kona 3 card seems loose inside mac pro

[Jeremy Garchow]

Do you have one with a brace on it? (It makes it look kind of like a hack saw)

Jeremy

[Ben Turner]

Yes I do. It fits in the slots and grooves fine, but still is loose and rock on a pivet or something.

Also about my Kona. How is anyone getting analog component or S-video in with this card. It seems I need an $850 AJA adapter to go from analog component DVCPRO to SDI to the Kona card. They tout this card as being the end all input and output machine. Am I missing something?

I will be doing a lot of projects that will need a mix of scaled-up analog component DVCPRO footage and P2 DVCPRO HD files. I thought I got the right card for the job. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ben

[Jeremy Garchow]

The Kona LHe has analog input and output, but no up convert capability. The Kona 3 has digital input only so if you need analog input, you will need to convert it to digital.

Jeremy

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Ben –
1) if the card is fully seated in the slot (slot 3 or slot 4 of your MAC Pro), when you boot up your MAC, you will see the Apple Expansion Slot Utility, indicating how many “lanes” are being used by the card inserted into this slot. This happens with any new card, not just the Kona. Do you see this utility when you boot up ? Even with the bar reinstalled on the MAC Pro, the holddown bar does not secure the card, the way that a screw would have done. Welcome to progress from Apple.

To “see your card”, you must load the AJA driver software into your MAC, either from the CD that you got with the card, or you can download this from the http://www.aja.com website. Have you done this yet, Ben ? After you download this driver, and reboot, simply open up the AJA Kona Control Panel utility, and you will be able to tell in two seconds if your Apple MAC Pro sees this Kona card – DO NOT WASTE TIME RUNNING FCP FOR NOW.

2) as for “they tout this card as being the end all in and out machine” – exactly who is this person ? Your dealer? Your mother in law? Had you simply gone to the AJA website (www.aja.com), you would see exactly what each of the AJA cards do, and do not do. Had you chose another manufacturer, like Blackmagic, you would have to do the same thing – look at the website, and see what the cards do, and do not do.

The “end all and be all” product is the AJA I/O HD, which is being released tomorrow. Other AJA products (and blackmagic products) do some things, but not all things. Your AJA Kona 3 DOES NOT HAVE ANY ANALOG INPUTS. “They” should have told you to either buy an AJA I/O as an analog front end, or buy an AJA kona LHe, that has analog inputs (but cant upconvert), or wait for the new AJA I/O HD. If you think that you should have gone with Blackmagic, their “end all” product is not yet released either – the Multibridge Extreme.

Never rely on a dealer to tell you what you need – you must research yourself, and the web is FREE for you to do this research (and you can always ask right here).

Bob Zelin

[Walter Biscardi]

[engineben] ”
I just purchased a Kona 3 card for my mac pro. The card once put in the pci-e slot is still loose. I’ve put all the pressure on it without getting too violent and it just rocks back and forth.”

Yeah, it sits a little loose because you don’t actually screw the card into the slot, you just have that card holder which actually leaves all the cards a bit loose in there.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Walter Biscardi]

[engineben] ”
Also about my Kona. How is anyone getting analog component or S-video in with this card. It seems I need an $850 AJA adapter to go from analog component DVCPRO to SDI to the Kona card. They tout this card as being the end all input and output machine. Am I missing something?”

You get an AJA Kona LH or you get the AJA HD10AVA converter which we use.

Where does AJA tout this as the “end all input / output machine?” The website clearly states what inputs and outputs are supported. There are even very clear photos of the K-Box showing all the inputs and outputs.

Kona 2 and Kona 3 – Digital Inputs only with analog Component output. K-Box adds Analog RCA audio outputs.

Kona LH / LHe – Digital and Analog I/O

AJA Io LA – Analog I/O

AJA Io LD – Digital I/O

AJA Io – Analog and Digital I/O

AJA IoHD – Analog and Digital I/O with compressed HD support.

It’s all there in pretty plain english on the AJA site. If you had done a search on Kona 3 on this very forum you would find probably hundreds of threads with people asking “Should I buy the Kona 3 or the LH?” and you would have seen the differences right on this forum.

The Kona 3 IS the ultimate capture card for FCP since it’s basically everything in / everything out. For analog you have to convert your inputs. We own two of the HDAVA10’s in our shop.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Jeremy Garchow]

I’d imagine there has to be thumbscrews available from some computer hardware shop if the bar isn’t working out for you, Ben.

And Bob is spot on, install the software that drives the hardware.

Jeremy

[Shane Ross]

I installed my LH with a screw…held it firm. You mean that the Kona 3 doesn’t allow you to screw it into place?

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Jeremy Garchow]

The MacPro’s have a bar that goes across all PCI slots and two thumbscrews that hold in all PCI cards.

Jeremy

[Shane Ross]

OH…so it is the MacPRO that is different. gotcha.

So it wiggles eh? That would cause me pause too.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net