Luke Maslen
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Anders,
DeckLink 5.6.2 drivers were the last version to be tested with Final Cut Pro 5.0.4. These versions of DeckLink and Final Cut Pro were the last PowerPC-only versions. If you encounter any further problems, I would recommend you revert to DeckLink 5.6.2 drivers as they were tested with Final Cut Pro 5.0.4 and worked fine.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Rory,
We tested the DeckLink 6.2 drivers on both PCI-X and PCIe versions of the PowerMac G5 and it worked fine. Can you provide some more specifics about your problem, eg which model of G5, which model of DeckLink card, which versions of Mac OS X and QuickTime are you using and most importantly, when does the problem occur? Does it occur when you start up your Mac? Does it occur as you start FCP6 or only after you perform some action in FCP6? Does it occur in any other video application such as After Effects of Blackmagic Deck Control?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Max,
That sounds strange to me. Which model of DeckLink card did you buy and in which slot did you install it?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Ricardo,
The internal disk array of the Mac Pro is capable of simple capture and playback of 10-bit HD material. If you start using lots of nested sequences and effects, you should seriously consider an external disk array which will cost more but will provide great reliability.
Regardless of whether you choose to use an internal or external disk array, your question about how to use the one disk array with both Mac OS X and Windows is a good one. It might be possible but I don’t know anyone who has done that for mission-critical work and so you need to consider the following points:
1. The Bootcamp facility in Mac OS X, which enables you to run Windows XP or Vista, is still beta software. While it does work extremely well for most people, you won’t be able to obtain help from Apple if you encounter any issues. The readme file with Bootcamp stresses this point.
2. There is software available for Windows which enables it to read Mac-formatted disks including disk arrays. It is named MacDrive 6 CrossStripe Edition. It is designed to be used with an external disk array and assumes that you have striped your disk array using software such as ATTO Express Stripe which can be used with ATTO SCSI or fibre channels cards. I suggest you read the system requirements for this software so you will know what to buy.
3. I would not be surprised if the use of MacDrive on Windows meant that the disk array could not be accessed as quickly as a native NTFS stripe created by the Disk Manager in Windows. This is just my speculation and it might be incorrect. Therefore I would recommend you test this and/or ask around before committing yourself to this workflow.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Mike,
There are a couple of ways you could go. One is to use the HDLink with the Kona and it will work fine for DVI and HDMI based monitoring.
An alternative would be to swap over your DeckLink HD Pro and HDLink for a Multibridge Extreme. This is essentially an external capture/playback device which has built-in DVI/HDMI monitoring and includes 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 support as well as SDI and analog connectivity. It has two channels of analog XLR audio output and you can also use the RCA analog HiFi audio monitoring outputs. The Multibridge Extreme is already at a lower price and you will also save on the cost of a HDLink.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Christian,
I believe you resolved this problem and that it was some kind of configuration issue. Aside from the fact that 4:4:4 was enabled, can you tell me what you did to fix the problem?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Jaromir,
You mentioned you were using the DeckLink 6.0 drivers and we believe there was a bug in relation to Motion JPEG in that version which could account for your problem. We believe that upgrading to the current DeckLink drivers will overcome that problem.
We’ve tested this problem with the DeckLink 6.1, 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 drivers and cannot replicate it. We captured PAL colour bars from a D5 deck in the MJPEG, 10-Bit & 8-Bit uncompressed formats and then compared the playback to a waveform monitor. The waveform doesn’t move at all when changing from clip to clip.
Therefore updating to the DeckLink 6.1 or newer drivers should resolve your problem. Please try this and let us know how it goes.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
The Intensity Pro specifications list the following HD formats: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 720p50 and 720p59.94. This includes analog component formats. Is there any other format that you require?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
Given that you need Final Cut Pro to ingest your P2 material and turn it in to a QuickTime file, would you see much need to support 720p25/50 in Media Express? If you don’t have Final Cut Pro, you won’t have any way to get your P2 media in to a QuickTime format for use on your Mac and therefore it couldn’t be used with any QuickTime application including Media Express. Please let me know if you think there is still a new for this support in Media Express given my comments.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
Final Cut Pro 5 & 6.0 do not support 720p50. The Intensity drivers and Media Express application do support 720p50.
Displays do not support 720p25 and that’s why we haven’t supported 720p25 in the Intensity drivers as you can’t monitor with it so there is little point. The Panasonic HVX200 works in a Varicam format, ie 720p 25 over 50 fps. This format previously didn’t work with Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 when we tested it with DeckLink and Multibridge hardware. We’ve just noticed that it does seem to work with Final Cut Pro 6 and so I expect we’ll add easy setups for it soon. We’ve got an Intensity update due out in the next couple of days which won’t include an update for this camera but I expect it will in the one after that.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design