Luke Maslen
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Jon,
I agree it doesn’t make much sense that the cables might be the problem and yet nothing about this problem seems to make sense. You’ve used a deck that others have used successfuly but only your tape appears to have an audio distortion problem even though you could not hear it. The tape has reportedly exhibited the problem on multiple decks but not on the one you originally used. Can you get the tape back and so you can listen to it again and see if distortion can now be heard or if you detect no problem?
Please let me know how you get on with the embedded audio test and also what you see in the Expansion Slot Utility.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Chris,
The Expansion Slot Utility is not relevant to G5’s and so you will only find it on Intel versions of Mac OS X installed on the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro allows you to allocate more or less bandwidth to various PCIe slots whereas the bandwidth is pre-allcoated on the G5 and cannot be changed.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
Your deck supports RS-422 device control and all DeckLink cards and Multibridge PCIe hardware also support RS-422 device control. We perform all of our accuracy testing using RS-422 device control and not with Firewire.
However if you have some reason for using Firewire device control, then it should work fine but obviously we haven’t tested that scenario for accuracy. You will need to modify the presets in Final Cut Pro to use Firewire device control rather than Sony RS-422.
Firewire should work fine but an RS-422 cable would be preferable, particularly as you can run it over long distances unlike Firewire. If the deck is close to you, then that will not cause a problem.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Borjis,
I’ve asked David to give you a call as I believe he helped you work out the problems last time so he’ll probably work it out quickly this time.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Zak,
Many cameras that claim to output 1080i60 really output 1080i59.94. You will only be able to downconvert to NTSC if your camera is outputting as 1080i59.94 as this matches the 29.97 Hz frame rate of NTSC video (when you divide by two).
As Paul has already suggested, please try using the Blackmagic HDTV 1080i59.94 HDV easy setup and then see if you can play out to your NTSC monitor as that should work fine. Also ensure that playback of All Frames is enabled from the View menu in Final Cut Pro.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
The Multibridge Extreme box needs to be connected via it’s PCI Express cable to the adapter card in your Mac Pro. The Multibridge Extreme must then be switched on before your power on your Mac Pro. The drivers need to be installed and ideally you should have the adapter card in slot 4 (top slot) of your Mac Pro.
If you have already done all that and are still facing this problem, then it would be a good idea to phone support and see if they can help. If you are in the USA, you can call our Milpitas office on 408 954 0500.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
If you’ve captured DVCPRO HD material via Firewire, then presumably it is in the 720p59.94 format. Is that correct? If so, you should be able to play it out on the DeckLink Pro and have it automatically down convert to NTSC. If you have captured at a different rate, then it will not translate to NTSC when down converted and so this will not work.
Please try using a Blackmagic HDTV 720p59.94 DVCPRO HD easy setup to create your project. Drop your clips on to it and then play them. Does it now appear on the DeckLink Pro output? If not, please let me know what you see on your monitor.
You can also play back 1080i59.94 material as NTSC or 1080i50 material as PAL using your DeckLink Pro.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Jon,
It is very important that you launch the Expansion Slot Utility and verify that the Multibridge card, Sonnet card and graphics card all listed as “running at maximum speed”. There must be some technicality that causes the problem to come and go with the Multibridge and Sonnet hardware and computers don’t need sleep!
[Jonnyres] ” I’m 99% sure I had the deck connected to the multibridge box correctly, but if I didn’t, would that cause the problem?”
I doubt you would have been able to output video or audio at all if the Multibridge was not correctly connected to the deck so I don’t think that is the explanation. I do wonder a little about the cables you are using between the Multibridge and the deck and whether they might be the source of your problems. Can you also try simply output SDI video with embedded audio to the Digibeta or is there some reason why you are using XLR cables?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Rob,
You appear to be using the PowerPC version of Final Cut Pro 5.0.1. The DeckLink 5.7.2 drivers are Universal Binary drivers designed to work with the Universal Binary version of Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 and no testing has been conducted with PowerPC versions of Final Cut Pro on the Mac Pro. You will need to use Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 to work on the Mac Pro.
After Effects 7.0 is still a PowerPC application so we’ve added some special code to our drivers to make it possible to use the RAM Preview feature with After Effects 7.0 on the Mac Pro.
I hope your Universal Binary installation discs arrive quickly 🙂
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Peter,
Yes you can switch the two cards in and out of your system without any impact on software settings. However you will need to be careful not to bend a pin in the PCI-X slot. We swap cards in and out a lot in our testing and eventually it can wear out the PCI, PCI-X or PCIe slot. If you bend a pin in the slot, it may do nasty things to your Mac including stopping the Mac from starting up. I would expect that one could also wear out the connectors on the DeckLink card although I haven’t seen that happen.
An alternate solution would be to connect an external convertor, such as the Multibridge Pro, to the SDI connections of your DeckLink HD Pro. The Multibridge Pro can act as a standalone convertor and convert between analog-SDI and SDI-analog. At such a stage as you might upgrade to a PCI Express G5 or Mac Pro, you can plug the Multibridge Pro straight in to the PCI Express slot and use it as a capture/playback card, just like your DeckLink card. They all use the same software drivers as each other.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design