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Io HD Units and DRIVERS!
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[Kevin Paolillo] “Are you listening AJA?”
Have you picked up the phone and called them? They have real people that will talk to you.
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Whew!!! Glad I found this thread. My church is about to purchase 4 new Mac Towers, 3 HPX300s’, Panasonic AS400n switcher, a Kona card and an AJA IO HD, based on my recomendations.
Now I have to figure out what we need to replace all the features on the IO HD at similar price point. I’m thinking BMD multibridge pro. We were planning on using the IO HD, not just for capture, but as a mini router to re direct HD source to a projector and down rez and send out to the churches SD TVs throughout the building. the IO HD seemed perfect for this.
I’m not sure we can get 10.5 and FCP 6 on new machines from Apple.btw, I’m sure AJA is doing everything they can to fix this issue. this is costing them sales, so… Not angry at them at all, but have to make some hard decisions in the next few weeks.
Even if they knew about the problems, they would have been under NDA, and it’s probably a lot harder to fix then most of us realize.
I’m hoping this will work out sooner than later, but based on Apples’ past record, don’t bet on it. -
[Joe Carney] “but as a mini router to re direct HD source to a projector and down rez and send out to the churches SD TVs throughout the building.”
Sounds like you might want the stand alone FS1.
Jeremy
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[Kevin Paolillo] “Similarly, Aja’s product, the IOHD doesn’t work with Snow Leopard. A lot of other products now do. That’s Aja’s problem. I expect them to deal with it in a timely manner. “
The flip side means that there are a huge number of products from companies like Sony and Panasonic that do not work with Snow Leopard either. Have you tried an SxS card, a P2 card or many express card based 3rd party products from companies like Duel and Sonnett? None of them work either.
Look – the fact is it was your choice to jump into new products without properly researching whether or not they were ready for your edit bay. No one forced you to pay for the upgrade for FCS3 or $29 for snow leopard and no one is to blame for your problem other than you. You should have never installed new software versions on a working system unless you are prepared to have something go terribly wrong, or at least not work properly, that is the nature of every .0 revision of software I have ever seen.
That does not mean we do not feel your pain, but I made sure that I can at least use my tools by having both OS’s on my machines – just in case.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows for the Digitally Inclined
Chicago, ILhttps://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php
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You’re kind of missing my point. I didn’t choose to install FCS3 – my clients did – when they hand you a FCP 7 project file and expect you to get it to tape and your workflow has been up to this point based on the IoHD it’s a very awkward process to say “do you mind going back to your shop to export a version of the timeline that I can work with?”
I have emailed and called AJA – both times they have talked to me (and I’ve dealt with them since the original IO came out – they’ve always picked up the phone). The problem I have is that I shouldn’t have to pick up the phone or call – they should be more proactive about letting people know where they are at so that we don’t all get frustrated.
The biggest issue I have overall is that when I actually did talk to AJA I told them that I had tried to output from a FCS3 system and was able to hear audio but not see picture and wondered if there was any sort of workaround and the response was literally “well, you’ve gotten further than we have…”
That’s not encouraging when all I did was plug it in to a laptop running FCS3 (this was about 3 weeks ago).
I think the lack of communication is frustrating because it seems to imply that their other products are going forward and that there’s a chance that the IoHD may get left in the dust. Let’s put it this way – if it’s this difficult to write the drivers for a unit that is so dependent on the ProRes spec, why waste the time (from a business perspective) especially when you consider how old the IoHD is and how well some of their new products address a lot of the market that the IoHD was targeted at. I mean if I had it to do over again I would buy a KiPro and a Kona LHi – even though the costs are considerably different, you have a dedicated acquisition setup that doesn’t require a host machine and a way to output from what you should be outputting from anyway (a tower).
It just all feels like they are going to drop the product and aren’t willing to let us know yet… I’m probably way wrong… but that’s what lack of communication does to consumer trust…even if they have great support 99% of the time.
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[Shaun Gish] “they should be more proactive about letting people know where they are at so that we don’t all get frustrated. “
Sorry, Shaun, but it does say right on the support page for the ioHD, use FCS2. I believe it would be up to you to search out the system requirements for your setup, not the other way around.
