kona / aja / blackmagic

im just fishing for opinions, pros and cons on which is the best overall way to go.

Go Where? PCI Express? SD - HD

oh, you mean you want me to be specific? GEE WIZ!!!

well, currently, im just doing DV via firewire. but id like to upgrade into uncompressed SD, HDV and or proper HD.

and im a little foggy as to the application of all the vaious cards.

my current machine is a 2.0gHz g5 so im limited to whatever PCI level it has

If you want to do both uncompressed SD (SDI) and HD uncompressed then either the Kona 2 or the Decklink HD Pro single-link cards are about what you need. The SD is serial digital and does not convert analog SD. That would be a different solution. The AJA Kona LH can do both Analog and digital SD but not HD. Same for the Decklink Extreme. The BlackMagic products are less costly than the AJA versions.

The price for the BlackMagic version has recently dropped to $999.00 and if you need to ask about the difference between single and dual link (4:2:2- 4:4:4) then you don't need it.

Now when it comes to uncompressed HD there is a BIG whoa! Is your 2.0 G5 an original with one PCI-X slot or a later one without PCI-X? ALL uncompressed HD cards whether AJA Kona 2 or Decklink HD Pro, require one PCI-X slot.

So, there is DV and HDV which are approximately the same. NO capture card required. SD analog - SD digital (SDI) and then true uncompressed HD.

And don't forget, you need BIG FAST RAID disks for uncompressed HD as well.

If you plan to buy a new machine in the near future, no more PCI or PCI-X cards. They are not even compatible with the new Dual Core G5 so all your old cards have to go.

PCI Express is the future of the Mac so whatever you buy, make sure it's PCIe.



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Ted Shalowicz ? from AJA was on the Digital Production Buzz last evening and the BIG question was - is there going to be an upgrade path from PCI-X card users to PCIe and his answer was " Apple is moving on and so are we"

Buy now for what you need in the future. The future is here. And it has 4 processors.

It's not a 4 processor machine...it's 2 silicon chips with two independent 2.5GHz processor cores on each one - hence "Quad" or 4 x 2.5 GHz processing cores.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

so with the new dual and quad cores, what does that mean for the Intel Processor Macs. I saw this article online, but does anyone have anymore info it this? What is the expectation on how the "Mactel's" will handle video (DV/SD/HDV/HD) and will you need a whole new set of cards then?

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