Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. has introduced the Blackmagic DeckLink HD, a QuickTime PCI capture card priced at US$1,995. It’s a 10-bit video card that can handle both standard definition SDI video and full HDTV video formats. DeckLink HD can be switched between SDTV SMPTE-259M SDI video and HDTV SMPTE-292M SDI video for 1080i/1080p/720p video editing and design.
The capture card — which works with Power Mac G4 and G5 systems with PCI slots — sports HD/SD-SDI video and audio input and output, as well as a Sony-compatible RS422 serial deck control port. It also comes with a second independent HD/SD-SDI output for video monitoring, as well as consumer digital audio SPDIF output for audio monitoring.
The Blackmagic DeckLink HD includes the Blackmagic codec, a QuickTime codec for uncompressed video that supports 64-bit rendering in applications such as Adobe After Effects. The capture card packs a PCI-X 133MHz interface. When plugged into PCI-X 100MHz or PCI-X 133MHz slots, such as those found in the new Power Mac G5s, the DeckLink HD can immediately switch to full HDTV operation whenever you wish. It can also be plugged into standard PCI 33MHz slots for standard definition NTSC/PAL operation only.
What’s more, since JPEG is also supported in HDTV when running in the new G5s, you can do full resolution offline HDTV editing using a standard disk. All video and audio channels are sent via a single BNC type video cable by taking advantage of embedded SDI audio. DeckLink HD eliminates the requirement for video sync generators as it provides a SDI reference video to the deck when capturing video.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.