If your clients give you a ProRes file to put on tape, the ioHD will work if you have FCS2.
[Shaun Gish] “and the response was literally “well, you’ve gotten further than we have…” “
So that should tell you that it’s not ready yet. When it is, they will release a driver. Really, they will.
[Shaun Gish] “I think the lack of communication is frustrating because it seems to imply that their other products are going forward and that there’s a chance that the IoHD may get left in the dust.”
Speculating won’t get very far.[Shaun Gish] “I mean if I had it to do over again I would buy a KiPro and a Kona LHi – even though the costs are considerably different, you have a dedicated acquisition setup that doesn’t require a host machine and a way to output from what you should be outputting from anyway (a tower). “
Then it sounds like your needs have changed since you started down the path of your career. You know how much useless stuff I have sitting around in all the nooks and crannies of my office and house? It’s all old, it all doesn’t work. At least with the ioHD, you have a working product that is relatively new, but you need the proper system to run it which you are unwilling to provide. Have you ever been through a product’s major update cycle? Did you go from Panther to Tiger to Leopard, or better yet, OS9 to OS10? There were HUGE waiting times. Adobe didn’t release a working version of AE that ran in OSX for a year or more. Snow Leopard and FCS3 have major changes under the hood, and sometimes it takes a while for developers to track down and get those changes updated. Please be patient, AJA will provide.
Jeremy
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Why couldn’t they post a beta version and we could be testing it for them in the field. Certainly if its only one, maybe two weeks away, they must have a beta version ready. We have been editing with snow leopard and fcs3 since they came out. Together they seem to be stable and are working fine with our drives, cards and even our P2 Store device. I shoot regularly on a PDW 700 and have no problem ingesting full 10-bit XDCAM into the system and editing. So currently the only “boat anchor” if you will is the IoHD box which has left us dead with projects we ran through it prior to upgrade.
The upgraded FCS and Snow Leopard was not a big secret. If AJA is working with APPLE, then this should have been ready to go in a REASONABLE amount of time. I can not wait any longer and the lack of consistent communication has forced us to go another direction with our accessories. Another two weeks would start costing us clients.
Russell Weston
Weston Productions
westprod@gci.net
https://westonproductions.tv -
You obviously don’t read very well.
I have a major client that I do online edits for – this means that they do the initial editorial work and hand over a PROJECT FILE to work from. Not a ProRes export… if that were the case – no big deal. But I actually have to work with what they give me… so right now I have to use a laptop running FCS3 to do the online work (which is painful at best) and then export for my tower to output via the IoHD. And before anyone says “you can do anything on a laptop…” this is a major network show with 10 cam multicam clips – it’s a beast of a project that I have to cut on a laptop or jump through hoops to get the client to export a version that I can use.
I’ve said nothing about being unwilling to provide the system that the IoHD requires – to the contrary – I HAVE NOT upgraded my main system specifically because of the issues with IoHD. Also – NONE of my issues have to do with Snow Leopard – it’s a complete and total mess – my issues deal with FCS3. I could care less right now about Snow Leopard – I just need to be able to open an FSC3 project file without a bunch of workarounds when they are provided and use them appropriately.
My needs haven’t changed at all – I want to acquire stuff in ProRes as painlessly as possible and I want to edit in ProRes as painlessly as possible. That was why I bought the IoHD… and right now the editing part isn’t happening so well with my clients demands. I don’t mind the wait as long as there is communication.
It’s a bit frustrating that you bring up a bunch of points that have nothing to do with my post and then try to act like I don’t know what I’m doing. I have been in the broadcast business long enough and I own a very successful software development company so I don’t really feel like I need to post a list of achievements to vent about a PR screw up by a company that has a product in high demand. I definitely don’t want to bore you with all of my major product update cycle stories and I find it a bit odd that you’re so feverishly defending them. It is STUPID that they haven’t just said something to the effect of “Hey – we haven’t forgotten you – we’re about a month out.” That’s really all we are asking – I’d love to be able to tell my client that all of the added time spent working on my laptop instead of in my edit suite will hopefully end in 4 weeks… instead of just saying “I don’t know”.
