Component or HD SDI?
 

Hi

Anyone know what the quality difference is for live capture between the HD100 Component and the HD250(?) and HD SDI?

Also anyone know why the Blackmagic HD extreme is a lot cheaper than the AJA cards? Any quality difference?

Thanks

Trevor

The 250 isn't available yet, so no one knows. I would assume the HD SDI output would be superior simply because the signal will skip a D/A converter.

Good old competition.
I assume you are comparing the Kona LHe with the Extreme?
I think Kona has worked on hardware acceleration of HDV. I own Blackmagic products so I can't compare.
Both are capable of 10-bit uncompressed capture.

Hi Tim

Thanks for your reply, very helpful.

Glad to hear that you have the Blackmagic. Do you find much difference in quality between component capture and the HDV laid down on tape.

Also does the component out also give you the audio?

Thanks!

Trevor

Component YUV is video only. You'll need to use balanced analogue or AES/EBU audio.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Could you break that down for me, in terms of how I could capture the audio as well as the video live?

Thanks

Trevor

Basically the audio from the camera/deck is unbalanced (consumer) level signal. The card uses balanced XLR (professional) line level signal. What that means is that there needs to be a mixer between the source and the capture card. A little Yamaha or similar would do.

So....will the black magic hd extreme/studio cards let me capture straight from the component out of the camera (hd100) or do i need to buy an A/D converter that goes between the two...as far as I can tell the card says it supports analog in.....?

The BlackMagic card will convert the audio -- assuming your card has analog inputs, which the xtreme card does.

My BlackMagic card (an sp card) has balanced inputs (with xlr connectors) so you will need two short cables to go from the output of the camera to the connector on the BlackMagic card. I have two that have male xlr on one end and male RCA on the other end. This is probably what you need, but look at the connections that you will be connecting to, on the camera and on the card.

As mentioned in the above post, a mixer can also be used between the camera and the card, giving you control on the strength of the signal. Depending on the mixer, you will need cables with the right connectors. If the mixer is balanced, then you need the kind of cable I mention above (to go from the camera to the mixer). If the mixer is unbalanced, you may different cables.

For video you should be able to connect directly from the card's cable.

For the audio I would suggest a short cable rather than just an adapter, so there is less strain on the camera.

It makes no difference whether the audio going in is balanced or unbalanced for the very short run you will have... just use the right cable with the right connectors.

Hi Trevor-
The upcoming JVC HD250 with HD-SDI output will have embedded audio, so you can ingest directly into a Blackmagic or AJA card. You don't need to deal with an analog audio cable setup.

For the non HD-SDI JVC camocrders, may I suggest our HD-Connect SI box, which converts HDV to HD-SDI with embedded audio and time code. It also has RS-422 to 1394 deck control. I think you'll find it to be a simplier and more cost effective solution. Also it's 100% digital (no A/D or D/A).

www.convergent-design.com

Best-
Mike Schell

The component out of the camera/deck is analogue, so the SI box must be converting that to digital, correct?

But apparently their Connect MI box (which is cheaper) will convert HDMI from the deck to SDI, which would keep things digital all the way.

Hi Jiri-
The HD-Connect SI is an HDV to HD/SD-SDI converter. It has a MPEG2 HD decoder inside to decompress the HDV stream. It works great with any HDV device.

The lower cost HD-Connect MI, on the other hand, converts the HDMI output from the JVC HD50 deck into HD/SD-SDI. If you owe a JVC deck, then the MI box is the optimum choice from both a cost and video quality point of view. The HDMI output from the deck has been processed through some additional error correction circuitry (inside the deck) and has fewer dropouts and less problems at scene transitions.

Both the SI and MI boxes are 100% digital.

Mike Schell