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Capture Card advice
So. My company has decided to take the plunge and leave firewire capture in the proverbial dust (after working with HDV, it was not an option to keep using firewire and also keep my sanity!). I have done some research on capture cards but would like to get some opinions from the experts on this board. Here is our set-up and needs.
We shoot with primarily HDV and DVCProHD
We have a PowerPC G5 Quad 2.5 GHz running FCP 5.1.2
We do quite alot of projects that require video game capture from a PC (we outsourced this in the past, we would like to bring this “in house”)
We do alot of projects that require PC screen capture (video capture obviously)
-a side note, we do have the 24″ iMac with the Intel Core Duo. This has a miniHDMI out, if possible we would like to capture PC screens from this cpu.
Also, we may upgrade our G5 in the near future, I am assuming that all capture cards can be inter-changable between cpu’s, is this correct?Obviously we would like to go with the most afforable option, but not at the expense of getting what we really need.
Any suggestions and help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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6 Replies
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Have you searched this forum for “Capture Card” yet? Go back 1 year and you’ll find thousands of responses regarding cards.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Paul Ladd] “Obviously we would like to go with the most afforable option, but not at the expense of getting what we really need.”
the most affordable is not necessarily the most inexpensive.
The vast majority of the forum leaders here use Kona Cards, because they work, all the time and handle things like playback and down conversion in realtime via hardware.
I use Kona because I do not have to render or wait for the card to handle conversion in software. In Hardware the functions are in realtime. The realtime functionality is the same that is used for the live production like the World Series, Nascar, Super Bowl and the Tour de France.
The Kona cards like the LH series also allow that HDV content to be captured as DVCProHD- allowing for more realtime functionality and higher performance on your mac.
What little you may save in initial cost of purchase with other products you will waste in time later on, and that is not something you can spare when there is a deadline looming.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
[Paul Ladd] “we do have the 24″ iMac with the Intel Core Duo. This has a miniHDMI out, if possible we would like to capture PC screens from this cpu”
I assum you mean mini DVI out? I would imagine you could use a DVI-HDMI cable to convert this and use Blackmagic’s HDMI cature card to do your screen-grabs. However, I suspect you’ll find that it only accepts a small number of screen resolutions – it’s really designed for HDMI video at specific resolutions. I think you will find this an unsatisfactory and frustrating solution, but why not check with BM what the card supports.
Far better would be to get a DVI to SDI converter – AJA make one, or Gefen, or any similar Scan Converter device. It’ll yield better results. Then get the Kona LH card which’ll give you the ability to capture HDV as DVCPro HD via the component HD outs on the HDV device – it looks great. The same card will also capture your computer footage at DVCPro HD if you want or SD or HD. Total spend around $2000 I’d think.
[Paul Ladd] “Also, we may upgrade our G5 in the near future, I am assuming that all capture cards can be inter-changable between cpu’s, is this correct?”
Yes – your Quad is PCI-E, like the new Mac Pros, so you can keep the card and use it in your new systems.
Good luck!
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.
“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com
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Thanks for your help!
Regarding the miniDVI (sorry about the HDMI mix up, my head is still recovering from my HDV 24p in FCP encounter), the only devices that I seem to be able to find are SDI to DVI (like the AJA HDP SDI to DVI-D Converter). Does this have the ability to reverse and go DVI to SDI (it looks like it does but I’m not too sure). Would this then just go SDI out to the Kona LH card? How hard is it to still use firewire device control while using the Kona card (if I needed to do a quick capture with no deck, just the camera, which has no RS422)?
This is the set-up that I am leaning towards.
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https://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=3874
I was shown the above at IBC – it seems a comprehensive solution for what you want to do, although I cannot personally vouch for it, they seemed keen to demo kit, so try it.
I think you are correct about the AJA box – it only goes the other way. I think you may find other solutions by googling ‘scan converter’ and ‘SDI’. I seem to remember Snell and Wilcox have one, probably expensive….
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.
“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com
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I will definitely look into the Geffen Scaler. Thanks for the link!!!
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