[Bob Zelin]

this is not confusing at all. You want to monitor everything in component, and you don’t have enough inputs. Welcome to everyone’s problem. As you expand, and buy more toys, it will become more and more difficult to figure out how to plug all this stuff in – from one machine to another. You have 3 choices –
1) video patch bays
2) video routers (more expensive)
3) buy a dedicated component monitor just for your VTR (no one would do this).

“But isn’t there a cheap way to hook up all this equipment exactly the way I want” –
NO !

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I am not in front of a system –
go to Audio/Video Settings, and select the last tab (Playback) and make sure
that a Kona preset is selected, not internal audio.

If there are no Kona presets, reload your Kona drivers, and try again. If there still are no Kona presets after doing this, trash your FCP preferences, and load the Kona drivers again.

You can also forget FCP, and just run your VTR into your Kona (if you have a DVCProHD VTR for example) – using the Kona Control Panel. You should be able to hear your audio right away from this application, as long as you have embedded audio chosen on your INPUT tab. If it’s selected to AES, and you have no AES audio going into your K3 box, you aint’ gonna hear nothing.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Steve –
I did not look at the Granite Digital chassis. If you use a Cal Digit or Sonnet Fusion chassis, these products can be use not only for backup, but for actual work. A single Cal Digit S2VR chassis will give you identical performance to your expensive Xserve RAID. There is ABSOLULTELY no problem in running all 3 cards (Kona, SATA host, and Apple FC card) in the same G5. It works just fine. All the SATA guys have rack mounted solutions that are either out now, or about to come out. But a simple small 5 bay port multipler SATA box will handle all of your back up needs – or drives for REAL performance (not just backup).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Paul –

If you get a Kona LH, you can take the Panasonic HD VTR into the HD-SDI input. If you use Digi Beta, you use the same SDI input to go from Digi Beta into your Kona LH. If you have Beta, you go into the analog component inputs of your Kona LH. If you need to UPCONVERT your SD material (like Beta) to HD, because you are doing more and more HD projects, then forget the Kona LH and get the combo of the AJA I/O and the Kona 3. At this time, you will also “retire” your firewire drives, and move up to SATA drives (like Cal Digit). This way, your firewire buss is used only for the AJA I/O, and everything else is in a PCI slot – including your storage.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If you own the K3 Box, you use the RCA outputs with RCA-XLR cables to feed your Beta VTR. If you don’t own
the K3 box – buy the K3 box – because it’s cheaper than buying an AES – analog converter to accomplish what you want to do.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

dear mr. orgeon –
The entire Beta format has been discontinued by Sony for over a year now. The “broadcast” model – the
BVW-75 and BVW-70 have been discontinued for over 10 years now. The PVW-2800 was introduced as an industrial/coporate video product – not meant to compete with the BVW series, but everyone bought it at the time, because it was $15,000 at the time, as opposed to $35,000 for the BVW-75. Sony wanted to get “the rest” of the market, like education, and introduced the UVW-1800. Professionals at the time all said that the UVW series was complete junk, but at it’s $8000 price point, everyone bought the UVW-1800. It became so popular, that this “piece of junk” became the most popular Beta VTR of all time. No one ever rejected a tape becuase it was recorded on a UVW-1800.

If anyone is trying to sell you a “new” Beta VTR, they are lying to you. These products are old. A typical UVW-1800 can be purchased in the used market for $4000. I can’t imagine BVW-75’s being sold for much more than this, as these machines are all about 10-15 years old.

Sony will continue this business practice in the future – as we now observe the “soon to be released”
Sony HDW-1800, which is the “cheapo” HD Cam VTR (compared to the now discontinued HDW-F500 which was the broadcast machine for $90,000). I am sure that all owners of the HDW-F500 will call the HDW-1800 a piece of junk, the day it is released.

Welcome to the video business.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

the Kona LH card is a fantastic product – but if you are planning on going to HD in the near future, but just need SD right now – there is NO QUESTION in my mind that the combination of the AJA I/O and the Kona 3 is far superior to simply purchasing the Kona LH or LHe. Why? Because of UPCONVERSION TO HD. You have clients, and these clients have all this Beta footage, and they will want it in their new HD projects in the future. The Kona LH will NOT up convert. Let me be clear here. No Blackmagic product will upconvert either. You need the Kona 3 to do this (or Kona 2 in an older system).

I don’t think anyone ever said “damn, why did I buy that stupid AJA I/O box”.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Jeremy has an excellent explanation. The HD10AVA was designed for HDV VTR’s to get the analog HD signal and analog audio off of a Sony or JVC HDV VTR (like the BR-HD50, HVRM-10U, HVRM25U, etc.) – and convert all this analog HD stuff to HD-SDI for the Kona 3.

You certainly can use the HD10AVA to convert a Beta VTR to a SDI signal, and then send this into your Kona 3, but IN MY STUPID OPINION – you are just killing yourself with all these combinations. In my opinion, everyone who works in SD should own an AJA I/O box. Then, when you graduate to HD, you buy the Kona 3, and use your investment to UPCONVERT your analog stuff to SDI, which will then get upresed by the Kona 3 to HD.
Much more elegant (with the nice Pro I/O and Kona control panels, instead of a bunch of little switches).

You see – too many choices make things so confusing !

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Jeremy is correct, and correct in asking why.
The Kona LH does composite, component, SDI and HD-SDI (the only thing it doesn’t do is upconvert SDI to HD-SDI). So you absolutely can use the I/O as a converter to bring a Beta VTR (for example) thru the I/O and into the SDI input of the Kona LH – but you can do this just with the Kona LH (and not use the I/O at all).

If you want to UPCONVERT to HD, you can’t use the LH – you must use the Kona 3, and for this, the I/O is perfect.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If you get the I/O instead of the I/O LA, you will be able to use the I/O to convert to SDI, and let the Kona UPCONVERT to HD-SDI for you. This means, that if your client submits a Beta tape to you, you can pass it thru your Beta VTR, into the I/O, have it come out SDI, and send this signal into the
Kona 3, where you will see glorius HD from your Beta SD signal, on your HD
Diamond Vision screen.

This is the way to go. The HD10AVA also let you convert your Beta VTR into
SDI for this application.

Bob Zelin