“Will all are uncompressed 8bit 4:2:2 media be readable by the decklink cards”
Yes, it’s a standard Quicktime codec installed by Final Cut Pro. The Decklink cards support it just like the IO (or even better, one could say). The only thing you will have to change is the video/audio monitoring device settings.
“If so, what’s the downside to using media as is instead of re-digging with Blackmagic’s uncompressed codec?”
No downside at all. Blackmagic designed their codec before the Apple Uncompressed codec came out. When Apple released it with FCP 4.x, Blackmagic added support for RT Extreme with Apple’s codecs (DV25, DV50, uncompressed 8 and 10 bit, PhotoJPEG is supported but no RT). Notice that Decklink’s easy set-ups default to Apple uncompressed, not Blackmagic’s codec.
The Blackmagic codec is used now mostly for Mac <> Windows interoperbility, since it is compatible with Apple Uncompressed (and this alllows Windows people to render uncompressed files for FCP). The Blackmagic codec is also useful because of its ability to read files made with other borads, like Digital Voodoo and Cinewave.
Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com