AJA Video Systems announced KONA LHi, AJA's newest uncompressed video capture and playback card for SD, HD and 3G SDI Single Link 4:2:2 formats for Apple Mac Pro systems.

AJA KONA LHi allows legacy analog devices alongside the newest 3G SDI and HDMI v1.3a enabled products to interface to the latest PCIe Apple Mac OS X hardware, with integrated support for Apple Final Cut Studio and other QuickTime software applications. The card features AJA's 10-bit SD-to-HD upconversion, HD-to-HD cross-conversion, and HD-to-SD downconversion, providing complete flexibility when working with multiple SD and HD formats.

"KONA LHi represents the next evolution of our massively popular KONA LHe. With the addition of HDMI and 3G SDI support, along with up-, down- and cross-convert, we're offering even more workflow solutions for our customers," said Nick Rashby, president, AJA Video. "The KONA LHi delivers a huge amount of functionality in a very cost-effective package."

AJA KONA LHi allows editing, monitoring and mastering of professional-quality video in an affordable, easy-to-use product. Since all of KONA LHi's conversions are hardware-based, they are available all the time—during ingest or playback. Outputs can be configured independently, allowing users to have simultaneous HD and SD output—or two different types of HD, 720 or 1080, output via cross-conversion.

KONA LHi Features:

• 3G HD/SD-SDI input/output
• HDMI v1.3a input/output with Deep Color at 30 and 36 bits per pixel
• 12-bit SD/HD analog component or SD composite/YC I/O
• 10-bit hardware-based real-time up/down/cross-conversions
• DVCPRO HD hardware acceleration
• HDV hardware acceleration
• Dynamic RT hardware acceleration
• 2-ch balanced XLR AES digital audio and 2-ch balanced XLR analog audio input/output
• 8-ch SDI embedded audio input/output
• HD/SD Genlock and RS-422 machine control
• LTC input (on reference input)
• Support for Final Cut Studio applications, Adobe applications and more
• Breakout cables standard, affordable KLHi-Box breakout box optional
• Three-year international warranty

Price and Availability
The KONA LHi is available immediately for $1,495. The optional KLHi-Box breakout box is available now for $349.

For a limited time, the KONA LHe uncompressed video capture and playback card will be available at the special price of $1,295, a savings of almost $500.