Switching from Kona LHe to Decklink SDI – Pros/Cons

[Joseph Owens]

Check the latest configuration guide. Link posted by Peter Chamberlain here this morning.

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Luis Martino]

Yes, I’ve read the manual and config guide. I know they recommend using the Extreme 3 card, but if anybody had success using either the SDI or even the Studio version would be interesting to know.

Also, we don’t intend to do heavy work on RED or even 2K footage and would work only on ProRes HQ 1080p files.

I just think that getting the Extreme 3 would be overkill for what we need.

If we ever get the card and it works out I’ll post the results.

[Chris Armstrong]

I’ve got the Decklink SDI card on one my machines and it works just fine. Does exactly what you’re looking for. Works great as a monitor out card.

[Luis Martino]

That’s good news. I know result may vary from setup to setup.
The SDI has no breakout cables so do you monitor DaVinci with sound coming from the SDI signal?

We might go with the Studio models which has the breakout cable connector so we can monitor it through Monitor Speakers as well.

[Robert Ruffo]

Intensity pro works perfectly via HDMI, but no sound at all. Not sure about sound on any model other than that recommended by Black Magic (and major useless overkill for us too).

That is a great question though – would love to know if breakout cables can give sound via Studio model

[Tim Tyler]

Intensity Pro does in fact work, however it prevents me from getting more than 22fps. If I disable the card I can get 60fps.

I am replacing the Intensity with a UltraStudio SDI which is now supported re: the new Windows config guide.

Tim

[Jesse Glucksman]

I’m brand spanking new to Resolve, but I do have a DeckLink SDI running out of my MacPro and I haven’t had a single problem monitoring with it. RED footage looks great going from DaVinci through the DeckLink and to my monitor. Audio comes out of the crummy speakers in the monitor, but I seldom listen closely when I’m grading so that doesn’t bug me–and I’m sure there’s a simple way to fix that if one were so inclined.

[Luis Martino]

That’s what I also tested on our Monitor, Jesse.
In our case we are using a Sony LMD2450W with a BKM option for SDI Input. It has audio LR output which I connected to our mixer to output through the speaker. Sounds better than the crummy monitor speakers but not as good as the real AES output from the Kona Card. Sound came out really low, had to add gain on the mixer to hear it.

The question now is, does the Producer care about sound while color correcting ? Not really.

But not having the breakout cables with the option to monitor real audio output would be a shot in the foot! =P

We will probably go with the Decklink Studio. It seems to be the most similar to the Kona LHe (SDI I/O, breakout cables, real time effects for FCP). We already spent money purchasing a control board and a Graphics card to able to run Resolve on our MacPro3,1. Now we need another expenditure to properly use it.

I hope it’s worth it !

Anyway, thanks all for the feedback. Will post result once we get it working on our end.

[Eric Johnson]

One thing worth mentioning, so you’re prepared more than anything, the BMD Pref Pane for the Decklink card is a horrible piece of software when compared to the AJA control panel.

It is super unfriendly, I find, and the documentation is even worse. When I was setting up the Resolve that I am now using, I would’ve happily taken a single GPU with a Kona 3G over the Decklink with 2x.

I have nothing but good things to say about Resolve, but I have a hard time finding anything good to say about the Decklink card.

[Luis Martino]

Well, that’s “awfully” reassuring !
I’ll keep that in mind. Our goal is to be able to use our monitor while color grading as well as have “most” of the basic features of our Kona LHe, like hardware effect acceleration and AES Audio output, etc.

Thanks for the tip about the decklink control panel. I also enjoy the AJA control panel. It is very intuitive.