Anyway – this has become a very pointless and frustrating post. I don’t plan on hating on AJA any more – I will wait for them to update the drivers/firmware and I will continue using the product. I just wish that people wouldn’t just blindly say “they’re working on it – deal with it” – the situation flat out sucks and they can fix it by just being more open with where they are at. (Look at RED and how well they handle firmware issues – they may not deal with it as quickly as most people want but they do tell you what the heck is going on)
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[Shaun Gish] “You obviously don’t read very well. “
huked on foniks werked four me.
10 Cam multi-cam on a laptop? Damn, dude. 5 is bad enough, 10 must be like molasses.
I don’t see why you can’t keep a copy of FCS3 on a separate boot drive and OS like everyone else. Edit on FCS3, export a ProRes movie when you’re done, boot in to your other OS that is qualified for the ioHD and layoff the self-contained movie. Pretty simple and will cause you like 45 seconds of downtime while the computer restarts between boot drives. Seems pretty easy and doable to me, but I guess it’s logical to blame AJA for not spelling that out for you on their website.
[Shaun Gish] ” I have been in the broadcast business long enough and I own a very successful software development company so I don’t really feel like I need to post a list of achievements to vent about a PR screw up by a company that has a product in high demand.”
Oh, so then you know very well the pains of an OS update. Do you also develop hardware along with your software?
I’m not looking for your achievements, just trying to show you reality and it sounds like you know it.
[Shaun Gish] “I definitely don’t want to bore you with all of my major product update cycle stories and I find it a bit odd that you’re so feverishly defending them.”
I’m feeling pretty good today, thanks. No fevers.
[Shaun Gish] “”Hey – we haven’t forgotten you – we’re about a month out.”
Here’s a screen cap from AJA.com:
[Shaun Gish] “I just wish that people wouldn’t just blindly say “they’re working on it – deal with it” “
It’s much better than they aren’t working on it, go spend another 4 grand in gear. Unless of course, you want to do that, it will greatly help the economy.
[Shaun Gish] “(Look at RED and how well they handle firmware issues – they may not deal with it as quickly as most people want but they do tell you what the heck is going on)”
See screen cap.
I am truly sorry for your frustration. By you knowing the merits of very successful software development, it would seem that you would be one of the patient ones. Perhaps you don’t develop hardware as well, maybe it’s a bit different. There are solutions out there that you can implement in the times of transition, you just have to see through your frustration and take a step back and asses the tools you have at hand.
Good luck,
Jeremy
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Gary, yes, mea culpa, perhaps I shouldn’t have upgraded so soon, that’s clear, and I usually don’t. But I had a few down days, which thankfully have been rare. I did my research on the things I needed most, checked to make sure drivers were available, saw Kona’s driver update come out, figured IO HD’s would follow in a few days because I trust AJA to deliver on such things because of their good reputation, and made the switch. And like you, I have a backup machine that I did not upgrade just in case, although one quickly realizes what else is missing on the backup, and how SLOW it is compared to the 8 core so that is its own set of issues.
I’m guessing a few of the more influential folks here, you among them, (your posts have helped me many times, thank you) have a special relationship with AJA that they’d rather not take them to task publicly. If so, I understand that, I have a few suppliers that help me out on occasion and I’d be hesitant to say publicly, yes they dropped the ball.
But exactly how long is long enough to wait on a driver update until it becomes unreasonable, especially when their other signature product has a driver update in days? And don’t you think it’s a little disconcerting to be waiting for an I/O HD update while you watch the Snow Leopard compatible I/O Express begin shipping?
Frankly, I’m surprised someone from Aja hasn’t come on here and shed a little light. (Yes Jeremy_ I have called and written, and “we’re working on it” is all I’ve gotten.
I contrast this experience with a similar recent experience with the CoreMelt team. They didn’t have it all figured out, but they were giving me beta solutions to try (as Russell Weston’s fine post in this thread suggests) providing updates, checking back to see if it worked. In other words, CoreMelt had an issue and they were COMMUNICATING. It’s not the lack of a driver that is frustrating the masses. It’s the lack of communication.
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