Device settings - Capture

quokka wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:03 AM
Can any one point me to where I can find info on capture device settings.
I am trying to capture using Decklink (driver 4.8.1) within 6.0d.
I capture to PAL from DigiBeta. I can capture but the time code I capture at is never consistent. I am using the Sony 'internal' capure program.
When I open up 'Capture Preferences > Device', I choose 'Blackmagic Design Decklink' - format > 720x576 PAL'
I have 'timecode Offset (% of frame) 0 - 400 slider,
and Timecode tolerance (% of frame) 0 - 100 slider.

WHAT DO THE SLIDERS REPRESENT?

Comments

quokka wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:12 AM
Some additional info -

I have a dual scsi Ultra 320 array - I consistently can write and read over 230MB/s so its not my mobo or disk system. I have ten times the head room.
I can't find any white papers or help in the manual on these settings.
I can capture and output frame accurately from 'Blackmagic deck control' application - but it doesn't support EDL/xml and is very clunky to control.
I've heard one person on this forum say it works for them, but are they creating batch capture lists and capturing in accurately, repeatedly?
I use this software in a professional environment and are looking increasingly like a fool to my clients/fellow workers over my using an amateur piece of software. Help!
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:27 AM
I'm afraid I don't have an answer outright for you, but I will tell you that Vegas is not as "amateur" as it seems from it's past reputation. Among many other television stations, Vegas is used by ABC's Nightline national news television show in the United States.

I personally have no experience with the decklink cards, and can't provide any direct input - but there should be some input within the next 12 hrs as folks wake up again.

Dave
Grazie wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:30 AM
I'm awake?

"but there should be some input within the next 12 hrs as folks wake up again."

Now THAT has to be the most States-Centric comment yet, Dave?

You reading this Bob?

Best regards

Grazie
quokka wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:36 AM
"Vegas is used by ABC's Nightline national news television show in the United States."

How do they output when each edit is finished?

Surely they don't work in DV....?
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/3/2006, 1:48 AM
"surely they don't work in DV" HA - that'd be the day - LOL - no they use BMD cards.

and as for you Grazie :P - you and your comments on my states centric :P comments - I don't see many people (Farss excluded) posting on the forums here from PAL land about BMD cards. I could be mistaken, but I don't know of them.

Dave
Grazie wrote on 4/3/2006, 2:31 AM
"I could be mistaken, but I don't know of them." - you got that correct!

Cheers,

Grazie
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/3/2006, 11:22 AM
the other thing is that there IS a paid support line that you can ask as well.

Also - BMD might have support for you that will solve the problem. There are a few different options that you can try.

Dave
quokka wrote on 4/3/2006, 4:23 PM
I have tried Support on this issue and got the golden silence response.
BMD give the same response - it all seems too hard for everyone.

I asked a very simple question - " Can any one point me to where I can find info on capture device settings."
I didn't intend to start an NTSC vs PAL debate - I purely wanted info so I could try and track down how to get my system running professionally - though I doubt that this is a PAL only issue.

So once again if any one is getting consistent, accurate captures using Decklink - especially using batch capture I would love to hear.

Thanks (and sorry for starting a political debate)
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/4/2006, 3:23 PM
oh, it was no NTSC - PAL debate - I just was was getting the grazie 3rd degree for my USA only statments ;P

I know that there are plenty of folks that do get accurate things- I might change your thread name to HELP - BMD Capture Problems. You can do so by editing your first post and just changing the title from there.

Dave
Grazie wrote on 4/4/2006, 7:52 PM
Quokka, if you are still around:

1/- Here is something I found for you on the Decklink site:

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=105

and this is what appears to be their techie FAQs:

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/product.asp?fmProduct=3


2/- I'm going to ask a Distributor here in the UK=PAL who do make NLE machines and may have used DECKLINK.

Regards,

Grazie
Grazie wrote on 4/4/2006, 8:01 PM
. .and here is a link to Decklink's further Vegas6 driver s/w - do you know about it? Maybe it is for you too? I wouldn't know? But look right down at the bottom of the page . . yeah?

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software/archive/


Grazie
Grazie wrote on 4/4/2006, 8:08 PM


. .and ..

try over on the COW's site for the DECKLINK forum. Looks like a heap of DECKLINK people there:

http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_view_posts.cgi?forumid=124

Grazie
quokka wrote on 4/5/2006, 10:06 PM
Many thanks FrigidNDediting & Gracie for your responses.

I have spent 2 frustrating days fulltime on this trying to work it out - and finally its working perfectly (touch wood).

I tried to find help on the Vegas FAQ site and all of the help seemed to only relate to DV/OHCI or older versions of Vegas. One thing that seemed consistent in their recommendations was to upgrade to the latest BIOS. This was the last thing I wanted to play with and reluctantly we tackled this. We have Supermicro Mobo and from their website saw there was a 1 year later version of BIOS.
Did the update(very nervously) and retried Vegas/Decklink - captures are now working accurately.
The ability to now use EDL's for us turns Vegas into a professional editing system.
There are still some shortfalls in the sofware but compared to the competition this is one great app.

Having now moved onto capturing through Vegas-Decklink a new issue has arisen for us - we use After Effects for some of our compositing work and it doesn't support the Sony YUV file format that comes from Vegas captures (PP2 does !!). Incidently Combustion has no problem with the file format.

I will post this as a new subject on the forum but if any one has a workaround or knows of any codecs that allow AE to recognise the Sony YUV clips we would love to hear from them.
Grazie wrote on 4/5/2006, 10:25 PM
Q! Brilliant! Love it when a plan comes together. BIOS eh? Yuck!

Get going in Vegas - it is smashing ..

Best regards, GRAZIE

. .I am a bloke of the male kind! Ithink "Gracie" is a lady's name? LOL!!!
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/5/2006, 10:48 PM
I'm happy to hear that it was something *relatively* simple, however dangerous, and that it fixed your problem. Wish I could have helped you more, and still I'm no help I don't use AE - I'm a combustion man for anything of that grand a scale (mind you it's very rare that I go on that grand of a scale).

Dave
ForumAdmin wrote on 4/6/2006, 6:38 AM
If you need to fly Sony YUV files out to AE or other apps, all you need is the Huffy YUV codec installed on your system- AE should use that to read the files.

Roundtripping .Png seguences also work well- you get alpha support and there's no chance of any framerate mismatches creeping in when moving back and forth between various apps.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/6/2006, 10:17 AM
"Roundtripping .Png seguences also work well- you get alpha support and there's no chance of any framerate mismatches creeping in when moving back and forth between various apps."

Just out of curiousity - does this cause problems with interlaced footage? IE - tearing that becomes more obvious?

Dave