Instruction manual

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KONA 3G Installation and Operation Manual — Workflow General Notes
Apple ProRes 422
and Apple ProRes
422 HQ (SD or HD)
Data rate: Approximately 18 MB/second ProRes 422, Approximately 31 MB/second ProRes 422
HQ— supported by internal system drive or attached storage
Quality: Excellent, broadcast quality
Captured media is virtually indistinguishable from pristine uncompressed sources. Better yet,
ProRes maintains the quality during editing, surviving multiple encoding/decoding generations
without degradation. It was designed by Apple for editing, rather than as a transmission/
distribution codec as are most popular codecs. Some of the advantages include:
• Full-size 1920-by-1080 and 1280-by-720 HD resolutions.
• Full-size 720-by-486 and 720-by-576 SD resolutions.
• 4:2:2 chroma sampling. Provides precise compositing and blending at sharp saturated-color
boundaries.
• 10-bit sample depth. Preserves subtle gradients of 10-bit sources (perfect for green-screen
compositing, graphics or color correction) with no visible banding artifacts.
• One frame-only encoding. Ensures consistent quality in every frame and no artifacts from
complex motion.
• Variable bit-rate (VBR) encoding. “Smart” encoding analyzes the image and allocates more bits
to complex frames.
• Low data rate requirements make for more storage options and require less drive space to
store high-quality video.
Workflow General Notes
The previously discussed codecs (DVCPRO HD, PhotoJPEG, DVCPRO 50, etc.) are used in different
ways based on project characteristics. Some codecs create very high quality offline files at low
data rates for projects that will ultimately be delivered as uncompressed via an offline/online
process; other projects may use these compressed formats to create final masters. AJA provides
Final Cut Pro Easy Setups for settings that can be used in a “capture once-use in many steps”
type process. For example, you might use offline files for:
• editing digital dailies for review from a digital projector
• viewing location footage
• editorial performed on laptops
• creating screening cuts of the project for approval and audience testing
all from one QuickTime file using the DVCPro HD codec.
Mixing and
Matching Formats
in Final Cut
In Final Cut Pro, the best editorial results come from working with one format-per-timeline
consistently. For example, if you capture HDV files and then capture 10-bit uncompressed files,
you'll have to rerender one or the other when using the two types on the same Final Cut
sequence (the timeline where media is edited into a project). You could even capture 8-bit
uncompressed and DV, and then place them both on a PhotoJPEG timeline and end up having
to render them both.
Therefore, it makes sense to capture media into your system at the highest quality you plan to
use in Final Cut to eliminate rerendering and ensure the best results for mastering. A well
thought out online/offline workflow should be mapped out before starting a project. The KONA
3G card provides a solution by allowing users to capture to a common codec easily with its
hardware-based upconversion, downconversion and crossconversion capabilities.
For example, if a 720P 59.94 DVCProHD master is desired, and the source material is standard
definition Digital Betacam tapes at 29.97fps, DVCProHD tapes at 59.94fps and HDCam tapes at
29.97fps, all of these tapes can be digitized to the common codec of DVCProHD at 720P 59.94.