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You're a professional, with all this expensive professional video gear. You've got an AVID Adrenaline HD with the fantastic DNxHD board, or you've got a high end Final Cut Pro System with an AJA Kona 3 card. You can work from Sony HD Cam decks, you can work from Panasonic DVCProHD decks, but THEN, your client walks in with these horrible HDV tapes.
OH NO, you are going to have to get an HDV VTR, or even worse, work right from their HDV Camera. What junk!
Even my Sony broadcast rep said “professionals shouldn't be using HDV, they should be using Sony XDCamHD.” I understand his point. Sony would rather sell the clearly superior format to serious pros.
Well, tell that to my clients. They walk in ALL DAY LONG with HDV tapes.
HDV is a fact of life. So you go out and get yourself an HDV VTR. Anything from the old Sony HVRM-10, to the new top of the line HVRM-25U, or even the excellent JVC BR-HD50.
But wait a minute! They've got analog component outputs! How do you get signals out of these damn decks into the HD-SDI input of your AJA Kona 3, AVID Adrenaline HD, or Blackmagic Decklink HD Pro card? Yes, they have analog component inputs, but why would ANYONE with a high quality DIGITAL HD signal path settle for a lower-quality ANALOG one?
And what's with this ANALOG AUDIO on RCA connectors? Are they KIDDING? This is supposed to be HD! We want a PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL PATH!
Well, thankfully, AJA saw this, and came out with the amazing AJA HD10AVA converter. It takes the analog component HD signal from your Sony or JVC HDV VTR, and converts it to an HD-SDI signal that can go right into the HD-SDI input of your capture card.
But what about that damn audio signal? They thought of that too, and there are inputs for the RCA analog outputs of these VTR's to also go into the HD10AVA. This converter will EMBED the analog audio signal right into the HD-SDI video stream, so when you select EMBEDDED AUDIO in the menus of your FCP or AVID system, it will bring in the audio signal, just like on a HD-Cam or Digi Beta VTR.
(Embedding the audio means that you don't have to worry about having an audio input on your capture card – it comes right along with the digital video signal)
But wait a minute! The audio is a low level signal! It's a -10dBu signal coming off these VTRs. How do I get the level up to a professional +4dBu signal? The AJA has little DIP switches on it, to allow you to boost the -10dB signal up to +4, so you will get the correct audio level into your edit system. On the AJA box, this is referred to as CONSUMER LEVEL (CSMR).
For under $1000, the AJA HD10AVA converter turns your toy HDV VTR into a professional product, making it a pleasure to deal with HDV from now on.
Other uses
You will find other uses for this converter too. You have your trusty Beta SP VTR, and want to get that into your AJA Kona system or your AVID Adrenaline SDI input? Simply connect the Beta VTR component outputs to the analog component video inputs of the AJA, and plug in the analog audio outputs of the Beta VTR to the analog audio inputs of the AJA. This amazing little box will convert your analog Beta VTR into an SDI digital video signal, with EMBEDDED AUDIO so you can go right into your Kona 3 or AVID Adrenaline SDI video input. How cool is that?
Recently, I have been using the AJA HD10A to convert the analog output of HD video games to HD-SDI (like the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation), so I can send them into AVID editing systems. But now, with the AJA HD10AVA, I can take the audio along with it, instead of running separate lines for audio.
It is exciting to find little boxes like the AJA HD10AVA, that don't cost a lot of money, and take care of so many problems in the modern video editing room.
Bob Zelin
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