[Bob Zelin]

First, this is not a strange question. Because of the flexibility of the I/O and the K Box, I always encourage everyone to get a video patch bay, because of the mulitiple VTR’s, and mulitiple configurations that you can now use the I/O and K Box.

I ALWAYS put the K Box at the rear of the rack, and bring up all the connectors (along with all the connectors from the AJA I/O) up to a standard
video patch bay. I have been using the Canare 242U-DVJAW, which is the least expensive video patch bay, that can handle HD bandwitch – it’s about $520 at Markertek. Once you do this, you can reassign anyrhing, anywhere, in any combination.

I use inexpensive Middle Atlantic Slim 5 racks, which have rack rail with tapped 10-32 holes on both the front and rear, so it’s easy to mount the K Box. In instances where the customer does not want to have a tall black rack in the room, and only has small wooden rack carts, with no rear rack rails, I use the Middle Atlantic RRF2 rack rail, which is about $6. This is a 2RU pair of rack rail that easily screws into the rear of a 19″ box, so you can rear mount the K Box.

Remember that long after the AJA I/O, and Kona 2 are outdated (this includes anyone elses products too), you will still be able to reuse that video patch bay and that rack. The next gen of products will still follow the 19″ rack standard, and will still use BNC connectors.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Yes, when I have seen the 8 drives actually working, the AJA benchmark test (Kona System Test) shows 410-420 mb/sec, which outperforms the XServe RAID. It is scary, and CHEAP. Reliable – I don’t know. The 8 bay I tested came from Maxx Digital 714 374 4944. If you decide to order it, just make sure you can get your money back, just incase something goes wrong. But there is no question that this is the “next generation” of storage – even if it winds up being SATA 2 or SATA 3.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

If only everyone would follow Walter’s lead, and buy the damn Sony J3/902.
This would resolve so many issues and questions. It is a teriffic VTR, plays back the beta tapes, handles the embedded audio.

But of course, we will see this question over and over again in the near future, along with “why do I need a black generator”.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Although I use AJA, as the rest of these users on this forum do, there is no “verdict” between Blackmagic and AJA. They are both fantastic products, and both do the job. Feel lucky that there are 2 great companies out there, that are offering an excellent product, at very reasonable prices. This has never happened in the history of our industry.

My decision to purchase is solely based on tech support, and although Blackmagic has greatly improved, having representation in Las Vegas now, AJA is second to none – not only in the FCP world, but for entire product line. There is no manufacturer who has better tech support than AJA. Features, schmeatures – when your product stops working, you want someone on the phone to cry to, and AJA is always there – FOR FREE.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I believe that Sonnet actually recommends putting the card in the PCI100 slots only (2 or 3). You will get the amazing performance in one of these 2 slots. I warn you in advance, there is a “trick” to getting those eSATA cables to seat correctly, and I have suffered many hours thinking that the Sonnet doesn’t work, simply because I never seated the cables correctly into the card.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

buy the AJA I/O, not the Kona 2. Buy the Kona 2 when you do HD.
You will be much happier.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

You are asking a question about XServe RAID, instead of AJA Kona products – you are on the wrong forum. You should ask on XSan forum.

This is the answer to your question –
1) Make sure you have at least ONE CAT 5 cable plugged between the MAC G5 and the Apple Xserve RAID in one of the 2 controller cards. If you are going into a Gig E switch, unplug it for now – unplug your internet. Just have one simple cable (not a cross cable) between the G5 ethernet port and one of the Xserve RAID ethernet ports.

2) now launch RAID Admin. Does it launch? or does it hang up? If it launches, and you see nothing, click on ADD SYSTEM. Does it allow you to do this (you will use the password “public”. ).

3) If this allows you to Add a system, click on it, on the list, and you will see it connect. If it never connects, tell me, and I will tell you how to proceed.

MOST IMPORTANT – if you have 14 drives in your system, you DO NOT need to reconfigure your array to RAID 0 to do uncompressed HD. The RAID 50 that you probably have now will work just fine. If you have 7 drives (or even worse 4 drives) at RAID 5, you will never be able to do a long project with the Xserve RAID with uncompressed HD.

So you might not have to go thru any of this, becuase your RAID 50 (with 14 drives) will work just fine for uncompressed HD.

Bob Zelin

ps – if you plug in the one simple ethernet cable, and you still can’t launch
RAID Admin, let me know, and I will tell you what to do next.

[Bob Zelin]

a cheating way to get around this is to stick the DSR-11 or any firewire VTR into the front of your G5, and for capture only , you can get away with it. Once your capture is done, unplug the VTR, and go to work, and you should be fine.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

This is my current opinion, and this will change as new products are developed.

The AJA I/O is the best choice right now. The AJA I/O does not tie up a slot in the computer. Modern G5’s are delivered with wide AGP graphics cards from NVidia and ATI, and you now only get 2 slots left. You can certainly buy a replacement graphics card, but some have issues with motion, some still have ADC ports which have issues with KVM extenders, and no matter what – they cost you more money.

The AJA I/O offers composite AND component at the same time, on different BNC jacks. The LS shares these jacks, so if you want to lay off to your Beta VTR AND your 1″ VTR at the same time (or VHS), you can’t do it. There is nothing wrong with the LS – it’s a great board, and you don’t get the “delay issue” (which is resolved with the Playback delay setting), and you won’t regret either. Another disadvantage of the I/O is that it ties up the Firewire port, making it necessary to use a PCI slot for a FW800 PCI card, so you can use Firewire 80 drives. If you use the LS, you can plug a FW800 drive right into the G5, with no conflicts or issues.

All in all, I have found the AJA I/O to be a better idea, but like I said they both have their advantages and disadvantages. One day soon, there will be a dual DVI AGP card that does not block one of the PCI slots.

Everything changes. And if you think for too long, all of these products will be outdated, and you will want to know about the next new thing –

SO JUMP IN.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

buy the I/O and save yourself the aggrivation and additional expense.
When you are ready to do HD, get the Kona 2, and you will have a complete solution. I have never met anyone that said “damn, I wish I never bought that AJA IO box”.

Bob Zelin