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Kona SD with Decklink 4.8 in G5 problems
Hi,
We have a Kona SD system that has given us great results in our Dual G4. The G4 died recently and we put the Kona into our new G5 with Dual 2ghz.
This system has Tiger 10.4.2 and QT 7.0.1 preinstalled. The other card installed is a Seritek in the 133mhz slot. We installed Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD and installed the Decklink 4.8 drivers.The problem I have is the SDI output is bad with lines and specks of black on the image when playing back captured clips from FC Pro or BM Deck Control.
It’s the same with any codec I choose. It also has lines and specks on playback of the stock color bars from FC Pro so it appears any clips do this.The image looks fine when on a still frame or the desktop. It also looks fine during capture with no apparent degrading on the SDI output. Only upon playback does it go bad. I know the supported config with Tiger is FC Pro 5 with decklink 5.0 but I have not installed FC Pro 5 yet. Do you think this is the problem?
Dave
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3 Replies
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Hi Dave,
Might you describe the specks as “sparkles”? If so, this is a known firmware issue with older Kona SD cards and G5’s. The firmware chip will need to be replaced or reprogrammed to overcome this problem. The good news is that once the card has been returned with updated firmware, it will work fine in G5’s. If your card was purchased before or around the time that G5’s were introduced (I think that was September 2003), then you will need the update for compatibility.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Luke,
Yup, this was my problem. The Kona SD card needs to be swapped out through aja’s support. I might add that it’s no cost to Kona SD owners with this problem. I spend a good three hours of trouble shooting before I gave up and called aja.
Other than that the Decklink pkg works great.
Thanks for your help
Dave
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Hi Dave,
That is great news and once you receive the replacement card, you should have no problems using it with Mac OS X 10.3.8 and you can even use it with Tiger and the DeckLink 5.0 drivers. The Kona SD card acts just like any other DeckLink standard definition card when you use these drivers and you can find the latest Kona SD information in our support notes. The latest DeckLink drivers should keep your Kona SD working well on your new G5 and you can take advantage of the new features in Tiger, Final Cut Pro HD 5.0 and DeckLink 5.0 drivers when you feel like upgrading in the future.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design
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