Luke Maslen
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Steve,
Can you confirm that the error is limited to After Effects and that you can get video out of other QuickTime applications such as Blackmagic Deck Control or Combustion? Combustion would be a good test as it outputs RGB as does After Effects.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Carl,
This is incorrect information.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Carl,
The Keyspan adapter is the only solution we recommend based upon experience of trying to adapt the DeckLink RS-422 connection to RS-232 using a range of adapters. It doesn’t work reliably whereas the Keyspan USB adapters work brilliantly.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Carl,
Thanks for your post but this is incorrect information. The Keyspan adapter is the ONLY way that we’ve seen to make it possible to control an RS-232 deck when using a DeckLink card. We’ve had customers try RS-422 to RS-232 adapters and they just haven’t worked reliably.
Adapters from Addenda are very good but are not appropriate in this case. That is why we have documented the use of Keyspan adapters in the DeckLink PDF manual for use with RS-232 decks.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Mark,
Sorry this hasn’t been answered before. I’ve never tried a SATA card in a G4 but have received various reports from customers and they are consistently poor. I would recommend you use a U160 SCSI or FC (33 MHZ PCI) solution. If you have already invested in SATA disks, you could use a JBOD which takes SATA disks but uses a SCSI connection to the chassis. You could also use a FC chassis but it will be more expensive.
The 33 MHz PCI bus in your G4 is a shared bus and all PCI cards have to take turns requesting access to the bus. The reason you are having this problem with the SATA card is that it isn’t polling the PCI bus regularly enough. The DeckLink card polls the PCI bus very frequently which means that when the SATA card wants access to the bus, the DeckLink card might already be using it. The solution is for the SATA card to poll the PCI bus more frequently and the manufacturer of the card might have a firmware update which helps with this.
I think SATA is a great technology for use with G5’s and independant PCI-X buses but it doesn’t work well in G4’s if you also need to use other demanding PCI cards. Video is about as demanding as it gets and that’s why you’re seeing a problem.
It’s also possible to exhaust the capacity of the 33 MHz PCI bus. I previously tried running three cards simultaneously in the G4. I tried an ATTO UL3D SCSI card with an Apple Fibre Channel PCI card and a DeckLink card. Both disk arrays suffered in performance and I found I could only run one at a time at full speed. The alternative was to remove the DeckLink card. So this was a case of exceeding the capacity of the PCI bus.
I have received similar reports from customers attempting to run a FireWire 800 card, an ATTO UL3D card and a DeckLink card simultaneously. It just doesn’t work well unless you remove one of the 3 cards.
In your case you are just running 2 cards so I would suggest checking with the SATA card manufacturer for a firmware update. Failing that, I would suggest using an ATTO UL3D or UL3S SCSI card. This will provide you with U160 SCSI speed which is perfect for standard definition in a G4.
If you have any further questions, I suggest you start a new thread otherwise it might not be noticed.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Steve,
I’m just working back through some older posts and noticed yours had been unanswered. Can you please repost this to the forum as it is so far down the list that is becomes lost. Can you also let us know which version of Mac OS X or Windows XP you are using, which version of DeckLink drivers are installed, which version of QuickTime 6 you are using and also which version of After Effects? That should help to narrow down the problem.
If you are on Windows, try quitting Premiere Pro first and then see if that overcomes the problem.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Robert,
Thank you for letting us know the solution to your problem. RAID 0 is definitely a lot faster than RAID 5 although disk array manuals will often suggest RAID 5 as it offers some level of protection for your data should something go wrong with a disk.
The real test of any disk array is to see if its performance is still adequate when it reaches about 80% full.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Margus,
These days it is often possible to capture and playback 10-bit uncompressed SD video to a single SATA drive. The performance is marginal and so I would never recommend this for real use but the point is that 4 drives will definitely be OK given that 1 drive is just enough for basic functions. Your proposal to use 4x 120 GB Seagate SATA I drives should work extremely well for your SD requirements for some while to come.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Robert,
Thank you for the link and I’m intrigued by the price as I’m not aware of any firm pricing on the card until it was finished but maybe a price has been set and I just haven’t heard? In any case, we’re running intensive tests on the Multibridge Extreme now as we want to release it as soon as possible.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi Dermot,
That’s great to hear and thanks for letting us know.
In regards to your DV progressive material, what is the source that you are using to send this signal to HDLink? I presume it isn’t a DeckLink card as I don’t recall as setting for progressive DV.
The quality of standard definition interlaced material won’t always look great on a progressive LCD display even though it might look fine on an old interlaced CRT display. HDLink includes an interlaced simulation mode which can help provide a nicer display of interlaced material on a progressive LCD display but this is more effective with HD than SD material and hence the name HDLink.
Your problem puzzles me as you say your material is already progressive so I am keen to learn how you are outputting progressive DV via SDI to the HDLink.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design