[Bob Zelin]

yes, the AJA HI5 will convert HD-SDI to HDMI. I believe that Blackmagic also offers a similar HD-SDI to HDMI converter. But your Samsung also has analog component HD inputs, which you can feed directly from your AJA product without any converters.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Jason –
this is what you are going to do. If you don’t follow my instructions, I am going to beat you senseless.

Download the AJA I/O Control Panel V1.1. Forget Final Cut Pro for now.

Plug your Beta VTR into the AJA I/O. Plug the composite video out of your AJA I/O into your TV. Open up the AJA I/O Pro I/O Control Panel in the Applications folder of your MAC. Go to the analog input tab, and select component video (beta). Play your Beta tape in your Beta VTR – do you see a picture on your TV, coming thru your AJA I/O ? If you do not, download the AJA I/O drivers from the website again, load the analog drivers, and try the Pro I/O control panel again. If this still does not work, take the BNC cable coming out of your AJA I/O box, and stick this into the BNC output of your Beta VTR. Do you see a picture now, from your Beta VTR into your TV? If you do, you have a problem with the AJA I/O box.

The AJA Pro I/O Control Panel is there to help you identify if you have a problem with your AJA I/O box. This will eliminate any wacky setting that you may have on your FCP software.

Jason – I had this exact problem yesterday with a client, that neglected to tell me that they installed a new version of FCP, and did not reload the AJA drivers. I reloaded the AJA I/O drivers, and everything started to work .

Bob ZElin

[Bob Zelin]

Dave –
One CalDigit S2VR (the one walter is getting) will do uncompressed HD. If you use TWO CalDigit or Sonnet Chassis stripped RAID 0, you will get over 450mb/sec, and this will work very well for uncompressed HD. Will it outperform the big Ciprico Fibre array when it starts to get full – probably not, but it will absolutely work.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

well, you just answered the question – you are using a FW drive with no dropped frames, but when you use your SCSI array, you have problems. SOMEONE has to check your SCSI array – you could have a firmware issue with your SCSI card, you could have SCSI cable issues, you could have a firmware issue with the array controller itself (if there is a controller card in the array).

If you can work with your FW drive, but not your SCSI array, of course the best thing to do is to reinit the array with Apple Disk Utility at RAID 0 with no partitions, but I dont’ know if you can afford to do this. In addition, if you have the incorrect SCSI driver loaded for your operating system, this still won’t help. Someone with some technical ability needs to assist you, and you may not be able to rely on your dealer.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

When you find this solution, you let me know. There are countless people out there that do multi camera shoots, that would love a solution like this, but to my knowlege, a solution like this does not exist.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Boy, you don’t like typing details. I am going to assume that you have an ATTO UL3D or UL4D, running in a single buss configuration, because you only have 5 drives, and they are probably one one buss (not split between two busses). Because you say they are partitioned, I assume you are using
ATTO Express Stripe or Soft RAID, because you can’t do this with Apple Disk Utility.

You have said that you have done this before, but 5 drives really are not enough if you are doing uncompressed HD (is that what you are doing ? or is it standard def). Can you do DVCProHD without drop frames? If you can, run the Blackmagic or AJA speed disk test, and report back your results. To do uncompressed HD, you will need over 220mb/sec write speed time to get this to work without dropped frames. How come you didn’t create a single RAID 0 array, just using Apple Disk Utility?

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

when you go into Audio/Video settings, you are changing the INPUT. All outputs are always active – whether you like it or not !

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Sam –
of course, anything is possible, but if you are getting dropped frames with standard def DV50, on a drive array that is doing 260mb/sec with AJA Kona system test, something is DEFINATELY wrong here.

It is my strong suggestion that before you drive yourself completely crazy, you get another drive – I don’t care if it’s an internal SATA, and external Firewire 800, or SOMETHING, and try to digitize on that (with DV50 standard def), and see if you get dropped frames. It makes no sense that you are getting this, but becuase Medea and Ciprico (HUGE) are at the mercy of the firmware on their controller cards, anything is possible, but if you don’t try another drive to make sure that it’s not your system, you will never know, and can be “chasing your tail”.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

describe your drive array – how many SCSI drives in your system, what brand, what speed are the drives? Is it a Medea, a HUGE System, a StorCase, a home made systems – do you have 2 drives, or 8 drives? Do you have an ATTO UL5D card, or do you have an old Adaptec SCSI card? All of this makes a BIG difference.

Please send info, for further support.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

this is incorrect information. Both the Sonnet and Cal Digit will do uncompressed HD with 10 drives. But the Cal Digit will do uncompressed HD with 5 drives (the Sonnet will not). With 10 drives, you will get over 450mb/sec with both systems – faster than an Apple XServe RAID.

Bob Zelin
ps – as for the smart ass comments – if I can’t make them, why should I even be alive ?