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Decklink vs Multibridge
Hi,
Im a little confused and I would like to ask for your opinion. Im setting up a new post production suite for Mac. We work mostly on SD but recently we get more and more HD projects. Sometimes a 2K.
Hence I want a card that will be compatible with analog decks and also have SDI.I browsed through the Blackmagic home page and I see a couple of solutions. For me the choice I see is between DeckLink HD Extreme and Multibridge Pro. Also I wan to use HD Link to connect to my LCD.
What are your thoughts on these two cards?
Wojtek Jezowski
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2 Replies
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I was a fan of Blackmagic products, until I bought 10 Multibridge Pro’s (last generation). Only days within purchase, fans started breaking apart and causing unbearable noise, power supplies started failing, and some of the interesting features disappeared with firmware updates. One of the ten boxes came without any components actually secured to the print card, everything was rattling around inside like a Lego-set.
It was (and still is) a struggle to get replacement parts for the boxes, and the once we received were of the same poor quality as the once we replaced. In one case, we replaced the fan in one of the Multibridges, only to have the replacement fan fail within one week of operation.
Out of 10 MBPs we’ve had two power supply failures and 6-7 fan replacements. Last message we got from reseller, was that they are no longer providing replacement parts for the older MBPs, so we are now spending a lot of time researching cooling alternatives.
I don’t know if they’ve improved the production chain and quality control on their later production models. I would definitely have gone for the simplicity of the Decklink card, unless you really need the Multibridge’s stand-alone converter capabilities.
cheers,
Geir Ove Thorsveen
Head of Technology
Lillehammer University College -
Hi Wojtek
The Decklink HD Extreme 2, and the Multibridge Pro 2 are very similar capture products. They both offer a full range of connectivity with 3Gb/s SDI for up to 2K, HD/SD analogue component, composite, S-video and HDMI, all for both input and output.
With the Multibridge Pro 2, you also get the addition of dual link 1.5 Gb/s SDI. Further to this, you get a whole extra feature, where you can use the Multibridge breakout box as a standalone, bi-directional broadcast converter when not in capture mode.
To compare these products, why not look at the tech specs of each here:
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hd/techspecs/
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/multibridge/techspecs/The Multibridge Pro 2 is a very robust and reliable product. Blackmagic now also have a dedicated support office for the European, Middle East and Africa region, something which did not exist when the original Multibridge was released.
As such, we can provide a much higher level of support to all our customers in this region, including repair and replacement for all products within their warranty.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA
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