Media Express: no preview / no playback

Hello!
I'm using Television Studio. It's connected via USB 2.0 to my PC running Windows 10 x64.
I'm trying to capture and playback video's using Media Express.
I succeeded in capturing my video to a file in H.264 format, but the preview is always black.
Playback does not start either.
I've installed Quicktime 7.8 and I can playback the video with that.
Any suggestions on how to preview the video during capturing?

regards
Dirk

[Tony Rivera]

Are you trying to play it back from Media Express playback tab and you see nothing but black? When capturing, do you see the images being ingested to the ATEM on the log and capture tab of ME?

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but my issue is so similar, I thought I'd jump in here.
My goal is to use my BlackMagic Decklink Studio 4K to do some video conversion to digital (VHS, Hi8, 8mm video to digital).

So far I've connected a new Sanyo VHS/DVD recorder unit to my system and have tried to do some test conversions (VHS to digital) but have no video in capture, no video in playback. Here's what I've tried:

HDMI from VHS deck to the Decklink.
Component connection to the Decklink (L and R audio, composite video).
S-Video connection from Sanyo to Decklink 4K with component audio (L and R).

I have no video during capture, "No Remote" in Media Express (if that's significant).
Audio meters bounce nicely, audio captures but no video during capture or playback.

Media Express Preferences: NTSC, AVI Motion JPEG

Decklink settings:
Video Input (latest) S-Video, output format 1080p30, 1080PsF on, Remove Field Jitter on Pause, Idle Output Black.
Audio Input: XLR
Conversions:
Input conversion: HD (1080) to SD
Display as: Letterbox
Output conversion: HD to SD
Display as Anamorphic

I'm playing thru an i7 PC, 16 Gigs RAM, SATA drives, Win7 Pro
Monitor is an HD LG TV, running at the recommended 1366x768 resolution.

I hope this helps!

Thank you!

-s

Skip, your problem is simple - you're asking the Decklink Studio 4K to accept a SD analogue signal on both video and audio and then upconvert to an HD output format. It can't do this - it can only accept an input and then process and output it "as is". The output spec must match the input spec otherwise the Decklink will refuse it - and that's why you're experiencing.

To upconvert you need a device like a Teranex.

Thank you!

Where do I apply settings to match output with input?

Please remember I've tried the following inputs:
HDMI in
Composite video
SVideo

Please please, surely there's a way to process video from the VHS deck, even if my output must be dialed back... isn't there?

Open Blackmagic Desktop Video Utility in the Applications folder and then make the settings that are appropriate to your input - especially the video and audio source. This basically sets up the hardware - so I'd take a S-Video output and twin RCA audio connectors from the S-VHS VCR and give these to the Decklink. In the Desktop Video Utility make sure these are selected. This is really important. Apply these settings and close. How open Media Express. See if the incoming video and audio are registering on the preview screen and in the audio meters. If they are, you're connected. If that's the case, open the Preferences dropdown and set the required capture format (eg: ProRes, 10-bit or 8-bit uncompressed, DPX, DVCPro, etc) and the file save destination.

If that's all OK, perform a short test capture by giving the test file a name and hitting the red Capture button.

If you don't get previews, then go back to square one and check your connections and settings. The first time I went through this exercise was with an Intensity Shuttle on Thunderbolt and it took me a while to link the functions of the Desktop Video Utility to Media Express. However, you need to ensure that your settings are correct.

Hope that helps.

Colin

Sorry Tony,

I was offline for a while.

I don't see images in both cases: while recording and at play-back

regards
Dirk

[Tony Rivera]

Do you see a file recorded from the TVS on the computer itself? If so, are you able to import that to Media Express for playback?

Hi Tony,

Today I had some time to try again. I can find the files that were stored by Media Express.
I can import them in Media Express also. The appear in the "explorer" window in the left and I see a still from the video. Also I can see the properties of the file.
But I am not able to play the files. If I press the "play" button in the right-side window, nothing happens. No image, no progress in the counter. Nothing at all!

Hope you can help me.

regards,
Dirk

[Tony Rivera]

Can you try double-clicking the file to see if that initiates playback? If this does not, it could be the that the file is corrupted somehow and a good way to test this is with a different application that supports H.264 playback. Something like VLC may work to test this out.

Hi Tony,

Double-clicking initiates Media Express, but it does not initiate playback. But when I associate the file with Windows Media Player then double clicking initiates playback with WMP.

kind regards,
Dirk

[Tony Rivera]

You may want to reach out via email/phone to your regions support office for further troubleshooting unless others here are able to elaborate on this as I'm not quite sure at this point what might be the cause of this.

Thank you Tony. I will try to contact them

regards,
Dirk

Hi guys,

I just picked the Ultrastudio 4k to capture and create 4k versions of VHS and Hi-8 tapes. I have composite outputs going into a Gefen TV Composite to HDMI scaler which seems to properly upconvert the analog signal to 1080p. Then I have the HDMI output going into a Blackmagic HDMI to SDI 4K miniconverter and the dual SDI outputs into the Ultrastudio 4k. All seems correctly set up to capture 4k, however I cannot preview or create a 4k project in Media Express. Every time I choose the 4k project settings in preferences, the preview window goes black. It captures 1080p perfectly fine, but I can't get the 4k working. Any advice?

Thanks,
Zack

Red Brick Post
Los Angeles, CA

Why are you trying to capture 4K if you only input 1080.. This is probabbly the reason that media express don't let you record 4k.. As the software does not upscale to 4k..

If you want to do vhs to 4k.. And done right you almost need a teranex AV in between to do 1080 upscaling to 4K and also clean up the signal, Noise reduction, remove aliassing.. etc..

But then the question rise... Why would you want to upscale old vhs footage 22x times to 4k.? you still will blow up all artifacts and noise. It won't get any better between HD and 4K.. While it takes 50 to 75% more storage space..

Doesn't the HDMI to SDI 4K miniconverter upscale the signal? If not, I would think that's what the Ultrastudio 4k is for - to upconvert 1080 to 4k, no? If not, how can I achieve this? Do I need another piece of hardware?
Thanks.
Z

Hoping to refresh this thread...

I am having the same problem as the original poster with the Blackmagic Media Express software. I saw that the last post pertaining to the original issue was "Call Support" and nothing else has been updated in regards to the original issue.

Using an h.264 ProRecorder plugged directly into a PC through USB...

We have no Preview of the input, see nothing during capture, CAN capture and a thumbnail shows on the left side icon, can not see anything upon playback in Media Express.

The recorded file seems perfectly fine and is playable through Windows Media Player though.

This is a room with 5 PCs and 5 BMD h264 ProRecorders, so I was able to troubleshoot it pretty well. Plugged PC B's recorder's USB into another PC (PC A) and it immediately appeared in MediaExpress. Plugged PC A's recorder's USB into PC B and it behaved the same as BC B's own recorder - No Video/Audio Preview, but captured file is perfect fine.

I called BlackMagic Support a few times and they called back a couple (sketchy cell service in that office) and we went through the process of uninstalling and installing 3 different versions of BMD Desktop Video to no avail!!! (10.6.5, 10.5.4, 10.9.5) Media Express on ALL 4 of the other PCs that are exactly the same running 10.6.5 are working perfectly.

Not sure who did what to cause this issue or how to fix it! Pretty sure on the initial install, this PC behaved exactly the same as the others. They just want to have confidence that there is a picture before they hit record and walk out of the room.

Any brilliant suggestions would be great - especially if someone has the magic solution from the original poster's issue! Thanks!

-Jeremy