How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

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xlax360

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How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed May 02, 2018 1:26 am

I have a Decklink DUO that has 4 in puts switchable to 4 outputs. Great product.

I was able to connect 2 cameras and another 1080p source into OBS. I'd link to upgrade to get 2 4K cameras as inputs.

I ordered the 4K Pro and found it only had One input!?!?! even though it looked similar to the duo.
The 8K pro again looks similar some old doc showed 4 in/out switchable inputs updated docs look like the 4K Pro which once realistically one input in OBS.

I had to return the 4K Pro. I'm hoping the 8K pro isn't as brain dead.

What is the real answer. How many cameras can I connect to a Decklink 8K Pro and get 4K video input to OBS or another capture software?

Ultimately I want to connect 2 or 3 cameras and get them into something like OBS. Can any one decklink card do this?
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Dave Del Vecchio

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed May 02, 2018 10:51 pm

I don't think the DeckLink 8K Pro has actually started shipping yet (at least I couldn't find any mention of this card in the DeckLink SDK documentation yet).

So all we have to go by is the online specifications and press release announcing the card:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/ ... 0171115-03

Judging from this information, it seems like the DeckLink 8K Pro only supports a single input and output channel. The bidirectional nature of the SDI connectors is used to capture at 8K60 using quad-link 12G SDI (in that case all 4 SDI ports would be configured as inputs, but still capturing a single video input stream). Similarly, the 4 SDI ports could all be configured as outputs, for playing out a single 8K60 video signal over quad-link 12G SDI.

Or, two of the SDI ports could be configured as inputs and two as outputs for capturing and playing out dual link SDI video signals (still only 1 input and 1 output channel).

The key word Blackmagic seems to use in describing the cards with multiple input and output channels (DeckLink Duo and DeckLink Quad) is independent. From the DeckLink Duo 2 description: "Featuring 4 independent 3G-SDI connections ..." or "DeckLink Quad 2 features 8 independent SDI capture and playback channels ..."

The description for the DeckLink 8K Pro says: "DeckLink 8K Pro features four quad link 12G-SDI connections ..." Nowhere is it mentioned that the card supports multiple independent channels, so I'm assuming it doesn't support this.
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Gary Adams

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 12:26 am

Hello Douglas. The 8K Pro has only one input like most of the cards. Multiple connectors are used for inputs or outputs that may require multiple connections for the single image. The only cards that have multiple independent inputs and outputs are the Decklink Duo and Decklink Quad.

Regards, Gary
Gary Adams
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Xtreemtec

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 10:15 am

Sorry in advance Gary but i'm going to be a bit Bitchy about this card and Marketing in general...

There seems to be a lot of Myst about this product..... :roll:
At the point of press release this picture came with it.
Image
Implying that it could do 4x 12G in or out. Suggestive sayd it looks like you could config what is in and what is out.. Like a Quad 2 but then 4 channels 12G.

Now the website mentions something else.. UPDATE 11-7-2018:: The image on the website changed again is now Quad IN/OUT as it was at release time, at one point it was 2xin and 2x out..
Image
Which implies more like the 4K pro (which had also 2 SDI in and 2 SDI out.. BUT! only 1 channel for capture.. Because the B input was only for 3D and Dual link.. Something that wasn't clear at all.. :?

Text from the website::
The ultimate digital cinema capture card! DeckLink 8K Pro features four quad link 12G-SDI connections and works in all SD, HD, Ultra HD, 4K and 8K DCI frame sizes. You get support for 8 and 10-bit YUV 4:2:2, as well as 10 and 12-bit RGB 4:4:4 with full Rec. 2020 color. In addition, you can work at up to 60 frames per second in HD, 4K and 8K. The four 12G-SDI connections support 16 channels of embedded audio each, for a total of 64 channels. DeckLink 8K Pro is perfect for the next generation of high resolution, high frame rate and high dynamic range workflows!


Four Quadlink? Wait! it is 1x Quadlink or four connections to make a quadlink. four quadlink would mean 4x4 = 16 connectors guys.. ;)

16 channels of audio per channel to sum to 64 channels of audio.. So it does 4x 12G input... But here comes the catch.. Why would it be able to handle 4 quadrants of 4K(12G sdi) (making 8K possible) but not handle 4 channels of 12G-sdi from 4 cameras??
Is that due to in frame sync?
If i sync up all cameras.. Would i be able to run 4 channels 12G same framerate to the card and fool it to capture that as 8K?
So many fuzz and questions about this card..

