[Ethan Cooper]

I’ve captured varicam footage both over firewire and through a Kona LH card and see no visible difference between the two. I don’t do any effects work that would require a “cleaner” capture, so I can’t say for sure if the Kona solution (using a DVCProHD codec) is any better for that type of thing or not. My guess would be that they are pretty much identical.
We just got done shooting a job using 2 Varicams and a HVX 200. I can tell you that there is a major difference in quality between the two. The Varicams produce a much sharper, much cleaner picture all around than the HVX. Not that the HVX is a bad camera on it’s own. While in the edit, I thought to myself that if we had not used the Varicams and the only footage I saw was off of the HVX I would have been happy, but when you put the two side by side, the HVX just isn’t in the same class. I do have to report that the HVX does produce quite a bit of noise, but again, if you don’t have any better footage surrounding it, most people wouldn’t notice.

[Ethan Cooper]

Hey guys, if you haven’t noticed (and some of you havent) I’ve already stated in my second post that I fixed the problem and explained how. Thanks for your helpfulness.

[Ethan Cooper]

Dearest Bob,
Try to be helpful and not condescending. Sometimes even professionals run into problems with new gear. The last thing I want to read after posting a problem on these boards is a half thought out response from someone who obviously failed to fully read or fully comprehend the origional problem. Case in point:

“1) did you LOAD the AJA drivers for this, or did you just plug in the card, and assume that it was going to show up ? (you can download the drivers from the AJA website).”

Yes I LOADED the drivers… as I clearly stated in my origional post, I had uninstalled all things BlackMagic and installed all things Kona. Installed is another way of saying LOAD. Possibly this went over your head. I stated that I was coming over from a BlackMagic based platform, I would assume you might infer that I had installed and used a capture card before getting this Kona.
Furthermore, I also clearly stated that I was able to see all of the Easy Setup files for the Kona grouped in with the rest of the Easy Setup files that shipped with FCP but somehow FCP could not. Again, I would assume that you would figure out that if I could see these Kona Easy Setup files (KONA files mind you) that I must have LOADED them from somewhere.

And who said anything about running the Educational version of FCP?

Try unloading your head from your arse. It might be easier to fully read and understand questions once you do.

I fixed my little problem by uninstalling the Kona drivers, re-uninstalling the BlackMagic drivers and then installing the Kona drivers again. I trashed my old FCP prefs for good measure too. All is well now.

[Ethan Cooper]

“the only up/down covnverter options available in the system preferences window are “HD to SD letterbox 16:9” and “HD to SD letterbox anamorphi.” There are other options, but they are greyed out / unavailable for selection”

That’s exactly what I’m experiencing and I too have downloaded the latest drivers for OSX 10.3.8.

[Ethan Cooper]

I dont mean to sound stupid here, but I dont see that option in my DeckLink Preferences. You are referring to the preferences listed under system preferences aren’t you? Or is there another set of preferences somewhere else?