[Alan Scott]

Decklink HD Extreme 3D started shipping April 12, 2010

DeckLink HD Extreme 3D Tech Specs
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/decklinkhdextreme/techspecs/

480p support:

Ultrastudio Pro started shipping June 25, 2010

Ultrastudio Pro Tech Specs
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/ultrastudiopro/techspecs/

480p support:

Intensity Shuttle started shipping July 2, 2010

Intensity Shuttle Tech Specs
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/techspecs/

480p support:

480p is not listed as a future capability.

Advertised as working and available != Still in development or not supported.

As I said in my first post:
As with many new products there tend to be some technical glitches upon
release but it isn't reasonable after 3 to 6 months with no communication to
the public about it to keep that grace period (from us) going.

At this stage knowing that these products can not do what is advertised and
having the appearance of doing nothing about it (correcting the issue,
making the public aware of it via the website, offering returns, etc) has
turned into blatant false advertising.

The responses given so far haven’t given any indication that this is understood and being corrected.

[Alan Scott]

Hi Kristain

Now I’m a bit confused so bear with me.

The 480p feature is currently being advertised as available on all Blackmagic Design literature including the website for these products.

It isn’t a “new” feature being added correct?

However your saying that development for this feature has been delayed (apparently for at least 6 months now) and no time frame can be expected for it?

Something isn’t adding up here and hence my confusion.

1. It is advertised in the technical specs as working and available
2. Reality is the feature doesn’t exist.

Not correcting either isn’t making any sense to me.
Having this dragged out over this long a period of time makes less sense.

[Alan Scott]

My support requests are apparently being ignored (it’s been almost 2 weeks now) and in desperation I’m asking for help here.

The reason I am asking these questions is because captures from the shuttle appear washed out with a luma variance between left and right hand side of the screen when viewed on a PC. This is either with analog or hdmi inputs with different sources.

[Alan Scott]

Here is an example of the available formats from the Shuttle’s DirectShow capture driver:

https://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9638/773dsoptions.png

480p is known to be missing but I can not get any acknowledgment from BM support in regards to the missing 1080p 25, 29.97, and 30fps formats.

[Alan Scott]

P55 and X58 are currently the only officially supported chipsets for the Shuttle.

Typically on a P55 the USB 3.0 card must be installed in a PCIe graphics slot.

It comes down to this, the slot MUST support the full 5Gbs bandwidth. This is required regardless of it being a PCIe x1 card in a PCIe 2.0 slot or a PCIe x4 card in a PCIe 1.0 slot.

Some boards (including the X58 but less likely) can have slots not wired up to support the 5Gbs bandwidth.

X58 = 36 PCIe lanes wired directly to the X58 chip with a 25.6GB/s link to the processor
P55 = 16 PCIe lanes wired directly to the Processor
P45 = 16 PCIe lanes wired to the P45 chipset with a 10.6 GB/s link to the processor

All have a 2GB/s link to either an ICH10/10R chip (X58/P45) or to the P55 chipset itself where some slots and the majority of onboard devices can end up being wired to.

The graphics slots on the P45 have an extra hop to go through with a more limited bandwidth to the processor than the P55 and X58.

Theoretically it might work on a P45 but odds are against it when your machine is under full load. I also haven’t seen anybody report success with it either.

There was talk of BM allowing a 2.5GB/s link by either limiting the selection of resolutions you can capture or even possibly saving bandwidth by not simultaneously outputting at the same time your capturing. Nothing has happened with this yet.

[Alan Scott]

You can try the free/lite version of SiSoftware Sandra to verify the PCIe link speed and type. Look in the Hardware->Buses and Devices.

You should be covered for the x4 PCIe 2.0 lanes if it’s a Mac Pro from Early 2008 on. All slots are wired for it.

Mac Pros before early 2008 required the Expansion Slot Utility to verify/assign number of lanes and ran PCIe 1.0.

I just about had a panic attack on a fresh install of Win7 x64 and the 7.7.3 drivers on an X58 board. After installing the drivers and rebooting I got the USB Speed pop-up and all options on the BM Control Panel disabled. Subsequent reboots haven’t produced the error again (thankfully).

[Alan Scott]

I know there was an issue with the directshow filters not being registered for other apps to use in 7.7.1 (and appears to be corrected in 7.7.3) but your saying you can see the devices and just getting a black screen.

