Luke Maslen
Forum Replies Created
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Hi,
Yes, Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 had a capture accuracy fix in it and we also had to tweak our DeckLink 5.7.1 drivers to fully benefit from this update. So you were correct in guessing that DeckLink 5.7 didn’t add anything new for the DeckLink SP as they were released when Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 was still current. Now that Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 has been released, I would recommend you update to the latest DeckLink 5.7.2 drivers.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Martin,
It looks like we should be able to fix this in the next driver update which will coincide with the release of the new Intensity card towards the end of this month so it’s not far away.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Craig,
We are unaware of any outstanding issues regarding Virtual VTR. If there are any, the developer will need to contact us with the bug report. Mark from Gallery was at IBC but he didn’t mention any bugs to our engineers on our booth so we’re not aware of any current issues.
Please contact Virtual VTR for support in the first instance. If they believe there is a bug or something we can do to help, they can submit a report as they have done in the past and we’ll take a look at it.
Blackmagic Deck Control is a simple application that provides capture and playback facilities. It is not designed to work in slave mode and is not an alternative to Virtual VTR.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
You’re right – it is amazing that a Firewire 800 drive will keep up with 10-bit SD capture and playback. I recall many people stating that you would get much better performance by using a Firewire 800 PCI card compared with the built-in Firewire 800 port on the Mac. However I found quite the opposite and the Mac port was much faster in my testing. I don’t know why some people found the PCI cards to provide better performance but I recommend you start by using the built-in Firewire 800 port on your Mac and then see it it works fast enough.
In regards to Firewire drives, you will need one that has 2 hard disks in it in order to achieve adequate seek times and data throughput. A single disk in a Firewire chassis will NOT be fast enough. That’s why you need one of the Firewire drives that looks a little thicker as it contains 2 hard drives.
We’ve always used LaCie drives and they’ve been most reliable, fast and quiet. However I’m sure that there are other brands that would also be fine.
I don’t know how much space you need and whether a Firewire 800 drive is going to provide enough space for you compared with a big and more expensive external disk array. It does sound to me as though the Firewire 800 drive will be fine for your purposes and it would be interesting to hear from anyone else in this forum who is working the same way that you are going to do.
Capture to disk is less demanding than play back. So if you are mainly capturing to disk, performing some renders and then burning to disc, I think the Firewire 800 drive may be the perfect and inexpensive solution for you.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
This bug is now fixed in the DeckLink & Multibridge 5.7.2 drivers for Mac OS X which are available from software downloads now. Thank you for reporting this bug so we could fix it quickly.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Harvey,
All of our HD products require a G5 and we’ve never done HD on the G4 as the bus speeds just weren’t fast enough. This means you would need at least a G5 with PCI Express or a Mac Pro.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Gunleik,
That’s strange and before you downgrade, can you please check two things. Firstly go in to the System Preferences and click on DeckLink. You should see “Video settings for your DeckLink….”. Does this just say “DeckLink” or does it show “DeckLink HD Pro”? If it just says “DeckLink”, then the drivers are not communicating with the card and we need to check that the G5 is even seeing the card electrically. Go to the Apple menu and choose About this Mac. Click on More Info. Under the hardware section, click on “PCI Cards”. Please let me know what you see listed there for the slot in which your DeckLink card is installed.
To downgrade the drivers, open the DeckLink 5.7.1 disk image and run the DeckLink Uninstaller. Now install a previous version of drivers which you can find in the software archives. Does downgrading help?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
The audio outputs of the DeckLink HD Pro card are digital whereas the audio inputs to your speakers are analog so you’re going to need some kind of convertor, eg a Flying Cow convertor, or a different model DeckLink card or different model of speakers. The DeckLink HD Extreme card has analog XLR audio outputs so that would be an option for you if you are not using 4:4:4 video.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Mike,
The audio level controls will only be visible if you have a DeckLink HD Extreme, Multibridge Pro or Multibridge Extreme. You can find the controls in the DeckLink control panel.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Craig,
The Intensity card is not an MPEG card. It captures and plays back uncompressed video via HDMI. It should work for DSP monitoring.
The release date was scheduled for October 15 but we’re still waiting on parts and believe it will be released about one week later on October 23.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design