[Roland Blaser]

Hi Jeremy

This is a very generous offer, thanks a lot! I could upload some short footage to .mac public folder for you. Could we get in contact via private mail for this? My mail is “roland.blaser(at)mac.com”. Like this I could send you my .mac address for downloading.

Actually IMX is XDCAM. Sony uses the same codec for their tape aquisition format and the tapeless format XDCAM. Even the camcorders look similar – one records onto tape, the other onto BluRay. However, the codec is 100 percent the same. The format itself is an MPEG2 4:2:2, and it is very popular within the broadcast industry. Sony says the quality is close to Digi Beta, and the 50 Mbit or around 7 MByte are easy to handle. FCP supports IMX fully in its native form. I used to work with a BMD Decklink card. And even BMD supported this codec. Most probably the AJA Konas do as well.

Cheers,
Roland

[Roland Blaser]

I guess some of you got me wrong. I’m not against this product, I just have questions. And most of the video guys I know have similar questions.
I absolutely agree: The AJA ioHD seems to be a very nice interface box whenever ProRez is needed. And I really like the portability and all the different interfaces like SDI, HD SDI, HDMI, analog and so on. Especially the up-, down- and cross-conversion capabilities are just great. Conclusion: An interface box you, I and many others had been waiting for!

But let’s be honest: Whenever you have a box like this connected to your desktop or your laptop, you may simply like to use it as a video monitor interface for connecting your monitors while editing. Finally, this is my easy question.

Is there a simple way to use the AJA ioHD for monitoring while editing in codecs like IMX50 (Sony XDCAM) that are fully supported in their native formats by Apple’s FCP? IMX50 stays for 50 Megabit or around 7 MByte per second and can easily be handled by any internal laptop hard drive – full broadcast quality editing on a PowerBook Pro, for instance.

Is it correct: As the AJA ioHD is primarily a ProRez based unit, I would need to convert all my IMX clips (or XDCAM HD 35 MBit, XDCAM ex 35 MBit, HDV 25 MBit) into 140 Megabit (ProRez SD) or 220 Megabit (ProRez HQ) first? And as a result the internal laptop HD, for instance, could not handle the much higher amount of data anymore? Or is there a way that makes more sense?

Sorry, Bob: I know the desktop Kona’s are nice. But I just need a portable solution as I can’t take my desktop Mac with a built-in Kona from home to the TV station all the time just for playing out via SDI or HD SDI. So, for this part of my problem the AJA ioHD is super nice for sure as it works with my MacBook Pro! But I just try to make the best out of it. If there would be a solution for using it as an interface for simply connecting my video monitor to my desktop FCP editing Mac (editing natively, not ProRez), I would be more than happy! And I guess, I’m not the only one. Looks like AJA found a way for DVC PRO at least. Maybe they could manage something like this for the Sony codecs, too and an already great product would be even more interesting!

Cheers,

Roland