Decklink HD Extreme card question?

[Nigel Cooper]

Forgot to ask, Do I install driver/software before I fit the card, or do I fit card first then install drivers?

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

The manual hasn’t been updated for the Mac Pro so please follow the Mac Pro notes which are at the start of the DeckLink Minimum System Requirements for Mac OS X.

Ideally choose PCI Express Profiles number 2 and use slot 4 for the DeckLink HD Extreme card. However you could also use slot 3 as PCI Express Profile number 2 allocates 4 lanes of bandwidth to each of slots 3 and 4 so it should be fine.

Just use regular quality video cables to connect the component video outputs from the DeckLink breakout cable to the component inputs of the SD CRT monitor. Then go in to the System Preferences, click on the DeckLink icon and enable the down conversion option. This will enable you to output HDV 720p59.94 material as NTSC.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

It doesn’t matter either way on Mac OS X. On Windows you must install the hardware first.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Nigel Cooper]

Instrucions for card says:

After installing your DeckLink card and starting up the Mac Pro, an Expansion Slot Utility will appear showing that you have a choice of four PCI Express Profiles:

After I installed the card I never got the above?

Can I find this PCE Express Profile on my Mac and do this manually? if so, what do I choose as the diagram in the instrucions is unclear?

[Nigel Cooper]

Okay, the problem is this. Blackmagic does NOT support us UK PAL users who are shooting in 720p/25p in PAL, again, that is 720p/25p PAl.

Using Final Cut Pro with a Native Apple timeline of HDV 720p/25p their is no option in the Video Playback prefs for a Blackmagic codec like this, the nearest is 720/50 Htz, which does not work. This means I can’t use an external CRT monitor from your card hence it is simply no good for UK PAL users shooting in 720p/25p.

Unless of course you can tell me that Blackmagic are on the case and will be releasing yet another update in a week or so?

This is a real pig for UK guys. Seems to be all NTSC, dosn’t this company realize their is life outside the USA ?????

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

It’s OK if the Expansion Slot Utility didn’t open automatically. All that means is that the current PCIe profile is fine for use with your card. If you want to manually open it to verify the settings, go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and you’ll find the Expansion Slot Utility there.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

That’s a surprising response for a few reasons.

Firstly, we already have 720p50 and 1080i50 support in our Mac and Windows drivers as those are the two standard formats for Europe recommended by the EBU and those are the main HDTV broadcast formats for PAL countries. DeckLink supports capture and playback in these formats but there is one significant technicality that Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 does not yet support 720p50 as a native frame rate. So if you’re using 720p50 in Final Cut Pro, it will work in a Varicam format but not as native 720p50. If you need to capture and/or play back 720p50, you can use Blackmagic Deck Control as it does support 720p50 and then you can work on the video in applications such as After Effects. We’re having ongoing discussions with Apple about 720p50 support in Final Cut Pro so hopefully it will happen soon. Final Cut Pro has no problems with capture and playback of 1080i50 material.

Apple have just added HDV 720p25 support in their latest update to Final Cut Pro 5.1.2. We’ve never previously supported this format as Final Cut Pro did not support it so there wasn’t much point. I’m also unaware of any hardware that will support this format other than recent camera and deck models from JVC so we haven’t received many requests for 720p25. Can you tell me if you have any hardware, other than JVC, that supports this format? We’ll consider adding it either way but it would be helpful to know how widely this format is being used so I can make a case to our engineers.

The reference to NTSC relates to the fact that Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 supports 720p59.94 as a native format and so it can be downconverted to NTSC. However as Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 does not support 720p50 as a native format, there is no way to downconvert it to PAL.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Nigel Cooper]

Luke

I’m not concerned about 720p/50 as the JVC does not shoot in that format, it is 25p only.

As for how many people are using this format i.e. JVC HDV camcorders in 720p/25p with Final Cut Pro.

Pretty much everyone who shoots in PAL land with a GY-HD110, 111, 101 or 100 ProHD camcorder as this is the only format they actually shoot in.

There are thousands of JVC users in PAL land who have to shoot 720p/25p as it is the only format the camera shoots on.

Here in the UK when Apple announced 720p/25p support you could almost here thousands of JVC users scream “AT LAST!!!” from one side of the country to the other.

There is a very big demand for it in PAL land so you should get your engineers on the case ASAP.

It sounds like my card is going to have to go back for a refund as this does not sound like anything Blackmagic are going to fix soon, if at all.

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

[iManvideo] “I’m not concerned about 720p/50 as the JVC does not shoot in that format, it is 25p only.”

I understand this so I’m interested in your workflow and that’s why I was asking if you also use non-JVC hardware with your video. Once you capture in 720p25, what do you do with it? Do you send it to broadcast in that format or do you down convert to PAL SD and send to broadcast. Do you create DVD’s in SD or HD formats? I’d really like to know what you do with 720p25 material as I don’t believe it’s a mainstream standard and am wondering how you get on for compatibility with decks, monitors and other video hardware unless you are confining your workflow to exclusively using JVC hardware.

[iManvideo] “There are thousands of JVC users in PAL land who have to shoot 720p/25p as it is the only format the camera shoots on.”

I’m sure there are plenty of JVC users shooting in 720p25 but the question is whether many of them are using Final Cut Pro with this format and therefore whether we should add this format to our cards. We’ve received very few requests for 720p25 support for the simple reason that prior to September 26th, 2006, Final Cut Pro did not support HDV 720p25. It’s great that Final Cut Pro now supports this format and we’ll keep an eye on it to see if it’s something that a good number of people want. I’d be surprised if thousands of people have adopted this support in Final Cut Pro in the very brief time this new feature has been available but I’m happy to learn otherwise.

The only reason not to add new formats immediately is just that there are so many other exciting developments that we’re working on and 720p25 isn’t on the top of the list. 720p25 is not something we’ve advertised or promised but we’ll definitely consider it.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Nigel Cooper]

I’ll just do what everyone else in UK is doing, but another card from another manufacturer.

For the record I’m using JVC Deck and HDV all the way.