Decklink HD Extreme vs AJA Kona 3

[Walter Biscardi]

[Neil Sadwelkar] “BM cards and converters are not cheap, but they cost less than AJA. But they deliver what they are supposed to. Their up/down conversions aren’t too good, though, and maybe AJA’s are better in this respect. If this feature matters to you, check for a side by side to take a fair decision. “

A question Neil since you have a lot of experience with the BM products. Do they operate as stand-alone converters, independent of FCP? Just curious because I’ve never heard anyone talk about that with BM products.

Essentially any Kona product can be put into Pass-Through Mode so it can operate as a stand alone A/D, HD to SD, SD to HD converter to allow deck to deck transfers independent of FCP. This is really handy for us when making HD to Beta dubs, making HD to DVD dubs and up-converting SD material to HD for clients without having to ingest anything.

Thanks!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Neil Sadwelkar]

[walter biscardi] “A question Neil since you have a lot of experience with the BM products. Do they operate as stand-alone converters, independent of FCP? Just curious because I’ve never heard anyone talk about that with BM products.

Essentially any Kona product can be put into Pass-Through Mode so it can operate as a stand alone A/D, HD to SD, SD to HD converter to allow deck to deck transfers independent of FCP. This is really handy for us when making HD to Beta dubs, making HD to DVD dubs and up-converting SD material to HD for clients without having to ingest anything. “

You know what. I’ve not had occasion to try this out, but I doubt if it would work that way with any of the BM cards. The Multibridge however does work as a standalone converter. And we use it to output/input from analog Beta or to drive speakers. We even have one system with MBridge Pro with a DVI display hooked up as external monitor.

In any case even if we had a Kona in pass-through we wouldn’t use it for HD to SD dubs. For one thing, it would block an FCP suite, and wouldn’t fetch any cash.

For another, we need to make dubs from HDCamSR, HDCam or D-5 to DigiBeta from a 1080p24 tape to a 25 fps DigiBeta. All the three named HD tape decks do this by speeding the tape 4%. This is not acceptable to our PAL film based materials as it changes the duration and could have revenue implications with channels.

So we have to capture to an FCP or Avid Uncompressed system. These are the only two systems (AFAIK) that can take a 24 fps timeline and output it as 25fps with a 1 frame repeat. In real time with no render.
Doesn’t look too nice, but its what clients need. And this way they pay for FCP time too.

While the subject is BM Extreme HD or Aja Kona 3, two other issues I saw/heard of recently.

The Kona 3 doesn’t recognize a dual link 4:4:4 signal from a Cintel telecine. This was at a client’s place over a thousand km from where I live. I flew down and spent hours trying various settings in a Kona 3 and an iO HD.
Eventually the client (and reseller) gave up and I heard later they bought a BM card.

The same client also said he earlier had a requirement of capturing a live video feed with VITC and an iOHD couldn’t resolve time code. I didn’t see this for myself but I have managed such a capture from a BM card for a TV reality show.

Discalimer: I’m not proving that the Kona 3 or iOHD could not have been made to work in both situations, just that it proved difficult.

But to be fair, I know of one facility not too far from me where they have two FCP systems with a Kona 3 each. Let me check how they are faring.

Neil

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Neil Sadwelkar] “In any case even if we had a Kona in pass-through we wouldn’t use it for HD to SD dubs. For one thing, it would block an FCP suite, and wouldn’t fetch any cash. “

No it doesn’t. That’s the point. You can continue to work in FCP, or use the machine for any other purpose. The Kona board works as an independent converter so I can make the dubs / transfers while still working on an edit, creating graphics, working in After Effects, authoring DVD’s, etc… The machine itself is not tied to anything while you’re using the Kona as a converter.

We do this fairly often where we’ll use any of our three systems in pass-through mode while that same system is still being used for either editing or something else.

Thanks for the info!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Neil Sadwelkar]

Wow. That’s amazing. I didn’t know of this feature.

But if the Kona is being used as ‘pass-through’ and the system is used for editing, how can the editor monitor the edit on an external monitor, since (presumably) the output is being used for the convert output.

Neil

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Neil Sadwelkar] ” how can the editor monitor the edit on an external monitor, since (presumably) the output is being used for the convert output. “

During this time, you would not view to the external video monitors. You would only cut with the Viewer / Canvas using the Apple audio playback. We have the output of our Macs connected to our Mackie 1202s so we can listen to the audio using our normal audio monitors.

So the only thing you’re limited to is color grading. You can edit away and even perform a full sound mix as far as editing. But obviously if a show is ready for final color grading, we would not use that particular system for the Pass Through mode. That’s one of the nice things about having three suites, generally one of them is always in a rough cut, sound sweetening, graphics, animation situation so we can use that room as needed.

it is a very cool feature and one that most people don’t realize is there. Same rules apply as editing with FCP whereby you have total control of all three outputs and can lay off any combination of Up / Down / Cross conversion.

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!
Read my Blog!