Decklink mini recorder setup problems (from setup problems)

Hi Guys,

I've just bought a mini recorder and I don't seem to be able to get either Media Express or gstreamer to access it on Linux (Kubuntu 12.04 LTS). I just want to know my card is OK and if so, how to access it from gstreamer, acutally any Linux program would be good. Nothing works.

I have downloaded and installed Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_9.7.3.tar.gz. The BMD control panel opens and is set as follows:

- All outputs active
- HDMI video and audio
- NTSC 0.0
- HD 720p60

However, when I press OK, exit and restart my settings are lost (this may be a permissions problem).

When I start MediaExpress the busy cursor dances around for a few seconds and then gives up. The application does not start.

My signal comes from a separate laptop with an HDMI port. I have pressed Fn f5 and chosen HDMI output. The signal is 720p.

When I use gstreamer I get the following:

gst-launch decklinksrc mode=8 connection=1 ! videorate ! ffmpegcolorspace ! xvimagesink

Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Pipeline is live and does not need PREROLL ...
Setting pipeline to PLAYING ...
New clock: GstSystemClock

I get no pop-up window, even with a blank display, as I would when using v4l2src (which works with other capture cards).

So I do ctrl-c and I get:

^CCaught interrupt -- handling interrupt.
Interrupt: Stopping pipeline ...
Execution ended after 25029224054 ns.
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Setting pipeline to READY ...
Setting pipeline to NULL ...
Freeing pipeline ...

gst-inspect gives (notice there seems to be no clock):

Factory Details:
Long name: Decklink source
Class: Source/Video
Description: DeckLink Source
Author(s): David Schleef <ds@entropywave.com>
Rank: none (0)

Plugin Details:
Name: decklink
Description: Blackmagic Decklink plugin
Filename: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstdecklink.so
Version: 0.10.22.3
License: LGPL
Source module: gst-plugins-bad
Source release date: 2013-01-28 17:54 (UTC)
Binary package: GStreamer Bad Plug-ins
Origin URL: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+s ... ns-bad0.10

GObject
+----GstObject
+----GstElement
+----GstDecklinkSrc

Pad Templates:
SRC template: 'videosrc'
Availability: Always
Capabilities:
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 720
height: 486
framerate: 30000/1001
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 10/11
color-matrix: sdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 720
height: 486
framerate: 24000/1001
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 10/11
color-matrix: sdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 720
height: 576
framerate: 25/1
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 12/11
color-matrix: sdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 720
height: 486
framerate: 30000/1001
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 10/11
color-matrix: sdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 720
height: 576
framerate: 25/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 12/11
color-matrix: sdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 24000/1001
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 24/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 25/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 30000/1001
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 30/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 25/1
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 30000/1001
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 30/1
interlaced: true
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 50/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 30000/1001
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1920
height: 1080
framerate: 60/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1280
height: 720
framerate: 50/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1280
height: 720
framerate: 60000/1001
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2
video/x-raw-yuv
format: UYVY
width: 1280
height: 720
framerate: 60/1
interlaced: false
pixel-aspect-ratio: 1/1
color-matrix: hdtv
chroma-site: mpeg2

SRC template: 'audiosrc'
Availability: Always
Capabilities:
audio/x-raw-int
width: 16
depth: 16
channels: 2
rate: 48000

Element Flags:
no flags set

Element Implementation:
Has change_state() function: gst_decklink_src_change_state
Has custom save_thyself() function: gst_element_save_thyself
Has custom restore_thyself() function: gst_element_restore_thyself

Clocking Interaction:
element requires a clock
element is supposed to provide a clock but returned NULL

Indexing capabilities:
element can do indexing
Element has no URI handling capabilities.

