on Panasonic P2 HD. Both shows are being laid of to Beta tape to be delivered to the station. I want to edit the show shot on P2 in HD and then down convert it to SD, although, we have also edited the HD footage on a SD 10bit Timeline and then laid off to tape. Not sure what is the best way to do this. This will be the last year of this, next year the shows will be all HD and delivered in HD. I just need to be able to capture footage from Beta and lay shows back off to beta, and down convert HD to SD and up convert SD to HD. We also produce mid level budget marketing videos and local commercials that are shot on the Panasonic HDX 900, so we have to be able to capture that DVCPRO HD as well. The capture card I have used in the past is BlackMagic, but have not captured the DVCPRO HD on that so I don’t even know if it works. So as you can see I really don’t have a clue what I need to do in order to build a system.

[Tom Daigon]

“So as you can see I really don’t have a clue what I need to do in order to build a system.”

Not to be flip, but it would probably be wise to hire someone who
has many clues and have them configure it for you. Otherwise you
could bump into alot of disasters further down the road.

[Carlton Hathcoat]

I love this response. Obviously my lack of knowledge is why I am posting on this site. Not to be flip, I have also met personally with three people here in Chicago and have searched several other avenues, I don’t own a business without being thorough. Thanks Tom.

[Russell Lasson]

I also think that a system built around the AJA Kona LHi will be great for what you’re doing.

There are some main systems that you need to decide on:

– Software
– Computer
– Storage
– Capture card
– External monitor

It really just depends on what you need.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Universal Post
Ridgeline Digital Cinema Mastering
Salt Lake City, UT