monitoring HD and SD clearly on a good monitor
 

do i need an extrernal card? I Have mac pro 3ghz and ati card supports 2 dual dvi. I have on 30" lcd and one 23"lcd

if I used either of these displays to display using digital cinema preview this isnt wholey accurate is it? would it be good enough? it there a mojo type box that I plut in to mac and it will always give me real time output on a high quality monitor?

Also HD burners, when are we expected them for the mac pro, both blue ray and hd dvd?

thanks

edit: apogies for all the typos, was very tired when i wrote it!

You will need a high def capture card to do this, like the AJA Kona LH or Kona 3. The Kona LH works in PCI-X machines, while the Kona LHe and Kona 3 work in PCI-e machines. Look them up:

www.aja.com

There is also Decklink options:

www.decklink.com

And then there is the Matrox MXO, but that is OUTPUT ONLY...no capture.

what pci version would i need for the new mac pro. what would you recommend?

Mac Pro...PCIe. So the Kona LHe or Kona 3.

What are your needs? That determines what you need to get. Need to capture analog sources as well as SDI? Get the Kona LHe. Capturing only HD SDI and need to upconvert footage? Get the Kona 3.

i cant see on the specs if the kona 3 or lhe are compatible with a mac pro.

my main needs as capture isnt the most important thing (my main camera is a sony xdcam hd f350 and my second camera is an hvx200), is realtime HD monitoring and the ability to output to sd onto a dvcam deck if needed.

With either the AJA or Decklink solution you could monitor on e.g. the BT-LH1700W which is good both for SD and HD work.

I know this is not exactly what you're asking for, but a better idea altogether...

Gunleik

what makes this a better idea?

If you don't need capture then this might be worth looking at. Doesn't require any slots and is portable between different Macs:

http://www.matrox.com/video/products/mxo/home.cfm

This is a much better idea for a number of reasons:

Calbrate-able full rez broadcast monitor with good color renderition and excellent SD playback through SDI or HD SDI.

The jyury is still out on the "LCD for CC" issue, but all post I have seen recomends this or its 26" siblings as the best option out there in the sub 20k$ range.

I know I am a happy fella after ditching both Cinema Desktop preview and the HD-Link. Cannot look back and see how I did without it.
(And i Have both the apple 23" and Dell 24")

Also has a built in waveform monitor. Nifty for on-set monitoring.

Really really love it.

Gunleik

Shane,

How is the signal coming out of the MXO compard to the Kona or decklink cards when connected to a broadcast monitor? I believe the MXO has to do a RGB-YUV conversion on the DVI signal where as the cards work in native YUV throughout the whole process? Doesn't the conversion allow room for possible color space conversion errors or have I got this wrong?

I have no idea how the MXO compares to the Decklink or AJA products. I haven't used the MXO. I just know it is an option.

And the Kona 3 and Kona LHe are what work in a Mac Pro, as it has PCIe slots, and that is what they are designed for.