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Decklink HD Extreme — how does this sucker work??
Just bought a Cannon A-1 and a decklink HD extreme card for my FCP system.
1) How do I hook up the camera to the card??
2) Any recommended workflow?
I’m shooting a documentary this month on HDV, which ultimately will be projected at a fundraising event and later shipped on SD DVD. Will be mixing stills, SD and even some VHS stuff as b-roll.
Suggestions? Thanks.
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13 Replies
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You mean a Canon XH A1, not a Cannon A1.
If you google Cannon A1 you will find a Digital SLR camera, not an HD/SD video camera.I don’t understand your problem please clarify:-
1. You can’t get the Decklink Card to Work in your mac?
2. The camera is not sending a signal to the Decklink card?
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Thanks Mike:
1. You can’t get the Decklink Card to Work in your mac?
Card installed, is recognized by FCP. Question is, how am I supposed to plug my cam into the card? OBviously there’s no firewire into the card, so do I go BNC out to those sets of cables? Or use the composite cable that came with my A-1 to connect to RGB, and get some sort of RCA/BNC adapter? I’m a bit lost here on simply connecting the camera to the computer (which up until now I’ve just used the Mac firewire outlet).
2. The camera is not sending a signal to the Decklink card?
See #1…
My next question, once I understand how to connect the cam, is what’s a good workflow? Capture/work in DVCPRO HD? And then uprez my SD stuff to go in the project?
Thanks for any help. Am a rank beginner with this decklink card.
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Yes, BNC Out/In is the option.(There is a Diagram of your card, and Leads Inputs & Outputs in the BlackMagic PDF manual on your CD-Rom Setup disk)
Your camera has BNC In/Out(SDI), this is how you yield the highest possible quality video capture. I found that you can get expensive BNC leads, but the cheap ones work just as well(get whole BNC leads, they are much stronger, don’t use RCA adapter).
When you capture using DeckLink cards, you will be using BlackMagics HD/SD Uncompressed Codecs. You might capture footage with your camera using DVCPRO HD Tape Format, you will do all your editing in Uncompressed!
I’m not sure what you might be suggesting by:
“uprez my SD stuff to go in the project?”I presume you mean Up-Sample Standard Definition to High Definition to go into your new project, Yes you can do this!
The problem will arise if your Mac+Harddrive setup are:
A.) Not fast enough to cope with Uncompressed HD Video
Your harddrives need to be Raided to gain maximum speed or you need to buy a Fibre Channel setup(not Cheap!)
Rates = Megabytes Per Second.
Uncompressed Video HD = 128/159 Mb/s (YUV 10-Bit) or (RGB 10-Bit) 190/237 Mb/s
Uncompressed Video SD = 26Mb/S (YUV 10-Bit) Or (RGB 10-BIT) 60Mb/s
or
B.) Your HardDrives might not be big enough for HD Uncompressed Video
Per Hour:-
Uncompressed Video HD (10-Bit YUV 4:2:2)
1280x720p/60fps 494 GB’s
1920×1080/24PsF 445 GB’s
1920×1080/50i 463 GB’s
1920×1080/60i 556 GB’sUncompressed Video SD (10-Bit YUV 4:2:2)
720×486/29.97fps 94 GB’s
720×576/25fps 26 93 GB’sTo get some Statistics on what you Mac + HardDrives can do, use the BlackMagic Disk Speed test tool that comes with your card or download it from Blackmagic Design Website. This will give you the Potential fsp(Frames Per Second) your Mac + Harddrive can handle, it will need to be above 25fps(pal) to be able to capture any video!
I would probably use BlackMagic Disk Speed test to get the main information first, them bring the Statistics back here so we can deliver a verdict on whats best for you!
Mike.
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Thanks, Mike. Appreciate the level of detail in your response. Tried running the BlackMagic Disk Speed test but get a message “Hardware not found: Disk Speed Test cannot check disk speed without hardware installed.”
?? Does that mean it’s not seeing the decklink card, or…?
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Hi Jeff, sound like the card is not being recognised:
take a look at this web page(below), make sure everything meets the requirements, there is also some sound advice for setup on macs on this page. I think one of your problems could be you have too much RAM installed!
Also you might have a PCIe version installed in a PCI-X slot(or Vice Versa!)Take a Look:-
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=60
If this is no help, start by making a list on things you’ve tried, eventually we will arrive at a conclusion to whats wrong!
Mike.
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Thanks, Mike. I think I’ve done it right according to that page, but will go through the process again and report my steps.
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Hi Jeff,
Are you on a G5 or Mac Pro?
If you’re using a Mac Pro, make sure that:
1) card is in the top slot
2) Expansion Slot Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices) is set to Profile 2.regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
Thanks, Kristian. I’m on a mac pro.
The card is in the 4th slot, my graphics card is in the first (bottom) slot and I had it set to the first profile (where slot 4 was x8 and slit one was x16).
So you’re saying to change it to the one where slot 4 is x4 instead? Okay, will give it a try now.
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Nope, unfortunately it’s still not recognizing it, getting the same error of hardware not found. I bought this from a retailer and it was shrunkwrapped, but when I opened it up I found it had been opened previously, the seal was broken and had been taped back closed. I called the retailer at that point and he said he would exchange it, so I’m wondering if I got a defective card or something that someone else had tried. As I said, though it was shrinkwrapped, the box was a little torn inside and the printed tape over the card itself had been opened and resealed previously. So right now I’m thinking I’ll take a drive back to the retailer tomorrow and exchange it for one that wasn’t already opened and resealed…
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Jeff,
I’m Sure Kristian Lam might back me up, i heard people
having problems because of RAM issue, e.g: too much RAM (above 3GB+)
or they are not in pairs, e.g: 1GB in pairs (512mb/512mb).
Add each thing you have tried to a list, that way we can rule them out and eventually come to a conclusion!Mike.
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