[Luke Maslen]

Hi Bernd,

Yes, this has been on our “to do” list for ages and other priorities have got in the way so it hasn’t happened yet. It’s not something that we’ve advertized or promised but it’s something we would like to do. It’s a little scary as it involves a fundamental change to the driver so it requires lots of testing. However it would be nice to do so we’ll try to do it. The date for this has been pushed back several times so I’m not going to stick my neck out and say “soon” but I will raise it with the engineers again. If you happen to be visiting IBC, feel free to drop by the booth and let the engineers there know how much you would like Multicard support 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi David,

Thanks for posting the solution to your odd problem. That is very good news.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Robin,

Yes, you can already achieve this with the existing Multibridge and will also be able to do it with the new Multibridges. Please see the support note How to achieve maximum quality with HDV cameras. The Multibridge will take the component HD output of the HDV camera and digitize it in to HD-SDI which you can capture as 10-bit uncompressed if you like. The support note documents when this will achieve greater quality than Firewire and when it will not so please review the note and let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Keith,

[Keith Hill] “Maybe someone from this Forum can give me their biased or un-baised opinion about that.”

I’ll give you a clue which one I’ll give 😉 What are you hoping to do with the card, ie connect to some kind of deck(s) or to a camera or simply for monitoring of HDV material? If you can let me know what you want to do, I can let you know which of the DeckLink HD series cards would be most appropriate for your needs.

[Keith Hill] “I have been considering a setup that would include using the HDlink for monitoring and possibly (I haven’t made up my mind yet) using the Kona 2 as my capture card. Can you folks shoot some darts at this target please.”

The HDLink works fine with pretty much any stable SDI source in the following formats: 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 1080i48, 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 720p30, 720p50, 720p59.94, 720p60, 625/25 PAL, 525/29.97 NTSC. You can read more about the HDLink specifications on our web site. We’ve tested HDLink with DeckLink cards and Kona cards and it works fine at these resolutions.

Unlike standard definition video, you need very high quality connections, and very hight quality cables, to carry HD-SDI video without significant deterioration in signal quality. You might be amazed to find that a 7 foot SD-SDI cable may simply be inadequate to display reliable video to the HDLink. Please see the support note What kind of cables should I use for high definition video? to ensure that you will be able to connect to HD decks, DeckLink cards and HDLink with a reliable HD-SDI signal. Another thing to consider is the connectors on capture cards.

We use BNC connectors on the DeckLink cards, including the DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 card, to ensure that we can meet the SMPTE specification for HD-SDI over 300 feet (100m). We tried using other kinds of breakout connectors but they did not provide us with a stable HD-SDI signal over this distance so that’s why we use BNC connections. The bottom BNC connector presses against a black, plastic plug on the motherboard and, for this reason, you might find it tricky installing some models of DeckLink HD series cards in to the top slot of a G5. If you find it too tricky, just use slots 2 or 3.

Any DeckLink HD series card, combined with HDLink and HD-rated SDI cables, will provide you with tremendous quality.

Finally, you mentioned Combustion and so you should be aware of current Combustion compatibility issues with Tiger which are documented in the support note Autodesk Combustion

[Luke Maslen]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for your suggestions and, maybe I’ve missed a reference somewhere, but I couldn’t find any mention of swapping tapes. He’s definitely swapped decks so that rules out some potential sources of problems but I can’t find a mention of swapping tapes.

It’s definitely a problem at the deck because it is the deck that generates the DCT blocks. DeckLink cards don’t create or use DCT blocks. However the display of random DCT blocks can just be a configuration thing with the tape’s timecode, deck or reference signal so it will be interesting to hear what he finds with a fresh tape and after checking the reference signal.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi John,

I’m sorry to hear that and there shouldn’t be a problem if there if there is a slight wiggle on the cable. Can you please contact your reseller to organize an RMA with our local office in your area. Please send back both the HDLink and the power supply with both affected units. They will ultimately send it back to us so that our engineers can examine what has gone wrong but will also supply you with replacements. If you have any problems organizing the RMA, please let me know.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Paul,

While there is no harm in trying FCP over Blackmagic Deck Control, I don’t think that is where the problem lies as the original post stated: [smoked meat] “as the deck is recording, I see nothing but pristine imagery”

I think the problem is at the deck and, most probably, is with the tape but I have also mentioned some other possibilities in another post here.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

Thanks for the frame grab which was very helpful. Grant wandered by my computer just as I opened up your file and he immediately said, “That’s odd. They are DCT blocks. There’s a problem at the deck.” He explained to me that DCP blocks are compression blocks. When you shuttle quickly on the Digibeta, you see a pixelated display made up of many blocks. Those blocks are DCT blocks resulting from compression on the tape. When you shuttle quickly, not all the information can be decompressed fast enough so you see blocks instead. So why are you seeing DCT compression errors?

Grant mentioned there were a few causes that he has seen.

• Reference problems could cause this and so you should check your source of genlock if you are using genlock. Make sure the genlock is in the right format and that the Digibeta is set to use external reference. If you are using the DeckLink card to output a sync signal to the deck, please see the support note How to sync a deck with a DeckLink card to ensure all is configured correctly. You would need to set the deck to use Internal or Auto reference with this arrangement.
• The heads of the deck could be dirty or malfunctioning. However you have tried a second deck so this is unlikely.
• The tape could have a problem and this is quite likely. You could try a new tape and see if the problem goes away. Alternatively you could recreate the tape and see if the problem goes away. You could take the same tape to another Digibeta and see if the problem still occurs when you play back the tape locally, ie with no involvement from a DeckLink card.
• Sometimes the timecode track on the tape could be a problem. Using Assemble Edit, instead of Insert Edit, might overcome this probem.
• There can also be some other rare and weird scenarios, eg audio in the wrong format causing such errors when recorded to tape. You might find that no audio appears to have been recorded when you play back the tape but that DCT blocks appear. This would be an indication of an audio problem but this one is not as common.

I hope this helps to track down the problem. My guess is that it is something to do with your tape and that using a fresh tape will overcome the problem.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi David,

You’re most welcome and I’m glad this has got you going. That particular error message kept appearing in this forum some while ago so I asked Apple about it and they were very helpful in supplying information. We created the support note as it is a tricky problem to solve but easy once you know how. Thanks for your kind words 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

Thanks. You can post it here by placing it on your web server and then providing a link in the following format:

Alternatively you can email it to support@ blackmagic-design.com (without the anti-spam space).

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design