Will your AJA IoHD give your DreamColor monitor a free ride?

If you own an IoHD device from AJA which you use as your input/output device for Final Cut Studio, it may give your HP DreamColor monitor a free ride. As explained in my recent article How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!, the DreamColor monitor is quite attractive, yet quite demanding, since in order to allow use of its color engine (and therefore monitor in ITU-R BT.701 color space), the monitor demands that the incoming signal be both RGB (not component) and true progressive (not interlaced or even PsF). Since the HDMI output of your IoHD can be set up to be RGB, the fact that you own the IoHD may be (under certain circumstances) a “free ticket” for the DreamColor.

Will your Matrox i/o interface give your DreamColor a free ride?

If you own an MXO2, MXO2 Rack, or MXO2 Mini which you use as your input/output device for Final Cut Studio, it may give your HP DreamColor monitor a free ride. As explained in my recent article How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!, the DreamColor monitor is quite attractive, yet quite demanding, since in order to allow use of its color engine (and therefore monitor in ITU-R BT.701 color space), the monitor demands that the incoming signal be both RGB (not component) and true progressive (not interlaced or even PsF). Since the HDMI output of your MX02, MXO2 Rack, or MXO2 Mini can be set up to be RGB, the fact that you own one of these interfaces may be (under certain circumstances) a “free ticket” for the DreamColor.

How AJA’s new Hi5-3G may fix your DreamColor connection

The 30-bit (10-bit per channel) HP DreamColor monitor is quite attractive for the price, yet quite demanding regarding the type of input signals it accepts, as I explained on page 2 of my article How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!. In order to have the color engine active (which is necessary to monitor in ITU-R BT.701 color space), the DreamColor demands that its input signal over HDMI be both RGB (not component) and progressive (not interlaced or even PsF). If your system doesn’t currently output RGB over HDMI… or if it does that, but doesn’t put out true progressive at the progressive framerate you are editing, then the US$690 Hi5-3G from AJA can help, since it can convert a component signal over HD-SDI (or even 3G-SDI) and deliver a real time RGB signal over HDMI. Specifically, the Hi5-3G can help if it receives a signal which is either true progressive or PsF, since it can easily convert PsF into true progressive… but it cannot do the same from a true interlaced signal. For that, you need a EXT-HDSDI-2-HDMIS from Gefen, which costs US$1299. For more details, see page 2 of the article called How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!

How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!

In this article, you will learn that the best way to connect can go way beyond the physical connections you see on your NLE’s professional interface and HD evaluation monitor. Believe it or not, it sometimes also depends upon whether you are editing interlaced or progressive… and also, whether your NLE’s professional interface card or box delivers an RGB or component signal over whatever video output connector(s) it has. Read on and you will see how this often does matter, and does affect the way you should connect!

Sony Latin America also upgrades 3G HDV camcorders to universal, for a small fee

On February 10th, 2009, I informed our readers that Sony USA was offering upgrades to world-class compatibility on their 3G HDV camcorders. As explained in that first article, the Sony upgrade activates the otherwise dormant modes of these cameras, i.e. 576i PAL, HD 25p, and HD 50i modes, on top of the original “24p” (23.976p), “30p” (29.97p) and “60i” (59.94i) modes. Now I am happy to report that Sony BPLA (Sony Broadcast Professional Latin America) is offering the same upgrade on the same cameras in their region.

nanoFlash recorder: Now lower price, and more features

Convergent Design has announced a price reduction on their nanoFlash recorder, which we covered during the NAB on April 21st. Now the list price is US$2995 and more features have been added, including an analog audio input, over/undercrank, and native recording of 720p23.976/25/29.97 which comes from the camera with pulldown over 50p or 59.94p. In other words, the nanoFlash will remove the extra frames based upon the metadata. The nanoFlash recorder now offers over/undercranking of a pure 720p59.94p stream.

