HD SDI recording with Blackmagic UltraStudio Pro

[UBCi]

I have done some research on this HD SDI capturing device from blackmagic, but couldn't find any straight answers.
Has anyone tried it yet. It requires USB3.0 and x58 support on PC. I already bought USB 3.0 pci card. Does anyone know what's x58 means? We are using panasonic AVS300G for mixing videos, so gefen HD PVR records component HD, which works ok, but it records in mp4 format, and there are only few video convertors that will convert it to a file that I can record to DVD. And of course it's compressed. So I'm not very happy with the video quality that I get on DVD after all. Mixer also has HD-SDI out This blackmagic device captures uncompressed video thru SDI which will give us much better quality. And at the same time it outputs SD video (which works perfect for Internet broadcasting).
Any input is appreciated.
Thank you.

[petereit]

We capture from our Panasonic AV-HS300G switcher to a BlackMagic Decklink HD SDI PCI card and absolutely love the quality. I haven't used the new Ultrastudio Pro device specifically, but I'm sure the BlackMagic quality would carry through.

x58 refers to specific PC motherboards that contain the Intel x58 chipset. Motherboards with Intel's P55 chipset are also supported.

FYI, we bought our Decklink HD SDI card for $150 off eBay and it does downconverting to SD on the fly. For what you want to do, you probably don't need the Ultrastudio Pro. You could most likely do very well with a used Decklink HD card and save yourself a ton of money.

[UBCi]

Thanks for your reply, Mark.
I found one on ebay, it auctioned for $80. But in the description i couldn't find anything saying about supporting HD. Here is that link. Maybe it the older version? $80 seems to be cheap. Does this card supports audio as well? Or video only? You said it does downconverting video out, is it SD SDI out? how do i convert it to composite or svideo?
Thank you.

[zactommo]

The first four cards in the list don't support HD, but the last one does. If your willing to wait, you defiantly be able to find a deal.

PCI-Express is the best and most reliable interface to use for capturing HD, which is why the decklink cards use it.

[petereit]

Yeah, you definitely want a Decklink HD card. It will have 3 SDI connectors on it plus a wide plug connector that let's you connect a squid that gives you all kinds of audio XLR connectors and other video connectors for component and composite video.

[thomahawk0]

Originally Posted by petereit

We capture from our Panasonic AV-HS300G switcher to a BlackMagic Decklink HD SDI PCI card and absolutely love the quality. I haven't used the new Ultrastudio Pro device specifically, but I'm sure the BlackMagic quality would carry through.

x58 refers to specific PC motherboards that contain the Intel x58 chipset. Motherboards with Intel's P55 chipset are also supported.

FYI, we bought our Decklink HD SDI card for $150 off eBay and it does downconverting to SD on the fly. For what you want to do, you probably don't need the Ultrastudio Pro. You could most likely do very well with a used Decklink HD card and save yourself a ton of money.

We are in a similar situation, but with a Decklink Studio and migrating from SD to HD soon as we now have our inputs all at HD but running at SD on our AV-HS400AN. Do you capture in 720 or 1080? Our computer seemed to choke on anything HD (confirmed with BM Disk Test), so I'm wondering what you have for computer specs and what software you use to capture. I noticed our card can do downconverting on the fly, but I'm still trying to figure out how to pull the SD stream in software instead of the HD we are sending in over SDI if that is possible. Capturing in HD is not a requirement right now as our local station is still running SD, but HD would be nice to have for archiving purposes.

[petereit]

We capture uncompressed 720p to an 8-core Mac Pro, where I installed two extra internal 1TB drives in a RAID0 configuration that essentially creates a single 1TB drive that writes at twice the speed. If we want to bump up to 1080p, I would just need to add an additional 1TB drive to the RAID0 which would give me three times the speed -- plenty for capturing uncompressed 1080p.

We currently use BlackMagic's Media Express to capture because I like the easy setup and clean interface, but we have captured straight into Final Cut Pro and even used QuickTime to capture a time or two.

[thomahawk0]

Thanks for the reply. I was pretty convinced adding a raid card and a few more drives would do it before your response, so glad to hear. Too bad we are catching this need just after hard drive prices skyrocketed. We use Media Express as well since its pretty easy for our less experienced techs to operate.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Originally Posted by petereit

...two extra internal 1TB drives in a RAID0 configuration that essentially creates a single 1TB drive that writes at twice the speed.

I'm no RAID jockey, but wouldn't 2 x 1TB drives in RAID0 give 2TB of storage?

[petereit]

Originally Posted by osborn4

I'm no RAID jockey, but wouldn't 2 x 1TB drives in RAID0 give 2TB of storage?

Sorry, I'm probably messing up the terminology. One configuration makes it look like one 2TB drive, one causes one drive to mirror the other (1TB) and the other splits the writes to both drives, effectively doubling the drive speed. Whatever you call the last option -- that's what I did.

[petereit]

Originally Posted by thomahawk0

Thanks for the reply. I was pretty convinced adding a raid card and a few more drives would do it before your response, so glad to hear. Too bad we are catching this need just after hard drive prices skyrocketed. We use Media Express as well since its pretty easy for our less experienced techs to operate.

If you're running a Mac Pro, you don't need to add the RAID card. OSX's built-in software RAID has worked fine for us.

[[Admin] osborn4]

AIUI, RAID0 should double the write speed and double the storage. If you check how much storage is on that RAID0 set, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

RAID1 is the mirroring level, where it writes the same thing to both drives.