Blackmagic Forum

In a 1080i broadcast environment, I was very surprised to discover that the URSA Mini Pro cannot internally record 29.97 fps AND simultaneously output 1080i over SDI (only 1080p). Apparently you need to set the framerate to 59.94 in order to do that. This is a bit of an issue since our local/internal camera records behave as a redundancy to our HyperDeck records and having two different frame rates is not ideal. So the question is, can the URSA Broadcast output 1080i 29.97 AND record at the same rate internally?

Also, with the 2/3” sensor, is it safe to assume that both HD and 4K records are possible with an HD lens? Or does the camera still only use a portion of the sensor for HD (with Window Mode)? And what about low light performance? Has it improved thanks to the smaller sensor?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Ken

Why can't you record 59.94i? The sensor readout is always progressive, there is no visible difference between 29.97psF and 29.97P?

Sensor is 1 inch. It uses an optical adapter to enable B4 2/3"lenses for both HD and UHD. Lowlight is likely the worst of the bunch but remains to be seen.

Yes, low light lens will be less than with the other mounts, due to then1.5X tele-extender in the B4 mount reducing the light to the sensor. That said, most B4 HD zooms are f/1.4 or 1.9 to start, so you loose about 1/2 stop. With PL lenses, low light should be about the same as the Studio and Micro Studio 4K, not great.

The Interlaced standard frame rate is the same as the Broadcast camers Interlaced output via SDI, which is 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080i60. There is no 1080i29.97, but 1080p29.97 is the same actual frame rate as 1080i59.94,as interlaced is two fields per frame, and the actual frame rate of 1080i59.94 is 29.97 FPS.
Cheers

Ken Grunberg wrote:Also, with the 2/3” sensor, is it safe to assume that both HD and 4K records are possible with an HD lens? Or does the camera still only use a portion of the sensor for HD (with Window Mode)? And what about low light performance? Has it improved thanks to the smaller sensor?

Grant specifically talked about that in the stream.
the sensor is fixed, and the whole setup is designed to work out of the box with 2/3" lenses, be it 4k, or 2k.
the camera downconverts the 4k image to 2k for HD

Howard Roll wrote:Why can't you record 59.94i? The sensor readout is always progressive, there is no visible difference between 29.97psF and 29.97P?

There appears to be no documentation about this. All I can say is that when the record frame rate is set to 29.97, the 1080i output option for the Main and Front SDI are greyed out. The camera clearly only records a progressive frame internally and appears to only output a matching field rate.

Raphaël Jacquot wrote:Grant specifically talked about that in the stream.
the sensor is fixed, and the whole setup is designed to work out of the box with 2/3" lenses, be it 4k, or 2k.
the camera downconverts the 4k image to 2k for HD

That's great to hear. I must have missed that during the stream. Thanks.

Ken Grunberg wrote:
Also, with the 2/3” sensor, is it safe to assume that both HD and 4K records are possible with an HD lens? Or does the camera still only use a portion of the sensor for HD (with Window Mode)? And what about low light performance? Has it improved thanks to the smaller sensor?

Yes, you can use HD B4 lenses (and even some SD B4 lenses from Fuji and Angenieux) will give acceptable results when recording HD or UHD on the new camera. That said, newer UHD lenses are going to perform better when recording UHD, due to the increased resolving power of the lens.
Cheers

Yes on URSA Broadcast you can record in true 1080i50 (25fps), 1080i59.94 (29.97fps) and 1080i60 (30fps).

Good news, thanks for clearing this up Tim.
Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:
The Interlaced standard frame rate is the same as the Broadcast camers Interlaced output via SDI, which is 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080i60. There is no 1080i29.97, but 1080p29.97 is the same actual frame rate as 1080i59.94,as interlaced is two fields per frame, and the actual frame rate of 1080i59.94 is 29.97 FPS.
Cheers

NTSC interlace frame rate of 29.97fps is the time code and interlace sync pulse rate. The temporal motion is exactly the same as 59.97P so visually, temporal motion, of 59.97 interlace and 59.97P is the same smooth motion. Interlace just is half the vertical resolution. The alternate fields do not come from the same frame they are distinct fields roughly 1/60 sec apart same as 59.97P. That is why there are jaggies when displayed progressive.

We are saying the same thing, and yes, true interlaced is two distinct fields, not an actual split frame.
Progressive cameras that output a 1080i signal via a 3:2 pull down or PsF, actually split the progressive frame.

According to BM, the Broadcast Camera can record 1080i, but not sure if it is true interlaced or PsF in an interlaced wrapper.
Thanks Skier for adding the scan rate sync info.
Cheers

I need the raw image of Ursa Broadcast, it would be for testing in Adobe Premiere. If anyone can fix me, I appreciate it. PM me.
Thank´s

We did a Review of the Ursa Broadcast and provide footage in ProRes and RAW.

Take a look here:

https://mindandvision.tv/experten-blog- ... atest.html


Cheers

Robert