Sony adds new entry-level model to family of HD Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras

At NAB 2009, Sony is introducing an entry-level model to its line of high-definition compact pan-tilt-zoom cameras. According to Sony, the new BRC-Z330 remote control camera is designed for an array of remote acquisition applications, such as television production for recording programs, and for use as a weather or traffic camera. Compact and lightweight, the new camera maintains the design elements of its predecessors but uses a specially designed read-out from its CMOS imaging technology to significantly shorten image delays.

Convergent Design shows nanoFlash: world’s smallest Pro HD/SD recorder/player

At NAB 2009, Convergent Design is showing the nanoFlash: a full-raster 720p or 1080i/p, 4:2:2 recorder that can be described as super-small, lightweight, and low-power. It has both HD/SD-SDI and HDMI input/output, and can record three different multiple bit rates of MPEG2 long GOP, and one MPEG2 at i-frame. When Convergent Design says low-power, they mean 7.5 watts when active, or 0.2 watts in standby mode. nanoFlash records onto inexpensive Card Flash media. Convergent Design quotes 32GB at US$60. Files may be wrapped with either QuickTime or MXF.

Matrox announces MXO2 Mini

At NAB 2009, Matrox announced its new MXO2 Mini, the second spinoff based upon the MXO2, and the third in the MXO2 family. The MXO2 Mini is the smallest and least expensive in the family, and the first one to be cross-platform. (The MXO2 and MXO2 Rack are Mac-only, at least for now.) If you are familiar with the MXO2, subtract XLR balanced audio and SD and HD-SDI, add multi-platform support, and you basically have an MXO2 Mini that starts at US$449 (₤338 in the UK, or €382 in other parts of Europe). If you would also like the new MAX option (which accelerates H.264 encoding when you are ready to deliver to AppleTV, Blu-ray, iPhone/iPod, WDTV, or the web), then the price is US$849 (₤644 in the UK, or €758 in other parts of Europe).

Blackmagic’s UltraScope; first 3 Gb/s SDI + optical fiber SDI scopes for editors and colorists

At NAB 2009, Blackmagic Design announced their UltraScope. In the manufacturer’s words: “The world’s first 3 Gb/s SDI and optical fiber SDI scopes designed for editors and colorists, with the technical accuracy broadcast engineers will love for only US$695!” Blackmagic continues, saying: “Simply plug into any compatible Windows computer with a 24-inch monitor, and Blackmagic UltraScope will display 6 live scope views simultaneously! UltraScope is engineering accurate and includes 3 Gb/s SDI plus 3 Gb/s optical fiber SDI. UltraScope auto detects SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI inputs.” For everyone’s sake, I hope Blackmagic Design creates a Mac version by the time the product ships in June… although at that price, if even Blackmagic doesn’t make a Mac version, some producers who generally prefer MacOS may well decide to dedicate a Windows computer just for this task.

AJA’s KiPro records ProRes422 directly, without a computer

At NAB 2009, AJA announced the KiPro, which allows direct recording of Apple’s revered ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) in the field, without any laptop, from any SD or HD camera or vision mixer (“switcher”). I consider the KiPro to be a natural extension of AJA’s IoHD, and my only surprise is why AJA waited so long to release such a product. The KiPro has just about any type of input and output that we could possibly imagine, is controllable wirelessly from a laptop or iPhone, and records to two types of removable media: either ExpressCard34 (the type that fits into your MacBookPro) or its own Storage Module.

The advantages of recording directly to ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) are fairly obvious, since these two códecs are 10-bit, full raster 720p (1280x720) or 10-bit, full raster 1080 (1920x1080), with true 4:2:2 color sampling, and are immediately editable in Apple’s Final Cut Pro (or even with iMovie 09 if the ProRes422 códec has been installed on the machine). The file sizes of ProRes422 and ProRes422(HQ) are certainly higher than those used in most onboard camera códecs, but for high-end EFP, many producers will gladly accept that. In addition to the HD specs mentioned, the KiPro can also accept SD signals, and either record them as ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) in SD, or upscale to HD. When dealing with analog standard definition video, KiPro can properly handle PAL, NTSC with 7.5 ire setup, or NTSC without 7.5 ire setup, depending upon the source and destination. KiPro can also handle realtime cross conversion in any direction between 720HD and 1080HD. This is very welcome!

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