Decklink Broadcast Converter and SDI-to-Analog Mini Converter

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Robin,

The reason you are encountering this problem is that you are feeding the units an HD signal but composite analog video is only SD and so can only display NTSC or PAL video. Both of these converters will be able to convert your HDMI or HD-SDI signal to component analog HD video but they don’t have down-converters so nothing will output on the composite output.

I do have some good news for you. In today’s press release Blackmagic Design Announces Major Mini Converter Software Update, we have announced a free software update for the Mini Converter SDI to Analog model as follows.

In Converter Utility 1.0, an update is included for the Mini Converter SDI to Analog model that adds a new high quality hardware down converter. This down converter allows HD to be converted to SD in letterbox, anamorphic 16:9 and center cut 4:3 modes. Analog component video output can be set to directly output HD or, by selecting the bypass switch, will down convert to SD component output. If an HD-SDI input is ever connected to Mini Converter SDI to Analog when the analog output is set to S-Video or composite, the HD down converter is automatically enabled so a picture can always be seen.

Converter Utility 1.0 software will be available free of charge in May 2009 from the Blackmagic Design web site at https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support.

So please keep a look out for the software update in May which is not far away!

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Robin]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for replying promptly. Since BMD is adding the Mini Converter Utility for the Mini Converter, I’m assuming that you will add this feature to the Broadcast converter as well?

Best,
-Robin

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Robin,

Broadcast Converter has many of the features of the Mini Converters but not all of them and uses different chips as it is bi-directional. The different chips mean that we can’t just add the down converter in to it because it’s completely different code and not designed for the Broadcast Converter.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Robin]

Hi Luke,

Fair enough. But will the Broadcast Converter ever have a downconvert to SD?

Best,
-Robin

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Robin,

I can’t say that it will never have a downconverter but I haven’t heard any discussion of it and I don’t think we’ve received many requests for it. By contrast, we’ve had lots of requests for a downconverter in the Mini Converter SDI to Analog so that’s why our engineers have spent months working on a high quality down converter for the Mini Converter. It’s not something we ever advertised or promised when the Mini Converter SDI to Analog first shipped and it’s just something that we’ve decided to add now because of the feedback we’ve received. It’s great to be able to add these features but downconverters can look bad and we wanted a really good quality one for the Mini Converter. It would take months more to develop one for the Broadcast Converter and we just haven’t received enough requests to justify the engineering time so far. Of course sometimes these things change and we always listen and react to change so if enough people ask for it, we’ll definitely consider it and see if it is possible to do. Sometimes we also have other things we want to add to a product and we might have to make a choice about what we want to add.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design