Tony
Forum Replies Created
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Go over to the P2 Cow forum where this has all been discussed over and over again until you start puking out P2 digital chunks.
Tony Salgado
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Matthew,
The Kona 2 does not act as a realtime FRC. I do wish this was possible via the Kona 2 control panel in realtime. That FRC tool is reserved for FCP via the FRC plugin. If you capture directly into the Kona 2 from the Varicam via HDSDI the FRC flags are retained. One great feature in the Kona 2 control panel is a timecode display which can tell you the user bit information which tell you what frame rate your recorded on the Varicam as well as the actual numbers of active frames. This feature is great when dealing with footage in which no one slated the frame rate on camera and you want to know what the frame rate was.
FYI The speed of the Mac you are using is critical to using the FRC quickly. I have recently have been conducting testing on Varicam footage using a dual 2.7 G4, dual 1.0 G4 and powerbook with varicam footage. The FRC plugin will only work with Varicam DVCPRO HD clips not SD clips which are dubbed from the HD tapes.
The dual 2.7 G5 deals very quickly with the FRC process and is up to four times faster than the dual 1.0 G4.
The Kona 2 does have it own dvcpro HD codec for HDSDI capture in addition to the Panasonic’s dvcpro HD codec which is captured via firewire. I have captured via firewire but use the Kona 2 422 port for vtr control or capture via HDSDI out of the 1200A with Kona 2 422 deck control. Firewire deck control is a completely joke given how slow it takes. I did a test to compare the time required to capture under firewire vtr control and discovered it takes 20 sec up front for each and every clip to search and pre-roll the clip prior to the actual capture. For dozens if not hundreds of clip captures firewire deck control is something you want to avoid unless you are charging your client 25 cents a clip for capturing.
The downconversion quality on the Kona 2 is absolutely awesome and is the number one reason I choose to work with the Kona 2 over other HD video cards. Last year I tested the brand you mentioned and was severely disappointed to see the so called “broadcast quality” downconverter. That manufacturer finally admitted that their downdconverter was indeed not broadcast quality and in my professional opinion not even suitable for “monitoring” quality.
In closing considering the quality of AJA’s products and top notch level of customer support I can honestly say you are not making a mistake by purchasing the Kona 2 or any other AJA product for that matter.
Tony Salgado
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David,
No I am not a beta user or under any NDA. Just overheard some good news on something in the works for the future.
Tony Salgado
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I am not at liberty to say more than something which fit your needs will one day be available from your favorite video card manufacturer.
That’s all I can say for now.
Tony Salgado
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None exist.
The Cow is the only place in the universe to graze at.
It would be a violation of the Sacred Cow Rule Agreement to give anyone directions to another site that does not maintain the same high quality source of information found on the cow.
But I think a google search might produce some results.
Tony Salgado
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DVCPRO HD not HDV.
Tony Salgado
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If you really need the data then you will be willing to pay the price to recover it.
Or course if you don’t really wnat to spend any money on it then prehaps you may not consider the data worth recovering.
Tony Salgado
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Look at the clips in your browser and verify under item properties what the codec is which the clips were captured at.
Are they dvcpro HD 59.94? verify the clip frame rate also?
Did the post house capture via firewire or HDSDI? I have tested both firewire captures and HDSDI with the 1200A and both retain the flags needed for the FRC extraction.
Generally if a clip does not have the flags an error message will appear after you select the FRC in the tools menu telling you that clip cannot be processed because it is not a dvcpro HD clip etc. In this case the FRC never even starts processing.
Other items to look out for include making sure you have not loaded the clip you wish to convert into the viewer, the clip is at the top of the browser.
One FCP bug I have found is that sometimes even when you select the clip you wish to convert FCP will grab another clip in another bin and convert that clip instead. So you must look at the clip name and verify it is the same when the FRC dialogue window appears and cross check it to make sure the clip you have selected is the one that will be converted. Sometimes I have had to boot out of FCP and restart FCP to get it to convert the clip I want.
FYI the FRC will only work on native DVCPRO HD varicam footage not standard def clips transcoded from the varicam clips. The flags are not retained during the downconvert via the 1200A or in FCP.
One last note what is the sequence setting you are working in? You will get a different overcrank or undercrank effect depending on the sequence playback frame rate.
Tony Salgado
PS- what is the mac you are using the FRC on? I tested a powerbook, dual 1 ghz G4 and dual 2.7ghz G5 and there are major differences in the amount of time required to convert the clips.
Or course the dual 2.7ghz G5 was the fastest. For example a 15 second clip would take about 10 sec to process and drop the self contained clip back into FCP. On the dual G4 it took about a minute. The powerbook anywhere between 2-3 minutes.
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Wayne,
Anytime you intend on making a purchase it is your duty to ask if a trade in or trade up policy exist when a new product replaces the older one in a short time frame.
In addition I recommend always waiting until after a major tradeshow has ended before making any new equipment purchases. No vendor can release confidential information in advance without risking losing their edge.
The best question to ask the manufacturer directly is 1) If I buy “X” product today will I be disappointed in the next “X” days if and when a possible new product arrives?
They can provide you a “Yes or No” answer which should give you enough insight to buy or wait out until the “secret” product is released.
Tony Salgado
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Skip the answer is if you require on set external jam sync timecode between camera heads then you need to step up to the higher end model which allow this.
Options including using external deneke sync boxes which use an internal timecode generator which you lock to the individual camera heads. Using an external timecode box allow absolute timecode accuracy and avoid the problem of timecode slip during power down or up cycles, battery changes etc.
Other options include hard wiring timecode cables to the camera heads from a master timecode generator or daisy chaining between camera heads.
A real simple option is to use an external visual timecode slate and shoot that on camera as a sync reference. All cameras shoot the slate at the beginning of the take and do not stop rolling until the end of the take.
In a nutshell external timecode inputs on a camera head is reserved for higher end professional cameras. Such models include SDX-900, VariCam etc.
At the price point the 200 will be available it is unlikely it will have an timecode input or output capable of external jam syncing.
Tony Salgado