[Bob Zelin]

If you are getting 260mb/sec with AJA Kona system test, something else is going on, and it’s not defrag problems. I hate to ask this silly question, but are you sure that your System Settings is set to record media on the Medea, and not on the internal drive? What resolution are you working at (SD, HD, 8 bit, 10 bit, DVCProHD, etc.),

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

your Kona has analog outputs for montitoring. Buy a mixer, like you are being told to do. This is what everyone does – this is the correct thing to do. You are not going to use software to adjust your volume.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I agree – for standard def, both the Sonnet solution and the Cal Digit are teriffic, and very reliable. You can get both from Maxxdigital in california. The CalDigit is the only 5 drive solution that can do uncompressed HD, however.

Bob Zelin

ps – enough with the M100

[Bob Zelin]

Hey Dan –
I hate your analogy of “no one has developed an NLE like one that Discreet did 10 years ago”. I come from the old linear world, and it is beyond me that 15 years ago, we could push a button on an ADO or KScope (or DVEous which was in discreet edit for 10 minutes), and do effects instantly , where today, we have to be in render hell. Every one of these products has their advantages. FCP is fantastic because of AJA and Blackmagic hardware available to it. AJA is the old Grass Valley guys, and the image resolution from FCP because of AJA is incredible- this has NOTHING to do with Apple. The AVID Nitris can do 4:4:4 input only because they license the Xena card from AJA. So don’t give me “FCP is crap”.

With all of this said, all these NETWORK big money shows are being done with AVID Adrenaline and FCP, and only the houses that are trying to charge top dollar (mostly from 35mm film transfer) are using Nitris. It’s a fantastic box – no question about it – but it’s EXPENSIVE, and most people that are doing MAJOR WORK are not using it. I do the same stuff you do – corporate video, training videos, sales videos, presentations, local spots. For this you DO NOT NEED UNCOMPRESSED HD. Take the extra money, and buy yourself a BMW.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Ben –
your dropped frames are due to a drive issue. Run AJA Kona System Test on the HUGE array, and report back your results, in read and write speeds in mb/sec. This will help determine what is going on. I am not there, and for all I know, you client is trying to record on the internal hard drive of the MAC.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Fazz,
if your primary market is training and corporate video, the Adrenaline HD is MORE than enough for your application. The entire AVID line is dramatically more stable on the PC platform than on the MAC – you are thinking about the Windows NT days – this is 2006, and everything is rock solid with XP (but no so much on OS-X) with AVID.

The Adrenaline is the industry standard, and the Nitris is the Bentley for those that can afford it (which is usually LA companies doing network shows). Most “hi end” AVID owners are Adrenaline owners (or older Meridian owners, like the original Symphony). Your response is from the “lucky few” that can afford the Nitris. Again, for your application, the Adrenaline is perfectly fine.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I have no idea of what motherboard you are using, but you need two different busses to keep the firewires on. On a HP xw8000 or xw8200, the native Firewire port is on one buss, which is shared with slots 1 and 2 on the motherboard, so if you plugged in a firewire card to one of those slots, you get the exact problem you are having. However, if you move the same firewire card to slots 3, 4 or 5, you are on a different buss, so there is no conflict between the firewire for the camera, and the firewire for the drives.

I had a client that built a bare bones AVID Xpress DV system on a HP xw4100 which had no native firewire ports, and they could not get the system to work because of the buss conflict issue.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The LHe uses the AJA KL box. It gives you Analog component OR analog composite output – not both at the same time. If you dont’ want to monitor thru your VTR, you UNPLUG the cable from the AJA KL Video Out Y, and plug this into your TV composite video input, switch the Kona Control Panel analog out tab to COMPOSITE VIDEO, and you will see a picture. The “junction box” is called a Video DA, and you can purchase a small video DA from Markertek – companies like Horita, and Kramer make them. They cost about $300 or less. And no, there is no “Y” cable that you can split a video signal with. If you are using a professional video TV monitor, they all have “looping” inputs, so you can take the Y Out of the Kona, go into the TV, and loop off the input into the Beta VTR. The problem with doing this, is that when you swtich to COMPONENT output to feed the Beta VTR, you will only see a B+W signal on your TV. The AJA Kona LHe does NOT offer composite and component at the same time – it’s one or the other, and I know this is a pain for you.

YES, you need a black generator. Buy a Horita BSG-50, stick one black signal into the REFEERNCE INPUT of your Kona KL box, and one black signal into the REF VIDEO IN of your PVW-2800 VTR. Make sure you TERMINATE the input of the Kona KL box with a 75 ohm BNC terminiator, and throw the 75 ohm switch on the Beta 2800. Then your black sync line will go away.

Do you need to buy all this stuff –
YES.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

firewire from the HDV camera into the laptop. You will need an AJA HDP to convert the DVI output of the laptop to HD-SDI, and then another AJA converter to downconvert the HD signal to analog composite. If you have the money for a Panasonic BT-HL1700, that has an HD input, you can feed the output of the AJA HDP right into the panasonic to see a video signal.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

What is the real reason for your question? Are you trying to determine what
drives to use with your system to 10 bit uncompressed video ?

Bob Zelin