[Bob Zelin]

The Cal Digit S2VR will absolutely do 10 bit uncompressed HD, in the 5 drive configuration. Other manufacturers, like Sonnet, will do uncompressed HD with 10 drives (as will the CalDigit), but if budget is a concern, the CalDigit is the only 5 drive SATA II array that will perform at these speeds.
With that said, most people are dealing with DVCProHD, HDV, DNx220, and other compressed HD formats, that do not require the 230mb/sec that the 5 drive CAL Digit S2VR will do. If you put two 5 drive bays onto a SATA card (Sonnet or CalDigit) and stripe all 10 together RAID 0, you will get over 450mb/sec – far exceeding what 1080i HD-SDI uncompressed demands. YES, this is dramatically faster than a 14 drive Apple XServe RAID.

The Ciprico HUGE Systems fibre channel arrays are amazing, the customer support is superior, and the only bad thing I have to say about them is that they cost more than the SATA products on the market today.

Bob Zelin (I couldn’t think of anything nasty to say, but I will work on it).

[Bob Zelin]

there is not a product manufactured today that can do anything but DV25 video from a FW400 drive. FW400 is useless for any application, other than DV25 (and with the low cost of FW800 these days, why would you even bother to try).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Bob –
when you say “or indeed FCP” – how do you propose that you will get a Betacam 8 bit uncompressed SD signal upconverted to uncompressed 10 bit 1080i HD-SDI, with just FCP, in real time, unless you have a piece of HARDWARE to do this ?

Please explain.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Everyone here is correct. I too am testing the Cal-Digit, and it in fact, does rock. Let me put it simply, it BLOWS THE DOORS off of any firewire product ever developed. There are other SATA solutions on the market as well, that will work for you too. I don’t know what type of computer you have, but if it’s a new MAC Pro, and you have no money, you can stick two SATA drives inside the computer, and you will get dramatically better performance than any firewire array.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If you are off 1 or 2 seconds, something is very wrong. I would uninstall and reinstall the AJA drivers, and if you have the same problem, I would call AJA tech support.

Please tell me the VTR that you are digitizing from .

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The Kona 3 and Kona LHe are both excellent products, and will not be obsolete, until Apple releases the NEXT computer, which will make everything incompatible. We have no control over this – only Apple knows.

If you do not care about upconversion from SD to HD, the Kona LHe is an excellent purchase. The Kona 3 has no capability for you to input from Beta VTR’s or analog composite sources. The Kona LHe does it all. With that said, if you do need to UPCONVERT standard def to HD, there is no choice but to get the AJA Kona 3. If you still need to use Beta and composite video sources, the additonal purchase of the AJA I/O AND the AJA Kona 3 will let you do absolutely everything. If cost is no object (and cost is always an object), the Kona 3 and AJA I/O is the best combination.

Both products offer the same warantee.

Bob ZElin

[Bob Zelin]

you write –

“Apple can not fix it. The replaced the power supply, the logic board and the processors. Nothing! ”

REPLY –
boy, does this say it all, or what ! What the HELL does this mean – they can’t fix it. I feel your pain. You should go up the ladder to Apple corporate and complain. There is no way that they changed the power supply, logic board and RAM,and it still does not boot up (I can only assume you don’t have a simple drive issue).

Worst case, you should be able to find a used dual 2.7 Gig G5 -it’s a great computer – unfortunately not with great support.

Don’t give up with bitching to Apple. In the mean time, get a used dual 2.7.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

boy, I don’t know. It’s a 1 lane card, and it’s PCIe. It should probably go into Slot 2 of your MAC Pro, your Kona in 3, and your real future storage in slot 4.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

1 or 2 seconds is not 4 frames. How are you monitoring your audio. You CANNOT monitor your audio on the internal MAC G5 speaker. You MUST monitor your audio from the output of your Kona LHe card. Are you doing this ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
this is not a Cal Digit forum, but I will be brief. I checked the 5 drive system, at RAID 0. Protected mode is RAID 1, not RAID 3 or 5, so this is mirroring, which kills half your storage. The 5 drive system writes about 210mb/sec and reads about 230mb/sec, which is fast enough for uncompressed HD. The 10 drive system is obviously much faster because you are creating your raid across more drives, but it will be a lot more money. If you are ok with RAID 1, the 10 drive system will give you the same storage capacity as a RAID 0 5 drive sysetm. Most people want to spend as little as possible, and SATA is incredibly reliable, so most people will stick with the 5 drive S2VR. It’s a great product.

bob Zelin