Outputing to the Blackmagic codec without a card

[David Roth weiss]

Toni,

The BM codecs are indeed able to be used without a BM card, however Decklink may lay claim on your first born child in that case if they’re not feeling generous.

Do a short test on your system to see what type of playback capabilities you get. G5s often provide surprises when it comes to this type of thing. And yes, the workflow you outlined seems quite reasonable.

DRW

DRW

[Toni Dove]

Thanks for your response – Decklink’s revenge for my not having a card will be my need to do kludgy workarounds!. I’m rendering a piece of the timeline now to see if the Blackmagic files will run realtime on my system.
I’ve altered the preferences file in AE 6.5 so that I can get trillions of colors with Blackmagic but I don’t see any settings for that in Final Cut 4.5. Is there any way to get trillions of colors rendering Blacmagic out of Final Cut?

Thanks
Toni Dove

[David Roth weiss]

Toni,

I’m a Combustion user, so that setting escapes me… However, since you’ree going to DigiBeta, 10-bit color depth is as good as you might need.

DRW

[Toni Dove]

When I render out of Final Cut 4.5 in a sequence set to Blackmagic 10 bit I’m noticing two problems.
There is a definite luminance shift and wherever there is fast motion I’m getting a striation that looks like some kind of artifact or interlacing issue.
Does anyone recognize these problems and is there a fix?

Thanks –
Toni Dove

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Toni,

I’m not aware of Apple having tested Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 with Mac OS X 10.4 or QuickTime 7.0 and so might encounter various problems. If possible, I would suggest you use either Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 with Mac OS X 10.3.8 and QuickTime 6.5.2 or Final Cut Pro HD 5.0.2 with Mac OS X 10.4.2 and QuickTime 7.0.2.

Given much of your material is DV, you may want to consider using a Blackmagic 8-bit codec. We’ve found that Firewire 800 drives, such as the La Cie Big Disk Extreme, are fast enough for 10-bit capture and playback of standard definition material. However FireWire 400 performance would be marginal and I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you are working in NTSC, then you should be able to mix your DV and 8 or 10-bit material on the one timeline and render it out. However be aware that if you are working in PAL, the PAL DV field order is the opposite to what it should be and there are some technicalities you need to work through when mixing with non-DV PAL clips otherwise you will have jerky video.

[David Roth Weiss] “Decklink may lay claim on your first born child in that case if they’re not feeling generous.”

The whole point of making the Blackmagic codec freely available was to make it easy to move files between systems with and without DeckLink cards. There is no performance penalty for not having a DeckLink card in your system when rendering to the Blackmagic codec.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[David Roth weiss]

[Luke Maslen] “There is no performance penalty for not having a DeckLink card in your system when rendering to the Blackmagic codec.”

Of course, I was joking.

[Luke Maslen]

[David Roth Weiss] “Of course, I was joking.”

We still have to take the first born child 😉

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Toni Dove]

Thanks Luke –
I am working in NTSC. Let me outline the process to make sure I’ve got it. If I upgrade to FCP 5.02 when I’m ready to render out the final version – I’ll be in FCP 5.02, OSX 10.4.1. I’ll create a Blackmagic sequence in FCP – 720×486, CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27), anamorphic (I shot DVCAM anamorphic native 16:9), field dominance Lower, select Blackmagic 10 bit (or 8), 48hz 16bit stereo sound. Paste my timeline into it with all my DV and Blackmagic bits (from After Effects) and render it out. I should be able to output that to Digibeta – there shouldn’t be interlace issues or a luminance shift.

Is that right?
Thanks so much – how about kittens instead of children?
Toni

[Toni Dove]

PS the above post includes using the most recent Blackmagic codec downloadable from the Decklink site.

Thanks
Toni

[Shane Sokolosky]

You should view it on an NTSC monitor and then see if your seeing the same thing, as viewing from the viewer window isn’t 100% accurate.

Shane Sokolosky

SAN Product Manager
ProMax Systems inc.
16 Technology Dr. Ste.106
Irvine, CA. 92618

Office (949) 727-3977 x108
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shane.sokolosky@promax.com