DVCPRO HD capture

[Fred Connors jr.]

You cannot monitor with the KONA-2 during FW capture.

You can monitor the SDI or Component Digital out of the 1200a while you capture via firewire.

Opinions may vary, but we take HD-SDI in from the 1200a and live down sample to DVCPRO-HD. This way we can monitor via the KONA-2.

Fred

[Rob Tobin]

I’m really not concerned with monitoring during capture as I can see the super down convert on my HD monitor… I’m really concerned with monitoring during the editing process… The more I think about it I should probally by-pass the KONA all together and just monitor EE through the deck. I can use the RCA monitor outs to my audio board. It’s seems a waste of hardware but I guess that the beauty of DVCPRO HD as a native codec. I normally work with HDCAM for which I need the KONA. Any thoughs?
RT

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rob Tobin] “If I use the Kona easy set-up and change the transport to firewire it seems to work but I’m concerned about SYN.”

That’s how you’re supposed to set up for SDI capture and on those rare occassions when I use HD-SDI, that’s exactly what I do. Not sure why you’re getting errors on the other setup that you created, but you should just use the Easy Setup.

[Rob Tobin] “I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) that capturing via Firewire would be cleanest because I’m not adding another codec but the way my room is setup I don’t know if I can trust the AJHD-1200A to transcode from FW out to SDI for my HD monitor.”

FW and SDI captures are identical from the 1200A. I capture everything via Firewire on my setup. During Editing I use the Kona 2 for monitoring and also the K2 does allow me more flexibility with realtime.

During Capture I simply use the DVCPro HD Easy Setup. Capture Firewire.

Then I switch over to an AJA DVCPro HD Easy Setup to allow monitoring via the K2. AES audio feeds my Flying Cow and Component out of the K2 feeds my Sony Monitor.

Works beautifully here as I’ve been cutting a series now since December using this workflow.

Ma

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Walter Biscardi] “Ma”

Well that’s weird. Not really sure why that got typed. Must have been the cat. 🙂

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Bob Zelin]

I use this configuration with the HD-SDI from the AJ-HD1200A right into the Kona 2’s K Box HD Input 1, for DVCProHD – in countless locations in Florida now, with no problems. As you can see, Walter is using the FW input, and has no issues as well.

The usual questions – are you running OS-X 10.4.2, what drives are you recording to?

Bob Zelin

[Rob Tobin]

Thanks Guys,
I think what happened was I confused the system with my res test. I captured both FW and via SDI and did a split screen and rendered. After I restarted, the Kona seemed to work although I did still get an Error-unkown message. I’m running OSX 10.4.2 with six gigs of ram and FCP 5.0.2. with a 2.7 XSERVE raid. As far as the test… the firewire seemed to look better on a sony HD monitor through the KONA for playback. (it had much more chroma then the SDI capture)
because it was a kona setup I tried the FW capture on V1 and V2 to rule out the added render hit. For that reason, and because of a deadline, I choose to use FW for capture and monitoring. I like the Kona and feel it is the best way to do HDCAM but for DVCPROHD I believe this is the cleanest route. I’d like to hear other opinions.
RT

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rob Tobin] “I like the Kona and feel it is the best way to do HDCAM but for DVCPROHD I believe this is the cleanest route. I’d like to hear other opinions.”

I capture via Firewire but do all my monitoring via Component from the Kona 2 and use a Kona 2 Easy Setup when editing. It’s the best workflow I’ve found so far. Monitoring via FW from the 1200A is not nearly as clean as coming straight out of the Kona 2.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rob Tobin] “For that reason, and because of a deadline, I choose to use FW for capture and monitoring.”

Actually one thing I thought about with the FW monitoring. There’s a major lag in the video playback when viewing via FW (through the 1200A) and the 1200A has a bug in it where video is always showing non-existant glitches when viewing through Firewire.

Just curious how that’s going to affect your monitoring situation. It’s one of the big reasons I use the Kona 2 output because there’s no lag or glitches.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Bob Zelin]

Rob –
I am going to strangle you. You just can’t say “it looked much better- it had much more chroma” – what does that mean? You can’t magically add or subtract chroma from this stuff – it’s supposed to be ALL DIGITAL, and all “cloned” – with no level changes, no matter what you do. YOU NEED A SCOPE to monitor what you are doing – and there are no excuses here, becuase you have the $$$ for a Sony HD VTR, a Panasonic HD VTR, a Sony HD monitor, and an XServe RAID – so you are not some starving student that can’t get the right gear. You must work with color bars, and critically observe on a scope your original source material, and what happens on the output of the Kona when you digitize in with HD-SDI, and with Firewire. You just can’t say “gee, it looks warmer and has more chroma when I use Firewire” – this is unacceptable. Firewire and HD-SDI should be identical- it’s all digital.

Bob Zelin

[Rob Tobin]

Thanks Walter I did see those gliches when monitoring via FW. Also, the lag was my concern from the first posting so I think I’ll try your work-flow.

Strangle is a little strong don’t ya think Bob? The system I’m describing is at a post house (remember those)? My system is a little less robust but it has scopes all the same. (although I find the FCP scopes to be accurate) The system I did the test on had HD scopes and in my opinion looked better in a good old fashioned split screen test. My concern was mixing the capture/monitoring scheme for fear of syn issues. I’m not interested in starting a huge debate here just looking for the cleanest way to capture and monitor a fomat I don’t have a lot of experience with…yet. (pretty much the purpose of this site) Then move on to the next job.
Thanks for the feedback.
RT