Kona LHi Vs BlackMagic Decklink Studio

[Fred Connors jr.]

Kona has outstanding support.

Others will chime in with feature differences, but for me the real bottom line is can I depend on this to do what they say it will do day in and day out.

Fred

The Troupe – Modern Media Design & Production

[Richard Martz]

I’VE HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCE. But I’ve also owned BlackMagic Designs products and their customer service is equally reliable and responsive. The Kona is about twice as expensive. I was just thinking that there had to be more that the Kona had over the Decklink Studio.

FCP 7
MAC 8 core
After Effects
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Lots of other Fun Stuff!

[Matthew Causon]

Hi Richard

We covered some of this in October?:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/98/877572#877639

Best regards

[Richard Martz]

Sorry….Did not know that.

FCP 7
MAC 8 core
After Effects
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Lots of other Fun Stuff!

[Richard Martz]

I did a search of “Decklink Kona” and got something that was not what you referred to. Is there another way to find that thread?

FCP 7
MAC 8 core
After Effects
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Lots of other Fun Stuff!

[Richard Martz]

OK Finally found it DuH!

FCP 7
MAC 8 core
After Effects
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Lots of other Fun Stuff!

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I use both. There is a real price difference between them. But I havent come across any good explanation on why that price difference translates into a video quality difference. Maybe there is, but i havent found it.

About support, it depends where you are located. In my immediate vicinity, BM support is way better.

Aja LHi vs BM Extreme, one major limitation of the LHi is it cannot play out 24psf from a true 24fps (not 23.98) timeline which puts a limit on the kind of TV/monitor you can get. BM Extreme can.

BM ships with Media Express which, in a workstation that doesn’t have FCP installed, can still be used for capture, EDL batch capture and layoff to tape from a QuickTime.

Kona has an advantage that it is compatible with Autodesk Smoke so you can have FCP and Smoke in the same system.

BM Extreme has an advantage that it is compatible with Resolve on Mac so you can have FCP and Resolve in the same system.

Aja IO Express has an advantage that it is compatible with Avid MC 5.5 on Mac so you can have FCP and Avid in the same system. For capture and output.

There are indications that by Monday, or Tuesday evening, we may have to revise this whole thing 😉

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India