which capture card for G5 power mac?

[dosborn]

hey gang! i'm straight out of college, so i'm still learning... hardly a video master at this point, lol! anyway, i work at an auto dealership group in arkansas, and our marketing department is upgrading to the hvx200 in jan. we're running a dual processor G5, and we're about to add a quad to the group. we'll be using both SD and HD, using a betacam sp deck to capture footage and to export finished spots. we're using 23" apple cinema displays, and a hi-def flat panel to monitor output (and i THINK we'll be using a jvc crt to monitor SD output). my question IS... as the thread subject spoiled... can anyone recommend a good capture card? ANY help will be greatly appreciated. :)

[Jack_Felis]

Blackmagic Designs has the Kona brand of cards. They have the Kona 2 for your current dual G5 (assuming you have one with PCI-X slots) and they have the new PCI Express Kona LH for the quad and newer G5's. Both are terrific, though I don't own one, I've heard only good things about them and their feature lists are quite impressive.

Canopus makes the Edius NX and SP hardware but that's PC only if I'm not mistaken.

That's about all I can think of unless there's some other brand of cards I don't know about.

[Danilo Del Tufo]

How much ram with the Quad is required to perform very well with Hvx200? 8 gigs ecc corrected?
Or with the Kona Lhe accelerator card it's enough 4 gigs of ram?

Thanks

[esperman]

How much ram with the Quad is required to perform very well with Hvx200? 8 gigs ecc corrected?
Or with the Kona Lhe accelerator card it's enough 4 gigs of ram?

Thanks
DVCPRO-HD is not horrible to edit. I would recommend 2 gigs.
Also, you dont need a capture card with the hvx. thats the beauty. Unless you want uncompressed...or to view hd on a production monitor...forget the card.

[dosborn]

thanks for the replies, guys! i was looking at the kona line a little bit yesterday. so i will need two different cards for a dual-processor and a quad G5? we're going to be picking up a quad G5, but we're also holding on to our dual G5...

STUPID question... i'm a mac newbie... but how can i tell if our dual G5 has the PCI-X slot? i assume just an empty space on the back of the tower? :thumbup:

[oneinfiniteloop]

I'm pretty sure all dual G5's have at least one PCI-X slot, or at least my dual 2.0 does. You'll have to look in the support doc's to find out which slot it is.

Also, Blackmagic Designs doesn't make the Kona cards, AJA does. Blackmagic makes the Decklink cards, which are very good as well, and a little cheaper.

[boo]

actually, some of the dualies have regular pci slots(not pci-x).

[oneinfiniteloop]

You're right...I forgot about that...I made sure i got the model with the pci-x.

[Anders Holck]

You might want to consider the AJA IO LA for your SD needs. It connects thru the Firewire 400 connector so it'll work with models with PCI, PCI-X and the quad with PCI express. It features Component, composite and Y/C IO and balanced XLR for the audio.

The only PCI express interface that currently does HD, is the Decklink multibridge and the Kona LHe.

About Ram I have edited Longform DVCPRO HD 1080i on my Dual 2 GHZ g5 with a mere 1.5 GB ram. But of cause the more the merrier.

Also Final Cut Pro has the ability to output full size gamma corrected HD to a connected monitor. I use my sony 900 wide crt to view both 720p and 1080p/i with no additional hardware.

I have the Blackmagic Decklink HD pro on my main edit machine, mostly for HDCAM edits. The neat thing is that it will do uncompressed HDSDI to DVCPRO HD 1080 encoding on the fly, so I can offline in DVCPRO HD from HDCAM tapes in one step. Old workflow was to do DV dubs from the master tapes and digitize those. Boy what a difference....

