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Multibridge Loop-Through. Any Word?
Hello,
I’ve been trying to get Blackmagic to respond to my tech support emails but have not been able to do so. I thought maybe somebody here might know or have had the same frustration. The problem is with my multibridge. Because of a driver issue, I cannot upgrade past my current version (v1.2) which is also keeping me from both going to Tiger and upgrading to FCP 5. For some reason in upgrading the bios and drivers for the multibridge, they have taken away the loop-through capabilities during capture. Why, I’m not sure but with the way my suite is set up, I need this capability. My clients need to see what is being taken into the computer on the NTSC monitor while I’m capturing. It was recommended to me that I just patch the NTSC monitor through the decks, but this is not an option as I have multiple decks so this cannot be hard-wired into the patchbay. Doing it manually would require much more patching than needed. The suite is set up for minimal patching and when I bought the multibridge, it was explained to me that it could do this. I had an Matrox Digisuite and everything including the audio was looped through the card. I liked the fact that I could monitor both the audio and video straight out of the box so that I know if anything funky is going on during capture. It really doesn’t do any good to monitor the signal from the tape before it gets to the box.At one point, I managed to get a coherent response back from somebody at BM and I’ll post the response below along with my follow up message that was not answered fully. David mentions composite loop-through, but I was talking more about component loop-though. Audio loop-though would be nice as well. Thanks for any help on this matter. As I said before, I cannot upgrade anything because I am stuck with at the current driver number and bios.
Thanks,
Jeremy EvansORIGNAL RESPONSE:
I talked with Australia and they said that yes, there was a change and
that
killed composite output. The reason they did it was because of
customer
confusion in how the Multibridge worked.However, we talked over the UI, and there will be at least several more
changes in the features that are coming and they put your request on
the
list. In the meantime they mentioned that most people monitor video in
and
out from the deck itself.-David
RESPONSE:
> I had talked to somebody over there a week ago and
> they confirmed with Australia that with the new
> Bios/Driver, they eliminated the video loop-through
> because people were getting confused. I’m not really
> sure what that meant, but that is what I was told.
>
> What I would like to do, and this is the way it was
> sold to me, is monitor my audio and video directly
> from the computer during capture so that I know
> exactly what is being captured. When the signal comes
> into the multibridge via component, it is then
> converted to SDI to be captured into my HD 4:4:4 card.
> It should then turn right around and send the signal
> out of the SDI OUT and be converted back into
> component so that I can see it on my component monitor
> looping through on its way to the patchbay. The same
> with balanced (XLR) audio. The audio OUT is sent to a
> DA which is then split off many different ways, one
> being the studio monitors.
>
> Now the old drivers did this for video, but never for
> audio. When I updated the utility and bios, that video
> capability was eliminated for whatever reason. I have
> since gone back to the oldest version available on
> your website and have regained the video loop through
> capability.
>
> It would be extremly helpful as far as quality
> control, not to mention eliminating the need to rewire
> my editing room (this was the way the Matrox Digisuite
> worked). Quality control meaning compression or if a
> driver needed to be reset, and most of all the reasons
> I cannot think of right now. I would hate to capture a
> ton of stuff and then find out that there was a
> problem during capture.
>
> As of right now, I HAVE to run all audio through a
> mixer both in and out which is not something I want to
> do. If I was able to loop the audio, I can eliminate
> the mixer on the way out. I have set it up this way
> for the minimum amount of patching.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Jeremy -
7 Replies
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If your Multibridge cannot be updated, you should RMA it.
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No, sorry. This is not a problem with just my multibridge, but every multibridge. No multibridge has the ability to loop through. This is what I’m looking for and as stated in the email from BM, they will fix the problem. My question is when.
Thanks,
Jeremy -
I understand that, but not every Multibridge has the problem where you can’t update the firmware. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you think you’ll never need to update it. I’d RMA it immediately. If Blackmagic releases 1.6 and that allows loop-through capability, how exactly are you going to take advantage, if you can’t even run the update?
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Never mind. I think I misunderstood your post. So you are intentionally staying with 1.2 because it allows loop-through. I understand.
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Ok, I re-read your post carefully. As a Multibridge owner I found your setup very interesting.
Are you sure you’re really looping through? As far as I know, the Multibridge only has one A/V input working at a time – not two. Even with the first software version, you pick either analog input or digital input. You could never have both at the same time, right?
What I think is happening is that with your old driver, you’re actually monitoring what the Multibridge is seeing – not what the Mac is seeing. It’s inputting via component, and it’s mirroring that signal on both the SDI outputs and the analog output. So it’s acting like a splitter. Your looped SDI signal is just hitting a dead-end and actually doing nothing. I’m really just speculating, but honestly, how could you possibly tell the difference? The end result would be the same thing. I guess you could check it. If you disconnect the looped SDI signal and no longer get analog ouput, then I’m completely wrong and I apologize.
Either way, I definately see what the problem is. My guess is that with the updates, they restricted the MB to “One Output Per Input” so that the lanugage in the Multibridge Utility is less confusing. I really don’t see any reason for them to do this either.
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Hi Sean,
I’m pretty sure it’s looping through, but I will check when I get into the office tomorrow. Either way, even if it is a faked loop-through, it still allows me to monitor my signal going into the computer without including a patch for every deck. My clients sit behind me and like to go over the footage with me. I can also monitor NTSC quality better than just using the overlay in the FCP capture window.This is how all of my rooms have been set up for years, and I’ve never had a card that didn’t allow loop-through. Even my first desktop capture card in 1997 had this capability so I’m a bit confused. I guess I’d like to know how others have their broadcast rooms set up. Maybe there’s a better way that I’m not aware of at the moment. However, I don’t think patching through the deck is one of them. Any suggestions? I’d sure like to update.
So I guess now I would just like to know if they plan on fixing this little problem.
Thanks again,
Jeremy -
Most people monitor diretly from the BM card. They have an SDI equipped broadcast monitor. Or you can get the Decklink HD Pro which has component outputs built in. Myself personally, I have a patchbay so I can use the MB for monitoring, or for digitizing analog stuff.
But you’re right, you shouldn’t have to do that. It should at least mirror the signal across all of the outputs.
Sean
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