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TERRIBLE Downconverting Quality…. Shame on you Blackmagic…
How could they even list it as a feature. It looks worse than a VHS to VHS dub.
Here’s an example?
I feel like I got ripped off a little….
here’s what my el cheapo playback deck can do when it comes to down-converting:
This is what Luke asked me to post a week ago. I was really busy – I’m sorry to repost it at the top but it’s important…… If you plan to do offline editing don’t expect anything sharp, expect to use the deck’s downconverter and not the one in your system.
If you actually have to capture HD and downconvert to master in SD… I wouldn;t recommend buying this card. But from what I read today, even the hardware downconversion leaves much to be desired…
Could somebody please explain why this sudden lack of quality?
Thank you.
Sorry to rant a bit.
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7 Replies
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Hi Kai,
What is the easy setup used in your down conversion capture?
Can you send me a frame or two of the orginal HD footage at our support email address?
regards
Kristian
Blackmagic Design -
I’m sorry to say that I second that. (See the posts just below this thread.)
I have the exact same experience and I feel that we’ll resort to laying everything back to HDCAM tape in order to use the downconverted output as our SD masters.
We shot everything on the Sony HDW 750 in 1080 25PsF, which Luke in a previous post rightly characterised as equal to 1080i 50 Hz. So we used the BM 1080i 50hz 10bit Easysetup while digitizing and editing. And the downconverted SD output looks….. ehm…. not good!! We subsequently tried out the 4:4:4 board only to find out that it looked the same.Something MUST be wrong. I really hope I’m doing something wrong. Otherwise it’s a nonfeature!!!
Hope you guys figure it out 🙂
Steen Dongo
(G5 dual 2.0 – 3 GB RAM – BM Decklink HD Single link – FCS 5 – QT 7.03 – Sony BVM 21 monitor (i think it’s called) – Panasonic HD monitor)
Steen Dongo
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I just got a Decklink 4:4:4 board, and I’m also seeing the same issue. Realtime downconvert to SD is MUCH softer than taking HD material, dropping it into a SD timeline, rendering, and playing.. I’ll be getting my HD monitor today to view the output on that.
My source files are 1080 23.976 PsF.David
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Is the downconversion on the Decklink done in software or hardware? Does anyone know if the downconversion on the Multibridge is done in hardware?
Thanks,
Gary -
It’s done in hardware.
That doesn’t, in my expreience, preclude something in software lousing it up or, conversely, a fix coming in terms of software update.
I’ve seen the original quality of the downconversions and they were superb. Something must have broken somewhere in software. I’m sure the guys will address it in their usually speedy manner.
Cheers
Bettsy
Burra Films -
I think only the HD Pro is hardware. The other cards use software.
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The answer is… The 4:4:4 card does it in hardware, the 4:2:2 card does it in software… my question still is… why is the qality sooooo bad…
I gather this issue is still unresolved.
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