[Bob Zelin]

Ramona –
since I love to cause trouble, I would like to challange your statement. You state that SATA is extremely stable. The instability of SATA is not based on drive failure – it is based on the horrible design of SATA 1 and eSATA or SATA 2 connectors. Certainly, the very MAC G5 that we all work on is based on a SATA drive, but the EXTERNAL DRIVE ENCLOSURES that are available from most manufacturers, as well as the SATA Host controllers, are extremely poor. THEY DONT BREAK Ramona, but the actual connections are poor. I use 8 port SATA cards all the time, and it’s a pain to get most of the ports functional, based on cable seating, and the cables coming loose (think USB, but worse). I have had wonderful success with Firmtek products (all SATA 1), but they don’t offer an 8 port card, and thus, you can’t do uncompressed HD with the Firmtek Host adaptor. To say that “it’s stable, it works”, is in my opinion, an irresponsible statement. I too have gotten it to work, but you move it to a client location, and maybe it doesn’t work, and you spend 2 hours plugging and unplugging cables, to try to get the SATA drives to mount. THANK GOD that these Host card manufacturers have written automount firmware, because before the automount firmware, you had no idea if the drive cable was seated correctly. You would have to replug, and reboot, and MAYBE you would get lucky.

Is it cable design, is it the actual connectors – I don’t know, and it’s not my job to figure it out. I use SATA now on almost every install, but because I can NEVER rely on ALL EIGHT DRIVES to mount, I will currently not use SATA for uncompressed HD systems that would require all 8 drives to be operational. Again, if I am willing to sit on a bench, and wiggle the cables, and get the card seated JUST RIGHT, I can get all 8 drives up, but if it’s in a rack, with a million other cables putting strain on
the SATA cables, I know that it will stop working in a few days. People messing around behind racks is just a fact of life.

So why do I put up with this ? Because where else can you get 800 Gigs of storage
that can do 8 bit 10 bit SDI uncomressed and DVCProHD for under $900.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I am not really following your question, but if you have a FREE RUNNING analog source (like an audio cassette), and pass it thru a Flying Cow to become an AES signal, the Cow will not put it into sync. If you have a Beta VTR, the Beta VTR must be locked to a black reference (as well as the AJA product). The Cow will convert the Beta VTR audio to AES, but it will only stay in sync, based on the color black genlock reference source, not the Flying Cow.

If this answer is not adequate, please state your exact analog source, and what you are trying to do.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Wayne –
I ASSUME that you manually went into the Audio/Video Setting, and looked at the 4th tab – the VTR control settings, and made sure that Kona 2 RS422 was checked. As you probably know, in this menu, you can be using the Kona 2, and change where your VTR control comes from – you can select the AJA I/O, you can select Firewire, you can select a damn Keyspan adaptor if you set it up in the menus. I hope you are not assuming that it automatically starts to work. PLEASE confirm with us that you have checked your menu’s in the Audio/Video setting, and that Kona 2 RS422 has a check mark next to it.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Walter states –
You want to do 10bit HDCAM, yet you don’t want to spend $4,000 for drives on an 85 minute feature? Tough call there.

Walter is SO politically correct. I would have definately insulted you here, for the same reason. You are doing a FEATURE – a LONG feature – it costs money to do this. You DO want 10 bit uncompressed HD Cam – right? You AINT getting this for $4000.

The Medea is good, as Walter states, and I LOVE the HUGE U320RX, but you will need a LOT of storage, and it’s going to be over 10 grand.

If you want to use SATA, you better be ready for possible unstability. The only tested way to do uncompressed 10 bit HD SDI with SATA is with a Sonnet Tempo X eSATA 8 port card, with 8 SATA drives (400 gig drives, but you can get the 500’s now). This package is RAID 0 ONLY – no Raid protection, so when one drive fails in the middle of your movie, you will lose ALL OF YOUR FOOTAGE. Combine this with the instability of a system like this, and well, you are on your own. ProMax can sell you this turnkey package with the Kano enclosures. And it does work. I use SATA on almost every system, with this very Sonnet card, but I usually don’t use more than 2 drives, giving plenty of open ports on the Sonnet card to stick in a couple more drives to use as backup drives. The DR Group will provide a similar package with the Highpoint 8 port SATA card, and the Cremax enclosures. You can do uncompressed with this too, but with no RAID protection. If it were my neck on the line FOR A FEATURE, I would not want to risk it.

