[Steen Dongo]

Hi Matt,

Thank you so much for responding. I really appreciate you guys checking into this. As I posted elsewhere we were more or less forced into using the AJA 10MD3 for downconversion as nothing else seemed to do the job, short of using an HDCAM machine.

I know I can’t expect the same quality from a software downcenversion, but still it’s nice that you investigate this as it definitely cannot be meant to look so blurred. What I simply cannot understand is why the Dual Link card didn’t yield any results better than what we observed. It was this that lead me to conclude that most likely wasn’t an error on the equipment, but som strange setup thing going on.

greeting

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

Hi Matt,

I, like Tony, have major problems with the downconversion, as you’re probably aware if you’ve followed the threads on the subject. Let me just start by saying that I’m sure your claim of delivering broadcast quality software downconversion is justified. It’s just that we can’t get it to look like a broadcast quality that our national broadcaster will accept.

There is something weird going on that I just simply can’t figure out. We’ve also tried the Dual Link card as well and it still looked very, very blurred. And yes, we made sure that we set the system prefs for hardware downconversion. (And yes… the shots ARE proberly focused:)

We’ve tried just about anything to make it work and I would really appreciate some help.

Greetings

Steen Dongo

Footage: HDCAM 1080, 25PsF
Easy Setup: BM 1080i, 50Hz
FCS 5.0.3
Mac OS 10.4.3
BM Driver 5.1.2
Mac Dual 2.0, 3GB RAM, BM card in top slot

We have done a pile of tests too – just have not yet posted them up but we will in the next few days.

We have compared our HD D5 down conversion (a 20k d/converter option on the deck), DeckLink hardware and software d/conversion, FCP and AE. We were coming from a 1080i/50 tape. The DeckLink d/converters stood up very well next to D5, AE looked the best which we expected. When we post the pictures you can decide for yourself.

You can not expect ANY realtime d/converter to look as good as a render from AE as it has unlimited time to process complex math. A hardware realtime conversion does not have that luxury. (well maybe teranex systems but they are designed to do one thing and they do it extremely well)

If you are expecting the realtime d/conversion to look the same as AE i think your expectations are a bit optimistic.

Regards,

Matt
Blackmagic Design

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

Whoa..! Hang on a minute, Mike! When reading your post I was just about to really take offense, but then then I decided to take a small break and think this over once more. You know.. consider if you are right and I’m being really unfair about this. Let me try to roll up my arguments as it seems you haven’t been reading ALL posts on this subject. Let’s see:

a. We’ve bought several BM cards and have always been very pleased with not only the quality of the hardware but also with the support we’ve recieved from our local VAR and specifically with the responsivenes of BM to keep the software up to date not to mention adding new and useful features to their products. Being a long time M100 user it’s a completely new experience. So we were very confident that we made the right choice when we decided to buy our BM single link card. Not only a powerful HD card for our HD work, but also for the situation where, (and I quote from the BM website):
“When running exclusively on Mac OS X

[Steen Dongo]

Well, we tried the AJA HD10MD3 downconverter and it does a beatiful job.

Everything is sharp and there’s just a little bit of aliasing. Only on straight vertical lines such as doors, windows, corners of buildings, etc.

It’s definitely within my tolerance for what’s usable…. and right now, BlackMagic cards just doesn’t cut the cake, unfortunately.

I really hope they’ll sort this out in a hurry.

greetings

Steen Dongo

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

I’m sorry to say that I second that. (See the posts just below this thread.)

I have the exact same experience and I feel that we’ll resort to laying everything back to HDCAM tape in order to use the downconverted output as our SD masters.
We shot everything on the Sony HDW 750 in 1080 25PsF, which Luke in a previous post rightly characterised as equal to 1080i 50 Hz. So we used the BM 1080i 50hz 10bit Easysetup while digitizing and editing. And the downconverted SD output looks….. ehm…. not good!! We subsequently tried out the 4:4:4 board only to find out that it looked the same.

Something MUST be wrong. I really hope I’m doing something wrong. Otherwise it’s a nonfeature!!!

Hope you guys figure it out 🙂

Steen Dongo

(G5 dual 2.0 – 3 GB RAM – BM Decklink HD Single link – FCS 5 – QT 7.03 – Sony BVM 21 monitor (i think it’s called) – Panasonic HD monitor)

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

That’s basically the same thing that we’ve already done by exporting via Compressor 2 and using the advanced framecontrols for antialiasing etc. But man it’s slow when scaling in such high quality. Something like 48 hours for a ten minute piece. Bordering to the unuseable 🙂

I really hope they’ll adress this when they get the time. As it is now, I for one can’t use it.

Thanks anyway for your advice 🙂

greetings

Steen

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

Thanks for replying Tony !

Well… this is the weird part of it!
We’ve been editing in 1080i 50 all along. Our footage is shot on the Sony HDW 750 HDCAM as 25PsF which in reality (and electrically) is 50i. And our Easy setup for the projects when both digitizing and editing is the BlackMagic 1080i 50Hz setup. (Upper field first, Apple 10 bit uncompressed, square pixels and all that.) But no matter what we do, it looks like someone’s been having a ball with a jar of vaseline on our monitor. (Sony BVM 21 something as far as I recall.) It still looks so blurred.

I was on the brink of demanding that we buy the 4.4.4 board but luckily I tried it out first. It’s no better than the software solution to my eyes.

UNLESS offcourse we’re doing something wrong. But for the life of me I simply can’t see what it should be !!

(Just for the record: We maintain working with the 1050i 50Hz setup while downconverting. We haven’t changed the Easy setup:)

greetings

Steen

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

OK… I’ve figured it out 🙂

Must be a problem for as lot of european users.

The problem: No keyboard shortcuts. The reason is that localized keyboard layouts are missing.

The solution: Go to

https://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/LatinExtended/

and download the missing keyboard layouts. ( I installed both danish and English ISO)

Select your keyboard layout under System preferences: International…

and That’s it !

Smile from

Steen Dongo

PICTUREWISE

DENMARK

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

Nothing on the COW, but thanks anyway 🙂

I’ll try to google it .

greetings

Steen Dongo

[Steen Dongo]

Thanks a million !!

I’ll try out your advice first thing in the morning ! Great to know about the cable thing. I had a sneakin’ hunch that standard bnc cables were not good enough for the job.

Man…. such a relief to get first hand experience! These forums and all you folks out there are lifesavers.

Thanks again 🙂

Steen