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Total Noobie – Need Help With Decklink HD Studio
As the subject says, I am a complete Noob to HD Video capture, editing, etc. (although I have been working with SD video for many years on PC platforms). Please forgive stupid questions – I am doing my best to learn as fast as possible. My ultimate goal is to author HD videos. I am not a video professional and this is strictly for fun. It may never go beyond the level of home movies taken through an HDV camcorder (which I have yet to purchase).
Having some funds to play around with, I recently purchased a Decklink HD Studio card to add to my HP xw8200 workstation. While I am still researching camcorders, I decided to try capturing to this card from my HD DVR (SA 8300HD). Here is where the trouble starts. : (
I didn’t really expect HDMI to work from the DVR because of HDCP issues, and I was apparently right about that. I get no signal. What surprises me, though, is that I am also getting no signal through analog component connections. I would have expected that to work. I imagine I am just doing something very simple wrong but I need help figuring out what that is.
The component outputs on the DVR use RCA connectors, so I am using RCA component cables with RCA-to-BNC adapters on the ends to connect to the Decklink inputs (“Y” to “Y”, “Pb” to “B-Y”, and “Pr” to “R-Y”). I have the Decklink control panel input setting on “Y,R-Y,B-Y Video (SMPTE) & Analog XLR” and I am trying to do a short sample capture in Premiere Pro 2.0. I have tried several different Blackmagic HD1080 presets (what I am trying to capture is 1080i).
What am I doing wrong?
I can add that when I attempt to capture SD Video from the DVR using just the composite out and the “Y” cable to the Decklink (and the “NTSC” presets in Premiere), it works. So I know some signal is getting across the RCA cable and BNC adapter, but not from the Component Outs.
Any help you can give would be wonderful, either here in the forum or through email (brownm@cfl.rr.com).
Thanks!
-Michael
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5 Replies
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I can also add from further testing…
1) I get no input (no video or audio) from my Bravo D1 DVD player using DVI out (to HDMI on Decklink).
2) I get no input (no video or audio) from my Pioneer DV-578A DVD player using component out.
3) I can no longer duplicate my earlier success with NTSC Composite video capture. This is also giving me no input now.
Please help! Pulling my hair out over this…. What am I doing wrong???
Thanks,
Michael -
Hi Michael,
At any point during the attempts to capture, is your HDMI cable still attached to the set top box? This box does not output component and HDMI at the same time. I suspect that when both cables are attached, it defaults to digital mode and outputs via HDMI which could be the reason why you’re not able to capture via component as it is switched off.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
[brownmaxxx] “1) I get no input (no video or audio) from my Bravo D1 DVD player using DVI out (to HDMI on Decklink).”
This will not work. We currently do not support DVI capture with a HDMI adapter.
[brownmaxxx] “2) I get no input (no video or audio) from my Pioneer DV-578A DVD player using component out.”
Did you switch the card to accept component video in the DeckLink Control Panel?
[brownmaxxx] “3) I can no longer duplicate my earlier success with NTSC Composite video capture. This is also giving me no input now.”
Likewise, is composite video selected in the video input?
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
[Kristian Lam] “At any point during the attempts to capture, is your HDMI cable still attached to the set top box?”
Yes, the HDMI cable was still attached and that made all the difference. Thanks! As it turns out, I don’t actually have to remove the cable from the STB, but I *do* have to set my HDTV to a different input — this seems to be enough to disable the HDMI out from the STB and to activate the Component Outs.
One other question I have at this time…
When I play my .avi captures back with Windows Media Player, they don’t look up to the quality I would expect. These are uncompressed 1080i, using either the Blackmagic HD 8-bit 4:2:2 Codec or the Blackmagic 10-bit 4:2:2 Codec. In either case, I see a lot of edge noise around objects. It is similar to compression artifacts and I see a lot more of it in high-motion scenes. But why would this happen with uncompressed .avi? Could this be an interlacing issue? Am I seeing the fields being played in the wrong order? Is this really just a Media Player issue? What can I use to verify this?
Thanks for all your help!
-Michael
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[brownmaxxx] “When I play my .avi captures back with Windows Media Player, they don’t look up to the quality I would expect. These are uncompressed 1080i, using either the Blackmagic HD 8-bit 4:2:2 Codec or the Blackmagic 10-bit 4:2:2 Codec. In either case, I see a lot of edge noise around objects. It is similar to compression artifacts and I see a lot more of it in high-motion scenes. But why would this happen with uncompressed .avi?
The artefacts might be already in the source video before they were captured. This is the most likely reason. The broadcasters will not be streaming uncompressed video, but probably in an MPEG2 stream to your set top box.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design
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