Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. and AJA Video Inc. today announced what they’re calling the first “film quality” QuickTime editing and design solution, the Kona HD. It’s an uncompressed HDTV 10-bit QuickTime card for Mac OS X.
The Kona HD features one HD SDI video input, an HD SDI video output, six channels of AES/EBU digital audio and an HDTV genlock. It’ll be compatible with HD Cam, DVC HD and HD D5 broadcast HDTV decks, for both capture and playback of HDTV video.
The Kona HD has been designed to support all HDTV resolutions, including 1080i/50, 1080i/29.97 and 1080i/60 for broadcast and programming production. The Kona also supports 1080p/23.98 and 1080p/24 for film. And although support will be dependent on application compatibility, Blackmagic also indicated that the Kona HD would support 720p/59.94 and 720p/60.
The Kona HD features upgradeable real-time effects; features can be added by upgrading software through downloads. Firmware is loaded at system startup, so there’s no need to swap out hardware chips, according to Blackmagic.
Offline RT support is also included. Offline motion photo JPEG can be captured directly to the HD SDI input and then to removable storage, including FireWire disks.
Blackmagic said the Kona HD would work with Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, Discreet Combustion, Cleaner, iDVD and DVD Studio Pro. Blackmagic said the new card is coming after certification tests to guarantee its compatibility with Apple’s Final Cut Pro software have been completed. It’s priced at US$10,995.
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