Callum Mclay
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Gabriel
Please see the following support note for advice on configuring your Mac Pro with the expansion slot utility:
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=60
The HD Extreme 2 is a x4 lane PCIexpress card, and is not designed to work on a slower slot.
In expansion slot utility, you want to be using the second profile, that offers x4, x4, x1, x16 for your PCIe slots. This way, your Decklink card should work in slot 4 or 3 (recommended 4).
Once this is configured, it is worth re-downloading a fresh copy of the Decklink 6.7.2 drivers for Mac OSX from our website, and doing a clean install. (Please use the uninstall utility first.)
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software/
When you restart after the driver install there may be a firmware update. Please conduct this and press restart. Now your card should be working. If you goto Apple>>System preferences>>Decklink, you should be able to see all the settings here.
If you are still having trouble, a great test would be to install the card on another system, PC or Mac, and see if the card is recognised.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Ricardo
One important thing to consider here, is not just the size or your array, but also the speed at which it runs. You can use the Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test Utility (installed with your Decklink Drivers) to find out what read/write speeds you will be getting from your RAID.
You can then compare this back to the data rate of footage you intend to edit. At the higher end of uncompressed HD, you will be looking at around 150MB/s.
Generally speaking, a 4 drive RAID 0 should be plenty for most HD work with a Decklink card. 2K however is a different problem, and I would not expect 2K to playback from a 4 drive RAID 0.
As you have the space in that enclosure, i would say 8 drives in a RAID 5 would be good for 2k. You may also get away with 5 drives in a RAID 0, but it may be a little uncomfortable for long captures! It is also worth considering your RAID controller, which will affect the efficiency of the array.
Remember it all comes down to the speed your RAID can provide, the data will always get there eventually, but for real time video we always like speed! Your 4 drives should be great for HD at 1080i, you can sometimes even get away with 3!
In regard to your monitoring needs, generally a HDTV is a great alternative to an expensive broadcast monitor. Esepcially if you only intend to use it for watching your video. If you are doing some serious colour grading work, or need to view 2k i would advise against it, but as a cheaper monitoring solution its a good way to go, depending on your budget.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Chuck
That’s great news! I thought it might be something to do with the graphics drivers, which disabling extended desktop can sometimes help (one less thing to fight for the desktop display! 🙂 )
I hope you keep enjoying your Decklink SP!
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Guys
I think this one is nicely wrapped up! The Multibridge Pro 2 and HD Link Pro is a great choice for 2K output over 3Gb/s SDI, as well as having the advantage of being a Bi-Directional video convertor.
Margus is right that one of the main factors for upgrading to the Eclipse is the benefit of much more audio inputs and outputs! If your budget is a bit tighter, and you don’t neccessarily need a breakout box, then it may be worth considering the Decklink HD Extreme 2, which has almost the same connectivity of the Multibridge, including the 3Gb/s SDI for up to 2k, using the HD Link to connect to a 30″ cinema display.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Chuck
For your Decklink card, do you have the Extended desktop feature enabled, effectively allowing you up to 3 monitors.
If you go to Control Panel>Decklink, and at the bottom there is an option saying “When not playing video send: extended desktop.” If this is set, switch it to send “black.”
Does this improve the problem with your Dual monitors at all? We may need to know a bit more about the system you are using, in particular your graphics adapter and display driver.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Gerakli
Thanks for posting. The Decklink card should show in the Device manager under “Sound Video and game controllers.” If the card is detected but not installed properly, you should see an Unrecognised Media Controller, with the yellow question mark next to it.
The best thing to try first would be a full uninstall/re-install of your Decklink drivers to see whether we can jump-start the card.
Use the add/remove programs list to uninstall the Blackmagic Decklink drivers, and follow the restart.
Download the latest Decklink 6.7.2 drivers from our website here:
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software/
Follow the installer, and ensure to restart when prompted. Hopefully at this point, the “Add new hardware wizard” will appear, and you can follow through to install your Decklink. It should then ask you to update the firmware on your card. Let it happen and hit restart when prompted.
If this does not happen, and your system does still not see the card, try going to Add/Remove hardware, and see if you can add the card manually.
If the system does not see the card at all, you should contact your local support office to see about the possibility of return for repair/replacement.
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/contact/
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Terry
Please forgive if I am not quite getting at what it is you are trying to do, but basically the Decklink card works in either a capture or playback mode. When you are capturing, the card has a video pass through, and so on the outputs you will see a mirror of your input video. So while capturing, you cannot output a second video stream from the card.
In playback mode, the input is effectively disabled, allowing you to output your video stream on the different outputs, depending on which card you have.
I’m not quite sure how you are capturing/playing back your footage, so if you could give me a little more information on your workflow that would be great. Are you playing back the file you capture in Media Express? And it won’t play in Media Player?
During capture, it is down to the capture application to handle the video. Most capture applications, like our Media Express, or Adobe Premiere Pro capture only one video file and save it to disk, while displaying a desktop video preview.
You will need a custom application, that can accept a DirectShow video input, record the file, AND pass the video or allow the file to be played while it is being written. to another application ie Media Player, or it’s own custom player etc.
Please get back to me with a bit more information, and I will do my best to help out.
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Alex
You’re most welcome, I hope you enjoy using your Blackmagic card!!
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Alex
Do not despair! It is hopefully something as simple as the settings do not match on your sequence for your BMD card to output. When you change sequence settings, they do not apply retroactively to existing sequences.
The best way to manage your settings when changing between different formats, within the same project, is to use the Easy Setups. The Blackmagic Easy Setups, installed with our driver, automatically configure your Audio and Video settings to work with the Blackmagic card.
The quickest way to test that your output works in Final Cut Pro, is to choose a new easy setup. So go to Final Cut Pro>>Easy setup. From the list, choose a Blackmagic setup that matches the footage you wish to use. (So in this case, Blackmagic HDTV 1080i50 – DVCpro). Now create a new sequence (easy setups do not apply retroactively to existing sequences.)
Now import one of your DVCPro 1080i50 clips into FCP, and drop it onto your new sequence timeline. Hopefully, you should now be seeing output through your HD Pro DL PCIe card to your screens.
If you go to Final Cut Pro>>Audio/Video settings, you will see here that nearly everything is Blackmagic 1080i 25 Mhz, which matches the footage you wish to use. If you were changing settings manually, they all need to be Blackamgic XXXXX where X is the footage you are working with.
If you still have no output, check your connections are still good, and that the HDLink is on etc.
Hopefully, this should all work, and your output should be back!!
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA -
Hi Craig
What type of encoding of footage is contained within the MXF files? Is it DVCPro, XDCAM etc? Which BMD project settings do you use to import your MXF files into?
Do you have any other footage with which you can import into Premiere ie does other footage look fine and play out on your monitor ok?
Just looking at your Sig it says Premiere Pro 2 for the PC, but you mentioned you were using a Windows system with CS3, could you please clarify which version you are using?
It will be interesting to see how the re-install process goes, it’s a pain but it can be very helpful for these faults that just “appear.”
Callum McLay
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design EMEA