Decklink SDI (current) on PCIe PowerMac G5 ?

Hi everyone,

This is my first time here I work as a sound editor and mixer in post. I mainly use Intensity Pro cards with Pro Tools to get full screen 1080 picture over HDMI and theses cards rock !

I happen to have a spare PowerMac G5 (used to run Pro Tools and now replaced by an octo MacPro) that I would like to recycle it for HD video playback. This is one of the very last G5 produced, a 4x2.5 Ghz with 10GB of RAM and PCIe slots. I guess this machine should be powerful enough for full HD ProRes playback.

Since it has PCIe slots, i'd like to put in it a Decklink SDI PCIe card (from the current range), but I can't find any compatibility information... Have you guys ever had any success in doing that ?

Thanks !

[Albert Chu]

Hello,

Unfortunately this will most likely not work.

Our PCIe capture/playback boards will only work on Mac Pros and Windows PCs. No support for the older G5 architecture. Years back, we did have some PCI boards that would work on older G5s that used PCI slots but these were SD only capture/playback cards and are long since out of production and warranty. Before the G5s were superseded with the Mac Pro, the last G5 manufactured had PCIe slots. Unfortunately, none of our current PCIe cards will work on this. It's simply not compatible.

I have also heard that the ProRes was not optimized for the G5 but you might have to check with Apple on that one.

Sorry. I do wish I had better news for you.

Hi Albert,

Thanks for the reply ! That's unfortunate indeed... I'll probably go with a new mac mini and a thunderbolt black magic card then.

Best regards.
Come.