[Bob Zelin]

you have not described the system. I have no idea of what VTR’s you are using with your Kona 3. As Walter pointed out, a Horita BSG-50 will work just fine – just make sure to get some BNC terminators as well, becuase when you plug the Horita into the Ref Input of the Kona 3 K3Box (which has a looping input), the horita will appear to not work, because the input is not terminated.

Please list the VTR’s you are using with this system.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I use the same Sonnet arrays that Ken uses, but I get them from Ron Amborn at Maxx Digital in California (714) 374 4944. As Ken said, you get the Sonnet E4P card for the PCI-Express MAC’s or the Sonnet X4P card for the PCI-X (older) MAC G5’s. There is NO SOFTWARE to install – it just plugs in and works. You plug the Sonnet SATA card into the Sonnet Fusion 500P chassis, with 5 drives – I ususally use 5 500 Gig Hitachi drives (for 2.5 Terabytes), but I have JUST TRIED the new Seagate 750 Gig SATA drives – the 7200.10 series, and they work great ! So you can put 3.75 Terabytes in one Sonnet Chassis.

With 5 drives all striped RAID 0 using Apple Disk Utility, you will have no problems doing 8 and 10 bit SDI and DVCProHD and HDV. I have found that 5 drives is NOT ENOUGH to do 8 and 10 bit uncompressed HD, but if you get TWO Sonnet 500 P Chassis (just like Ken said), with 10 drives, all stripped RAID 0, you can do uncomressed 8 and 10 bit HD with no problems.

Remember – you can plug FOUR Sonnet Fusion 500P chassis into one Sonnet E4P card – that will give you LOTS of storage.

You can also get SATA chassis that work from ProMax – they are a great company, and have great support as well.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Ed is correct.
Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I have never seen a question like this. When you ask “should I choose MAC or PC” – you are basically asking – “should I choose Final Cut Pro (on MAC) or Adobe Premier (on PC). The decision of what software you should use to edit with is VERY IMPORTANT and a personal preference. Your editor should make this decision, based on what he likes to edit with.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Andrea –
don’t be confused – just listen to me. The “do everything” package is the combination of –
1) AJA I/O (the full I/O box)
1) AJA Kona 3
1) AJA K3-Box

If you buy ALL THREE of these items, you will be able to do EVERYTHING, with no excuses.
If you want to save money, then you can remain confused as to what you should do. The Kona LHe is an excellent choice if you want to save money. In my opinion, $5000 is not that much money to spend to do EVERYTHING – up, down, cross convert, all SD and HD formats. If you are serious about working with the CineAlta (which costs $100,000), then don’t tell me that you can’t afford to buy all the correct AJA components.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

In my opinion, you should buy either the AJA I/O or I/O LA right now, so you can use it with your Beta VTR’s. This is very inexpensive, and works with ANY MAC computer – powerbook, PCI-X or PCI-E. THEN, when you buy a new MAC G5 tower (like a Quad or MAC Pro), you can add the Kona 3, and use it with your AJA I/O. If you just get the I/O LA (for analog composite and component only), it’s only $995. This is what Walter owns for his system. (he also owns a Kona 2).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

YES !

[Bob Zelin]

YOU WRITE –
I’m connected via Component and Analog in and out to the deck. I also have my SDI going to our DSR-1800. I have deck control, I can black and code (using FCP), I can capture, I can even Edit To Tape, and get fine results. BUT, if I just open edit to tape or log and capture in FCP, there are weird tracking lines all over the screen and a strange noise coming from the speakers. Almost like there’s a crossed signal or it’s over amplified or something

REPLY – I am guessing here, but it sounds lke you have the audio and video from the PVW2800 hooked up directly to the audio and video of the AJA I/O – no mixer, no patch bay. When you open up Log and Capture, and you are not playing the tape, you have created a FEEDBACK LOOP – in to out, and out to in – this happens to every system that is hoooked up this way. IF you disconnect the audio input of the VTR, the strange noise will disappear. If you simply lower the RECORD LEVELS of your PVW2800, this problem will disappear. If you had a mixer in line, you would raise and lower faders accordingly, but you probably don’t have a mixer in line.

For the video, make sure that you have BLACK going into the Ref Video input of your PVW-2800, and the Reference IN of your AJA I/O and make sure that you have a 75 ohm BNC terminator on your AJA I/O Ref IN loop. Monitor the output of your AJA I/O, and you will be fine.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

NEVER select RGB ever again – everything you own, and everything else that everyone else owns in the 21st century is Beta component Y Pb Pr, or Y R-Y B-Y. No broadcast video products use RGB. Even “back then” it was RGBHV, which was RGB with external horizontal and vertical sync. Early Truevision products has sync on Green for RGB, but this ain’t 1980 anymore. RGB is refered to because of those “damn” Adobe After Effects artists (and the few exclusive Discreet Inferno guys), but in the real world – RGB does not apply to us. Switch your menu’s to Beta Component, and your problem will be gone.

Bob ZElin

[Bob Zelin]

for a short run, you can really use anything (but not a Radio Shack RCA cable with BNC adaptors on it !). You should really be using a piece of Belden 1505A or Belden 1694A with high quality connectors on it from Kings or Amphenol. Gepco VPM2000 works great too, as does Canare HD cable. You can order all this stuff from http://www.markertek.com. But like I said, if it’s a 5′ run from the HD Pro to the HD Link – a generic RG59 video cable will do just fine.

Bob Zelin