[Tim Allison]

I really like the up/down/cross convert features that the Kona 3 offers. To me, that seems to position us the best for the unknown future.

So please correct me if I’m wrong on any of this:

We need to check and see if one of our current G5 machines has a PCIe slot for the Kona 3 card. Or we need to go ahead an upgrade to one of the Intel Macs right now.

We need to purchase some sort of analog component to SDI converter, like the AJA D10A. Working with a Kona 3, will we need some sort of SDI to analog component converter to lay programs back to our Beta deck?

We need to get a HD/SD switchable monitor like a Panasonic 1700W or 2600W.

(Dang, this is getting expensive!)

Once we have all of this in place, we should have inputs/outputs/SD reference monitor feeds for our Betacam projects, and inputs/outputs/reference monitor feeds for our HD projects. Is this right?

[Tim Allison]

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[Tim Allison]

Walter,

Thanks for that info. I assume that our SD-only Kona LS card is officially obsolete now? Will we need a Kona LH or a Kona 3 now?

[Tim Allison]

Walter,

I didn’t mean to hit a sensitive spot there. Since I put in the “smiley icon” 🙂 I thought it was clar my comment was intended as a joke.

Sometimes this Internet stuff just doesn’t communicate as effectively as it should! (That line was kind of intended as a joke, too.)

[Tim Allison]

Thanks Walter.

However, I can’t believe FCP doesn’t have some way to scroll the time line along with the curser.

My gosh, even Media 100 does that! 🙂

[Tim Allison]

Paul,

We use our Kona LS to interface with a UVW-1800 BetaSP machine. Last time I checked, BetaSP is an analog acquisition format, and that Kona LS card does indeed have component ins and outs. The way I define things, a Kona LS is an analog interface.

“Clip Settings” obviously do NOT work with a Kona LS card. Is someone else (who shoots BetaSP)using another flavor of Kona, or another manufacturer’s card where they do have contol over their Clip Settings?

[Tim Allison]

We’ve had the same problems. Do you have a component monitor? We solved our sync problems by running the “component out” directly from the Kona card to the monitor, and then from the monitor to the UVW-1800. We plugged the Horita into one of the reference inputs, ran a cable from the other reference inputs to one of the video inputs beneath it, and plugged the “reference in” cable to the Kona card into the other video connection.

I know this sounds like giberish. Give me a call at (662) 325-2309 and we can actually talk.

[Tim Allison]

The AJA folks told me that the control panal for the Io does have proc-amp controls, but the Kona LS card does not. I wish I would have known this when we purchased a couple of months ago. Our decision process had the Io vs the Kona LS as “6 of one, half a dozen of another.” The Io offered portability, which wasn’t very important to us, but it was also just a little more expensive. So we went with the LS card instead.

[Tim Allison]

Ed,

Those clip setings are not active with a Kona LS card. At least I haven’t discovered how to turn them on, yet. And tech support from AJA didn’t think you could turn them on either. The card does have a built in TBC, so we can adjust levels with a remote. But the problem with using a remote is that levels settings are NOT memorized with the clip. If we ever need to re-digitize, we have to manually adjust every clip again.

I’m probably just spoiled. We switched to FCP from Media 100, and this is a feature that M-100 did offer. One of the few features where M-100 is superior to FCP? Right now, I would say so.

[Tim Allison]

Here is what I’ve found.

I can’t push the bit-rate up any higher than 8.7. Remember, that DVD is limited to a total bit-rate of somewhere around 10.2, but this also includes audio. Anytime I try to go higher than 8.7, DVD Studio Pro balks at it, and tells me my bit-rate is too high.

A shorter GOP structure is supposed to help with video with a lot of action and movement. However, we have discovered that an open GOP length of 15 gives us the cleanest dissolves. So far, I haven’t noticed any serious issues with artifacts when using the open GOP 15 settings.

This is basic….but ALWAYS use 2-pass VBR encoding.