DNxHD live capture software?

N

Nutsy

Member
Hi I’ve been working n a budget HD system.
After doing allot of research DNxHD looks like the format I want to capture in from the camera.
I’m using the Black Magic Intensity pro card.

Does anyone know any software that would capture to the format?

Cineform is simply too expensive for me. And the trial software crashes on my system.

I have Premiere CS4 I thought that would capture in alternative codec’s... sadly its only does DV and HDV and doesn’t even recognise my BM card.


So does anyone have any tips or know any software I can use to capture in?

Thanks
All the best
Simon
 
Ive worked out how to get my Black Magic card working in premiere now.
But does anyone know how to get DNxHD suported as a capture codec?
 
:/ What other choice do i have for 10bit full hd 4:2:2? High quality that isnt Cineform? I seriously cant afford to fork out 500 odd quid for a codec.

Esp a codec that doesnt seem to even work.
 
You mean other than blackmagic's 10-bit 4:2:2 (v210) ? - this is basically same thing as uncompressed

Other codec's won't necessarily be compatible with the blackmagic hardware. You have to contact them for supported formats. I think sheervideo works with them, not sure?
 
PDR v210? The only options i get is uncompressed, Mjpeg and [DVCProHD in Premiere....].

THe reason i thought DNxHD could be used as a capture codec was that its rivled by Prores, Camera companys are now building it into cameras. And BBC built Ingex to capture several streams of it for HDTV productions.

I would be using a windows build of Ingex if i was a linux developer :p But i cant even build the program in Linux let alone port it.

Just looked up sheervideo. Seems to be a mac codec... and pay for codec in windows. Also there doesnt apear to be a HD version of the codec for windows.

So is Cineform really the ONLY choice?
 
PerroneFord said:
DNxHD is not meant to be a capture codec. It's an intermediate.
Click to expand...

Nope. The DNxHD codec (an Avid codec) is most often used for NLE on Avid systems. The ProRes codec (an Apple codec) is most often used on FCP editors. Because the industry is moving away from tape formats these codecs have become acquisition codecs as well - this speeds up the post process by allowing the editors to start working immediately. EVS, the industry standard for broadcast slow motion playback, now allows the operators to use either the DNxHD or ProRes codec for capturing the live feeds. Again, this allows the editors to start cutting immediately, in some instances even while the clips are still being recorded. When the original material is acquired using a specific codec the term intermediate is no longer valid. The BBC is most likely cutting on Avid NLE's.
 
I don't have an intensity pro, but a couple of my friends do, I'll check with them later today

v210 is the generic fourcc for 10-bit 4:2:2 uncompressed. I think your card should ship with it, it would be labelled under BlackMagic. It's basically their "flavour" of that format. It's just like you have several brands of h.264 encoders, our several brands of MPEG2 encoders.

ProRes and Cineform are $ , and there are licensing fees for using them with hardware and support. That's why they don't come bundled. You need special drivers.

You definitely need a way to let the hardware communicate with the codec - this is where the drivers etc.. come into play. Just because you have some codecs installed on your system doesn't mean your card can access them

So yes, it sounds like cineform, and uncompressed are your choices (note uncompressed should have different flavours like 10-bit, 8-bit, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 if you have decklink, etc...) - check your manual or re-install your drivers from your disc. Also check with their website to see if there were any updates. I think it comes with mjpeg as well, but that's only 8-but
 
I might as well use the avchd 24mb on the camera if im stuck with mjpeg... Uncompressed isnt possible. I dont have raid nore 15krpm drives. my 7krpms arnt fast enough. Only manage 15fps in the benchmark for uncompressed 10bit... 8bit doesnt fair much better.

Are you 100% sure driver-codec is a driver thing? I thought the capture software would be the one to manage that? The capture software would read the raw feed the compress it surely?
 
Yes I'm 100% sure you need some way for the card to "see" a specific codec on your system.

You can install a bunch of vfw or directshow codecs on your system, and the only ones accessible will be BM mjpeg, uncompressed , and possibly sheervideo and cineform.

You can try capturing with other software too, eg. virtualdub, but this won't change that fact. I distinctly remember a couple of my friends complaining about this, then going out to assemble their RAID-0 array :)
 
I'll ask my friends later today to see if anything has changed with this situation. If there's something helpful, I'll post back here
 
No dice. He says that's all you can do...and he searched around everywhere , different forums, etc...
 
:(

I have a linux developer mate who might be able to help me...

http://ingex.sourceforge.net/

He might be able to do a build of unbutu with that on it. But no idea when it would be done.

For now as i cant afford to build a raid array Im going to make a 6gb ram drive just to capture uncompressed on. Its a good thing i dont have to do shots longer than a minute :p Ill do a shot them dump it to a HD for transcoding.
 
Currently it only works with 1 perticuler HDSDI card system the BBC uses...
Doesnt mean more support cant be added. Its all open source software. Im just not a software engineer :(
 
If your a student you can buy the educational version of Avid Media Composer 4.0 for $250, to capture with. I have even seen them on eBay cheaper.

Is that out of your price range? I'd think id would pay off quick for money you'll save on hard drives.
 
Huffyuv works with Virtualdub. Check out my posts here
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/124/873380

Use the special huffyuv build from here..
http://members.optusnet.com.au/squid_80/huffyuv-HDYC.zip

Problem is some colorspace issues..Check this out..
http://www.etfinder.net/capturepics/
http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=18348

His solution slows down virtualdub and it can no longer record in realtime. If your friend can tinker with the virtualdub and huffyuv code, we can record to 1x hdd.

Huffy gives 2-3 times compression.
1080i/50i ~ 100MBps
1080i/60i ~ 120MBps

Required bandwidth goes down to approx 33~50 MBps.
This is doable on a single fast HDD or a SSD..

Works out to be about approx 150GB per hour. High but not too bad..
 
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