Decklink for Kona SD Drivers…ever again?

[Bob Roberts]

I just downloaded 5 sets of drivers to see if I can squeeze DVCPROHD 720p and HDV downconversion out of my G4 (10.3.9). The Kona has definitely been a good ship and keeps on plugging…thanks to BM and not aja!

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Sean,

Yes, absolutely. I apologise that the Kona SD support was missing from the latest revisions of drivers and we had a meeting about that yesterday. It turned out the developers thought Kona SD support wasn’t required with the universal binary drivers as the Kona SD can’t be used with a Mac Pro. However it can certainly be used with Final Cut Pro 5.1 on a PowerMac G4 or G5 so they’re going to add it in again and I expect that will happen in the next driver update and we intend to maintain Kona SD support in future driver updates. As long as Final Cut Pro includes support for PowerPC Macs, I expect we will be able to maintain support for the Kona SD 🙂

In the meanwhile, the latest DeckLink drivers with Kona SD support are the DeckLink 5.6 drivers which can be downloaded from this link.

Thanks for letting us know that you’re still using our drivers with Kona SD as that is useful information when I’m discussing driver support with the engineers. We want to maintain support for the Kona SD as long as we can and the engineers really appreciate knowing that the drivers are being used with Kona SD. There is also a support note on our web site which provides the latest information about the Kona SD and Kona HD cards.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Bob,

Yes, you should be able to play back and down convert both DVCPRO HD and HDV material in any of the 720p59.94, 1080i50 and 1080i59.94 formats using your Kona SD card and DeckLink 5.6 drivers.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Sean Harris]

Thanks Luke. I truly appreciate the effort that Blackmagic has made in regards to supporting the Kona SD card. That appreciation will reflect in my next purchase. However, I intend on getting, milking, grinding every last gettable penny out of my “it doesn’t seem that old” investment.

So, to the engineering, please keep supporting the Kona SD with your drivers- it is still out there and being used every day for producing the quality infomercials that everyone loves and enjoys : )

Thanks again,

Sean Harris

[Bob Roberts]

The video honeys on BET and MTV second that emotion in all their uncompressed 10-bit Kona glory! Seriously, thanks for all the continued efforts guys.

[Aaron Neitz]

We still have one too… keeps plugging away on a daily basis. Sure, we could get a BM HD card for cheap, and we have 3 already, but the Kona SD has never given us a reason to retire it. Thanks BM!

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Sean, Bob and Charlie,

Thanks for your words of encouragement and we don’t believe that driver support for a card should stop just because it’s only 4 years old. The computer industry moves fast but 4 years is not a long time and hardware was more expensive then so we shall continue to do what we can to support the Kona SD. Final Cut Pro still supports G4’s and G5’s so you should be able to continue to use your cards for a good while to come 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Sean Harris]

Maybe this isn’t the right time or place, but here we go. First, thanks again Luke, & BM, for the support of a 4 year old product. BUT to rant.. It is amazing, but when I posted a problem on other CC forums, I barely got any feedback ( on some forums no feedback). Was the problem not valid? or was it that no one was interested in posting to a problem on a 4 year old system? “That is old news man, why doesn’t he get a new machine?” It seems like we are to quick to disregard systems, to quick to accept a very fast death rate. Were the drivers for the KONA SD really forgotten? I don’t know. I do know that I will not buy from certain companies, no matter how good of a product they have, because they cheated me in the past. I am very aware of company integrity & have a long memory …someone said to me “I feel like you are putting a lot of trust in a legacy product (G4 & KONA SD)…I know that I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that.” I thought to myself first, this guy doesn’t have his own business- he doesn’t actually write the check. then I thought…10-bit uncompressed, $18000 just 4 years ago, 2 kids, a small market (# 93), and etc… Heck, I am not comfortable with it, but I am tired of always spending money! Especially, when 90% of what I do goes out on an 8-bit Beta SP tape. And yes, I shoot film and HD too. It still goes out on beta or digi-beta. KONA SD & G4’s still do what they first did…Please don’t forget them.

Sincerely

Sean Harris

[Bob Roberts]

And, Sean, that is precisely why my next two cards after the original Kona were Decklinks…BMD really has gone above and beyond in terms of legacy support.

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Sean,

On the one hand, it is great that there are always new products and technologies that enable us to do more than anything before. On the other hand, it is equally great that the system one bought yesterday continues to have a useful working life for a good number of years. No one should make you feel uncomfortable about that. If you do encounter problems in the future, please post them in this forum as there are still a good number of Kona SD users reading this forum and as we still maintain the drivers, there is a good chance that we can help with any issues.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design