Kona 3 to edit HDV?

[Ernie Santella]

If you digitize with the Kona3 card (DVCProHD codec) vs. Firewire (HDV codec), then editing/layoff is easier and faster as there is no FCP conforming, which can take quite a bit of render time on a long project.

Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com

[Steve Eisen]

You do not need an HD card to edit HDV natively.

It is highly recomended to capture your HDV footage using the DVCPro HD codec. You will need an HD capture card to do that.

Do your research.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Director-At-Large
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Walter Biscardi]

[Pete] “Must I have a card like the AJA Kona 3 to be able to edit HDV footage from a Sony VIU? If not, what are the advantages of having this card and is this the one to buy?”

You do not HAVE to have a card to edit HDV. You can capture, edit and output via Firewire. However, the HDV codec is a Long GOP MPEG-2 format and as such requires everything to be “conformed” before you can output back to tape. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to hours depending on how long your project is. Also there is very little realtime functionality in HDV so just about everything you do has to be rendered.

If you have something like a Kona card, that can provide you with realtime output monitoring and also some realtime effects as the card itself will provide all the scaling functions that the processors would normally do. HDV is an anamorphic format (like DVCPro HD) and FCP scales the video out to full frame size in realtime during playback, but this is processor intensive. By lifting the process from the Mac, the Kona card allows the processors to give some realtime transitions and such.

However, the recommended way to work with HDV footage is to convert it to DVCPro HD during ingest so you can work much faster with a LOT more realtime capabilities that are not possible with HDV at this time. This is what we do and in fact I’m doing right now with a documentary shot on HDV. It was shot 1080i/60 with the Z1 in Thailand and I converted everything to DVCPro HD 1080i/60 during capture via my Kona 3. The Kona LHe can also do the conversion. This allows me to work much faster in the DVCPro HD codec and also to master out directly to our Panasonic 1400 VTR.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

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

[Peter Carroll]

Does an an HD capture card also alow monitoring from FCP to an HDV deck with component output, to a professional NTSC monitor?

Thanks so much for your responses.

[Mark Maness]

That is most of the purpose for the card…

AJA and Blackmagic both have support for HDV playback. BUT, it is highly recommended that you use this card to digitize into the DVCProHD codec. This will make your edit faster and less painful on the output since you don’t have to conform your timeline.

AJA is my recommmendation and there are many flavors of the Kona series cards. You will have to stick with the PCIe versions. Personally, I recommend the AJA Kona 3 with the option K-Box. The Kona 3 is the most expensive card they make BUT its also the best for the money. You can do anything with this card and if you have been in the business long enough, you know that clients will always throw you a curve ball. This card can upconvert, downconvert and cross-convert. It can do any frame rates in NTSC and PAL. You may think this card is serious overkill BUT when a client comes in with tapes that are 720p and 1080i, you’ll be glad that you have a Kona 3.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Sam Crutsinger]

Keep in mind that the Kona3 is SDI ONLY. It doesn’t have analog input. It lets you go up to dual-link HD SDI and all that beautiful 2K footage, but if you have to hook up a Betacam or any other analog format, it’ll be like trying to eat tomato soup with 24K gold chopsticks.

If you’re not going to be dealing with the top-shelf HD formats, I’d recommend the Kona LHe. I have an LHe and a 3 and I use the LHe far more than the 3 because of it’s analog abilities. Of course, if money is no object, then a Kona 3 and an Io LA will get you everything in existence short of 4K HD. (I think it’s the LA. I forget which is which in the Io lineup.)

[Ernie Santella]

Walter,
How are you capturing HDV in DVCProHD?
Are you digitizing from a HDV Deck with Component out into a AJA IoLA? Or is there a way to use Firewire and convert to DVCProHD?

Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com

[Gary Adcock]

[santellavision] “Are you digitizing from a HDV Deck with Component out into a AJA IoLA?”

that would only be SD then, walter is using a HD10AVA converter from AJA like I do, it allows you you embed the audio and video back into HDSI so the Kona 3 can see it. you use FW for the deck control however.

“Or is there a way to use Firewire and convert to DVCProHD?”

that is a really bad idea- re-compressing a compressed video file. The converter allows us to re-compress from a decompressed baseband HD signal and convert that to HDSDI for the best quality.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows