KONA Newbie questions

[Bob Zelin]

you write –

1. Maybe for Bob Zelin specifically, but any of you other experts feel free to chime in: I’ve got my Kona LHe plugged into the second slot of my MacPro (2.66 Intel). I noticed yesterday browsing the Kona forum that Bob Zelin is adamant about not placing it there. Help.

REPLY – Lesson # 1. Never listen to Bob Zelin. If you have a NEW MAC Pro, with all x16 slots, AJA recommends that you install your Kona LHe card in SLOT 2 of your MAC. If you have the “old” MAC Pro (with the slot speeds assigned by the Expansion Slot Utility), this si where Bob Zelin is “adamant” about placing it into SLOT 3 (not slot 2). You Expansion Slot Utility for the “old” Mac Pro is set for x16 for the graphics card, nothing in slot 2 (x1), Kona LHe in Slot 3 (x4 lane), and Storage disk drive host card in slot 4 (x4 lane).

2. This is going to sound terrible to all you guys who have better equipment: the only decks I have are DV. I don’t normally have to master to them, I hand off the project usually after the offline edit, drive and all. I’ve been using the DV decks for my own stuff. Sony DSR-40 and 45. However, a present project headed for the web, needs me to master to the DSR-45. A couple of weeks ago I printed to video via Firewire; all that was fine, but I hated not being able to do a professional output at 1 hour. So I got a deal on a Kona LHe with breakout box. Three days ago I installed it, plugged in the harness, recognizes everything, but eventhough the RS-422 is plugged into the deck, when I print to video, the deck ignores the output. WORSE, I uncabled the Kona from the deck and reattached the Firewire and tried to output it again that way, NOW the Firewire no longer controls the deck at all. (On output. Capture seems fine.) I can crash record but that’s going to make a mess with the TC. Not that I could ever get it to start at 1 hour via Firewire, but I have been able to time out the bars, blacks and slate to get it to start on an even minute. Now I can’t control that. What the heck happened? Does the Kona card being in the computer, even when unattached, interfere with normal Firewire communication? Am I missing some basic configuration set up? Could be. The manual doesn’t really cover specific decks. These guys have no money to rent a Digi or anything and have got a friend who’s going to DaVinci color correct. I’d love to be able to at least put out these episodes through Firewire the same way I did last time, but now seems kaput. Any and all suggestions are welcome, please.

REPLY – I have no idea if you have installed the Kona LHe card properly. I have no idea if you have loaded in the correct drivers from the AJA website. I have no idea if you have gone into the AJA Control Panel, and set it up correctly. I suggest that you take your DSR-45, and with ONLY using the AJA Control Panel (do you know what that even is?) try putting an analog component video signal from the DSR-45 into the Kona LHe. Click on the input tab, and select analog component with analog audio. Do you see video on the output of the Kona LHe on your TV monitor (do you even have a TV monitor at your place to see this ?). If you see nothing, go to the CONTROL tab, and select INPUT PASSTHRU to see thru the Kona LHe. When you are done, get off input passthru, and select black or test pattern.

All outputs of the Kona LHe are always active, but if you have the wrong input selected, nothing will happen.

Now, once you get this working, start FCP, and go to EASY SETUPS and select something like AJA Kona Betacam 8 bit uncompressed. This will automatically select the correct RS422 control for you for the VTR. Go into Log and Capture, and see if you can see a video signal. Do you see it say VTR OK, or does it say “No Communication”.

Let me know.

Bob Zelin

[Paul Hartel]

Bob Zelin is really smart! I have the “old” MacPro, (because “Slot Utility” appeared after installation) – and I’m going to yank the card – well, not really “yank” – and re-seat it in slot three.

As for the second question, I’ll let you know in a little bit.

Thanks Mr. Z. I’ll let you know about the rest in a bit.

[Paul Hartel]

Actually Bob, there is an immediate question involving the reseat of the Kona Card. When the Slot Utility opens up again after I’ve seated the card, which of the four lane options should I chose?

[Jeremy Garchow]

This should sum it up for you and it also is stated in the readMe or release notes that come with the driver you downloaded from aja.com

https://www.aja.com/html/support_kona_rec_sys.htm

Jeremy

[Paul Hartel]

Thank you Jeremy. The link proved perfect. Actually I had some different documentation that came on the CD, not as clear. ph

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Paul Hartel] “Actually I had some different documentation that came on the CD”

Be sure that you are NOT using the drivers from the CD and download the latest drivers for your version of Final Cut and your version of the Kona from AJA.com. The latest are 5.1 NDD

[Paul Hartel]

Thanks. No, I do have all the latest drivers. They were downloaded from the website.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Cool. Just checking as you said CD. The ReadMe and install notes should come downloaded with the latest drivers. It has pictures and explanations in there as well.

Cheers.

Jeremy

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Jeremy Garchow] “The latest are 5.1 NDD”

If you use Shake, the 5.1 NDD driver is not compatible with Shake. There’s another 5.1 driver that is compatible with Shake. If you’re not a Shake user, use the NDD driver.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Arnie Schlissel] “There’s another 5.1 driver that is compatible with Shake. If you’re not a Shake user, use the NDD driver.”

Good call.

5.1 NDD is also for users of 10.5.2.

Jeremy