[Bob Zelin]

Hi Lee – I respectfully disagree. If this gentlemen is doing insert edits, and he did not black his tape in 4 field to record the color framing info, he has the potential AT INSERT EDIT POINTS to get a color frame h shift. But it appears (and I could be wrong) that he is getting random shifting from simply playing back his material. Now certainly, he should not have this issue (even with no black generator) if he has selected FREE RUN in the AJA IO control panel, but becuase he is having this issue, we must eliminate as many possibilities as possible.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I hear it’s 113 degrees F. in Sydney – is this true ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Robert –
the Kona product line will not act as a noise reducer, and will not clean up an analog VHS signal. VHS is the worst analog signal available today. This is not being elitist – it is a fact. There is nothing worse that I am aware of out there than a VHS source master, and the Kona series will do NOTHING to act as a noise reducer, or act as an image enhancer.

The Kona series is a professional capture card, which certainly can be used for numerous low end products, which include the Sony HDV series products, as well as consumer VHS and DVD players. But you can only expect so much from consumer sources. With digital technology available to everyone today, people even complain about analog Beta VTR sources, so what more can I say about VHS sources. I can appreciate that this is the material that you must work with (everyone has to deal with off air tapes once in a while) – but you can only expect so much. Hi end post houses can afford Teranex $100,000 noise and grain reducers, but us mere mortals cannot.

As for your cabling – unless you are using “Radio Shack” style cabling, it is pretty unlikely that your cabling is causing noise (unless you have very long runs – like over 50′). There was never an issue with you using RCA-BNC adaptors, and this would not introduce noise anyway.

I can appreciate your situation – you spent a lot of money on this equipment, you have a VHS source, and you want to know why the image looks like crap. What can I tell you. I can only assume that 99.99% of this forum does not have VHS as their main source material, and I doubt that AJA, Blackmagic, Aurora, Pinnacle, or AVID ever designed their products thinking about users that would have VHS as their primary source. I urge you to try a professional VTR format before condemming the AJA Kona product. Who knows – you might have a problem with your card.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Jesse writes –

I am pretty sure that they do not have an external blackburst generator hooked up in there. I believe they have connected sync between the IO and the deck.
However if that was the issue shouldn’t I see the horizontal shift during the shorter ouputs as well?

Hi BOYS – are you ready ?
Jesse, we will have to kill you. I have ranted like a maniac on this forum, and other forums over and over again – HOOK UP A G#$ DAMN BLACK GEN TO YOUR CAPTURE BOARD – I don’t care if its an AJA IO, and AJA LS, LH, Kona 2, Blackmagic, etc. Don’t complain to me about jitter, shifting, instability, shakey picture, etc. if you don’t have a common house black between your VTR and your editing system. AND once you have a BB gen hooked up, go into the AJA I/O control panel, click on Control, and make sure that it is in REF VIDEO, to make sure the AJA I/O uses the genlock input. When you say “they have connected sync between the IO and the deck” – this means NOTHING (imagine me screaming when I say NOTHING). NOW, once you hook up a GOOD QUALITY BLACK GENERATOR (including the cheap Horita BSG-50 not BG-50), do your tests again, and if you STILL have a shifting problem, then we can proceed. SO LET ME ASK YOU – the person who said that there is nothing wrong with your VTR, and has checked the deck and the heads – what kind of qualifications does he/she have, if they don’t understand the most basic hookup questions.

Jesse – I am not saying that you can’t get shifting once you hook up a common black reference to the AJA and the VTR, but we can’t diagnose anything until you do.

Thanks –
Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

With a post like this, I feel for the pro tech support guys at Blackmagic.

The Blackmagic product line is not compatible with any AVID product. Neither is any other capture board from any other manufacturer. You have not mentioned what AVID product you own – it could be anything from an AVID Xpress DV to an AVID Adrenaline, to a used old AVID ABVB system – I can assume from your post that you have AVID Xpress DV or AVID Xpress Pro. The only way you can see out is with an AVID Mojo box ($1500), and this will be analog component – not HD (or analog HD). The only way to see out HD is thru a VTR. The Blackmagic card (or anyone elses card) will NEVER WORK.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

all consumer gear is crap, and you have no ability to judge professional AJA equipment with a Sharp Aquos (not Samsung), or a consumer Toshiba 20″ TV.

S Video is better than composite, but the image resolution of VHS is crap compared to any professional format. You own the best capture board on the market, that can do the finest resolution. You will not be able to make any judgements with consumer equipment.

You have spent a lot of money on an AJA product if all you are dealing with is VHS. You could get similar results with a $100 Canopus converter (that has an S-Video input).

