AJA kona vs. Black Magic

AJA vs Black Magic.

Any insights into which would be adequate enough for digitizing, editing, and laying to HDCAM tape, a piece for broadcast. There is some graphics, the footage is mostly man on the street interviews shot in HD DVCpro.

Blackmagic will more than do unless you need the hardware cross, up/down conversion of the Kona 3.

I have a Multibridge 2 and an DeckLink HD Pro PCI-X both work perfectly even for uncompressed 4:4:4 10bit 1920x1080 HD

If you are only doing DVCproHD then you will be laughing!

Especially on the price!



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Thanks for the good advice.

And regarding "up/down conversion of the Kona 3" do you mean SD to HD/HD to SD?

NOBODY beats Aja's Customer / Tech Support. A very large consideration when making a purchase such as this. I would rather pay more for the hardware and know that if my card goes down within the 3 year warranty that the company will OVERNIGHT me another one instantly. Priceless Tech Support. Worth every penny.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Joe's a die hard AJA fan - and rightly so they have good tech support but so do Blackmagic (apparently they used to be a bit less helpful in the distant past)

Quote

do you mean SD to HD/HD to SD

Yes

the Kona 3 will do realtime hardware SD<>HD or HD720p<>HD1080i

for the different Blackmagic cards check this [www.blackmagic-design.com]

However you if you don't need the extra crossconversion on the Kona 3 and I would save yourself some money and get a DeckLink HD Pro PCIe 4:4:4...

There are rumours of something from BlueFish 444 [www.bluefish444.com] so if you aren't in a hurry it might be worth waiting and see what they have to offer - they used to do some of the highest quality video boards for Mac.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

I will also vote for the Kona 3. I used to be supervising producer on an animated show with six animators using the BlackMagic cards. They worked well but customer support was so-so. Aja's customer support has been so good, I would have paid twice the price, they are hands down the best and really CARE that you are up and running and making money.

I had one problem with my Kona 3, the analog on the breakout box went out. After a phone call, they immediately FedExed me a replacement and said to ship back the bad box as soon as I had time. Amazing!

If you have clients and deadlines, the premium in price over the BlackMagic is worth it.

Dan

It all depends on what you are doing, but both are good cards. If you are capturing straight HD and don't need to upconvert SD to HD, or cross convert 720p to 1080i, then the Decklink cards are perfectly fine. They are pretty good. But if you want one card that does it all and does it well, the Kona 3 is that card. I have that and the Kona LH.

But a buddy of mine has the Multibridge and hasn't had one issue.


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