[Luke Maslen]

Hi Daniel,

That’s an interesting idea but as our products are cross-platform, and as the DeckLink drivers work with both DeckLink cards and Multibridges, a lot of information is common to both Mac and Windows and also to DeckLink and Multibridge. So while subcategories seem like a neat way to organize the information, I think it might make it easier to miss information when searching the forum. The search facility in the Cow works well and you can just enter some keywords for the forum and get a bunch of hits which usually lead to the desired answer. If we spread the information over multiple forums, it may become to hard to find what you’re looking for. Sure we could have forums on our own web site but I suspect it would just split up the information between the Cow and the Blackmagic Design web site and make it harder to find information. It would be easy to do but so far I haven’t noticed any compelling reasons to do that. In any case, thank you for the idea as it’s always good to know what people are thinking and we really appreciate all the ideas.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Peter,

This problem and the solution is documented in the support note named “Audio missing in exported DV movie“. This should solve your problem.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Michael,

XDCAM HD codecs should be included with the next update to Final Cut Pro 5.1.2. We couldn’t mention this before IBC but Apple have now announced the next update so we can talk about it now.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Michael,

[michael Belanger] “Can I use the HDlink to feed another 23/24 inch monitor when editing compressed hd material such as dvcprohd?”

Yes. If you are editing a compressed timeline such as DVCPRO HD and have a HD-SDI card in your Mac, the DVCPRO HD will be output as uncompresed via the HD-SDI output of your card and you can then monitor that with a HDLink connected to a 23/24 inch DVI-D monitor. It doesn’t matter if you are editing compressed or uncompressed material as it will all be transparently output as uncompressed via HD-SDI so HDLink can then be used to display your video.

[michael Belanger] “I can use a large tv fed by the hdlink through hdmi but as I have discovered those TVs simple lack the resolution to make it worthwhile. Is there a better way I am not aware of to have a large 30+ screen?”

There are some models of large HDMI TV’s that are full resolution although I have not had the pleasure of testing them. One example is the Sharp LC-65D90U which is a 65″ TV. It has full resolution 1920 x 1200 display and it’s definitely larger than 30″ 🙂 I think that Mitsubishi also make large full resolution HDMI displays but I have not seen one myself.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Jerry,

Well with Intensity at only $249, it is still affordable after buying the $70 000 plasma TV 😉

Thanks for the information.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Margus,

I was not indicating a preference for Plasma and in fact I generally prefer LCD. The “Wow” was because I was previously unaware of any plasma screen that had a full 1920 x 1080 resolution and now Jerry has pointed one out. So that came as news to me.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Ed,

We have a board that has all that i/o for PCI Express computers but not for PCI-X. The card is named the DeckLink HD Extreme and costs $995. The card works in the newer G5’s with PCI Express and also the Mac Pro and of course in Windows PC’s with PCI Express.

Seeing as though you have a PCI-X G5, you could get any PCI-X SDI card and then connect it via SDI to the Multibridge Pro or Multibridge Extreme. These external boxes can act either as standalone convertors or as capture playback cards when connected via PCI Express. So if you are not in a position to upgrade to a PCI Express G5 now, you could use a PCI-X DeckLink card and connect it to a Multbridge. The Multibridge would convert between analog and SDI and the DeckLink card would capture the SDI signal from the Multibridge. At a later stage when you upgrade to a PCI Express G5 or Mac Pro, you could leave the DeckLink card behind in your older Mac and simply plug the Multibridge Pro (or Extreme) straight in to the PCI Express slot of your new Mac.

A new DeckLink HD Pro PCI-X card plus a Multibridge Pro would have a combined cost of $3090. However I noticed a DeckLink HD Pro PCI-X on eBay for $700 so you might be able to get this down to $2295.

Something to consider is whether the cost of the additional card required for the PCI-X G5 could instread be put towards an upgrade to a Mac with PCI Express.

I hope that isn’t too confusing 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

I’m not sure which HDV camera you are considering but depending upon the model, it should have one of component HD, HD-SDI or HDMI output. We have cards that can capture from any of these outputs and allow you to capture to an uncompressed format. The imminent DeckLink 5.7 drivers for Windows will include our first release of an online JPEG codec which means you can capture to a compressed format using intra-frame compression so you don’t have to worry about dealing with the GOP issues with HDV material. I think most people have a love-hate relationship with HDV. It’s fantastic that HDV has brought down the price of HD but the HDV format is hard and slow to work with. That’s why it’s nice to be able to eliminate that issue by capturing with a DeckLink card or Multibridge via the uncompressed outputs from the HDV cameras even if you’ve already recorded to HDV tape in the camera. If you are shooting live, then it’s great to record live on to your computer using a DeckLink card or Multibridge PCIe.

If you have already captured HDV via Firewire on your PC or Mac, then you can still use a DeckLink HD series card or Multibridge PCIe to play out to a broadcast monitor. The Dell ultrasharp 24″ has both component and DVI input. So you could use the DeckLink HD Extreme to output component analog video to the monitor. Alternatively you would use a Multibridge Extreme with it’s DVI output and connect it digitally to the Dell monitor. Another option would be the DeckLink HD Extreme with a HDLink to output digitally to the Dell monitor.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

In order for the Multibridge Extreme to work with your G5, you must provide power to the Multibridge Extreme before you switch on your G5.

If you switch on your G5 first and then power on your Multibridge Extreme, it will not work.

Do you always switch on the Multibridge Extreme before you switch on your G5?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for pointing that out and the drivers aren’t released yet so I’m sorry for the confusion. I think the intent had been to release them during IBC but that didn’t happen and the press release had already gone out.

The engineers are back from IBC so I believe the drivers will be released this week. We’ll update the forum when they are released.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design