Sorry to be a little bit "bitchy" about this specs of the card.. But it has all to do with the Myst BMD is keeping over the decklink range of products.. There is no clear statement like hey this can be done with this card. It is all to much suggestive writing of marketing to give the idea the card can do more then it does in real life.

I made indead the same mistake with the 4K pro. Finding out on the forum that it only supports 1 channel while the website was pretty clear about 2x 12G sdi..
Last edited by Xtreemtec on Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Steinar H. Gunderson

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 10:52 am

The answer is in this thread: One in and one out at the same time, nothing more.
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xlax360

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 12:46 pm

Xtreemtec wrote:Sorry in advance Gary but i'm going to be a bit Bitchy about this card and Marketing in general...


This is exactly why I was confused. Thanks for the excellent summary.

Seems like a live shot with 2 4K cameras/source active in OBS would take quite a bit of hardware at this time. Need two cards and having two 8-channel PCI slots probably using external PCI via thunderbolt3. Cha Ching.

Works great for 1080p w/ Decklink DUO. Except I'd like more detail.

For what it is worth, I used the DeckLLink duo to capture 2 greens screens, with 3 people on each. so 6 total people. Chopping each person out individually enabling to put all 6 into a virtual set. The set had multiple 'angles' where I "zoomed on" on individuals by scaling up the image of the individuals. The scaling caused artifact I'd like to solve.

My hope is two use 4K cameras to allow better detailed zoom ins while still outputting 1080p on the composite.
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Gary Adams

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 5:20 pm

It's all good feedback. I will pass along the understandable confusion to Marketing.

Regards, Gary
Gary Adams
Blackmagic Design
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Steinar H. Gunderson

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu May 03, 2018 7:35 pm

xlax360 wrote:Seems like a live shot with 2 4K cameras/source active in OBS would take quite a bit of hardware at this time. Need two cards and having two 8-channel PCI slots probably using external PCI via thunderbolt3. Cha Ching.


I'm not sure why you need Thunderbolt? If you have two x8 slots, you should be able to fit two 8K Pro cards.

I suppose 4K24p won't be too bad (it's only 60% more than 1080p60, and multiple 1080p60 sources is no sweat), but many 4K60p sources end up being fairly taxing. You really want GPU processing for that.
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xlax360

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostFri May 04, 2018 7:44 pm

Steinar H. Gunderson wrote:I'm not sure why you need Thunderbolt? If you have two x8 slots, you should be able to fit two 8K Pro cards.

I suppose 4K24p won't be too bad (it's only 60% more than 1080p60, and multiple 1080p60 sources is no sweat), but many 4K60p sources end up being fairly taxing. You really want GPU processing for that.


Good point believe it or not I was doing this with a Skull Canyon NUC with the Decklink Duo in an external PCI case. But that is not viable moving to 4K. (It is nice and portable though)

But you a very correct that set up was getting quite crushed on the GPU as it is.

Going to need a bigger boat.
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Steinar H. Gunderson

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostSat Mar 23, 2019 12:24 am

This changed recently… with the latest firmware, the Decklink 8K Pro can seemingly do four 12G-SDI inputs/outputs at the same time. So it's like a 12G version of Duo 2, at a slightly higher price.
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PascalN

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu Oct 01, 2020 9:49 am

Hello!

I would like to take up the topic again. Do I understand correctly that the DeckLink 8K Pro can record 4x 4K SDI inputs in parallel?
I would like to replace the hyperdecks with it.
What software do I need for this?

Regards
Pascal
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Dave Del Vecchio

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostThu Oct 01, 2020 10:39 pm

PascalN wrote:Do I understand correctly that the DeckLink 8K Pro can record 4x 4K SDI inputs in parallel?
I would like to replace the hyperdecks with it.
What software do I need for this?l
The DeckLink 8K Pro is just a capture device, but yes, with the latest firmware it is possible to configure the card with 4 separate SDI inputs so that you can take four independent 4K video streams into the computer at once.

