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Multibridge Pro – user experiences?
So I’m trying to decide whether or not the MBPro will fulfil my needs. It’s a toss up between that or one of the AJA range – and I’m all too aware of the debate about customer service, product qualilty etc. etc. I’m in the UK – any PAL users this side of the pond care to comment?
With that in mind, any real-world experience of the MBPro, specifically upconversion to 1080i from SD – what is the quality like? Is this hardware or software conversion?
Does it play nicely with Color? Again, most people seem to think AJA has tighter iintegration with FCP.
I’m planning to use with FCS2 on a MacPro, for a mix of HDV-HD, SD, HD – both ‘offline’ and finishing, for broadcast and other media. Bit of a broad base to cover, but I’d like to see if the MBPro can do it at half the cost of the ‘competition’…
You thoughts would be gratefully received!!
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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12 Replies
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I second this post (sorry to highjack), especially the Color part. Am very interested in the Multibridge myself.
Any one using one with Shake? Can you get preview out of it (I heard Blackmagic cards have issues with this).
Anyone capturing to 1080 ProRes through it? Does it work well in this regard (obviously with a fast enough machine).
Thanks for any answers.
Pete. -
we’ve been using decklink since they were digital voodoo and had a great run with the product.
(have 3 decklink extremes at the moment) BUT after many annoying inconsistent problems we just went ahead and bought a kona 3 a few weeks ago to see what the other side was like. omg what an amazing piece of gear! just to hold the card and cables – really top notch quality. the upconverts/cross converts in HD are a trip. and of course they are in bed with apple (not a fault of BMD – apple is a fickle girl and goes from mate to mate – just ask nvidia and ATI!) so for now we are kona evangelists. that may change in the future, but the HD workflow with apple/kona at the moment is a winner. probably will retire the decklinks to ebay one by one…
note: if you work with any analog gear and the kona 3 you will be buying some a/d converters which sometimes can cost as much as a single decklink card, but that’s the cost of top end gear. (I believe the high end autodesk flame and avid nitris products use versions on the kona) -
btw we were just about to order the multibridge pro for mac fcp studio2 color/shake too when we went for the kona3 so we are probably are talking similar workflows.
we are thrilled with the kona but be aware of the cost for analog i/o with the kona3. after the converters it is easily doubles the price of the multibridge, but well worth it. would not even consider the multibridge right now. unless we were on a tight budget. you can’t beat BMD for the price. you do get all i/o for $1500 us… plus hdmi! -
ok, wearing out my welcome here, but be VERY careful when choosing a kona product. they are way more specific with what they do as opposed to the decklink which are a little more one size fits all. don’t confuse the aja Io with the kona – very different – as well with the Lhe vs kona 3!
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Thanks for that Paul, an interesting perspective from a ‘switcher’.
It really is a price issue for me – I can stretch to a K3, but it’s a new business (old editor though!) so a bit of an unknown. That halving of price buys a lot of peripherals – but this only works if I’m not halving the quality/usability.
What bothers me is the (sometimes) whistling of the wind and tumbleweed feel of the BM forum… there are few posts and they don’t update that often. Is this because BM’s cards are so reliable everyone is busy making billable hours? I hope so!
In the meantime anyone else with a real-world experience of the Pro, or the Eclipse (not considering but similar performance I believe), your thoughts would be gratefully recieved.
Anyone from BM care to comment on the upconversion capabilities? Some hard tech info, about workflow and what is/is not possible, would be great.
Cheers,
Jason
_________________________________
Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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you will make money with the bmd product. that’s what we opened with and used for 4 years. get it and in the future get a kona if you need that too…
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I received my Multibridge Pro 2 yesterday. I had an AJA io HD on order but had something come up where I needed a new capture device with a HDMI input immediately…and since the io HD is backordered I made the jump.
Installing it was straight forward. The majority of the videos I produce are shot in HDV, and up to now, I have been editing in HDV. My desire is to now work in ProRes HQ…digitizing from an HDV deck through HDMI.
My early tests are proving to be very successful. I replaced a Blackmagic Intensity card in my Mac Pro, which is a great card for what it does, and for the money…groundbreaking really. But, when I used the Intensity to digitize ProRes HQ there was definite artifacting. So, that didnt’ work for me. I’m wondering if it was the limitations of the Intensity. I believe it really is only an 8 bit card trying to deal with 10 bit material. The Multibridge is 10 bit so there doesn’t seem to be the same aritifacting.
Another reason I went to the Multibridge Pro 2 was to have the ability to master to HDCAM if a project comes up that warrants that. I have a couple in the works. Also, of course, you can work in uncompressed HD if you desire. But, ProRes HQ looks very good, and you don’t have to have as much muscle in your raid. Great for small companies like mine!
So far, so good. The material coming through HDMI at ProRes HQ looks pristine. You certainly can not go wrong with AJA. They are great, and have wonderful support. But for me, HDMI is important. And, outside of the io HD, which is extremely hard to find at the moment, the Multibridge Pro 2 lets you injest through HDMI at 10 bit without an adapter.
I hope that BMD listens to its users and continues to improve it’s quality and support. My experience with the Intensity was good. I only hope that my experience with the Multibridge Pro 2 is similar. If not…well, there’s always another option.
Hope this helps a little.
Forrest
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Thanks Forrest. An informative and interesting post.
[Forrest Burger] “I hope that BMD listens to its users and continues to improve it’s quality and support. My experience with the Intensity was good. I only hope that my experience with the Multibridge Pro 2 is similar. If not…well, there’s always another option.
“That’s key for me. This post’s been up,what a couple of days now? Not a peep from BM. I really do want to get a handle on the SD upres capabilities of this.
Interestingly enough, on an earlier post I made here looking for info, within a day of posting (on this forum!) I’d recieved an SMS from AJA’s rep here in the UK, offering his help if I wanted any info. Surprising, and very pro-active.
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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Anyone? There must be some users in the field…
Can anyone from BM enlighten me to the upscaling abililties?
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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HI,
The Multibridge Pro has up conversion on capture. This is software and will work only if the unit is in capture / playback mode, i.e. connected to your Mac via PCIe.
It will also work with Color. All applications such as Color, Final Cut Pro, Motion etc use standard Quicktime devices for output. Multibridge Pro is one of these devices so it will work.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design
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