AE CC 2014 no BMD monitor output

[Chad Perkins]

Testing it now…

… and why yes, yes it does work. I also put 4k RED footage in the 1080 comp, and that previewed on the external monitor as well. Is there a trick to making the 4k comp work?

Thank you so much for your help by the way, Tim!

[Tim Kurkoski]

> Is there a trick to making the 4k comp work?

Does your card support 4K output?

Blackmagic does not currently output frame sizes via Mercury Transmit that do not match the card’s native frame formats. This has been the case for a long time for Premiere Pro, and only started affecting After Effects with the addition of Mercury Transmit in After Effects CC 2014 (13.0).

In older versions of After Effects, you need to set the frame format for the card in the video preview Preferences, and After Effects scales the output frames as directed. With Mercury Transmit, After Effects (or Premiere Pro) automatically negotiates the frame format with the output device, and the scaling happens without the user needing to fiddle with settings. This works as intended with cards from other manufacturers, but Blackmagic has not yet implemented their side of the negotiation component, so no output occurs when there’s a mismatch between your comp size and the card’s supported frame formats.

Blackmagic has told us that they’re working on adding support for this in a future driver release. Until then, the only workaround would be to nest and scale your 4K comp into the largest frame supported by the card, and use that for external video previews.

[Jan Vork]

Same problem here for more than a month now. Contacted both Adobe and Blackmagic Design, but neither came with a proper solution yet.

HD compositions do output, but SD does not output on HD monitor via Blackmagic nor via HDMI
It still works in AE CC, but not in AE CC 2014.

I think Mercury Transmit lacks the scaling features? Or it just does not address this the right way to the hardware?

Please come with a fix for this, since broadcasters are still requesting SD programmes.

http://www.jaydude.nl

[Tim Kurkoski]

> I think Mercury Transmit lacks the scaling features? Or it just does not address this the right way to the hardware?

Mercury Transmit does include a protocol for scaling the output. The hardware must tell Mercury Transmit what size to scale to, then Mercury Transmit will do that scaling for each frame. AJA and Matrox take advantage of this feature in Mercury Transmit, Blackmagic does not.

In their newest drivers, 10.1.4, Blackmagic has added a new option for scaling the output in their Mercury Transmit settings, when it does not match a support frame size. You may choose to have the output centered or scaled. This is an option unique to Blackmagic, and does not utilize the automatic scaling functionality available in Mercury Transmit. You should try these drivers to see if this helps your workflow.

[Jan Vork]

Thanks for your reaction! Do you mean the ‘Output unsupported frame sizes’ setting? That is set to Black Magic Decklink Pro. But no image, when an SD comp is active.

http://www.jaydude.nl

[Tim Kurkoski]

Other people have reported that using the newer Blackmagic Desktop Video drivers do work with the older Multibridge cards.

I do happen to have a Multibridge Pro myself, and tested the 10.1.4 drivers on Windows 7, and it appears to be working. A 720×480 frame displays, though I do need to enable the new “unsupported frame sizes” option in Blackmagic’s Mercury Transmit settings dialog.

One suggestion on why NTSC sizes are not working in After Effects, but do in Premiere Pro, is that After Effects does not output interlaced frames. Blackmagic is very strict about their format definitions, and may not be accepting a 720×480 progressive frame as compatible with their defined interlaced formats. (This discrepancy is not a problem we have with the other card manufacturers.)

[Jan Vork]

Hi Tim, I use the latest drivers (10.1.4), a Decklink Studio 2 and PAL (720×576) on a Mac. So my situation is rather different than yours. I talked with Adobe about this in the week that cc2014 was released, but the issue still remains. Since AECC is working still, conlcuding the hardware is all right, I think Adobe must be able to solve the problem in CC2014.

http://www.jaydude.nl

[Tim Kurkoski]

Jay, I’ve explained this a couple of times, but let me reiterate.

All of Adobe’s hardware partners, including AJA, Blackmagic, and Matrox, only support specific frame sizes and frame rates through their hardware. When you send their hardware a frame that doesn’t match a supported frame size or frame rate, some scaling must be done on that frame. Even those manufacturers’ own applications, like Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve, need to do this scaling.

The Mercury Transmit API allows these hardware partners to tell After Effects and Premiere Pro what scaling should happen when a frame does not match a supported frame format. AJA and Matrox use this part of the API. Blackmagic does not. We have asked them to do so. Their most recent drivers do not, but does have those new, alternate scaling option.

Yes, Adobe could, in theory, resolve this issue by providing some sort of scaling control in After Effects (and Premiere Pro, and SpeedGrade…). With the old, QuickTime-based video preview architecture, such a control was present because it was a necessity. But with Mercury Transmit this is not necessary because the API we provide to the hardware partners already provides them control over scaling. The problem that you and other Blackmagic users are having is generated because Blackmagic chooses not to utilize these scaling options available in the Mercury Transmit API.

Adobe will continue to engage Blackmagic about this issue.

[Jonah Maddox]

Hi Tim,

I can’t seem to find a solution to this, but apologies if it has already been discussed.
I have a nasty little acer screen (1280*1024) attached via VGA to thunderbolt adapter into my mac pro late 2013, no black magic or external video cards. In the Premiere cc 2014 8.1.0 project I am cutting I was enjoying playback to this screen, no problem ever, and then one day this week, no updates as far as I know, no sequence changes (1920*1080 but it was also showing me video preview for 2k sequences) I have lost the video preview. I played around with sequences sizes and checked it in after effects where it still works but no luck in premiere. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Jo

[Tim Kurkoski]

Jonah, I don’t know what’s happened on your machine.

One thing to note is that neither Premiere Pro or After Effects will use a second monitor for video preview if the application’s UI frame is on that monitor. So if you’ve stretched your workspace (either intentionally or un-) onto that monitor, you’ll need to move it back to the primary.

Otherwise, I can only grasp at straws. I assume you’ve rebooted the computer already. A general troubleshooting step would be to reset Premiere Pro’s preferences.

If that doesn’t help, and if you haven’t already, I would post about this on the Premiere Pro forum, either the one here or at Adobe.com.