If you want to record these 4 uncompressed video input sources from the capture device to disk, you will need some software that is capable of multi-channel video recording. Keep in mind that compressing and encoding four 4K video streams is very resource intensive (especially for some of the more advanced compression formats like H.265 or even H.264). And you might also need a fairly fast hard drive (or perhaps RAID array) depending on how much compression is used.

In terms of multi-channel recording software, you might look at Softron MovieRecorder (https://softron.tv/products/movierecorder) or Metus Ingest (https://www.metus.com/metus-ingest). And you will probably want to get in touch with the authors of whatever software you are interested in to see what the hardware requirements are for the simultaneous number of video streams, resolution, and frame rates you want to record.
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PascalN

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostTue Oct 06, 2020 7:28 pm

Thanks Dave!
Is there a hardware recommendation for the use of this card in a editing system like vMix and a parallel recording of all 4 4K input streams?
I can’t find any recommendations on the Blckmagic Website.

Regards
Pascal
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Dave Del Vecchio

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostTue Oct 06, 2020 10:24 pm

vMix does have some reference hardware systems listed on their website, but they are more geared toward live production rather than ISO recording. For example, their 4K reference system only involves a single 4K program recording, although it sounds like it may be possible to record 4 cameras in HD for instant replay purposes. I'd imagine recording four 4K feeds would require an even more powerful system:
https://www.vmix.com/products/vmix-refe ... x#obsidian

I think the reason that there are no specific recommendations for this purpose from Blackmagic directly is that there are too many different variables to consider. In particular, the software used and recording codec have a huge impact on the resource requirements needed. The system requirements for the DeckLink 8K card mostly concern the bandwidth of the PCI Express slot needed to make sure that you can get four 4K 60 (or one 8K 60) video feed into the system without the PCIe interface being the bottleneck.

What happens then depends on what software you are running. For example, if you just want to be able to live switch between different feeds, that tends to be considerably less resource intensive than compressing and recording 4 separate feeds. And once you get into recording, the performance depends heavily on the recording codec used (an intraframe codec like ProRes tends to be less resource intensive to encode than interframe H.264 which itself is less resource intensive than more advanced codecs like H.265).

But even within a given codec like H.264 for example, there are a huge range of different options that can affect encoding performance. Whether you are using a software encoder like x264 or hardware encoding built-in to Intel (Quick Sync), NVidia (NVenc), AMD (VCE) or other graphics processors has a huge impact. As do the encoding parameters used. So if you are using x264 for software encoding there is a big difference in encoding speed (and quality) between their different encoding presets (very fast, faster, medium, slow, etc.). With the hardware encoders built-in to the graphics processors there are differences in encoding speed and quality depending on which generation of hardware is being used.

That's why your best bet is probably to get in touch with the companies that make whatever recording software you wish to use to see what they recommend in terms of hardware requirements for the number of video streams and resolution you want to record at. They are going to have the best idea of how their software performs on different hardware.
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Linden deCarmo

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed Oct 07, 2020 12:30 am

Is the Decklink 8K Pro controlled by the Desktop Video drivers? If so, if we used it with vMix or DaVinci, how many inputs and outputs would vMix and DaVinci see?
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Dave Del Vecchio

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed Oct 07, 2020 12:35 pm

Yes, like all of the DeckLink cards, the DeckLink 8K Pro uses the Desktop Video drivers.

You use the Desktop Video Setup Utility to configure how the input and output connectors on the card are configured, and this will determine how many DeckLink devices show up in software such as vMix, Resolve, etc.

There are a lot of different connector configurations that are possible, because you can designate a pair of connectors as full-duplex (an input/output pair) or half-duplex (input or output only). So you could configure the card as four half-duplex devices, for example four separate inputs or four separate outputs. Or you could configure it as two full-duplex devices (two input/output connector pairs). Or as a combination, with one full-duplex (input/output pair) and two half duplex (input only or output only) devices, which would make possible 3-in/1-out or 1-in/3-out combinations.

And if using the card for 8K video (rather than 4K or HD), then all four connectors are used to carry a single video signal and it shows up as a single DeckLink device in that configuration.

So the configuration is pretty flexible, although depending on how you configure things in the Desktop Video Utility, it can get pretty confusing to identify which physical connector on the card maps to which virtual DeckLink device that shows up in whatever software you are using.

