New decklink drivers

New decklink drivers.
version 4.7

not tested....

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/site/press.htm

New decklink drivers. version 4.8

Promising quite a few new features.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16208

Not tested.

Any possibility of a bridge coming soon, for SDI out?

Thanks
CC

what kindof bridge?

Something like the london bridge in arizona?

Or something somewhere more useful?

i just installed the decklink 4.8 drivers.
nothing to report.

Catalyst uses extensive use of Open GL, both in video acceleration and the effects. This all happens on the graphics card.

Having SDI Out is contraversial. Some people (like Rock n' Roll and TV) love SDI. Some do not (theatre boys and corporate). Sven Ortell from Mesmer is currently using 1280x1024 65% Photo-Jpeg animations on the Three Musketeers show in Berlin - this makes use of wide screen projections, so resolution is the key. BTW use a 2.5Ghz G5 if you want to do this....

Scan converters sort the problem out, as well as genlock, but they can introduce their own set of problems.

What are peoples' favourite scan converters?

Hugh

it would be nice to have a direct catalyst sdi output, but the hardware doesnt support such a thing.
The decklink input and outputs are totally separate, from the graphics card.
The graphics card does all the work.
The decklink card doesnt have a graphics chip.

It is not possible to frame grab the catalyst output and send it to the sdi output in software real-time internally.

---

There is a professional range of graphics cards from nVidia which does have a direct SDI output from the graphics card- but these have never been released with a macintosh driver.

I don't know how it is in the rest of the world but in the States, SDI is the PRIMARY standard for ALL video whether it's corporate, theater, TV or rock and roll.

Everyone wants to convert 5 wire BNC to SDI, it makes life easier for everyone. Every video company I've dealt with and every video production that I've done uses SDI as their standard. SDI is much less susceptible to hum and one 700' range 1/4" cable is much easier to manage than many 5 wire 300 foot range 1" cables with line drivers and Hum, ground lifts, and all the negative stuff that 5 wire brings with it.

The best solution is definitely DVI but even still when HD or DVI is needed for Versatubes or whatnot, over long distances, video companies still choose to use HD imagepros and run SDI between them.

This single issue has been an obstacle for Catalyst from really launching into the TV world as a mainstream TV product over profile. The Mbox or whatever they are calling it now has DVI out and is being widely accepted in the TV world now, it pioneered by the old VLPS gang and is primarily controlled via Virtuoso.

The pattern emerges here that PRG and the old VLPS gang of programmers will soon dominate the TV world with Mbox as they have with Virtuosos, primarily because of SDI and a couple of other competitive features. We really must look at and accept this fact objectively if we want to stay competitive and keep Catalyst's momentum at an upward pace.

As far as Apple drivers go for the Quadro FX series of SDI boards, none have yet been written but that's not to say that you couldn't write one. I've done some research and a lot of people are lobbying to have apple release the Quadro FX drivers as an open source project.

Just so you everyone knows though, the Quadro series of SDI boards isn't standard SDI. It outputs a Key channel and a Fill channel. It is really application specific for virtual sets. I'm not sure if it outputs a beauty pass, standard SDI output. I suppose you could use something to merge the key and fill to one output.

I really wish that Catalyst outputted SDI; it would make life so much easier for everyone and make Catalyst so much more competitive

Christian Choi