[David Kuhnen]

The only advantage the LHi is giving you is broadcast quality output at “nearly” the same playback rate as your computer desktop.

ALL potential acceleration is handled by the Mercury Playback Engine inside CS6 and appropriate graphics card (if present).

So, if you need to monitor image quality on a broadcast monitor, you need a Mercury “Transmit” capable video device (i.e. LHi), but that device is not providing any acceleration over the Mercury Playback “Engine”.

https://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs6-creative-cloud-feature-tour-for-video/get-better-playback-performance-with-mercury-transmit/

Even this Adobe video shows a slight delay between desktop and video monitor…

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

Your basic theory is correct.

If we “assume” your AJA card is not defective in any way, and the signal does not pass through any other device between the AJA and “secondary” capture card, then yes, you should be adjusting the proc amp on the secondary card to achieve proper levels. Make sure you are using the waveform and vectorscope displays to confirm proper adjustments.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

As a FCP editor, yes your Preferences should typically be set to import Stereo Media as Mono so you can control Ch.1 & Ch.2 separately.

After you bring in a file you want to use as a Stereo track, right-click (Ctrl-click Mac) on the file in Project window, select Modify, Audio Channels…, change Channel Format to Stereo, when you edit into your sequence make sure you don’t have A2 patched to a track

Or,

Simply set your Preferences to Stereo Media as Mono while you import camera/location files and then change your Preferences to Stereo Media as Stereo before you import true stereo files. The clips in the Project window will retain the setting used during import.

Is it a pain? Oh yeah, for sure. Here’s to hoping it’ll be more flexible in CS7…

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

Typical setting is to leave on Automatic.

That being said, a professional video camera will record files in a YUV color space (as opposed to images created in a RGB color space) and will not need gamma correction when converting to Apple Pro Res. so, for conversion of your XDCam files, you can select None.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

“…takes E-Sata to USB 3.0 to the computer”
So you’re converting eSata to USB3?

“…Firewire 800” now I have to ask what model Mac you’re using. MacPro (tower) does not currently have USB3, iMac and MacBook do not have Firewire, although the G-Tech drives typically have multiple connection types.

Overall, since you’re not trying to use USB2 for day-to-day editing, you’re good.

The file system of the hard drive (i.e. Ex-Fat) has little to do with stability, it primarily only affects compatibility between operating systems. Ex-Fat on a quality hard drive will be very stable and have similar performance to a ‘native’ (NTFS for Windows, HFS+ for Mac) file system.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

Ex-Fat, FAT-32 and NTFS format drives are all readable in the newer Mac OS X operating systems.
NTFS is not writable by OS X without 3rd party software.
FAT-32 will have the typical file size limitations.
Ex-Fat is a good option for both PC and Windows.

Your greatest bottleneck / potential problem is with the connection interface.
USB 2 is a poor interface for HD video files. It will work, but you will have wait times.

What is the connection to your storage?

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

John-Michael explains the +29 = 1:06 duration very well.

You should also be aware that “drop-frame” timecode only exists for the 29.97 frame rate.
23.976 and 59.94 do not use drop-frame timecode.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

A short follow-up;

I purchased a fourth waveform/scope to see if I could confirm or further analyze my problem.

With the “newer” waveform monitor I can change settings in software instead of using physical internal jumpers. Connected the same way as all previous tests.

Terminated vs. un-terminated: Same distortion when terminated, gone when un-terminated
DC Restoration On vs. Off: Same distortion, no difference
DC Coupling vs. AC Coupling: Same distortion, no difference
DC Restorer Slow vs. Fast: BINGO! Fast DC Restoration flattens waveform, no distortion

So, did I correct the actual problem? No. But now I too can hide and therefore ignore the underlying problem and get back to work.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

Angus,

I agree with you 100%. I just bought a LHi to replace my beloved LHe (see my post from 2 days ago in this forum).

AJA dropped support for the LHe and made design modifications to create the LHe Plus. Your options for running AJA PCIe on Mountain Lion are Kona 3, LHi, and LHe Plus.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer

[David Kuhnen]

There are no drivers for the LHe card that work with Mountain Lion.

The last LHe drivers (9.1) found under the Legacy Downloads section work up thru Lion 10.7.
The only PCIe cards compatible with Mountain Lion are LHe Plus, LHi, or Kona 3.

David Kuhnen
BVK-Milwaukee
Video Editor/Engineer