Pads:
SRC: 'videosrc'
Implementation:
Has getrangefunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_getrange
Has custom eventfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_event
Has custom queryfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_query
Has custom iterintlinkfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_iterintlink
Has getcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_getcaps
Has setcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_setcaps
Has acceptcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_acceptcaps
Has fixatecapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_video_src_fixatecaps
Pad Template: 'videosrc'
SRC: 'audiosrc'
Implementation:
Has getrangefunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_getrange
Has custom eventfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_event
Has custom queryfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_query
Has custom iterintlinkfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_iterintlink
Has getcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_getcaps
Has setcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_setcaps
Has acceptcapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_acceptcaps
Has fixatecapsfunc(): gst_decklink_src_audio_src_fixatecaps
Pad Template: 'audiosrc'

Element Properties:
name : The name of the object
flags: readable, writable
String. Default: "decklinksrc0"
mode : Mode
flags: readable, writable
Enum "GstDecklinkModes" Default: 0, "NTSC SD 60i"
(0): NTSC SD 60i - ntsc
(1): NTSC SD 60i (24 fps) - ntsc2398
(2): PAL SD 50i - pal
(3): NTSC SD 60p - ntsc-p
(4): PAL SD 50p - pal-p
(5): HD1080 23.98p - 1080p2398
(6): HD1080 24p - 1080p24
(7): HD1080 25p - 1080p25
(8): HD1080 29.97p - 1080p2997
(9): HD1080 30p - 1080p30
(10): HD1080 50i - 1080i50
(11): HD1080 59.94i - 1080i5994
(12): HD1080 60i - 1080i60
(13): HD1080 50p - 1080p50
(14): HD1080 59.94p - 1080p5994
(15): HD1080 60p - 1080p60
(16): HD720 50p - 720p50
(17): HD720 59.94p - 720p5994
(18): HD720 60p - 720p60
connection : Connection
flags: readable, writable
Enum "GstDecklinkConnection" Default: 0, "SDI"
(0): SDI - sdi
(1): HDMI - hdmi
(2): Optical SDI - optical-sdi
(3): Component - component
(4): Composite - composite
(5): S-Video - svideo
audio-input : Audio Input Connection
flags: readable, writable
Enum "GstDecklinkAudioConnection" Default: 0, "Automatic"
(0): Automatic - auto
(1): SDI/HDMI embedded audio - embedded
(2): AES/EBU input - aes
(3): Analog input - analog
subdevice : Subdevice
flags: readable, writable
Integer. Range: 0 - 3 Default: 0
$

Here are some more diagnostics:

$ MediaExpress
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

$ lsmod |grep blackmagic
blackmagic 487053 0
$ lspci | grep Blackmagic
02:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Blackmagic Design Device a130

$ BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater status
blackmagic0 [DeckLink Mini Recorder] 0x0a OK

$ ls /dev/blackmagic
card0

$ dmesg | grep black
[ 9.167319] blackmagic: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ 9.169043] blackmagic: Loading driver (version: 9.7.3a5)
[ 9.169947] blackmagic_driver 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 9.169956] blackmagic_driver 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 9.169977] blackmagic_driver 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 9.283315] blackmagic: Successfully loaded device "blackmagic0" [pci@0000:02:00.0]

Well here is an update. I've just swapped out the mini-recorder for an intensity pro (same hdmi signal) and everything just springs into life. Does anyone have a Decklink mini-recorder working on Liniux?

What do you think is happening here?

Regards

Steve

EDIT: actually the problem was a lack of 12V to the PCIe card.

EDIT: actually the problem was a lack of 12V to the PCIe card.

Is the problem with the card, then?


Regards


Steve.

Hi, I've got the same problem.

EDIT: actually the problem was a lack of 12V to the PCIe card.

is there any way to solve this?

Regards,
Martin

Hi, I've got the same problem.

EDIT: actually the problem was a lack of 12V to the PCIe card.

is there any way to solve this?

Regards,
Martin

Hi Martin,

I don't even understand what the guy says. Either he popped into my apartment, tested the PCIe connection on my motherboard with a voltmeter he brought for the purpose and said "Oh your motherboard is faulty" or they are shipping faulty Decklink mini recorders. They both seem unlikely.

Regards

Steve

Hi Steve,

we've contacted the Dell-Support. They'll check this an will give me a feedback till tomorrow ... hold the line

greetz from Cologne,
Martin

Hi Martin,

Great, I look forward to it. The problem is, however, that my Intensity Pro works fine. Same supplier, same connector. The Blackmagic Control Panel sees them both, but only the Intensity Pro card works.

