[Bob Zelin]

Digi Beta is a 4:2:2 signal (it has compression on it) – even in old linear rooms, it was not a RGB 4:4:4 path.

Working with DVCPro50 will use the DVCPro compression codec (which looks very good), but it is not uncompressed video. Up until recently, much of the world considered Digi Beta uncompressed video (except for the purists who would only use the old Sony D1 or Panasonic D5 VTR’s) – but now the HD world purists want Sony SR series dual link 4:4:4 only.

It’s all a bunch of hooey – Digi Beta 4:2:2 8 bit uncompressed looks fantastic – and gets rejected by no TV broadcaster anywhere. It’s been this way before the AVID was even an accepted product (and Blackmagic and AJA were just a dream).

To re-answer your question, a Digi Beta VTR supplies an “uncompressed” 4:2:2 signal coming out of it’s SDI BNC connector – if you consider 4:2:2 to be uncompressed (which most people do).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

basically, you want to do EVERYTHING, including up and down conversion (and up conversion is the key here, as no Blackmagic card can do this currently) – SO – what you want is a combination of the AJA I/O (the full box) and the AJA Kona 3, AND the AJA HD10AVA (for your HDV product). If you did not want upconversion, you could have just chosen the AJA Kona LHe, but you want upconversion, and only the Kona 3 does upconversion, but it only has HD-SDI inputs – so you need to convert your analog HD signal from your HDV VTR into HD-SDI, and that is what the AJA HD10AVA will do for you.

The whole package will cost you about $6000, and you will be able to do EVERYTHING, from VHS to dual link HD-SDI, and everything in-between.

And to answer your next question (isn’t there anything for $2000 that can do everything for me – even from another manufacturer) – the answer is NO !

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
Whats with all the CAPS and negative comments?

REPLY –
becuase you deserve a slap. Just because.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
The internal SATA card that comes with the SwiftData kit is a FirmTek SeriTek/1V4 that gives you 4 internal ports.

I use the Seritek 1SE2 and Seritek 1VE4 cards ALL THE TIME, and even the 1SE2 with Seagate SATA drives (7200.9) gives 128mb/sec performance with 2 drives stripped together. If you are only getting 90-100mb/sec from two drives stripped together, then something else is loading down your system – perhaps you have a slower Firewire card in the same buss with your SATA host card. May I suggest to you that you remove EVERYTHING from your computer (including any capture cards like AJA and Blackmagic), and just keep the Firmtek card in there. Then do the speed tests with AJA Kona System test. If you still only get 90-100mb/sec with both drives at RAID 0, please delete the raid group, and try one drive at a time, to see if one drive is flakey in it’s performance. There is no reason that you should not be able to get over 120mb/sec performance with your setup and your Seagate drives. I am assuming (with no info from you) that you may have a firewire or other card in your MAC in addition to the SATA card (and I don’t mean an AJA Kona card – which should be in a different buss, like the PCI-X buss).

I did not see where you wrote down what MAC G5 you have, but I assume it’s a newer MAC G5, and NOT a MAC dual 1.8GHz machine. I recently posted that I used a dual 1.8 for the first time, and I COULD NOT get over 80mb/sec with the new Sonnet X4P and Sonnet Fusion Chassis with 5 Seagate 500 Gig drives all at RAID 0. This identical setup in a dual 2.7 MAC G5 does 178mb/sec write and 220mb/sec read, but in the dual 1.8 gig MAC will not exceed 80mb/sec. Go figure.

Please keep me in the loop on your test results.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Shane –
be a big shot, and get yourself an external Firmtek 4 bay SATA chassis – this will work perfectly with your Sonnet card – it is silent, and you will eliminate all potential heat problems with your G5.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

just10case writes –
The other strange thing about it, is that I can move the media from my 200GB single drive to the two raid 0 500GB drives and edit 10bit uncompressed with no frame drops at all, but still it drops during capture

REPLY – this is not strange. when you move media onto your 500 gig drives, the READ SPEED is faster than the WRITE SPEED. If you simply run AJA Kona System test, you will see that the read speed of your 500 Gig drives is faster than the write speed (it’s all right in front of you on the display). If you would like to persue this further, please list EXACTLY what SATA host card you have, and EXACTLY what SATA drives you are using.
I find it very hard to believe that you are able to CONSISTANTLY do an entire editing job at 10 bit uncompressed SDI off of one single 200 Gig drive. There is a big difference between doing a simple capture and playback, and actually editing, and asking the drive to search all over the place for material.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If you have a MAC G5, or a HP xw8000 or xw8200 (not the Compaq), you can ABSOLUTELY use your Sonnet Tempo SATA card to do 1:1 uncompressed video !!!
You MUST use FOUR (4) drives stripped RAID 0 (with Apple Disk Utility, or Windows Disk Manager). It ABSOLUTELY works. If you are on the HP PC – put it in slot 4 or 5 – both work. Two drives are not fast enough to do uncompressed video.

This solution will NOT work with a PC Meridian product on Compaq computers, and it will not work on MAC G4’s with Meridian card set.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Kona 2 – get the K box with it. Works perfectly.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

listen Marc –
you are listening to too much noise, and this thread has gone on long enough. Don’t worry about what kind of drives this guy is using. If you have modern Hitachi or Seagate SATA drives, you will have no problems. If you have two drives stripped together RAID 0, you will have no problems in a MAC G5 tower. I just can’t answer you about your MAC Book Pro – but you can get this info from Firmtek, and it would be nice if you would post back what Firmtek tells you.

This is not rocket science. SATA drives plug in and work. Firmtek and Sonnet host cards do not require any drivers on tower MAC G5s. They just work. Apple Disk Utility is all you need for great performance, and AJA Kona System test is all you need to do your drive speed testing. If this guy has 2 500 Gig drives, and he can’t do uncompressed 10 bit SDI, he has other issues, that will just confuse your issue. Make it simple – just contact Firmtek about your MAC Book Pro. There are NO PROBLEMS with the MAC G5 towers – even the older 2 Gig computers.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

yes – they are DESIGNED to work together. You just load in your new Kona 3 software, which loads in ALONG WITH your AJA I/O drivers, and simply choose the Kona 3 or AJA I/O from the Easy Setups (one of thousands of choices).

SIMPLE !

bob Zelin