Of course, you can simply OFFLINE with SATA or Firewire 800, and CONFORM the movie with this SATA uncompressed array later. This way, if you do have failure or instability, it’s not that big of a deal. The movie has been cut, you have the list, and you can always go back and redigitize the 85 minutes of HD that you need.

Nothing wrong with the DVCProHD codec for HD – certainly for a HD offline, and this, you can use ANY DAMN DRIVES, including what you own right now.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Kona 2 (or K Box) Out Y, Pb, Pr to Beta In Y, B-Y, R-Y. You MUST go to your Kona Control Panel Analog tab, and select the DOWNCONVERT option.
If you don’t do this, you aint’ gonna get an SD signal going into your Beta VTR.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The HDW-F500 can be set to reference to 23.98 or 59.94.

When you get this expensive VTR, you also purchase this –

HKDV507D HD 3:2 Pull Down Board w/dual reference $11,250.00

This board will allow you to play back a 23.98 tape in the HDW-F500, and have it
spit out at 59.94, so you can capture into the Kona 2 at a normal frame rate (and lock everyone to standard house black, and not tri level).

You certainly can set the menus on the F500 to 23.98, and then lock the VTR and Kona 2 to Tri Level Sync (from Evertz, Astro Systems, etc.) – buy why would you want to do this?

Tri Level sync applies to ALL products that operate at 23.98, 24, or any “non standard” frame rate. Products like the Evertz 7750 and Astro Systems have knobs and/or switches that let you select the frame rate you want. It’s not JUST for the HDW-M2000/1, it’s for ANY VTR or edit controller that you want to operate at these frame rates. I am trying to get you to AVOID these issues.

Of course if you are working for George Lucas, and have every intention of finishing at 23.98 or 24, and will do a 24p theatrical release, then you MUST reference to tri level sync – but the odds are, that you are not doing this – you are going to finish for TV, and that is 59.94 (29.97). Make it easy on yourself – avoid the mid priced
Sony VTR’s.

As for the SR series deck – I live in Florida – I will NEVER see this VTR, and my clients will NEVER use 4:4:4. We are poor here – it’s a miracle that we are doing HD in the first place !!!!

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I don’t know your VTR, so my information may be useless to you. For Sony HDV, with the Sony HDV VTR, it has HD-SDI analog outputs, so you go into an AJA HD10A, which converts the analog HD signal into a HD-SDI signal. Stick that into your Kona 2, select DVCProHD compression, and away you go.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I am unaware of any SATA 2 drives that are currently available. I install SATA systems now all the time, and the Sonnet Tempo eSATA 8 card is now doing SATA 2 speeds with the 1.2 firmware update, but there are no drives available to do these speeds.

I use 2 SATA drives (Hitachi or Seagate) to do 8 bit SDI, 10 bit SDI, and HD SDI with DVCProHD compression (via the Kona 2), but I have not had personal RELIABLE success using SATA and doing UNCOMPRESSED HD. There are wonderful companies like ProMax and The DR Group that are supplying the Sonnet Tempo eSATA 8 card with 8 SATA drives – when all 8 drives are stripped in a RAID 0 configuration (no RAID protection), you can get uncompressed HD, but I have not tried it in a while. For uncompressed HD systems, I still recommend the HUGE U320-RX SCSI array with the ATTO UL4D card. But if you’ve got the time to experiment, certainly try the SATA – and I bet that most of your projects won’t demand uncompressed HD anyway, so you will have a wonderful set of drives with tons of storage for anything else, anyway. In my market in Florida, most HD is DVCProHD with the Panasonic AJ-HD1200A VTR, so I am not the last word on uncompressed HD stuff.

I STILL cannot recommend the XServe RAID, even though some people love it.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Tony is correct. Since you are buying an expensive AJ-HD1200A, you are probably doing an equipment lease, and you can stick both the AJA I/O and Kona 2 with K-Box on the lease. It will add a very small amount onto the lease payment, and you will have a wonderful, complete system. The I/O with the Kona 2 will allow you to upconvert your analog sources to HD !!!

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you say FUTURE FCP system – it is my advice to you that if you have SO MANY analog sources, and an analog router, that you DO NOT purchase the AJA Kona 2, but purchase the AJA I/O box, which has analog (and AES/EBU) inputs, and avoid all the potential propogation delay issues with the A/D
D/A converters.

You did say FUTURE FCP system, didn’t you? Then in the future, buy the AJA I/O and be happy.

Bob Zelin