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Multibridge Pro vs. Kona LHe
Hey guys…not looking for a flame session…I’m in the process of finalizing an order for a new Mac Pro and I’d like to hear what users think the benefits of the Multibridge Pro are over the AJA Kona LHe (with BOB). To me they seem very similar and are fairly evenly priced products. I’ve heard the Multibridges have had reliability issues, but I’m a happy Blackmagic Decklink SP user for the past 3+ years. Not sure if I should try AJA or stick with BM. Any thoughts, or gotchas, are welcome. The new Mac Pro will be the dual 3 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI X1900 video card, connected to a 3.5 TB Xraid. Thanks a lot, Brian
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8 Replies
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Hi Brian,
Please check out the DeckLink HD Extreme as I believe it may have the features that you want at a very attractive price. The DeckLink HD Extreme is a PCI Express card whereas the Multibridge Pro is an external box that connects via PCI Express. It is very similar to the DeckLink HD Extreme but also includes HDMI monitoring and can be used as a standalone convertor when not connected to your Mac. This is nice as most capture cards become out of date after 2 or 3 years but the Multibridge Pro will still provide service as a digital to analog and analog to digital convertor long after it’s days as a capture/playback device are over. The current generation Multibridges are very reliable as is the DeckLink HD Extreme. They also run on both Mac and Windows and the drivers for both platforms are a free download from our web site.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
The new Mac Pro will be the dual 3 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI X1900 video card, connected to a 3.5 TB Xraid.
Brian,
You might want to look into the ram issue before getting the 6 gb of ram. There is some sort of issue
with the ram handling on the Mac Pro. At this point anything above 2gb is wasted. Just thought I would give
you a heads up so that you could explore that a little further.Jerry Hatfield
Six Gill DV
Orlando, Florida -
Hi Jerry,
This is interesting. We don’t see any issues with up to 8 GB of RAM. Can you let us know what the issue is?
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
I’m definitely looking for something with a BOB. I’d like to get away from the hassle of climbing behind the deck to make cabling changes. Thanks for the info! Any feedback from users in regards to performance, reliability, etc?
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It appears to happen with kona cards and atto controllers. Scroll down this forum until you come
across the thread about the atto cards. I just thought I would mention the post. If it is not
true, great!Jerry Hatfield
Six Gill DV
Orlando, Florida -
It appears to happen with atto controllers. Scroll down this forum until you come
across the thread about the atto cards. I just thought I would mention the post. If it is not
true, great!Jerry Hatfield
Six Gill DV
Orlando, Florida -
Hi Brian,
Be careful, you might end up with a BOB Zelin 😉
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Jerry,
In order for PCIe cards to work with more than 2 GB of RAM in the Mac Pro, the cards need a complete 64-bit PCIe implementation. If a card is running at 32-bit, then it will be limited to 2 GB of RAM.
All DeckLink PCIe cards and Multibridge PCIe hardware have a complete 64-bit PCIe implemenation and so you can use the maximum amount of RAM that the Mac Pro can take. 2 GB of RAM is really the minimum that one should consider for video work in the new machines.
As you have noted, some third party cards may limit a Mac Pro to using a maximum of 2 GB of RAM. If a SCSI, Fibre Channel or SATA card only has a 32-bit PCIe implementation, then you will need to confine the memory to 2 GB of RAM even though DeckLink and Multibridge support more. It is also worth checking with the vendors of those cards to see if they can support over 2 GB of RAM.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design
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