I'm the proud owner of a new XH A1 - and very happy with my purchase. I do a fair amount of After Effects work and will want to monitor my work through an HD external monitor. I'll probably be picking up one of the Black Magic or Xena cards for that purpose (Windows platform). I do actual assembly of my finished After Effects comps in PPro 2.0. I will be upgrading everything to CS3 when available.

Which version - Aspect or Prospect - would you recommend in light of the effects work and the external monitoring? I will be purchasing this within the next few days... It sounds as if After Effects would do better in a 10 bit environment with HD... If so, I guess that means Prospect HD is the way to go.

Thanks.

Stuart

You've got it. Prospect HD has both 10-bit and AJA Xena monitoring support whereas Aspect HD doesn't.

Thanks David for the quick response.

Any support for Black Magic cards as well?

Not for timeline monitoring. We only use the Blackmagic cards for RT capture with HDLink, whereas the AJA implementation supports btoth capture and playback.

David,

How about the Xena HS card, considering I'm working with the Adobe Production Studio? Their website seems to indicate it would be a perfect match. Does Prospect HD work within this card's parameters? Also, since I've got the XH A1, direct capture is only available through HD-SDI on the Xena HS. I guess I could get a component to HD-SDI converter if needed, or just upgrade to the higher-end Xena card.

Thanks again for your help and great product line.

Stuart

Stuart I don't want to Hijack your thread but I would like to add to your question.

What about Deck control there is no RS422 port on the HS card.

How do you get deck control with the HS card for output and capture with out the RS422, and without addtional Software like Pipeline (believe that is what it is called)?

By the time you buy Pipeline and the cable you are right at about where the LHe cost. Or am I missing something.

David you also recommmed a audio sync device to keep the Audio and picture on the HS card in sync. Do we still need that to have audio in sync with picture?

Xena HS works fine, it is all we used for two years before the LH came out.

HS doesn't require pipeline digital software for RS422 deck control -- just the cable ($25 -- http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/324673-REG/Pipeline_Digital_2329_RS_422_to_RS_232_9_pin.html.) If you want to use Adobe's deckcontrol, you need this cable for the LH cards also.

HS does benefit from a AES/EBU to analog convertor, and audio sync can only be guaranteed using the AJA Xena hardware. If you don't have one already these devices (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/382316-REG/AJA_ADA4_ADA4_Digital_to_Analog.html) can make the Xena LH worth the extra dollars.

David, can you still buy the OEM Xena card and Prospect HD combo through Cineform? I can't seem to find it on your website...

Stuart

We are no longer offering the OEM cards, we just dropped the price on Prospect HD low enough that the bundle pricing didn't make sense. The OEM cards also did less the the retail version, frustrating for CineForm as we weren't alllow to ship retail AJA cards. Prospect HD + OEM Xena was $2500, now Prospect HD at $999, and you can get a retail Xena LHe for a little as $1499 with more capability (basically you can optionally run AJA Machina.)

Thanks for the clarifications. I'll put together my best combo and order shortly.