decklink HD Extreme -- how does this sucker work?

Just installed a decklink hd extreme card into my mac pro, running fcp 5.1.4.

Want to monitor an HDV timeline, 1080 24f mode. No can do? Have a Sony monitor, pvm1342Q, which has composite in, RGB in, but no SDI. The outputs from the decklink are SDI and RBY and some others. Any ideas on a setup I could use to grade some HDV I've already captured and edited?

Also, can I capture some VHS b-roll regular ntsc that I need to add to this project?

Kind of stymied about how I'm going to get use out of this new card. Thanks for any thoughts.

Did you purchase that card just for monitoring HDV or is it going to be used for real capture, printback to tape?

I would say you purchased the wrong component to just view HDV. Blackmagic has a SDI to DVI monitor adapter that can display full resolution 1080i. I guess you could add that to the Extreme card but that seems a little around about way to monitor HDV. You would then need a 23" Apple display to complete the chain.

Some folks will say that you really can't color grade on an LCD screen anyway.

Some folks will say that you really can't color grade on an LCD screen anyway.

You can with the Matrox MXO and Apple Cinema Display. I got it to show the exact colors that I had on my HD CRT. Well...verrrry close anyway. Close enough that if I didn't have the HD CRT, I'd trust the MXO/ACD combo.


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I used a decklink extreme and while it lived (it died after a year) it worked fine: Check system prefs/decklink to make sure of correct output settings. I used the SDI out/ins going into a digi beta deck and ran a cable into a broadcast monitor. The breakout bax that came with the card however never worked though.

Shane,

My comment was "tongue in cheek" about color correcting on an LCD.

I wonder what the difference between the MXO and the Decklink HD adapter is for displaying 1920 x 1080 on the 23" Apple display?

Jeff Nelson Wrote:
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> Want to monitor an HDV timeline, 1080 24f mode.
> No can do? Have a Sony monitor, pvm1342Q, which
> has composite in, RGB in, but no SDI.

Any chance that the Sony monitor is only an SD monitor and it wont display a 1080 signal?

Yes, sony monitor is only SD, not 1080, but I was hoping that the decklink would somehow downconvert on the fly for monitoring purposes. Looks like the 24f is a bigger problem than the downcovert to SD... Thanks for all the responses.

The decklink should easily be able to add pulldown to the output on the fly. Sounds like a setting somewhere is off. Either in FCP or in the decklink control panel.

- Justin Barham -

Hey guys, thanks so much for the replies.

Well, I seem to have gotten this to work! I'm able to play my HDV 24p timeline out through my sony monitor. I don't have an sdi out on this, so I'm just going component, but it looks pretty good and plays fine at 480i, so the card seems to be working.

Only thing is that (and maybe this has more to do with my camera than decklink) but most of the footage comes out as really blown out on the monitor, when it's fine or sometimes even a little dark on my 30" monitor. Guess that's why you're supposed to use glass rather than a monitor. Going to burn a DVD test to see if my correction looks correct on the old TV set. Just kind of surprised by how blown out so many of the shots are, and how much I'm having to bring the midtones down to get what looks like proper exposure. Or is that a function of grading HDV 1080p through a 480i downconvert??