[OliverM]

I have a BlackMagic card in my G5 and I like it a lot. Blackmagic also has some good quality intermediate codecs of their own that come with with the cards.
Oh, and did I mention they're cheap as hell? :)

[dosborn]

i THINK i've decided on one of the black magic decklink cards. my question IS... seeing as how i'm going to be getting my footage from the P2 cards, will spending the extra dough for the most expensive decklink card be a waste? i'm going to be running a dual 23" apple cinema display monitor set-up, with a 42" inch plasma for my HD output monitor, and a 14" JVC CRT for my SD output monitor. personally, i think that set-up is way overkill, since i'm only going to be producing SD for a while, but that's what my gadget-nut bosses want.

so will i be able to run the two apple cinemas, the HD plasma monitor, and the SD CRT monitor with what i have now? would the black magic HDLink help out my situation any? i'm CRAZY confused about what i should be getting, lol!

ANY help will be greatly appreciated!

[JoeNash]

pretty nice setup for a car dealership.....damn

[dosborn]

yeah... i hate to sound like a McD's commercial... BUT... doo doo doo DOO doooooo... i'm lovin' it!

[Jarred Land]

if you have a newer G5 dual core.. you dont have PCI-x slots, they are all PCIe slots, so the decklink cards wont work. Blackmagic is working on the pci-e cards though.

[jasond]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum, so appologies for potentially re-asking questions that have probably been sufficiently answered.

Anyhow, I've been dying to start shooting my own video/hd projects, and am looking towards a purchase of the HVX200. However I have recently purchased a new Apple 20inch iMac G5 ( with iMovieHD) in the UK.
Question 1: Is this computer powerfull enough to handle capturing and editing HD ( I will not initially be using it for proffessional aplications, and do not mind waiting!)
Question 2: Can I just use the camera and Firewire cable to download DV and or HD straight to my computer, or will I need expensive P2 Stores or Drives.
Question 3 : Is iMovie HD an apprpriate application for editing. (Bearing in mind I do not rate flashy-editing effects, and the majority of cuts will take place in-camera)

An answer to these fundamental querries would be greatly appreciated.

Much respect,
jasond

[dosborn]

thanks for clearing that up, man! when it comes to computer hardware, i'm at a total loss. i know NOTHING at all about the subject, haha! one computer in my studio will be a quad-G5. the black magic DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 should work on a quad G5, correct? what kind of HD capture card that supports monitoring HD output would be good for a dual G5 with PCI-E slots?

basically, for both the quad and dual G5s in my studio, i need to be able to monitor HD output. at this point, we're talking about dual 23" cinema displays, with a flat-panel LCD or plasma HD to monitor HD output. is the flat panel output monitor useless if i'm already going to have dual 23" apple cinemas... one that i can monitor HD output? will the black magic card work to display the HD output, or will i also need to pick up the HDLink from black magic?

if it's not obvious, I'M CRAZY CONFUSED! hahaha.... i REALLY wish my college would have had this stuff in the radio/tv curiculum...

[MrBirdBoy]

WOW ... to have someone else's cash to spend .....

Sometimes I would love an inhouse gig.

[MrBirdBoy]

Hey Dos,
Who's shooting the stiff you'll be editing ? Im in Detroit and a car shooter of 16 years ...

Just wondered ...

[dosborn]

i'm pulling double duty, shooting AND editing. needless to say, i'm having to learn SEVERAL new skills that my college didn't even touch on. i'm VERY glad that i took a lot of photography courses that weren't required, or i would be even more in the dark. i'm sure you'll be getting several PMs from me regarding shooting car stuff. you've been warned, haha!

as for your first post... it's nice! hahaha! of course, the 8-5 office grind isn't exactly my idea of fun, haha! i'd much rather edit at home in my boxers until 4 in the morning. :)

[Jarred Land]

he black magic DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 should work on a quad G5, correct? ..

no... no decklink cards yet that are pci-e, except the $$ multibridge.

I got a new mac too and am waiting as well for blackmagic to pimp out the pci-e slot.

[mmm]

I got a new mac too and am waiting as well for blackmagic to pimp out the pci-e slot.

Jarred, you bought ANOTHER Mac? After selling your dual G5 after 2 weeks????:huh:

[Jarred Land]

yeah.. that first one i found out was a lemon.. bad memory. Ive been on a mac now again for almost a month.

