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Decklink HD Extreme/Betacam SP
Hello all, I’m looking to transfer like 200 hours of Betacam SP tapes to PC(or mac)/external hard drives. This is for archiving first and eventually editing. I need uncompressed broadcast quality and as I understand it converters, like the Canopus advc 700, that use firewire get compressed through the process at something like 5:1. What would the optimal setup be for getting broadcast quality with as minimal loss as possible. The Decklink cards like the HD extreme look promising but that is where I’m stuck. Assuming I get a high end video capture card it is likely the entire computer would have to be built around it in order to get the most out of it. If the decklink HD extreme is what I need, then what would work best with that for said project? If not a decklink then what might be a better card/setup? Thank you in advance.
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6 Replies
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The DeckLink Studio is a better choice. Its got full qnal
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The DeckLink Studio is a better choice. It has heaps of analog connection but the advantage is that it is PCIe x1 lane instead of 4-lanes on the HD Extreme which means you can use lower cost motherboards.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
Hello Joe,
if you need to preserve video quality, the Firewire converter is something you have to avoid. The problem is not only the compression ratio of 5:1, but overall performances of the DV codec are poor (Compression Ratio/Resulting quality is not good).If you want to preserve the video quality, you’d need a PCI-E capture card, and among BMD solutions (the best ones for the Price/Performances ratio) I’d suggest you the Decklink Studio 2 (that features the better Analog connections with separated Y/C connectors and HDMI I/O).
If you’d decide to buy the Decklink Studio 2, don’t forget to order 4 JACK to RCA converters (stereo JACK to mono RCA), because, usually, sooner or later, all people need them (0,25Euro Each…).Note: I wrote Decklink Studio 2, because there are 2 editions of the board, but don’t search the “2nd edition” on the BMD website… All the new ones are “2nd edition”, if you’d decide to buy a used unit, you could find first edition too…
Note2: For PC users. There was a BMD suggestion to not to use all 1X PCI-E cards on the X58 chipset. I always used them all (Intensity Pro, Decklink Studio 2) on Asus P6T Deluxe without problems.
Best Regards,
Paolo Castellano
https://www.ivsEdits.com -
Thank you all very much for all your responses.
Is there any advantage of the decklink studio vs. an AJA equivalent? Any compatibility issues with the decklink studio to be aware of in advance? Anyone have better or worse results with a Pc vs. Mac or vice versa? Also the BMD Ultrastudio Pro seems to boast a lot, and I know very little about USB 3.0 speeds, would it be like going back to the canopus with compression and video quality loss? Thanks in advance! -
Hello Joe,
in my opinion the BMD price performance ratio is much better than AJA one, and since I consider only PC editing, I found in the past BMD drivers better.
About the Ultrastudio Pro, it hasn’t nothing to do with Canopus! It’s a very powerful product, i.e. an external Decklink Studio 2. USB 3.0 has a big bandwidth, but if you want to use it with a laptop, be aware that currently there is just one certified Notebook.
Best Regards,Paolo Castellano
https://www.ivsEdits.comPaolo.Castellano@ivs.it
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“Post Fata Resurgo” -
So would Ultrastudio Pro be >or= the Decklink Studio 2nd ed.?
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