Luke Maslen
Forum Replies Created
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Hi,
DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 can perform split hardware down conversion on newer versions of the card. HD-SDI output is sent to the deck while down-converted SD-SDI video output is sent to the monitoring output along with 2 channels of audio. Down-converted SD output is also sent to the analog video outputs. This is useful if you want to connect via HD-SDI to a deck but monitor using a SD monitor. The monitor can be an SDI or analog monitor. Split hardware down conversion can be enabled or disabled with a software switch in the System Preferences>Blackmagic DeckLink. Split hardware down conversion of HDTV720 is not supported.
You don’t need to buy an SDI or component card for your monitor as the down converted analog output can be switched between component and composite video output. However if you were to buy a card, I would suggest the component card if it is cheaper. When you add an SDI card to a monitor, it does not really make it an SDI (“digital”) monitor as all CRT’s are analog. The card simply performs a digital-to-analog conversion in the monitor. The DeckLink HD Pro already does this for you at no additional cost so you might as well take advantage of the component or composite analog output of the DeckLink card and save youreself some money. I haven’t checked on the price of the optional cards for your monitor but traditionally SDI cards were very expensive options for CRT monitors.
There would be no downside to using the DeckLink card for analog video output as it is already performing that function regardless of whether or not you choose to use it.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Thanks Shane,
I don’t think Matt got a message to me before leaving for Japan so I’ll try to find out some information from the engineers and let you know.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Jamie,
“Final Cut Pro HD” was introduced as version 4.5 but the lastest version of “Final Cut Pro HD” is version 5.0.3. So please verify the version of “Final Cut Pro HD” you are using before changing you software versions.
If you do need to big 8-bit 2Vuy material with 8-bit 2vuy material on the same timeline, it could be a good idea to recapture your previous 2Vuy material on to a 2vuy timeline. In other words, use a Blackmagic 8-bit PAL easy setup and it will invoke the Apple 8-bit 2vuy codec.
The alternative is to render to the Uncompressed 4:2:2 8-bit codec but this would be slower.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Shane,
Matt is at InterBee Japan at the moment. This is an odd problem and I’m not aware of any other reports of it so we’ll test it here and let you know. Are you using the DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 card in this test?
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Jamie,
You appear to be in the UK and so are probably working in PAL. Please review the support note How do I work with Cinewave files without rendering? PAL. If you are working in NTSC, there is also a support note How do I work with Cinewave files without rendering? NTSC. This might well help with any video which appears jerky. Cinewave uses the 8-bit 2Vuy uncompressed format and my suspicion is that you might be mixing some legacy 8-bit 2Vuy material on an 8-bit 2vuy timeline. The Apple codec (which we use) captures in the 2vuy format. If you need to use both 2Vuy and 2vuy material on the same timeline, rendering will be necessary. There is support note named Why are there multiple 8-bit codecs? which is worth reading when you get a chance.
It would also be a good idea to ensure you have uninstalled any Cinewave drivers and removed the Cinewave card to ensure that it does not conflict with your new capture card. More to the point, the PCI bus in the G4 is a shared bus and can easily run out of bandwidth. So you should at least remove the Cinewave card even if you leave it’s drivers installed.
Mac OS X 10.3.9 is not a support configuration due to the number and variety of weird customer reports we have received about this specific system version. However if you are going to run it, then please ensure your versions of Final Cut Pro, QuickTime and DeckLink drivers are up to date. You mentioned you are using QuickTime 7.0.3 so I expect you are using Final Cut Pro 5.0.x and this should be updated to v5.0.3. If you are using Final Cut Pro HD 4.5, choose to uninstall QuickTime 7 and downgrade to QuickTime 6.5.2. The latest DeckLink drivers to be used with Final Cut Pro HD 5.0.3 are DeckLink 5.1.2 drivers. If you are runing Final Cut Pro HD 4.5, then use the DeckLink 4.8.1 drivers from the software downloads page.
Please let me know how you go.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
We have a support note How to achieve maximum quality with HDV cameras which describes when it is useful to capture from the HDV camera via DeckLink and when it would make more sense to just capture HDV via FireWire. The short version is that if you have already captured HDV to tape, then compression has already happened and the best quality capture with be a HDV capture via FireWire using Final Cut Pro. If you are shooting and capturing live, then adding a Multibridge to your DeckLink card will enable you to capture from the uncompressed HD component analog outputs of your HDV camera and this will provide higher quality than the very compressed video via FireWire.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi David,
Yes and no.
In standard definition, we’ve used the Apple codecs for capture (and playback) since Final Cut Pro 4.0 was released. The Blackmagic codecs were still used in HD through to Final Cut Pro HD 4.5.
Apple introduced a HD color space in the codecs included with Final Cut Pro HD 5.0. As a result, we now use Apple codecs in SD & HD. An exception is with 4:4:4 HD material. Apple don’t yet have a colorspace in their codecs for 4:4:4 so we still use our own for that.
So the short version of this is that we use the Apple codecs in SD and HD for all 4:2:2 material in Final Cut Pro HD 5.0 which makes it easy to share with users who are not using DeckLink systems.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Gary,
I don’t know if you are comparing a FireWire DVCPRO HD capture with a HD-SDI capture to a DVCPRO HD timeline or an uncompressed 8 or 10-bit timeline. Either way, DeckLink 5.x drivers are using the same Apple Uncompressed 422 codecs (8 and 10-bit), and also the same Apple/Panasonic DVCPRO HD codec, as is used by AJA cards. Where there might be a difference is in working with 4:4:4 and RGB material as Apple don’t yet have a RGB colorspace in their codec so you can see some differences moving between After Effects (RGB) and FCP (YUV). To help compliment the Apple codecs in these scenarios, we use Blackmagic codecs in some specific scenarios (especially with After Effects) to ensure proper color space conversion.
If Chris was also working in an application such as After Effects, then this might explain the difference he is now seeing on a system that doesn’t use our codecs. However if files were simply captured with FCP on Blackmagic and AJA systems via HD-SDI, then I would expect no difference as they should both be using the same Apple codecs.
Feel free to send me an email if you are seeing some difference that you can’t figure out. It would be helpful to have a frame of video which might show up some difference as well as driver versions and the workflow you used to reach that result.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
Can you please post some more details. For example, what application are you slowing down a portion of the clip and how are you achieving this? Do the video problems only occur on the computer screen or also on the broadcast display? It would be great if you could email screenshots or photos of the problem to pcsupport[at]blackmagic-design.com so we can look at your problem.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Rex,
Both cards use the Apple codecs for capture and playback so there should be no problems moving files between systems.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design