[Justyn]

Just saw on their website that the PCIe version is available

[mmm]

yeah.. that first one i found out was a lemon.. bad memory. Ive been on a mac now again for almost a month.

I got bad memory in one of mine a few years back. The Apple store couldn't figure out the problem... FOOLS!

[kenn michael]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum, so appologies for potentially re-asking questions that have probably been sufficiently answered.

Anyhow, I've been dying to start shooting my own video/hd projects, and am looking towards a purchase of the HVX200. However I have recently purchased a new Apple 20inch iMac G5 ( with iMovieHD) in the UK.
Question 1: Is this computer powerfull enough to handle capturing and editing HD ( I will not initially be using it for proffessional aplications, and do not mind waiting!)
Question 2: Can I just use the camera and Firewire cable to download DV and or HD straight to my computer, or will I need expensive P2 Stores or Drives.
Question 3 : Is iMovie HD an apprpriate application for editing. (Bearing in mind I do not rate flashy-editing effects, and the majority of cuts will take place in-camera)

An answer to these fundamental querries would be greatly appreciated.

Much respect,
jasond

The iMac is fine for cutting DVCPROHD. I cut a couple of music videos shot with a Varicam on the iMac - 720p... I was able to playback 5-6 streams of 720p DVCPROHD multicam style off the iMac's internal HD with no problems. 1080 works fine as well.

As far as downloading footage, you should be able to use the HVX as a P2 drive connected to your computer via it's FW connector.

I'm not sure iMovie HD will edit DVCPROHD. And I'm certain that it won't be able to convert the P2 files to QuickTime files. You're better off getting FinalCutPro if you're going to be working with the HVX.

[OliverM]

I'd stay away from iMovie unless I really couldn't go any other way. If you're looking for a solid pro-grade basic editing app; go for FCP Express.

[Jarred Land]

wow pci-e version of blackmagic card is out? damn there goes $500 bucks from my pocket.

[Jarred Land]

Just saw on their website that the PCIe version is available

ah you bully.. you just be pulling my leg lol.. no PCIe yet.

my wallet thanks you.

[dosborn]

jarred- i'm a TOTAL newb on capture cards.... so what would be my best bet to view dual apple cinemas, view HD output via wall-mounted plasma, view an SD output monitor, and input/output to my miniDV deck? since the HVX only puts out 4:4:2 color, would getting capture card that handles 4:4:4 be overkill? ...and i guess all of the HD capture cards handles outputting 4 channel audio, right? i guess to play it safe, the pci-x is what i would need, right? a BIG TIME thanks for all of your help, man... i'm totally confused. i love cinematography, but computer hardware makes my brain feels like scrambled eggs.

[OliverM]

Hm, you could view the dual apple cinemas with the right video card, and for everything else... Your mini-DV deck stays firewire, no probs there. For monitoring on the plasma an HD-link. Then you need a card to output to the HD-link.
Actually you don't need a card for capture itself as everything is allready digitized in DVCPRO-codec. Well, XMF at first...
Your SD monitor could come from the card if it's an sdi monitor.
Decklinks have simultaneous output to hd and sd sdi. So HD-link and monitor at the same time.
Seems a Decklink High Definition and a HD-link should do your trick. :)
Hope this helps,
Oliver

[dosborn]

sweet! thanks for the advice, man! my SD monitor is a JVC TM AI3SU 13" . right now, we have it hooked up via BNC from the miniDV deck. i don't see any sort of SDI connection on it.

would the decklink hd plus ($695) be suitable, or would the Plus or Pro be a better choice?

[OliverM]

An SDI is a BNC connection, but digital. I guess you're stuck with analog then.
Hm, maybe they still make the card with analog monitoring? Or was that just an SD card. I've got that SD card.

Had a quick peak and they do! You need a decklink hd pro. A 4.2.2 will be enough I think. Unless you're planning to work in full 10-bit 4-4-4, the top version is overkill.
Grtz

[dosborn]

thanks a lot for the advice, oliverm! HD Pro, it is!