When you use a Beta, Digi Beta, DVCPro50, DVCProHD, or HDV or HDCam with the AJA LH, and you see noise on a professional monitor, please write back, as it will be easier to diagnose your problem.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I have no idea of how you are monitoring, but if you are capturing 10 bit uncompressed info from a Digi Beta (etc) into the Kona LH, you should see NO INCREASE IN NOISE. What are you monitoring with ? I am concerned when you say that you are using RCA to BNC adaptors – no professional VTR other than the Sony HDV VTR has RCA outputs, so what VTR are you using?

As for VHS into this product, I see no real advantage of using S-Video. The Composite input has a frame sync on it -it should be just fine to capture a horrible 240 line VHS machine.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

You state –
We have a central machine room with 1 BetaSP deck and 2 digiBeta decks, plus VHS and UMatic for the odd archive material that comes up.

REPLY – the VHS and possibly the UMatic (depending on what model) will need to be amplified to +4dBu to get a decent level in AJA (or any other pro edit product). Sure, you can do this with the mixer in your machine room (or with a line amplifier) – but WHY ?

You state –
The AJA is physically in my edit suite and not in the main machine room. It’s dedicated solely to my G5. It’s here where I have another amp that is fed the XLR analogue outputs of the AJA to monitor my audio during the editing process. And it’s here where I don’t see how the mixer fits in. Maybe it’s due to the fact that nearly all of my digizing is done with the Digibeta VTR and embedded SDI audio. Since the Digibeta VTR plays back also Beta SP, I almost never need to change anything. One SDI In/Out patch does it all.

REPLY – in this case above, you are correct. You are using the Dig Beta with embedded audio to get all Beta and Digi Beta material in and out of the
AJA. In this ONE EXAMPLE, all you need is an audio monitor off the back of the AJA IO. If this is all you are doing, then you are correct – this is all you need (an amplifier with knobs).

You state –

The Sony amp in my edit suite went on the blink after years of faithful service and had in fact a volume control. The new one I’m considering (Beringher A500) also has a volume control for each channel.
So, see, I’d gladly fork out the necessary money for a mixer. That’s not the point. If I can make it make sense I’m happy to change. We try to keep the signal at the highest possible quality all through the production chain and things have worked for years. I don’t have an attitude problem and so am open to other people’s experience. Hence the courage to overcome making a fool of myself in this revered community!

REPLY – The Behringer A500 is teriffic, as would an Alesis, Samson, or countless other inexpensive amplifiers. Never be afraid to ask “stupid
questions”, as no one makes a fool of themselves more than I do.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Ben states –
Leaving FCP, I checked the Kona setup, and set the default playback to Input Passthrough. Bars appeared on my monitor and Tone came out of the AES outputs of the card. Phew, I thought, at least the card is OK – audio is passing right through it. It must be a FCP setting.

Ben – if you are ok with the Kona control panel, and not with FCP, it’s FCP. You say its “not practical” to reload FCP. Well, guess what – you will go thru the aggrivation of getting a replacement Kona 2 card, and it will be your software install. Go to the Apple Website and MANUALLY uninstall FCP. It’s a long process (printed in 2 pages from the Apple support site), and reinstall FCP. Then reinstall the AJA Kona 2 drivers, and your problems will be gone.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Kim,
I know that there is no way for me to respond to this without insulting you. I have been in this business since 1978, when Quads were big, and 1″ VTR’s were just coming in. I have been thru 1″, Beta, Beta SP, D2, D1, D3, M2, M3, Digi Beta, Beta SX, DV, DVCPro, DV Cam, HD Cam, DVCProHD, and everything else. I have built over 1500 edit rooms, and have been in thousands of edit rooms all over NY and Florida. With the exception of cuts only news edit rooms at TV stations, I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN AN EDIT ROOM without an audio mixer in it, with the exception of AVID systems or other NLE systems at dealer demo rooms or trade shows.

Now, let me discuss one basic issue with you. Lets say you have a Beta VTR and your AJA box. The AJA out goes into the Beta, and the Beta out goes into the AJA. What do you monitor – do you monitor the output of the AJA – – how? Do you build a “y” cord on the XLR outputs of the AJA to feed your amplifier? Or do you use the mono “monitor out” from the VTR to feed your speakers? You MUST have some ability to control the volume to your speakers. And if you have PEAK AUDIO from a Beta 1800, how will you adjust your levels? If you have low level audio, how will you adjust your levels? IF you have to get a VHS tape, or scratch microphone into your AJA, how will you do this?

Why is it emotionally hurting you to buy an $89 mixer if this will resolve all of your problems?

The simple answer to your question – cant you go right from the XLR outputs of the AJA IO into an amplifier – YES YOU CAN. This will work – as
long as you have easy access to the volume knobs on the front of the amplifier.

Years ago,when you worked in the traditional tape to tape linear room, why didn’t you just patch VTR 1 into VTR 2, and VTR 2 into an amplifier – and have no ability to adjust your levels? This is the same analogy.

Bob Zelin