Anyhow good luck.

I'm in Brazil, so I'm on a different time zone. I'll keep an eye on your post.

Regards

Steve

I have 3 different recorder cards and tried on Intel motherboard (DQ77MK). Even tried different PCIe ports... always same result.

My capture code using SDK is also not working... I believe the recent mini recorder problems are caused by the lack of output interface/port. Somehow, when I see "the all the outputs enabled" dropdown in control panel, it gives me the feeling that the delivered softwares are not compatible with mini recorder...

But it is just a intuition...

We had tested that board in particular pretty thoroughly and had no success with that one. I'd suggest looking at the following link to the page with other motherboards approved.
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support ... lse&os=win

We had tested that board in particular pretty thoroughly and had no success with that one. I'd suggest looking at the following link to the page with other motherboards approved.
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support ... lse&os=win

Hi Tony,

Nice to see you. This issue has been open for nearly a month now and we just seem to be stumbling around in the dark. Maybe you can shed some light on the matter.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 (not listed) but the Intensity Pro works OK, the decklink mini recorder doesn't. I have the same Linux Driver for both. The most recent one downloaded from your site. The control panel shows both as being present but does not allow any application to access the decklink.

Regards

Steve.

It sounds like it could be a compatibility issue with the card. I'm going to make a note of this and forward it off. When I hear more information on this, I'll let you know.

+1

Hi Tony,

Nice to hear that you're looking for solution.

Besides the supported motherboards, is there a special requirement for selecting a board? Because, it is not always possible to use listed ones. (at least not in my case )

Thanks...

Hi Tony,

Can I measure anything for you? Like voltages on pins etc.

Regards

Steve.

Yeah I can do that as well... Tony, just let me know if you need anything.

I'm personally not aware of the exact specifics of what we test for approval of these but I know the proper folks are aware of this. I don't have an ETA on a solution but again, myself or another employee will update here when we have more info for you.

After exchanging mails with support guy, I decided to switch my OS to Win7 x64.

Guess what... Mini recorder is working flawlessly. In other words, it isn't a hardware issue. The problem is solely in driver. Moreover, the control panel in windows is different than linux version. For example, when mini recorder is selected, output dropdown becomes grayed out and says "not available". Unlike windows, linux control panel is a little bit primitive.

My conclusion is that the driver and tools in linux part are old or not compatible with latest distros. Maybe, the problem appears only with mini recorder. I had a hunch that the lack of output channel contradicts with the drivers' expectations. (mediaexpress crashes as well) But it is just a hunch...

By the way my configuration:

Intel DQ77MK (latest BIOS Agu 20, 2013)
i7 3770K
Win7 x64
Mini Recorder is the only PCIe card

Hi Sylvan,

Thanks for doing this, it's not very good news.

I guess I'll have to put my mini-recorder up on eBay in the not too distant future with the caveat, "does not work on Linux".

Blackmagic Design, this does not reflect very well on you, as all your hardware is advertised as working with Linux. I think you need to get some developers on this and fix it.

Regards

Steve.

Hi Steve,

When I said "12.04 is an LTS, namely, major version and you should support or solve it somehow" to the support guy, I got "we only support up to 11.10 currently and got problems with 12.04 but 13 is better right now" answer.

I don't think that they have any roadmap for latest distros.

The reason why I focused on DeckLink was the "working with linux" label. It is quite disappointing.

hi,

our DELL 7010 SFF (i5 /16GB RAM) with the newest A14 bios is now working. We capture with two MiniRecorder 2 HD720p streams over an hour and more. Using Galicaster 1.3.1 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit and newest Driver for Decklink Mini Recorder (9.7.7).

Greetz from Cologne
Martin

Hi Martin,

What did it need, just a BIOS upgrade?

Regards

Steve.

Hi Steve,

What did it need, just a BIOS upgrade?

jipp, simply this ... OK we have to take 16 GB RAM for the two HDMI-Streams. but now ist works fine

so long,
Martin