Dreamcolor, Resolve and new Windows setup

[Peter Chamberlain]

Hi Paul, please consider following the config guide.
1) Resolve will work with one Quadro 4000, but its not recommended. The Q4000 is a good UI GPU but you want to use separate image processing GPUs to get real time. You mention 3D and if you are referring to Stereoscopic 3D then the image processing GPU needs to be decent… consider the GTX580, or two of them.
2) If you plan to use the Dreamcolor, I guess you are referring to it as the grading monitor. As the config guide shows, the grading monitor is feed from a video card and there are options listed. The UI GPU is for the UI monitor and while this can also be a Dreamcolor most users have something less expensive for the UI.
3) Resolve is designed to separate the UI and image processing to maximize the benefits in both. While they can share the same GPU, as they do in a iMac and MacbookPro etc, thats not the ideal config. The Quadro is required for the UI GPU but you can use Quadro or GTX for the image processing.

Peter

[Paul Curtis]

Peter, thank you for such a quick response. A couple of clarifications please!

The 3D was for 3D vfx work, not stereoscopic work.

Why is the quadro required for the UI GPU, out of curiosity?

So i could get away with a single 4000 card to start with, and it *will* use the CUDA on the 4000 but it won’t be as good as dedicating a separate card, am i correct?

Yes the dreamcolor is grading only, i have other monitors for UI work. I presume it’s fed separately from a video source for accuracy and frame rate syncing reasons. But if it was hanging off the quadros display port as a normal windows second monitor would i see colour accurate work on it? Or could i point resolve to use it as the output monitor?

thanks
Paul

[Peter Chamberlain]

Hi, the Quadro cards perform a variety of functions in Resolve inc on screen cursors whereas the image processing is pure CUDA so the gtx series is suitable for that roll.

Yes you can use just the q4000, but you Will have very limited performance. You can with v9 switch the ui to a full screen view but Resolve is designed for concurrent grade monitoring via a separate BMD video card, not from the ui card.
Peter

[Paul Curtis]

Peter, thank you.

Looks like i’m going to run the DC through a BM SDI, then HDLink to display port. As i understand it the DC needs RGB and all the SDI solutions from BM are YUV, hence the HDLink convertor.

AFAIK SDI is only 4:2:2, for 4:4:4 i would need 3G SDI and there aren’t many reasonable options there (that don’t take up precious PCI slots). Although i keep looking.

You mention the 570GTX but how about the newer cards? 670 has many more cores and lower power requirements – are these not compatible with Resolve?

Would i be better off with geforce cards and not quadro then?

thanks
Paul

[Paul Golden]

Instead of the HD Link, you can use the AJA Hi5 3G or the AJA H2dp to convert the signal to 444 from a less expensive DeckLink like the Studio or SDI.

[Paul Curtis]

I think the DeckLink route is cheaper overall. Plus you’re never going to convert 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 anyway? I will investigate further though..

thanks
Paul

[Paul Golden]

“Plus you’re never going to convert 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 anyway?”

The whole point of the AJA converter is that it can, as a default, convert a YUV signal to progressive scan RBG, which is what the Dreamcolor demands. I was able to pick up a AJA HDP2 for $400 on Ebay, which is cheaper than a new Decklink. The HDP2 converts SDI to Deepcolor DVI, which through the use of a DVI to HDMI cable will feed the Dreamcolor a 10bit RBG signal. (The less expensive AJA Hi5 gives you only an 8bit signal)

I demo’ed the HDLink DisplayPort model in the hopes that it would convert the YUV signal out of the DeckLink and was never able to get it work properly. Furthermore, a Black Magic tech support person told me that unless you feed the HDLink an RGB signal (ie out the DeckLink HD Extreme), you won’t get an RGB output. (This may or may not be true, depending on whom you ask). The good thing about the AJA converter is that requires really no software intervention and just works. (There is a software pref panel, but you don’t need it for functionality) It’s pretty small and easy to tuck away, too.

Good luck….

[Paul Curtis]

I understand, the Aja seemed more expensive that the DeckLink Displayport box that BMD now do, the DeckLink external box takes SDI and converts it to displayport to 4:4:4 RGB. My thinking was that i can have this external box doing the conversion. I can feed it with a simple SDI card (only 4:2:2) from the PC and perhaps use a thunderbolt SDI for the Mac, so both SDI’s can feed into the DeckLink for monitoring.

On the other hand the deck link extreme 3D PCIe card will do 4:4:4 directly but even so, the above solution is cheaper and does allow for me to find a 4:4:4 solution at a future point if i decide that the proposed set up isn’t good enough. The external box also supports a LUT so might be useful for onset monitoring at some point.

thanks
Paul

[Chris Ramey]

Here’s a chart. The Displayport HDLinkPro has several advantages over the AJAs:
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/dreamcolor_converter_boxes_for_non_compliant_systems/

And you do need a converter box with Displayport to take advantage of the Dreamcolor engine.