Decklink HD Extreme card

joeferr wrote on 7/26/2006, 7:27 AM
Are any of you guys using the Decklink HD extreme card? I've spoke with Blackmagic and they say that Sony writes the drivers for this card and it will work but you have to run the old drivers. They also tell me that it works on some systems running 720p 24fps but he cannot promise it will work. What I really am looking for is a card that I can get realtime monitoring with SD and HD signals. Is there another card out there that can do this? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Joe

Comments

farss wrote on 7/26/2006, 3:12 PM
No such card exists as Vegas will not use any form of hardware acceleration.
In other words if Vegas can playout 720 24p on your exisitn system then assuming the BMD card will run on your hardware then it'll output 720p down HD-SDI. If your system can't achieve 24fps at the moment the BMD card will not help.

Bob.
joeferr wrote on 7/27/2006, 7:38 AM
My system does run and support 720 24p. All Im looking for the desklink card to do is allow me to hook up an external monitor so I can preview realtime hd and sd signals. Im not looking for any hardware acceleration. There is no doubt the blackmagic card can accomplish this but I am looking for feedback from anyone using this card if there are any issues. I don't want to go out and drop $1000 on this card if it might not work.
Jayster wrote on 7/27/2006, 8:38 AM
What kind of monitor will you be using?
Coursedesign wrote on 7/27/2006, 9:38 AM
I use a Blackmagic SD Extreme card since two years. Never a problem, but the BMD cards (really the drivers) are extremely platform sensitive.

If you have a computer, workstation, or motherboard that is on BMD's approved list, it will work properly.

If you think that some small differences from this couldn't possibly matter, you will join the lost souls on forums everywhere who are trying to figure out "why BMD can't make cards that work."

BMD cards are truly great, but their drivers are very demanding, because the performance required even by uncompressed SD leaves no room for sloppiness in timing. The BMD drivers have to take priority over even some Windows XP processes, so if there isn't enough performance left for Windows you get either a hang or a crash.
joeferr wrote on 7/27/2006, 4:28 PM
I just bought a new Dell Precision 690 with dual Xeon duo 3.2's with 4gb ram. I've been talking with BMD over the past 2 weeks and can't seem to get a straight answer. He says it may or may not work. Basically he says the issues are with Sonys drivers but the old ones might work. And Im goig to use a sony sd monitor because they say the Decklink HD extreme card will downsample to sd.
Ideas?
Thanks
Joe
Technomage wrote on 7/27/2006, 9:46 PM
We have Vegas running with Decklink cards on two systems at work. We monitor on Sony broadcast monitors via SDI/HDSDI and sometimes component. It works well, but be aware that we don't use DV footage. Everything we monitor is from DigiBeta, HDCAM/SR and D5 so I can't say how well it will work with DV or other sources. Be sure that you only use the approved driver for Vegas and nothing newer as you will get strange results. I think 4.8.1 is the only supported version, but you can check on BM's site. Also, if you should feed sync to the card, make sure it is the proper type. I once routed the wrong sync signal to the HD system and I got blinking output on the monitor. If you aren't going to be talking to decks, you don't have to connect sync.

Our workstations are HP xw class workstations and one dual proc dual core AMD box for HD work. The motherboard in the AMD box is on Blackmagic's approved list as are the HP workstations. No to bum you out, but I have been warned against using Dell computers with Decklink cards. Actually, if you go to this link:

http://www.decklink.com/support/detail.asp?techID=47

you will find the following sentence down the page.

"Dell Workstations are not certified for use with DeckLink cards and are currently unsupported."

I don't know when that was written, so things may have changed now as Dell often changes the motherboards/chipsets they use in their machines. I suspect that Blackmagic has been unable to keep up with testing Dell's latest models hence their hesitation to give you a direct answer.

good luck,