Monitoring output on Blackmagic Decklink with ProspectHD
 

Hi there,

I understand that Prospect HD doesn't currently allow timeline monitoring on a Blackmagic Decklink HD card. Will Prospect HD ever allow timeline monitoring on a Decklink HD card? If so, and if I asked really, really nicely, would it be possible to describe roughly when we can expect to see Blackmagic monitoring, please?

If I remember correctly, the Cineform website used to say that BMD playback would never be supported because the Decklink cards lack on-board memory. But I remember reading a few forum posts recently which seem to indicate that BMD playback is being actively worked on by the good folks at Cineform. (Although I couldn't find those posts after a bit of searching).

So: will Cineform support the BMD card in the future?

Great product, by the way.

Many thanks,
Jack

Since BM does it on Mac, it should be possible on PC either.
the problem is not the memory missing on card (there is no memory on firewire and you still can get a preview)
The problem is under cineform, you work under a different format (AVI) and compression than HDV.
So cineform had to provide a data stream compatible with the BM card or BM has to write a driver able to handle the cineform datastream.
Looks easy but.....

We have been working on Blackmagic integration, and thought we were about there, but but we discovered some bugs in their drivers used by third parties like CineForm. We're awaiting their direction.

I would encourage you to beat up (figuratively) on Blackmagic as they've been slow in responding....

I guess once this is implemented it would be the cheapest way to preview Cineform projects on a TV, correct?

My ideal would be to purchase a Bravia w/ 24p True Cinema input capabilities and monitor my 24p Cineform project through an HDMI connection to a KDL32XBR6.

At $249 for an Intensity card I would imagine this would be the cheapest solution (and even offer the bonus of an HDMI capture port!)

Thanks for the heads-up.

I've just written to BMD asking them (very nicely) to help get the Cineform + BMD combination working. Fingers crossed...

the problem is if it would help cineform to sell more (after all if you spent 500$ for Aspect Hd, you will easily spend 200 more on the card).
But it will help BM to sell more card (wouldn't be nice too?)
Nope sure, because BM is selling other more expensive cards that can already do what you ask, so it does not look like a win-win situation.

Well... personally, I already own a Decklink HD Extreme PCIe.

Are you sure BMD's more expensive cards (by which I assume you mean their multibridge?) can be used with Cineform Prospect HD? I was under the impression that none of the BMD cards can be used for output with the Cineform products (but all BMD cards can be used for ingest to Cineform).

I would have thought that BMD support for Cineform would be a win-win situation for both companies (sure, it'd mean less people would use BMD's JPEG codec but BMD don't sell their JPEG codec so who cares?).

Talking of which... I wonder if/when we'll see the Cineform codec implemented in hardware on a PCIe card? Maybe it's not necessary given how powerful CPUs are?

Currently we don't have timeline monitoring support for any BMD products. But if we can get the upgraded drivers from BMD we'll support both Intensity and Decklink.

We are working on a silicon implementation of the CineForm codec for mobile and embedded apps. Because of the speed of today's CPUs and the efficiency of our codec, if you have a PC available it can generally encode to CineForm files without a problem, so HW support for the CineForm coedec inside a PC has been less compelling.

Oooh...

If you've been working with Nikon to develop a camera based on their D300 which will capture RAW 2k at up to 30fps then, um, I'd frankly drop dead with glee.

Work together, make it work and sell more of your product!
 

Hello David (Cineform) and (Decklink)

I’m a user of Prospect HD and I just got a mail about upgrading to Prospect 4K and I think this I Great “but” I have the Decklink Intensity Pro and was on my way to buy the New HD Extreme. Now I don’t know what to do no support from CineForm or Decklink read below:

David Taylor Cineform:

We have been working on Blackmagic integration, and thought we were about there, but we discovered some bugs in their drivers used by third parties like CineForm. We're awaiting their direction.

I would encourage you to beat up (figuratively) on Blackmagic as they've been slow in responding....

Decklink answer by Joshua Helling
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc:
“It is not actually a bug in our driver so much as a limitation of our
current driver. This functionality is something we would very much like to
add, but as always adding features to drivers for support of other types of
compressions requires time.

But rest assured that this is a feature we want to add, we just don't have
any sort of time frame to do so. But the guys from Cineform have been very
responsive and they are indeed waiting on changes on our side”.


I just hate this ping pong between companies, Cineform is Super and so is Decklink so why don’t they see the benefit of work this thing out together for us customers instead of telling It’s nothing wrong with their part of the story “It is not actually a bug in our driver”.

I’m in the industry in Sweden (Swedish TV) and it doesn’t matter if it is Avid, Final Cut or Premiere It’s always no body’s fault and it’s the same with codec or capture cards.

Work together, make it work and sell more of your product, less hassle for your customers and more in your pocket.

Best Regards
Mikael Bergstrom
www.tv4.se
Sweden

Do you have a contact we should be beating up? I'd really like to use my Intensity Pro for monitoring purposes as well as capture.

Any more news about this? Status update maybe?

Read post #5 and post #13 in this post: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-...r-5-years.html

Its on its way... :)