Help in choosing a new new Blackmagic Product.

[Ben Scott]

I take it you are matt hollowearth

its ben scott here from space (not there anymore)

if it is then my email is info@benscottarts.co.uk
lets talk

a) Decklink HD Pro PCIe. I should get this and not the PC-X is right isn’t? I don’t need analogue

pcie for mac pro, pcie is different on a macpro from g5 so get right one

b) With the Decklink HD Pro PCIe do I need the HDLink to monitor my output or does this card output straight to a monitor like my old cards used to?
you only need the hdlink to use HD (hdlink is cheap option to monitor using cheap leds) if you want true hd then wlater bascardi recommends some monitor called a tvlogic (check color forum), cheaper and uli plank advises is german called a quato intelliproof 240 i think

c) If I do need an HDLink, which one?
if you are working compositing film then go for the more pricey one, otherwise cheaper one for 4.2.2 as far as I understand

d) With monitoring do I need *another* monitor or can I monitor onto my current desktop a 30″ Cinema Display.
to properly monitor with lcd you should go for second monitor, dells are cheaper and more features than apples, quato ones have hd sdi inputs and might be better bet (depends on budget)

e) I really dont want another RAID array (sighs) I read on the BM site that 3 RAID striped drives do fine if one’s not doing editing (I’m not- just Motion Graphics)
go for a esata raid like the seritek product (uk distributer is wts broadcast) or for newer machine mac pro you can stripe inside machine and newer raid controllers like rocketraid or others give you redundant inside the machine (i think)

you need 3mb ram minimum ram for hd Crucial.com cheapest
you need the best graphics card you can get to get motion etc to work well e.g. radeon top graphics card

[Matthew Ingram]

its ben scott here from space (not there anymore)

hey ben. great to hear from you. and thanks for helping me here.

b) With the Decklink HD Pro PCIe do I need the HDLink to monitor my output or does this card output straight to a monitor like my old cards used to?
you only need the hdlink to use HD (hdlink is cheap option to monitor using cheap leds) if you want true hd then wlater bascardi recommends some monitor called a tvlogic (check color forum), cheaper and uli plank advises is german called a quato intelliproof 240 i think

ok this doesnt really answer my question which is do i need both?

reading between the lines though:

1) Decklink HD Pro PCIe + (tvlogic/quato intelliproof 240) = True HD solution
2) HDLink Pro + (Mac23/Dell/quato) = Reasonably OK HD Solution

[Ben Scott]

the quato is around

[Matthew Ingram]

yep i’ve been a busy wee bee! where are you teaching?

sorry to keep probing you but i’m still unsure about the workflow. re:monitoring is this correct?

1) Decklink HD Pro PCIe + (tvlogic/quato intelliproof 240) = True HD solution
2) HDLink Pro + (Mac23/Dell/quato) = Reasonably OK HD Solution

i’m right in thinking i don’t need BOTH HDLink and the Decklink HD Pro?

and one more thing:

How does the HDLink plug into on the Mac? I can’t see whether it interfaces? Surely not Firewire?

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*QUITE REMARKABLE THAT NO-ONE FROM BLACKMAGIC HAS ANSWERED THIS THREAD*

[Ben Scott]

you need both as the pcie card gets hd sdi signal out and the hdlink changes to DVid with lookup tables allowing for calibration

there is another firewire product all in one called a matrox mxo but i had bad experience with their products in past, this may be of interest as it means only one device for output