Walter B – Kona 3 ??

[Michael Gissing]

Have you considered Blackmagic cards with the G5? I am very happy with my HD extreme. If you are only doing SD, the SD Blackmagic cards are very reasonably priced.

[Walter Biscardi]

[edit] ”
Where is the best price and performance for getting a Kona 3 and Apple G5 these days….”

Ok, are you talking G5 or the new Mac Pro? They’re two completely different machines.

I own two Kona 3’s. One is running in a G5 Quad 2.5 with 4GB RAM and stock Apple Graphics card. One is running the Mac Pro Quad 3.0 with ATI 1900 Graphics card and 4GB RAM. We also run a Kona 2 in an older model G5 Dual 2.0.

All are outstanding, all are supported by the best support team in the business. If you’re coming from CineWave, you can’t make a better choice than AJA. I’ve tested other products and nothing works like the Kona series.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[edit] “The big question is can I still use my Atto Ul3D card for my Medea RTRX??”

PCI-X cards do NOT work in the G5 Quad or any Mac Pro machine. You will need to purchase a PCIe card. But yes, your RTRX should work just fine with the new machines. Check with Med

[13]

“You have a Kona 3, is it in a G5 dual intel 3gigs”

Is it a G5 or an intel, it cant be both

[Galen Yeo]

Guys,

Which card is better? Does one offer better performance for RT / renders?

Thanks in advance

GY

[Walter Biscardi]

[tmvc] “Which card is better? Does one offer better performance for RT / renders?”

Depends on your budget and needs. I tested both products when I switched from CineWave and I now own three Kona boards.

AJA has a very tight relationship with the FCP team so they are generally first with the software updates as FCP updates and the new machines come out. They have the best tech support in the business. Their hardware is is used for small live events like the World Series and Super Bowl so it’s used in very critical broadcast situations. That actually says more to me than just about anything because anything used for live broadcast has to work and work everytime. Their tech support is second to none in the industry.

As for added RT, the Kona boards add RT to the DVCPro HD and HDV codecs by doing the realtime scaling for FCP so the processors can work on filters and effects. The Kona 3 is the all everything board that offers HD/SD SD UPconvert to HD, HD downconvert to SD along with 720-1080i / 1080i-720 cross conversion.

You’ll need to research both the BlackMagic and AJA forums here on the Cow to see what folks are saying about both and make your own decision. You pay more for the Kona boards, but in my opinion this is on case where you get what you pay for.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Gary Adcock]

[Michael G] “Have you considered Blackmagic cards with the G5?”

Like Walter, I choose to go with Kona, because of their reputation in the industry and the quality of the products before the launch of the kona line.

Many people just use price as the only consideration for purchases,but forget there are many things that are involved, AJA’s tech support is unrivaled in the industry, they produce the highest quality products that save me enormous amounts of time, the only commodity in my business that I cannot replace. I could work on a home built PC too, but I choose to work on a Mac, why should I settle for anything but the best.

Cost is not the only factor to be considered, pre-sale and post-sale support, rendering and what other features you need, but the Kona card saves me time, and in my business time is more valuable than anything else- it is the one thing I waste as little as I possibly can. When it comes to working in live events or when the need is for the highest quality production, people are choosing Kona.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Jerry Hofmann]

I suppose I should chime in here too… same reasons as the other two COW leaders… we choose to use AJA products because they work, they never cut a corner, and the tech support is something to behold… If you go down one single day with a capture card, you could lose a lot more money over what you save with the competitive cards.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Galen Yeo]

thanks guys. will do more research

[Bill Aaron]

how about the LHe AJA. Not quite into HD yet, and still need the SD capabilitiues. How many raltime layers, etc? Using macpro with 2 tb sata internal, 4 g ram.