First time BlackMagic user, seeking help w/ config

Hey all. My name is Chris McKee and I'm a live stream producer / reporter over at KRQE News 13, the CBS News affiliated TV station in Albuquerque, NM.

To be clear, I'm not here for a story. I'm a news guy who's job is intersecting with a lot of computer stuff these days. For example, we're expanding into live streaming online-only news shows. Here's an example if you're curious: krqe.com/news/politics-government/elections/your-local-election-headquarters-digital-show-november-6/

I'm hoping the community might be able to give me a hand in where to start in understanding my Blackmagic card, and how to configure it. Why start here? I am having a hard time identifying and subsequently finding a user manual for my card, and my engineering team isn't sure which Blackmagic card I have.

What I'm using a Blackmagic card for? Mainly as a DeckLink from our in-house router with loads of video feeds and in-house graphics channels. It's also an output to our router, so we can record our shows to our station AVID system.

I believe I have what seems to be called a "DeckLink SDI" card - but I could be wrong. That's what I read in the "Blackmagic Desktop Video Setup" program. I'll attach a screen grab of what I am seeing.

The card has five BNC barrels on the back of it. I assume one of them is a reference channel. We have one input to the card and one output from the card.

Recently, I ran into an issue that I couldn't figure out. I was seeking a second video input into the device. However, when I plugged in that second input... that input created an input-output loop. So the second video input was looping straight back as an output. I can explain further, if needed.

I have five BNC barrels on the back of my card, but in my problem described above, I only seem to be able to get one input and one output. I am assuming I need to configure this card, but am not sure how. Everytime I open the "Blackmagic Desktop Video Setup" program, I only see two channels, regardless of what else I plug into the card.

Questions:
--What's the best way to identify the exact model and find a user manual for my Blackmagic card?
--Is there something I am missing in order to configure the other two or maybe three BNC ports on my cards?


Thanks y'all.

Here's the Blackmagic card I'm using.

card.JPG (46.78 KiB) Viewed 3117 times

I think that is the DeckLink SDI Duo 2.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... s/W-DLK-31

There are many models and you can read up on how to use them in this user manual.
https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 1926411000

You should contact their support department and get some help with your questions. I sure BMD will be able to help sort this out for you. Good luck!

Thank you for your help! This is a great jump-off point. I'll keep you posted on my *hopeful* success.

Following up: I was able to determine the card I have is a BlackMagic Decklink Duo 1, model number BMDPCB119B.

From a bit of searching around, I can't seem to find a lot of "DeckLink Duo 1" specific documentation, much of it points directly to the second model, as mentioned above, the DeckLink Duo 2. The best I could do was an old press release from when the product hit the shelves in 2010, and a sales-like, specs document from another corner of the internet: cordi.com/pdf/2179.pdf

Seemingly the Duo 1 is pretty similar to the Duo 2, but obviously there have to be some difference aside from the addition of a heatsink and fan.

Trying to configure each port in the "Desktop Video Setup" app, I end up only seeing two available channels, so to speak: SDI 1 and SDI 2. I take it that this is because the second and third (from the left) BNC barrels on the back of the card are paired to SDI 1, while the fourth and fifth BNC barrels are paired to SDI 2.

Ideally, I'd like to separate the pairs and create four individual channels in the Desktop Video Setup app, each one with an available config to either make it an input or output. Right now, I only see two channels (SDI 1 and SDI 2.) There's also no "CONNECTORS" tab to play around with in the Desktop Video Setup app.

Perhaps this is a UI change that the Duo 2 improved upon? Perhaps this is a change that I can only make in the newer version of "Desktop Video SDK?" I don't know! If anyone can shed light on this, please let me know - thank you.

I am going to try updating my version of the Desktop Video Setup app and installing the "Desktop Video 11.7 SDK" today to see if any of this tinkering can work.

I thought you clicked this button and that brought up Decklink SDI(2) prefs., it's been a minute.

Good Luck

declklink2.jpg (64.96 KiB) Viewed 2443 times

Main difference between the Duo 1 and Duo 2 is that the Duo 1 has two inputs and two outputs, on fixed connectors. The Duo 2 has 4 input and 4 outputs, that can be assigned to the 4 connectors as you wish.

You should still be able to get two feeds in and out of the card though so I'm not sure what's happening. What software are you using with the card? It may be that this provides a loop through function?

Thank you to everyone who responded here. I think I have found the answer I am seeking / figured out config related issues. Codedeltajames hit on the difference between the Duo 1 and the Duo 2: the Duo 2's four connectors are each programmable to be an In or an Out... while the Duo 1's four connectors are not "adjustable" in a remapping sense, if you will.

I am using OBS. So all of the issues described here might be specific to OBS's interface with the Decklink Duo 1.

For anyone finding this in the future, the Duo 1's BNC barrels are fixed to two SDI channels. Each channel has a separate in and out. There's a picture of this attached to this post. Maybe you're saying "duh," but for me... rookie mistake, I guess.

After rummaging around the internet, I found a schematic of the card that proves this. Admittedly, I didn't know this to begin with. Of the five BNCs from left to right:

(far left) Barrel 1. - Reference.
Barrel 2. SDI channel 1 - INPUT
Barrel 3. SDI channel 1 - OUTPUT
Barrel 4. SDI channel 2 - INPUT
(far right) Barrel 5. SDI channel 2 - OUTPUT.

Through my experiences with the Duo 1 and looking at the mapping, I figured out that you can't use the same SDI channel's input and output independently. This is because both barrels (in and out) are linked to the same SDI channel. For me using OBS, it means my Duo 1 card has three possible configs in OBS:

--Two independent inputs
--Two independent outputs
--One unique input and one unique output.

What here is the config I tried to do:

Barrel 1 - No plug.
Barrel 2 - Input from a video router.
Barrel 3 - No plug.
Barrel 4 - Another, different input from a video router.
Barrel 5 - Output from OBS to a video router.

What I got: Whatever was plugged in to barrel 4 would automatically loop out to barrel 5. Also, OBS would no longer be able to "start" the connection to the DeckLink Output on barrel 5, presumably because the SDI channel (SDI 2) was being occupied by the input from barrel 4.

After I encounter the issue above, I tried activating the Decklink Output on SDI channel 2 in OBS first, then, plugging in the second input into barrel 4. While the output was able to link, OBS would not be able to see anything incoming to SDI channel 2... presumably because the SDI channel was occupied by the output from barrel 5.

In short, my problem: I was trying to make a two channel Duo 1 card act as THREE different channels. This obviously didn't work.

The solution: Fortunately, we had another DeckLink Duo 1 card hanging out in the office and an extra PCI slot in our computer. So therefore, viola, an extra two SDI channels are added via a second Duo 1 card.

Long story short / what I learned: A DeckLink Duo 1 has two channels. A Duo 2 has FOUR channels. Something that helped me come to this realization was this YouTube video published by Blackmagic in Feb. 2017, introducing the Blackmagic 2: youtube.com/watch?v=D8TyNqKGOgo

Some quotes from the video:

"While the old model was two channels, this new model is actually four completely separate channels in the one card."

"So what this mean is you can take all four BNC connectors and attach them to completely separate channels, and either capture or play back through them."


Thanks again for those who responded. Hopefully this explanation can help others in the future.