• Blackmagic Design

  Bringing Me There

  Posted by Whit Wales on August 18, 2005 at 12:58 pm

  I have a G5 dual 2.0 with PCI-X card.
  I understand that I will need DecklinkHD card and the HD link converter to attempt a more accurate live color HD monitoring on an LCD monitor with 1900×1200 res.

  I’m capturing with an FX1/Z1 and outputting back out to HDV tape and SD DVD. That’s my workflow.
  In what other ways will a basic Decklink HD card help me?
  For example, in reading the literature, I understand that it supports multiple effects streams in FCP HD. What does it do in FCP 5?

  I’m looking for extra benefits that will help me see my way to paying $1300 for cards that will simply help me view an image in HD.

  Pull me back from the precipice or help me take the plunge.

  Thanks,

  Whit

  Luke Maslen replied 20 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Luke Maslen

  August 18, 2005 at 11:23 pm

  Hi Whit,

  As much as we like to sell DeckLink cards, you might not need one.

  If you are capturing from, and recording back to, HDV tape, then you simply need a Firewire connection for that.

  Your camera has component analog outputs which you could connect to a suitable CRT or LCD monitor which accepts HD component analog.

  Burning to DVD does not require a DeckLink card.

  Where the DeckLink card with HDLink might be useful is, once you have captured your HDV material via FireWire, you can edit it and apply effects and text and then preview it via the DeckLink card to see how it will look on a TV before outputting to tape. If you want to output to a Sony HDCAM or Panasonic D5 deck, the DeckLink HD series cards will let you do that too.

  Regards,

  Luke Maslen
  Blackmagic Design
• 

  Whit Wales

  August 19, 2005 at 12:08 am

  Hi Luke,

  Thanks for your quick response.

  I think I understand the value of the Decklink/HD Link combination in terms of being able to monitor HDV material once I’ve captured it, in order to see how it will look before output.

  I guess what I was fishing for was – are there any other benefits in this equation? For example, will effects in FCP 5 be rendered any faster? Will the time to render and conform HDV be shorter? It appears that with the Decklink HD I can downconvert to SD in realtime? My question is, too, whether the card helps to accelerate mp2 conversion process in DVD authoring?

  I’m guessing from your response to my first email that this is not the case, but that won’t stop me from hoping…

  If I am hearing you correctly then, essentially, the utility of these two Blackmagic products will be simply to view a more accurate representation of HDV footage from my computer.

  I look forward to your response.

  Thanks,

  Whit
• 

  Luke Maslen

  August 19, 2005 at 12:23 am

  Hi Whit,

  Yes, the main benefits would be for monitoring your captured HDV material or outputting to a professional deck. You could output in HD to a HDCAM or D5 or alternatively you could use the down conversion to output to a Digibeta. This could be useful if you want to use your HDV material for broadcast.

  [Whit Wales] “will effects in FCP 5 be rendered any faster?”

  No, the HDV codec is Apple’s codec for use via Firewire so using a DeckLink card won’t make this any faster.

  [Whit Wales] “Will the time to render and conform HDV be shorter?”

  No, same answer.

  [Whit Wales] “It appears that with the Decklink HD I can downconvert to SD in realtime?”

  Yes, when you play out the HDV material via a DeckLink card, it can output SD if you switch on the down conversion feature.

  [Whit Wales] “My question is, too, whether the card helps to accelerate mp2 conversion process in DVD authoring?”

  No, it has no relation to DVD authoring other than helping you capture material you might use on a DVD.

  [Whit Wales] “If I am hearing you correctly then, essentially, the utility of these two Blackmagic products will be simply to view a more accurate representation of HDV footage from my computer.”

  Yes, that plus the ability to output via SDI to HD and SD decks so you can generate an uncompressed copy of your HDV material and perhaps use it for broadcast.

  Regards,

  Luke Maslen
  Blackmagic Design
• 

  Luke Maslen

  August 19, 2005 at 12:27 am

  Hi Whit,

  I almost forgot to mention that you cannot monitor HDV during capture. You can only monitor it when you play it back after it has been captured. We have a technical note named HDV capture preview missing in Final Cut Pro HD 5.0 which provides some details about this.

  Regards,

  Luke Maslen
  Blackmagic Design

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