Blackmagic Design on Monday announced that its DeckLink video capture cards are now compatible with Appleis Final Cut Pro 5. Version 5.0 of the DeckLink software, which was not yet available for download from the Blackmagic Web site as The Mac Observer posted this article, also now supports HDV playback, mixed media formats in the editing timeline, 12 channels of audio HD capture and playback and real-time effects in HD.
DeckLink 5.0 also features new capture gamma tables that allow editors to apply custom gamma tables, as well as lift, gain and gamma adjustments, directly to capture video. In addition, DeckLink 5.0 includes Blackmagicis new FrameLink utility, which simplifies the use of QuickTime and AVI files by instantly mounting and writing them back into a video file. The files appear as a folder of frames in DPX format.
FrameLink also supports network rendering, with each render node processing separate frames and pooling them into one server, then automatically inserting them into a QuickTime or AVI movie. Integration with Adobe Photoshop enables dust and scratch elimination.
Multibridge
The company also introduced the Multibridge Extreme and Multibridge Studio, new bi-directional converters capable of switching between HD and SD video over a PCI Express connection. They feature 4:2:2 and Dual LInk 4:4:4 video quality, uncompressed capture and playback and more. Both support the 525 NTSC, 625 PAL, 720HD and 1080HD switchable video formats and accept HD/SD, RGB/YUV 12-bit component and NTSC/PAL video input.
The two converters differ in their audio jacks: the Multibridge Extreme features a pair of unbalanced RCA outputs while the Studio version offers six of them; the Extreme has four inputs and four outputs on BD-25 for 8 Ch while the Studio has six XLR inputs and six XLR outputs for 12 Ch.
Blackmagic expects to ship both converters this summer. The Extreme model will sell for US$2,595 and the Studio version will sell for $3,495.
HDLink 1.7
Blackmagic also introduced HDLink 1.7, which will be available for download from its Web site the week following NAB. This update includes built-in lookup tables for the Panasonic Varicam and Grass Valley/Thompson Viper cameras, a "blue only" mode for detecting noise and monitoring video hue and an interlace simulation mode that makes interlaced video look better on a progressive LCD monitor.
In addition, HDLink 1.7 is compatible with a wider range of monitors because it can now ignore a displayis EDID data and adapt video to match its capabilities. If the required EDID data is unavailable, it can override the auto-configuration and display video on monitors that were incompatible before. When settings are changed via USB, HDLink no longer needs to be power-cycled.
This will be a free upgrade for current HDLink owners when it becomes available. HDLink is a hardware converter that enables the display of HDTV resolution video on supported DVI-D-based LCD monitors. It supports standard definition SDI and HD-SDI inputs and Dual Link HD-SDI 4:4:4 input.