Mid-price FCP 7 system components

[Alan Okey]

Capture card: AJA Kona LHi

Preview monitor: Flanders Scientific (FSI) LM-1760W

[Shane Ross]

I recommend the Matrox MXO2 over the Kona LHi…mainly because it can output 16 channels of embedded audio via SDI, and the LHi only does 8. And I have had to output 12 channels before. But beyond that, they are darn similar.

I agree with the 1760W. Great mid-range monitor. I desire one myself…badly. I have worked on other peoples stations with that, and the 2460. Drool.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Marshall Thompson]

Thanks, Shane and Alan. Boy those monitors are not cheap but you get what you pay for. Would you consider the iKan 17″ monitor? I’ve read it does not do so well with SD, but it’s $1,000.00 cheaper. On tghe Matrox vs Kona issue, the Matrox does offer hardware acceleration for h.264 and the Kona does the same for DVCPRO HD. Thoughts?

[Shane Ross]

[Marshall Thompson] ” the Matrox does offer hardware acceleration for h.264 and the Kona does the same for DVCPRO HD. Thoughts?”

You are misreading specs. No hardware acceleration is offered for DVCPRO HD. What that means, and most cards offer this, is that the SCALING of anamorphic formats, like DVCPRO HD, HDV…is taken on by the card, so that the computer processors have a little less weight on their shoulders to do other things. But the Matrox, AJA and Decklink cards all offer this.

The H.264 acceleration is the MAX technology, that is an extra cost on the card, and is used with Compressor to speed up encoding h.264 Qts and BluRay.

[Marshall Thompson] “Boy those monitors are not cheap but you get what you pay for.”

I guess you haven’t looked around. That is the median level for broadcast monitors. They go from $2400 to $50,000. The FSI monitors are top tier in terms of quality, but VERY reasonably priced.

I have no experience with that iKan. But I know from a friend that they are not really all that good. You can also look at a Panasonic Pro Plasma (not a basic HDTV…higher end), and the HDMI out of the MXO2. The MXO2 offers pro controls for proper calibration of HTDVs. Same tools that the MXO has…if you click on my head up top you’ll find a review I wrote for the MXO.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Marshall Thompson]

Shane, great article on setting up the MXO to monitor on an Apple Cinema display. It happens I own a 20″ aluminum bezel one so this is welcome information. Creative Cow has the best video producer’s resources on the Web. I’m more of a writer/director/shooter so the help I get on general editing and FCP issues here is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[Shane Ross]

FYI, this won’t work on the 20″. That doesn’t have full pixel for pixel like the 23″ does. That goes to 1920×1200. The extra 120 (from 1920×1080) are just black on the top and bottom. So it looks great. the 20″…might not look so good, unless you work with 720p footage pixel for pixel.

And that was ONLY with the original MXO. The MXO2 doesn’t have DVI out, so it won’t work on computer monitors. Even with an adapter. Yes, I tried.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Marshall Thompson]

Well, shut my mouth! So, back to pursuing an optimal and mid-priced digital i/o with accurate video monitoring, do you have another recommendation? MXO2 does not have HDMI monitoring?

[Shane Ross]

Who said the MXO2 DIDN’T have HDMI monitoring? I said it did. The article refers to the MXO…NOT the MXO2. The MXO and MXO2 are different. MXO is output only, but offers DVI, SDI, Component, Composite, S-viddeo. MXO2 is INPUT and OUTPUT…and offers SDI, Component, COmposite, S-video and HDMI.

The MXO will work with computer displays

The MXO2 will not.

I mentioned that the MXO2, with a good Panasonic Pro Plasma would be a good bet.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def