Kona LHE Not Seeing Composite Input

[Walter Biscardi]

I’ve gotten VHS footage to work ok on an Io LA, but honestly have never tried the Kona boards for that. But we use S-Video into the Io LA, not composite, not sure if that makes a difference.

Even if you hit play way in advance, let the tape get up to speed, the Kona still doesn’t see it? Is the Kona set for Free Run? I’m wondering if the Kona requires something with a timebase corrector or at least a better video signal in order to lock up to it.

If you have a Mini DV deck around, you might want to try dubbing to that and bringing that in via DV. Probably won’t look any worse than the original tapes.

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!

[Bob Zelin]

the AJA Kona LHe does NOT have a frame synchronizer on the front end of it, like the AJA I/O does. You must have stable sync to go into any A/D converter, and the Kona LHe (or other devices that do A/D) will not accept a signal with unstable sync. Some people suggest passing it thru a Beta VTR E/E(like a Beta 1800) but I have never found this to work. I can tell you what will work – a cheapo Frame Sync TBC, like the Datavideo TBC-1000 – about $300.

Bob Zelin

[Drew Kimball]

Thanks Walter and Bob for your responses…

That makes total sense. Now that I’m thinking about it, the VCR menu works fine because it’s a nice solid signal, and the older tape footage being rough, I could see how sync would be an issue. I have a DSR11 I can pass it through, so I can always use that. (and DV footage here will be no worse than ProRes or Uncompressed, I agree).

Good to know for the future… I don’t have too many of these old tapes (I’m now suddenly finding it odd that I’m calling VHS tapes old… like it’s an old reel of my parent’s generation) come across my desk, so pulling out the old (again finding this weirder since I went to tapeless workflow that DV tapes are old) DV deck once in a while is no biggie.

Drew Kimball
Principal
//Braintrust Creative//
braintrustcreative.com

[Bob Zelin]

the DSR-11 will not help you. Even if you had a UVW-1800, that usually doesn’t work. You need a FRAME SYNC TBC to regenerate the sync signal on your bad tapes.

Bob Zelin

[Walter Biscardi]

[Drew Kimball] “I have a DSR11 I can pass it through, so I can always use that.”

As Bob notes, you probably won’t be able to pass through the DSR-11. You should just dub the tapes to the DSR-11 and then capture them DV-NTSC via Firewire.

Or you might be able to pass them through if you capture DV-NTSC while passing through the DSR-11.

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!

[Drew Kimball]

Finally, getting back to you all on this. I mis communicated earlier. I meant use the DSR-11 to pass through to firewire to capture in DV. I was able to do this just fine. (other than the old tape footage looking terrible because it was world judo championship shots from 1984. 🙂

Thanks for your help. If I have this need again, I’ll be sure to get a good frame sync to use with the LH. I did try capturing HD via HD-SDI and component, and they worked great, so I think you’re right on the composite feed from that tape being crap.

Drew Kimball
Principal
//Braintrust Creative//
braintrustcreative.com