[Luke Maslen]

Hi David,

The Intensity Pro does not have a calibration function for your monitor. The Pro partly reflected the addition of component analog video to the original Intensity card which only had HDMI in and out. The Pro also denotes that it can be used with the component inputs of PVM and BVM series monitors. We displayed the Intensity Pro at NAB 2007 connected via component HD analog to a Sony BVM 26″ monitor and the image was outstanding. It can also be used to capture from the component analog video outputs of professional series video cameras which were of an older generation which lacked HDMI output.

The current DeckLink HD Extreme 2 card (US$995) has all of the connections of your Intensity Pro card plus SDI input and output and RS-422 device control. The SDI connections support SD, HD and 2K video. The card has both professional and consumer breakout cables for connecting to different kinds of equipment. The DeckLink HD Extreme 2 includes 3D LUT’s so you can adjust the video output to your HDMI-based monitor. You can simply switch off the red and green channels with the 3D LUT interface so you see blue only. A workflow might be to output color bars and then use the 3D LUT interface to output blue only. You could then make adjustments using the controls on your HDMI monitor.

If you already have an SDI-based card, you could simply connect a HDLink Pro (US$795) and use either its blue only feature or use the 3D LUT’s to adjust the image on your HDMI display.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Bill,

SD RAM previews should play through in real time once rendered to RAM. HD RAM previews will usually be below real time even after having being rendered to RAM. 1080i50 video seems to play a lot faster than 1080i59.94 so we’re investigating why there is such a big difference in RAM preview speed between these two formats so we can try to speed it up. I expect this can be improved because it doesn’t make sense that there should be such a big difference between these two formats. This issue is currently scheduled for completion two driver releases from now.

You mentioned that you previously saw faster RAM previews (via component output) when you used the card in a different slot so it might be worth reverting to that configuration and see if you can obtain an improvement in speed. If so, please let us know which slot and which PCI Express profile you have chosen as this will help us to investigate the problem.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Chris,

The Workgroup Videohub just has the one power supply. We would certainly replace it under warranty if it died. Spare power supplies are also available for purchase.

The Broadcast Videohub is nearing release and it does include two power supplies but is a much bigger unit with many more connections, ie 72 inputs, 72 outputs and 72 monitoring outputs.

I’ve not heard of the 5 min login time problem before. I quickly checked around and couldn’t find others with the same problem so I suspect it is a networking issue on Baz’s network, but why it only affects the Macs is a puzzle.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Baz,

[Baz Leffler] “BTW. is there any reason why my Mac’s take about 5 mins to log into the hub when my PC’s are instantaneous?”

No, I haven’t seen this and the Mac clients should be able to connect instantly. Are your Macs also slow to detect other devices on your internal network?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Will,

Thank you for running these tests. Your high end graphics card should have no problems supporting the two Apple monitors you have attached plus the Multibridge Pro. In fact, I would expect you should be able to do this with a much cheaper base model graphics card. My suspicion is that the graphics card is playing up. If it is a card supplied by Apple, please ensure you have run Software Update to make sure its drivers are up to date. If it is a third-party purchase, please visit the vendor’s website and ensure you have downloaded and installed the latest software and firmware for the card.

Do you happen to have another graphics card, eg from a similar Mac, which you could temporarily borrow and use in the current Mac? If so, please replace the nVIDIA card with the substitute graphics card and then see if you can run both Apple displays and the Multibridge Pro without problems.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Baz,

Thanks for the great write-up for Workgroup Videohub.

Videohub enables you to lock your routing configuration so that others cannot accidentally change your routing in the middle of a job.

Videohub clients can prevent other clients from interfering with their routing and the master control on the Videohub Server can override all settings in case one of the clients has forgotten to unlock a router setting.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Kurt,

I’m not familiar with this monitor and haven’t heard any reports about it related to HDLink. I do know some monitor do not handle PAL frame rates natively and HDLink attempts to help by providing pulldown processing to a frequency the monitor does support. If that doesn’t work, then you can try the EDID override settings which are documented at step 3 in the support note HDLink and EDID Manual Override. The most likely setting to work is named Force 5:2 Interlaced Display.

This information is only relevant to HDLink. The newer HDLink Pro does not have the EDID override settings as it uses a different hardware method to detect display capabilities.

Please let me know how you go.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Bill,

Connecting the HDMI cable would not cause the RAM preview of After Effects to fail. Please check if you are still able to output component analog video from After Effects. If that doesn’t work, then nor will your HDMI output. If that is the case, you could try moving the Intensity Pro card back to the slot where it was last working well, then confirm that component output works fine and then attach a HDMI display and see if that works fine.

If you have an Early 2008 model of Mac Pro, I would recommend slot 3 or 4.

If you have the original series of Mac Pro, shut down your Mac and place the Intensity Pro card in slot 4. Start up the Mac, go to /System/Library/CoreServices and launch the Expansion Slot Utility. Select the second PCI Express Profile, ie: x16 Lane Graphics Slot + Two x4 Lane and One x1 Lane Slots. The click the Save and Restart button. Upon restarting, check that you can see video output on your component analog and HDMI outputs.

I hope this helps and please let me know how you go.

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Will,

Thanks for your additional information.

Would you please shut down your Mac, disconnect your primary monitor and then restart your Mac. Does the sluggish response and graphics corruption still occur on your second display when Multibridge is connected, or does it go away?

Please shut down your Mac again and this time swap the connection ports for the primary and secondary monitors. Now start up the Mac and see if the problems still occur or not.

Finally, what is the make and model of the two displays you are using?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Joe,

It would be very unusual that the HDMI output didn’t work with a HDMI display. If that appears to be the case, it might be worth checking the HDMI input settings of your display to see if there are any options that can be tweaked to make it work. If it doesn’t work, please let me know the brand and model of HDMI display. The Multibridge Pro outputs a native HDMI signal and so must be used with a HDMI display. You can’t connect a DVI display to the HDMI output. Please let me know how you go.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design