Suggestions for an HD CG unit on a budget?

[Tim Ward]

I don’t know anything about it, but Softron Media’s OnTheAir CG with a Decklink HD Extreme 3D might work, giving you HD output with key.

[Mark Suszko]

We’re not too ambitious in the live work over here; we mostly use a CG to serve up stills pre-made in photoshop, titles and lower thirds for half-hour public affairs talking heads type shows. The stuff that’s more challenging has graphics handled in post instead. Animated lower thirds sound cool but probably wouldn’t get used much in our live-switched stuff. Yes, it needs a key output, I’m guessing it would feed a Panny 400 switcher’s key bus via HD SDI cable. The real driving issue is value for (almost no) money, versus a lot of capability.

I saw this:

https://www.casparcg.com/

Any good, d’ya think? Sure it’s free and open-source, but a PC with a Bluefish card and what-else still has to be sourced. Are PC -based solutions with a video output card our best bet in this lower price regime, or is there a dedicated stand-alone box for HD CG work, sort of a modern equivalent of the VP-2? We use an old version of Image North Inscriber right now, embarassed to say still running on a windows 98 system.

Well, I SAID we were poor.

[Chuck Pullen]

Cheapest “real” CG is probably something from Compix or CGenie, but you’re still looking at a several thousand dollar investment at least. If you do go the Panny 400 route, you can get the DVI input card and they claim you can feed it from a PC or MAC running Photoshop and create decent graphics that way (See the brochure on the 400 page). My original plan was to use the Blackmagic card with key/fill outputs, but then you would be eating up two valuable inputs on the switcher, so you are looking at least one extra SDI input card.

Chuck

[Chad Brewer]

I like the looks of that Caspar CG software being compatible with BMD Decklink and Bluefish cards. I’m going to look into that.

We don’t have a need for live switching, but just live keys and static CG. Our Abekas A72 is still alive and well some how, but we’ve found that we can take a Blackmagic HD Decklink that is no longer in use and put it in a PC that is just hanging around and get what we need off that single SDI output. That being said, we have an extensive patch bay and SDI router, so all we need is for the CG to come out on that one SDI and then handle it with routing.

I’m curious to look into how the Caspar CG software could enhance a one PC/one SDI card setup on the cheap like this.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chuck Pullen]

I’m thinking the same thing Chad. If Caspar CG works as advertised, this may be a great solution for the price (FREE! How often does that happen?)

I’m really curious about these Bluefish cards though, does anyone use them and can you provide some insight? At this point they just look like overpriced BM cards for this particular application.

Chuck

[Hreinn Beck]

I can highly recommend CasparCG. At the moment I’m not sure I can classify it as a simple and user friendly CG but for the OP’s request of serving up stills etc. the simple client that comes with the download is enough.

Caspar’s real feature is that it’s so open that you can do whatever you like with it. I recently finished over 40 hours of broadcasts where we had Caspar collect comments from Facebook that the PA ran as a ticker and lower thirds depending on the posts. Caspar was first used for election TV to simplify the data handling, not just on TV but also on the web (where they practically used the same Flash interface).

Caspar is built on a client-server architecture (though you can run both on a single machine) so that you can have one client control various servers and their outputs. Imagine going to a new segment and the projected backgrounds of the set change as the graphics come on screen, or changing just one screen with a competitors score in a game show.

If you have the time to do some digging around Caspar and the demo projects you’ll see what a powerful engine it brings to the game. I for one won’t be spending anymore time on other CG’s.

[Chad Brewer]

[Hreinn Beck] “At the moment I’m not sure I can classify it as a simple and user friendly CG”

I’m interested to get it to work. I installed the server and the client and it doesn’t seem like a “drag and drop” in media type of interface. I only see the option of loading crx files (which I don’t even know what those are).

I also downloaded Caspar’s PAL Quicktime test file that they say can be “triggered” in the client, but I can’t find out how to trigger anything in the client. They also said to put files in the _media folder which I don’t see….

Perhaps I need to download another element for it to work or I need to dig further into the application to see how to operate it.

Trying to get it going with a Blackmagic HD card on Windows 7. I’ll keep trying.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Hreinn Beck]

Your media goes into c:\casparcg\_media\ That is the default location for templates, graphics and videos (but you can change that if needed).

Once you’ve opened up a CasparCG consumer (be it GDI, Decklink or other) you have to make sure your’e connected to the consumer, click on File->Settings and then select the Outputs tab. There you should have the IP of the server (if it’s a different machine) or just localhost if your running the client on the same computer as the consumer. Default ports and channels should be sufficient.

Then hit the NEW button on in the Rundown fieldset and a new event is displayed. Then go to the Pre-Rendered graphics tab of the Settings window (in the middle of the client). Select the video under the File pulldown and select wether it loops and how it transitions between events. Then you can hit Load and then Play in the Rundown buttons or just hit spacebar for instant playback.

[Chad Brewer]

Thank you for your reply Hreinn.

I got the CG working on a PC, SDI out of a Decklink card, but ONLY with the test Quicktime that I download from CasparCG’s site.
It won’t serve any of the Quicktimes I’ve made for it – PAL Animation, NTSC Animation, NTSC PNG, etc…

I’ve read mixed reviews that it will and won’t play out NTSC/lower field, but I also can’t get it to play any other PAL Quicktime other than CasparCG’s file. I’m trying to use this strictly for NTSC…

Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Mark (who turned the thread on to the CasparCG free/open source) and Chuck, et.al.,

I’ve been doing a lot of testing with these very gracious people in Sweden. The current build of CasparCG is specifically designed for PAL. Considering our facility has both PAL and NTSC equipment and monitoring, but our true need is for an NTSC based CG, we’re waiting for the newest build of their software that is supposed to support NTSC. They are supporting multiple flavors of HD as Mark, you were looking for, but currently based on 25fps. They are working on a new build which would support lower field NTSC and 29.97 based HD.

Having got the current version to work with PAL sourced files, it is basic. You need to rely on an NLE or graphics program to create exactly what you’re looking to serve out, not the CG program that seems to only add basic transitions and looping unlike more complex CG/switchers.

But hey, it’s still free and I can be patient for free. If the new build does support serving graphics and pre-rendered video files for our needs with a $300 BMD card and a computer that is just there keeping us company, then it could still serve certain purposes for the price. I’ll post if I find out anything further.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC