Guy Spiller
Forum Replies Created
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Update on this issue…
I’m happy to report that the used LHi card solved ALL of my problems…even the occasional sync problem I’ve had since Day 1 in 2008 with this system. Now, I never have audio/video sync issues when digitizing, and it works great with FCP7 and CS6.
I’m still running Mavericks, because everything is working fine now, and after the last experience with a “free upgrade” to the OS, I don’t think it’s worth taking the risk for Yosemite. -
It seemed that in the past, I had even more sync problems when capturing direct analog into the Kona. I suspect that it does not really care for tapes that lose sync and don’t have timecode, were started and stopped during recording, clog up, stretch or any of the other myriad of problems that analog tapes can have.
My default capture codec has been ProRes and I use that 95% of the time. Only when a client wants a certain codec, do I venture out of that. My sync problems would occur randomly…seemingly regardless of the codec. It seemed that I had less problems when using the DPS-475 and going in SDI than analog, as that would probably be designed to tolerate incoming sync disturbances a bit better than a Kona card.
But I do know that Premier 5.5 did a flawless 10 bit uncompressed capture through the DPS-475 and the LHe, so I have high hopes for the LHi and CS6. -
Do you ever have audio sync issues on captures? It used to happen to me with FCP7 and Snow Leopard with the LHe card about 25% of the time.
Of course, with Maverick, it’s 100% of the time with that combo. It will be interesting to see how me having basically the same setup as you…except for the Maverick thing….works.
All, or at least 99% of my captures come from tape though, and seldom do I use “Log and Transfer” from cards. I don’t remember having sync trouble for the few times I did that in FCP7 with Snow Leopard, but I didn’t bother trying it with Maverick. I’ve read online that Maverick really messes that part of FCP7 capture up.
Guy -
Yes, AJA supports says there is only one version of the LHi, so I went for it. There is a return policy, and AJA says if it’s less than three years old, it would still be in warranty, which is transferable.
I figure for 400 bucks, it’s worth taking a bit of a chance to hopefully be fully operational with CS6 and maybe even FCP7, but I’m not counting on that.
Guy -
I did notice that the audio was fixed at 16 bit when using the Kona LHe in FCP7 when capturing video in 10 bit uncompressed mode.
It’s when I switched to Premier 5.5 using the Kona that I noticed all the options for audio bit depth doing uncompressed 10 bit video captures.
I guess I’ll just go with 16 bit for this project. -
Interesting that they never checked it.
I use all sorts of “vintage” waveform monitors in my operation. 529s, 528s, 1730s, 1480s…etc.
I found an “open box” LHi for sale for about 400 bucks, so I’m trying to decide whether to take a chance on it.
Do you know if all LHi cards are the same and not different vintages like the LH3e vs. LH3+?
I just want to be sure that if I get a used LHi card, that is will work just as a new one and work with all the same software, drivers….etc. -
Did you ever resolve that issue? I’ve been impressed with just how good and clean the composite output of the LHe is.
Did your analog component outputs have that same issue?
I may try an LHi, but if I get that…it’s going back. -
I’m with you on stability. My Mac Pro is also an early 2008, and I’ve been very happy with it and it’s all I need for what I do.
I’ve never used any Kona level adjustments, as I do all that “pre-Kona”. I really don’t even use the analog inputs of it anymore, since I have these extremely good Leitch DPS-475 units which do excellent decoding of composite video (noticeably better than the Kona) and output SDI to my Kona.
I guess the decision will be do I go with the LHi or the LHe+? I have a great Pioneer plasma display that I could feed directly with the hdmi output instead of using one of the AJA SDI-HDMI mini converters.
Being an old school broadcast guy, I like to monitor video levels externally on a real waveform monitor with good ol NTSC composite out of the Kona. Just looking at the LHi specs, it looks like it will do that like the LHe I have now does.
I wonder if the LHi and the LHe+ have the same specs/quality in and out?
For the difference in price, you would think there must be more to it than just HDMI ports. -
Yeah, I guess the Kona card does a few things besides capture that would be helpful.
Now, I don’t know whether to get the LHe+ or look for something entirely different.
Does the LHe+ do everything that Premier 6 needs it to do…and hopefully, under Maverick?
I’m going to stick with CS6 because I have no need to go the Adobe subscription route. I don’t like the idea of that, and I don’t need constant “upgrades” for what I do. -
Since my original post, I have made an interesting discovery.
A couple of years ago, I downloaded the Premier drivers for my Kona LHe thinking I would try playing with Premier at some point. I never did.
I had loaded both CS 5.5 and CS 6 on my machine, so I have both versions of Premier.
When this recent problem popped up, I also thought about getting the LHi card as well for the HDMI output, but after considering it, I think the two separate SDI outputs are more flexible…plus, I couldn’t imagine anyone guaranteeing that I would not have issues using that card with Maverick and FCP7 anyway.
After watching a few YouTube video tutorials, I was able to set 5.5 up to capture what I needed to do for my current project…and it does it perfectly. All in sync and everything. So far, it looks good. Actually, even before I “upgraded” to Maverick, I would occasionally get captures that were out of sync. It seemed to be random, and sadly, I think I had gotten used to having to deal with that annoyance on occasion. If Premier never does that to me, that’s reason enough to switch right there, since most of what I do is capture analog tape material.
The interesting thing is that AJA support told me that the LHe card would not work with Maverick, but so far…at least in Premier 5.5, it’s working well.
I think for now, I will do my captures in 5.5, and begin the learning process of switching the relatively simple editing I do from FCP7 to Premier 6. I just have a feeling that Apple is going to one day do an update that will totally blow out FCP7, and if that’s all I know how to use…that will be a sad day indeed.
It’s a good time for me to switch to Premier, as I have no unfinished projects going at the moment, so….FCP7…..see ya!
I like this computer, as it’s my first real Apple experience, but you won’t ever see me camped outside an Apple store waiting for them to open with a new product.
“Fanboy” is not in my future….