I’ve been using VirtualDub for testing directshow. When you are in File->Capture AVI under Video->Capture Filter you can set the Blackmagic Video Format selection (in your case HD 1080i 59.94). How to access that in other applications will depend on the application. Media Express is not saving the selected format as a default that the filter would use in other directshow applications.

As far as 59.94 vs 60 interlaced hdmi there are unfortunately products that show 60 for 59.94 unless they do specifically have the two as options. My Samsung HDTV for instance always shows 60Hz when indeed it is 59.94.

[Alan Scott]

Well.. it appears they are checking the motherboard chipset vs. pcie link speed or device capabilities.

Looking at the block diagrams of the P55 and P45 and finding other people that have confirmed the same, indeed the x1 slots ultimately go through a limited 2GB/s link.

While both chipsets indicate PCIe 2.0 capable speed on these slots/onboard devices, they are still throttled back by design so it can’t saturate the 2GB/s link going upstream.

Alright, no problem. So for P55 you have to use a PCIe USB 3.0 card on a second PCIe x16 slot (used as x8 when both are in use) to get your PCIe x1 5GB/s link speed.

For grins testing this on a P45 board I can verify I have a 5GB/s link speed via SiSoftware Sandra with a PCIe x1 USB 3.0 card in the second x16 slot. The blackmagic software still claims it isn’t usb 3.0 on boot though.

In the end we have a P55 running a USB 3.0 card at 2.5Gb/s PCIe link speed and the blackmagic software didn’t complain, but claims a USB 3.0 5GB/s configuration on an P45 isn’t USB 3.0. :/

Regardless, it is Blackmagic’s prerogative to pick the configuration they want to support and they state it up front. Albeit In case of the P55 there wasn’t mention that it must only be with USB 3.0 card in an available second x16 slot.

I am somewhat confused that the configuration must be so finite and aggressive that it doesn’t make sense. You have to have full usb 3.0 and PCIe 5GB/s bandwidth when the supported disk controllers we are using are maxed at 3GB/s. I mean I’ve been running a Decklink HD Extreme on the same P45 board for a couple of years and capture 10bit YUV 1080p uncompressed without issue, but again, their prerogative.

A “speed” check between the shuttle and USB card to verify compatibility vs. hard coded assumptions would be a better way to go even on P55/X58 though.

[Alan Scott]

The information on USB 3.0 is that in theory a PCIe x4 USB 3.0 card “should” be ok on a PCIe 1.x slot. It is the PCIe x1 that requires PCIe 2.0 spec.

However, looking at the ASUS card a bit further keep in mind that it has an extra PCIe bridge chip and two devices to complicate things. The NEC USB 3.0 and Marvel SATA chips have to go through the bridge chip and is in essence an extra hop in order to get to the slot/bus. Now we have two high bandwidth devices (not just USB 3.0) trying to share the x4 slot via the bridge chip. I can guess it could add some latency as well.

If it’s designed well it would give USB 3.0 the full bandwidth of the x4 PCIe if no SATA devices needed it which is even more important because of your PCIe 1.x limitation. If you have the SATA drivers for it loaded I’d try disabling them in device manager for grins at this point.

ASUS isn’t making any claims that the board will work at full USB 3.0 bandwidth on a PCIe 1.x slot (their manual and docs are pretty much worthless) and that being said I can’t seem to find another PCIe x4 that is just USB 3.0 either.

Now that I’ve looked at that card further I don’t like the idea of that bridge chip regardless if it is used on a X58/P55 board. If the Shuttle really requires full USB 3.0 bandwidth and low latency I don’t need something else possibly complicating that. Would like to hear what Blackmagic says about that card since it is popular.

Unfortunately I had already ordered one along with another PCIe x1 card to try out. The Shuttle should be arriving this Friday.

[Alan Scott]

I will be trying this out soon. My shuttle should be arriving in a few days.

The software bundle does come with the Blackmagic disk benchmark tool right? What results are either of you seeing?

Just to confirm, your not using the sata ports on the ASUS USB 3.0 card as well right?

In “theory” (and reiterated by Blackmagic) a PCIe 4x USB 3.0 adapter in a slot that has at least PCIe 4x lanes wired is supposed to be good enough. I can’t find one other company or specification that indicates P55 or X58 as a must for USB 3.0 adapters and “should” come down to how well the bandwidth to disk and USB 3.0 is being handled by the board.

Can guess the only boards tested were P55 X58 and they didn’t want to go back a couple of generations of chipsets to make sure they workedl (somewhat understandable) or there is some known latency issues with the P35, P45 boards not very well documented in regards to USB 3.0.