Note that if you want to use the device for internal or external keying applications (such as fill and key output), this requires a full duplex DeckLink device (2 physical connectors). For internal keying one connector in the pair is the input and the 2nd connector in the pair is the output (with the composited video signal). For external keying, one connector in the pair carries the fill signal and the second connector carries the key signal. So you can do a maximum of 2 independent keying channels with the card.
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Driftwood

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed Feb 03, 2021 1:06 am

NOTE to ADMIN: Pass on to BMD coders please.

Well I find the Decklink 8K Pro also, very confusing in terms of explanation!

When using Desktop Video Setup for this card it ALWAYS annoyingly shows the Outputs as default to whatever frame rate you set in the list(and for FCPX in Mac version) but no way of setting/switching it to half duplex INPUT MODE so we can use each of the four inputs as 4 x SDI 3G 1080p50/60p inputs.

So if BMD say its doable in the SDK,why in heck cant they just improve the user interface of Desktop Video Setup, to allow switching to half duplex modes?

I want to be able to use 4 x 1080p 60p inputs from four cameras with SDI.

If this can be done in 50/60p 1080 modes please someone show me how?

I have 8x and 16x PCIe slots on my pc board - AMD Threadripper 3970X with 32 cores/64 threads and two top of the line AMD GPUs.

Note for AMD PC users/ Hackintoshers: The latest driver version doesn't work safely for AMD beware - but strangely the 11.5 (Nov 2020) beta Desktop Video does?!!! I think it has something to do with Intel/M1 dylib Intel primed code, or, its maximizing the PCIe lanes 2x16, 2x8, plus shared M2 drives certainly might be making the Decklink 8KPro on a x8 speed lane clash.

Sometimes this causes Blackmagic Media Express to beachball on Mac. Then you get hard drive partition errors - dangerous.

I believe BMD know something is not right with their Decklink8KPro as the documentation is almost non existent both in the Decklink pdf manual or anywhere else regarding the product.

At best, both on PC and Mac you can only get two times 1080p50/60 INputs plus OUTputs it seems.

Using the Desktop Video Setup app, if you set it on BMD Decklink 8KPro Connector 1 Input mapping to SDI 1 In or Out, Connector 2 goes to SDI Input 3 In or Out, Connector 3 goes to SDI Input 2 In or Out, and connector 4 goes to SDI Input 4 In or Out (as it seems logical) you get ZERO inputs (ie no video coming in!) Its rather laughable and badly designed app.

If you set BMD Decklink 8KPro Connector 1 to SDI 1 In, SDI 2 Out it automatically gives Connector 2 to SD! 3 In, SDI 4 Out. Then connector 3 and 4 are set to None. This setup works but as you can see, ONLY two camera inputs together with 2 SDI outputs.

Summary:
Show me how I can configure it to take 4x 1080p SDI INputs ONLY please? I DON'T NEED the outputs if I'm streaming in OBS and want to switch betyween the four video signals coming into the Decklink8KPro's four connectors (from four cameras running 1080p50p/60p) or if I HAVE to download the SDK how are non programmers supposed to use these C++ apps to get it to work?

Is 1080p50/60 x 4 impossible ? Will it do only 1080p25/30 x 4 Inputs?

Can't you just have selectors for all possibilities for half/full duplex please in the next release of Desktop Video Setup app?

Also please get the Decklink 8KPro card INTO your documentation with detailed explanations on setups.
After all, you're the makers of the product and we have invested heavily!

Thank you.
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Filmguyy

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostWed May 12, 2021 5:00 am

HELLO!

Ive recently purchased 4 projectors to doing some driving scenes with rear screen projection
I have a deckling 8k pro

Can anyone please recommend a simple software solutions I can use to just import and sync the driving plates.. then play the videos at once? So that all the streams can go to all 4 projectors as separate images

Id prefer Mac but I can use windows too

Thanks in advance
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Jschroeder

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Re: How many inputs on the Decklink 8K Pro

PostMon May 17, 2021 7:52 am

I believe qlab can output to SDI else either OBS or vMix can.
If you leave the decklink Co figured in 8k mode and send a single output to it it will send each quadrant (method may need to be setup in desktop setup) then take each SDI out to each. In your choice of software you may need to arrange each quadrant to output as desired.
Else you can split all the outputs to be individual and hope that the processing stays in sync across the 4 outputs

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