Example of CreateVideoFrame and ConvertFrame

I see the high-level documentation of CreateVideoFrame and ConvertFrame in the manual, but I can't find an example in the provided sample code of using these interfaces and functions. I'm using the Capture sample as a starting point and I'm trying to extend it to convert the incoming YUV frame to an RGB frame, but I don't know how to use it. As far as I can see, the functions are only provided through interfaces. Are we supposed to define new classes to perform straightforward conversions of this sort? Here's my muddled attempt so far:

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IDeckLinkVideoConversion *videoConverter = CreateVideoConversionInstance();
void* rgbFrame = IDeckLinkOutput::CreateVideoFrame(
    videoFrame->GetWidth(), videoFrame->GetHeight(), videoFrame->GetRowBytes(),
    bmdFormat8BitARGB, bmdFrameFlagDefault, NULL);
HRESULT convertResult = videoConverter->ConvertFrame(videoFrame, (IDeckLinkVideoFrame*)rgbFrame);


Obviously that doesn't work because it erroneously calls directly into the virtual interface:

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Capture.cpp: In member function ‘virtual HRESULT DeckLinkCaptureDelegate::VideoInputFrameArrived(IDeckLinkVideoInputFrame*, IDeckLinkAudioInputPacket*)’:
Capture.cpp:133:126: error: cannot call member function ‘virtual HRESULT IDeckLinkOutput::CreateVideoFrame(int32_t, int32_t, int32_t, BMDPixelFormat, BMDFrameFlags, IDeckLinkMutableVideoFrame**)’ without object
      videoFrame->GetWidth(), videoFrame->GetHeight(), videoFrame->GetRowBytes(), bmdFormat8BitARGB, bmdFrameFlagDefault, NULL);


What is the correct approach here?

Thanks.

[Cameron Nichols]

Hi Keith,

You cannot call IDeckLinkOutput::CreateVideoFrame without a valid IDeckLinkOutput object. You can find an example of calls to IDeckLinkOutput::CreateVideoFrame and IDeckLinkVideoConversion::ConvertFrame in the SignalGenerator SDK sample.

Where you don't have an IDeckLinkOutput interface, such as when you are using a DeckLink Mini Recorder, you can instead generate a custom class that implements IDeckLinkVideoFrame. All methods should be defined and IDeckLinkVideoFrame::GetBytes should output a contiguous buffer large enough for the converted frame. You can find an example of this in the CaptureStills SDK sample.

Regards
Cameron

I haven't looked at SignalGenerator yet, but I started using CaptureStills as a template, which converts the frames to RGB. I presume this is a good example too. One thing I'm not clear on is whether the conversion is being performed by the main CPU or if it is being performed by a special on-device processor in the 8K Pro. Do some library calls initiate processing on the device and others initiate processing on the CPU? I mean, clearly, the scripts themselves are running on the CPU, but are some internal library calls run on the device? Should we expect certain things, like conversions of this sort, to perform better on the device than on the CPU?

[Cameron Nichols]

Hi Keith,

Video conversion with IDeckLinkVideoConversion::Convert frames is performed by CPU with SIMD accelerated operations.

Regards
Cameron