H.264 glitchy video and some experience with the device so far

[David Debono]

Hi Mark

I tried the download links but they were Windows versions so I could not use them on my Mac setup.

If anyone has info re the Mac version, can you please post the link.

Thanks!

David Debono

[Andrew Stone]

Yes Mac versions of the apps please!

-Andrew
—
Steadicam & Camera Operator

[Mark Brunkhart]

A little more testing done, and it appears the newest firmware solves the glitches at 720p. (Thanks BlackMagic!)

Some additional information on the excessive CPU usage. On an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz with a NVIDIA GeForce 310:

Capturing or previewing 5Mb/sec off the ProRecorder:
70-80% CPU usage
Capturing or previewing 20Mb/sec off the ProRecorder:
95-100% CPU usage

Playback of 5Mb/sec captured from the ProRecorder using ffdshow:
5-10% CPU usage

So playback/preview of the H.264 being generated can be done very efficiently.

Finally, is there any developer information available on the DirectShow filters being used? Can they be used outside of BlackMagic apps? We might just be able to modify our own capture app to use the BlackMagic hardware if it’s possible to use the filters ourselves.
From some of the filters BlackMagic installs on the machine (including a BlackMagic decoder that I suspect is the source of the slowness), it looks like this may be just a straightforward DirectShow app.

Would it be possible for BlackMagic to just provide an option where the user could use a different decoder (perhaps provide its GUID or provide defaults for common ones) or just render out from the pin using whatever DirectShow filters are present?

One more feature request (in addition to AVI output, I-frame spacing configurability, better CPU usage, compact GUI, and better support for multiple devices ;-): a capture limit…file size and time limits that can be set in preferences to stop capture after a set period.

If you’re recording longer videos, this is a must to avoid having to monitor the capture just to press the stop button when it’s done.

[Jack Welten]

Hello Kristian,

did also some testing, great improvement! No more glitches @1080p25 by the YUV-connection,

but still a high CPU-usage, I run it under Vista-64, with an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.16Ghz (E8500), 4 Gb RAM, NVIDIA Geforce 9600GT

@1080p, 10Mbits/s : 50-70% CPU-usage
@1080p, 20Mbits/s : 85-100% CPU-usage

again great job! but please keep improving it

regards

Jack

[David Debono]

I finally managed to get through to tech support and now have the links to the Mac version of the latest test build.

I have not tried it yet but will do so soon.

Here are the links for any of you that need it!

https://seeds.blackmagic-design.com/H264ProRecorder/DesktopVideo_8.2.1rc3.dmg
.zip
https://seeds.blackmagic-design.com/H264ProRecorder/MediaExpress_2.4rc45.dmg.
zip

DD

[Eric Lanouette]

David,

Thanks for sharing the links but that’s exactly what I try yesterday by changing the file extension.

The links you post don’t works now. I get an HTTP Error 404 – File Not Found…

Eric

[Andrew Stone]

Here are the links to the beta versions for Macintosh of the apps with the links “fixed”.

Desktop Video (beta as of August 10th):
https://seeds.blackmagic-design.com/H264ProRecorder/DesktopVideo_8.2.1rc3.dmg.zip

Media Express (beta as of August 10th):
https://seeds.blackmagic-design.com/H264ProRecorder/MediaExpress_2.4rc45.dmg.zip

-Andrew

—
Steadicam & Camera Operator

[David Debono]

Sorry,

The links to the test MAC software were indeed valid just the hyperlink did not grab the last few characters when I cut & pasted from the email I received from BM Support.

It should be okay if you just cut paste the whole string into your browser and bypass the built in hyperlink.

Note – my intial test with the Mac version (1 x 30 min video & 1080 – 20 Mbps) seems to indicate the glitching is gone but the CPU usage on my Macbook Pro is insane (ties up both processsor 90%) and the realtime display of the capture keeps dropping frames/ audio etc but the actual recording seems okay.

DD

[Eric Lanouette]

Thank you Andrew for the links

I also confirm that the video glitches are gone with DesktopVideo 8.2.1rc3 and MediaExpress 2.4rc45. Good job BM!

Now, we need a proper way to capture interlaced content. I hope that bringing an interlaced capture mode is the next feature they will implement.

Eric

[Mark Beazley]

Just received one for demo today;

Have noticed video glitches and loss of A/V sync at 1080i59.94 playback from IoHD Edit system.

Also noticed some audio glitches after a 10min test; but so far that has happend only once.

Media Express is using 180% processor (which is almost the whole machine) of a 17″ MacBook Pro (pre thunderbolt); 3.06GHz Processors and 4GB RAM. The overhead is just crazy. Decode should use the GPU.

One other feature that should be doable is using the SDI input and the analog audio inputs; this would be a great improvement for live show applications; unless it already does this, but it does not look like it does from the menu structure in the Media Express app.

Right now I am doing a test @ 20Mbps.

-mark