KONA Desktop
Most users run multiple applications to create their video projects.
So, in addition to Final Cut Pro support, the KONA Desktop feature
allows broadcast design elements to be viewed with the proper aspect
ratio and color depth on a broadcast monitor via the KONA card. KONA
Desktop supports Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Motion,
Apple Shake, Discreet Combustion and more.
KONA 3 Hardware Acceleration
Final Cut Pro users will love our DVCPROHD, HDV and Apple Dynamic RT
Extreme hardware acceleration, developed in close cooperation with
Apple and available exclusively on high-end KONA cards. KONA 3 hardware
takes a portion of the codec processing load off the CPU, allowing more
RealTime (RT) effects in Final Cut Pro when outputting. KONA 3 also has
hardware support when capturing. This brings amazing RealTime HD
production power to the desktop. With KONA 3, any source can be
captured using the DVCPROHD codec — giving you online HD quality at
remarkably low data rates, allowing the internal PowerMac SATA storage
to be used for HD capture, playback and RT effects. Of course, you’ll
obtain still better performance and more RT when using a fast SCSI or
Fibre array, but this feature allows HD to be used where only SD would
have been considered because of budget or time constraints. KONA 3 even
supports the DVCPROHD and HDV codecs with up- or downconversion —
allowing projects to be downconverted to SD, or even upconverted for
DVCPROHD capture.
How Does KONA Accelerate
DVCPROHD, HDV & Apple's Dynamic RT?
Because KONA’s precision hardware does part of the work, the G5 has
more time available to process RT effects. This means more RT-effects
power, and more RT streams. Most broadcast codecs, including DVCPROHD
and HDV, use a two-step process. First, the video is scaled to a lower
horizontal pixel count, and then the video is compressed. This is done
because the slightly scaled video results in a favorable trade-off
between resolution and codec efficiency. KONA 3’s hardware not only
dramatically speeds up the scaling part of the job, but it’s also done
with full 10-bit broadcast quality.
When
using the Final Cut Pro HDV codec, the KONA 3 hardware acceleration
allows instantaneous real-time playback for both monitoring and
recording. Even KONA’s downconverter works in real-time with HDV,
allowing SD monitoring, dubs or mastering. This KONA 3 functionality
makes HDV a fully professional solution.
The
Panasonic DVCPROHD format takes advantage of KONA hardware as well.
KONA’s precision hardware allows capture and playback of HD-SDI video
to and from the DVCPROHD codec at a quality level virtually
indistinguishable from native FireWire, while freeing up valuable RT
processing power.
For Final Cut Pro 5’s
Dynamic RT feature, KONA’s hardware is used to offload the video
scaling as the “playback video quality” dynamically adjusts. This
allows more playback power — and because KONA handles it seamlessly,
the Dynamic RT you see on the Mac monitor is the same as that shown on
your professional broadcast monitor.
All of
this adds up to the most reliable, feature-rich and highest-performance
card available for OS X and Final Cut Pro. KONA 3 represents the next
generation of technology. |
