[Luke Maslen]

Hi Nico,

The Multibridge Extreme is undergoing final testing now and we’re running it through a most intensive battery of tests. It has taken much longer than we had hoped to reach this stage so I don’t want to publish a release date only to create disappointment if it doesn’t ship on that date.

The PCIe to PCI-X bridge card has been delayed. We had been working on it and then identified a number of serious bugs in the main bridge chip which we referred to the manufacturer of that chip. Two months ago, the chip manufactuer told us it would take about 3 months to address these bugs. So that means the chip might be ready in about a month and then we can recommence testing with the card we have built for it. At the time we were developing the bridge card, there was only one bridge chip available. More recently bridge chips from other manufacturers have come on to the market and we might try using them if the original chip supplier takes too long. However this would involve recreating the bridge card from scratch and that could take a while. So I am not sure what our final decision will be but we will know more in a month.

If you already have some model of HD-SDI card, then you can use it to connect to the Multibridge Extreme even without a PCIe to PCI-X bridge card. This will still enable you to connect to both analog and digital devices as well as using the DVI-D monitoring output of the Multibridge Extreme.

I cannot guarantee that the Multibridge Extreme will be shipping before your budget runs out but that is my hope. I hope this information helps you to plan ahead.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Toni,

I’m not aware of Apple having tested Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 with Mac OS X 10.4 or QuickTime 7.0 and so might encounter various problems. If possible, I would suggest you use either Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 with Mac OS X 10.3.8 and QuickTime 6.5.2 or Final Cut Pro HD 5.0.2 with Mac OS X 10.4.2 and QuickTime 7.0.2.

Given much of your material is DV, you may want to consider using a Blackmagic 8-bit codec. We’ve found that Firewire 800 drives, such as the La Cie Big Disk Extreme, are fast enough for 10-bit capture and playback of standard definition material. However FireWire 400 performance would be marginal and I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you are working in NTSC, then you should be able to mix your DV and 8 or 10-bit material on the one timeline and render it out. However be aware that if you are working in PAL, the PAL DV field order is the opposite to what it should be and there are some technicalities you need to work through when mixing with non-DV PAL clips otherwise you will have jerky video.

[David Roth Weiss] “Decklink may lay claim on your first born child in that case if they’re not feeling generous.”

The whole point of making the Blackmagic codec freely available was to make it easy to move files between systems with and without DeckLink cards. There is no performance penalty for not having a DeckLink card in your system when rendering to the Blackmagic codec.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

I don’t think I’ve seen a CRT monitor with HDMI input so I simply don’t know if it would help. Put it this way, the HDLink was designed with LCD monitors in mind and it probably would not help fix the color on a CRT monitor for that reason.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Robert,

Please ensure any antivirus software is disabled. Does it help if you drag your disk array and/or your system disk in to the privacy area of the Spotlight Prefpane?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

We have seen the same thing too and have logged a bug with Apple as we suspect this is an FCP issue.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Wayne,

Has this ever worked previously? If so, what has changed since that time?

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Thanks Nico,

That would be one solution. The other solution is that most video professionals already have some model of SDI card and this can be used to connect to the SDI in and out ports on the Multibridge PCIe models. This means no additional cost is required to use the Multibridge Extreme with a current PCI-X computer and then take advantage of PCIe if you upgrade to a newer computer in the future.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Wow Geir!

That’s a perfect answer 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Mark,

That would definitely not only be a combination that we don’t support but I’m not aware of FCP 4.5 being verified for use with QuickTime 7 and so anything could happen. It’s a good idea to run the same vintage of software together so either FCP 4.5 and the previous version of DVD Studio Pro with QuickTime 6.5.2 or else FCP 5.0 with DVD Studio Pro 4.0 and QuickTime 7.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi,

Here are a few things you could try.

1. Erase your disk array to eliminate any file fragmentation or directory structure fragmentation. You might not want to do this if you value the files on your disk array! In that case see if you can copy them on to another array and then erase. When you reinstate your files, they will be optimized.

2. Ensure no antivirus software is running as it will very likely have a detrimental performance impact on video or audio work.

3. If all else fails, you could try adding your disk array and/or system disk in to the privacy section of the Spotlight PrefPane. This would ensure that no indexing was happening when working on video. I’m not sure how much help this might provide but it is just a thought.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design