Bob Zelin
7
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
-
so are you telling me that it works when you disconnect the black generator, but it DOES NOT work when you hook up the black generator ?
I await your reply.
Bob Zelin
-
I think you have made a great choice in hardware, and I am sure that the sonnet Fusion 500P is a great choice too. I simply do not understand the Apple XServe RAID as a choice for anyone. It’s expensive, it breaks, Apple support is terrible, and there are better choices out there (as mentioned here – HUGE, Medea, and the SATA solutions). I have been using SATA from Firmtek and Sonnet since April 2005, and I have NEVER EVER seen a SATA drive die, yet I have seen the “same” “hand picked” Hitachi SATA drives in XServe RAID’s die all the time. I have seen XServe RAID controllers fail, I have seen the “RAID 5 Protection” go haywire, and the entire array gets lost. I don’t care what the problem was at this point – I have never seen the cheapest Firmtek RAID 0 2 bay fail with the “same” Hitachi SATA drives, and it costs a fraction of the XServe RAID. Look at Creative Cow’s XServe forum, and look at all the issues you see posted on it. I just don’t get it. And as you pointed out, the performance at 235mb/sec, is nothing special today, compared to what you can get for a fraction of the price.
You have made a great decision, and I greatly value your posting this info.
Bob Zelin
-
I am sure you have tried this, but the SDI input is OPTION 1, not input A or B on the monitor – have you switched to Option 1 input ? When you accidentally put a SDI video signal into input A or B on an analog monitor, you get “snow” or noise. When you plug nothing into a monitor, it looks black. So it makes me think you are plugged into the wrong input, or have the wrong input selected.
bob Zelin
-
This is a sily general answer to a general question – but it applies to all kinds of things, and certainly AJA products, as well as other products. When you lose video output to the AJA product, when you lose VTR control, when you lose Genlock, when you get clicks and pops, when all kinds of bizarre things start to happen, after you try the “correct things to try” – ALWAYS ALWAYS turn off your equipment (OFF not RESTART), and fire it back up and try it again.
Why don’t computer and digital products just work all the time – if you can answer this question, you win a prize ! I doubt there is anything wrong with your Black Generator. Cycling power is engineering fix # 1.
bob Zelin
-
you are not describing your problem properly, so you are panic’ed. Is this existing audio, or do you get the distortion when you digitize into the Kona ? Are you using SDI embedded audio, or AES audio ? What is the source VTR? If it is a VTR, why are you going thru your mixer – why not just take the SDI or HDSDI out of the VTR, and go directly into the Kona 3 using the embedded audio. do this, and monitor off the RCA outputs (which I bet sound clean). Then monitor thru your Tascam AES inputs – does it distort here ?
Without more details, no one can help you.
bob zelin
-
a single SATA drive will give you about 68mb/sec. Aside from throwing it in the garbage, I suggest that you xfer your SATA material to Firewire as a backup, and reinit the SATA drive (wipe it out), and try the AJA Kona System test again. I no longer use Lacie products, but ANY single SATA drive will give you 68mb/sec, and two drives striped RAID 0 will do over 120mb/sec.
Once you reinit the Lacie, if you can’t get this performance, you have got a problem with your drive.
Bob Zelin
-
so you did not answer my question. When you disconnect the Black generator, is the problem resolved ? You NEED the black generator to get rid of all kinds of problems – this is just a test. And there may be nothing wrong with your black generator – it may be the genlock circuit in
the AJA Knoa LH. You asked a question, and I am guessing at answers, but you MUST RESPOND to my questions for us to proceed. So once again – if you DISCONNECT the black generator, and put the Kona LH control panel to FREE RUN, does the problem go away ?Bob Zelin
-
Graeme writes –
If a SDI output shows video darker, then whatver is converting that SDI digital signal to analogue is wrong, not the SDI signal. If that’s in the monitor, then that monitor is not functioning correctly.
Hi Graeme –
this has been an issue from before the AVID was invented. We saw this in digital linear suites in NY that started to integrate “old” analog sources into their D1 suites. This became a HUGE issue when the original SDI AVID was introduced (the original SDI only ABVB board developed by Don Nelsen at AVID), and everyone wanted to get their 1″ and Beta sources into this new product. All of a sudden, everything looked “dark” if was a mixed format job. The Videotek VTM’s were not developed yet, and the only multi format scope at the time was the “new” Leader LV5100D. This scope allowed you to instantly switch between SDI and analog input. The “problem” was apparant on the scope. ALL SDI monitors showed this “problem” – that included Sony BVM and PVM series, ASACA (popular at the time), and Ikegami. An alternate way of monitoring was to take the output of the waveform monitor, and take the PIX MON out of the SDI scope, and put that into the analog component inputs of the TV monitor, and switch the TV monitor to SMPTE N10, which matches the level of the PIX MON output of the scopes from Tek and Leader. Switch back and forth, and you still see the difference in black levels. IT DROVE CLIENTS CRAZY back then, and it drives them crazy today.Want to see the problem (got a multi format scope like a Videotek VTM ?) –
Put up bars out of your AVID Adrenaline or Blackmagic Decklink Extreme (you have both, right ?) – now, take the SDI output, and analog composite output, and stick it into the SDI and analog inputs of your scope. Now switch between inputs – LOOK, the 7.5 line goes all the way down to blanking level on the SDI input ! But it’s the SAME DAMN SOURCE.But don’t worry Graeme, this is nothing compared to dealing with trying to match legacy analog tapes with HD images, and changing the aspect ratio
from 4:3 to 16×9, and trying to explain that to clients (how come it looks funny). All of a sudden, the black levels ain’t that important anymore.
It’s like the old saying – ” got a headache, hit your hand with a hammer, and you will forget about your headache”.Bob Zelin
-
These tests were run several times as I wondered if the results were correct. Each time you run any disk testing program the results will be a little different. However, in this test the PCI-X Sonnet X4P was able to substantially beat the PCIe Sonnet E4P write speeds in every test completed with a PM enclosure. When you are using a striped RAID for HD video editing the difference between 196MB/sec. write speeds and 224MB/sec. can be important. It seems odd that a port multiplier enclosure with a PCI-X Sonnet Tempo X4P inside the original PowerMac G5 2.0 Dual provides better write speeds than when using a PowerMac G5 2.5GHz Quad with a Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P.
REPLY – I am BLOWN AWAY by the fact that the Sonnet X4P will run FASTER in the “old” MAC dual 2.7 gig G5, than it will in a new Quad G5. That means that the LUCKY folks that own “old” MAC G5’s can get XServe RAID performance at 1/5 th the price of the Apple, using the Sonnet solution. In the same way that AJA and Blackmagic are kicking the asses of AVID, I am amazed that the “standard, well known” storage companies are not racing to embrase SATA, and let these “new guys” kick their ass.
I hope that the newbies on the list can appreciate the fact that they can get amazing storage, and incredibly cheap prices today, for the first time in our industry.
Bob Zelin
-
1) disconnect the black generator, and put the Kona LH into “free run” in the AJA Control Panel. Try it now. If it works, it’s your black gen.
if this does not work
2) instead of “edit to tape”, go into hard record (hit play and record) on your VTR, while playing back your edit sequence out of your LH. Does it work ? No? Could be your VTR (VTR should be checked independently in hard record, and insert edit).
Bob Zelin