Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme and DeckLink HD Pro

Videogrpahy by Oliver Peters BlackMagicBlackmagic Design is one of a handful of innovators that has driven the desktop video revolution, making it possible to edit uncompressed standard definition-and now high definition-video on a Mac or Windows workstation. Starting with the basic DeckLink card, which provided easy capture and output of uncompressed SDI, Blackmagic Design has expanded its family of products to cover SD, HD, Dual Link 4:4:4 and even 2K resolution film files. Blackmagic launched the DeckLink capture card in November 2002, making working with true 10-bit, uncompressed video on a Mac OS X system an affordable reality. IBC 2004 saw the launch of DeckLink Multibridge, a bidirectional analog converter and breakout box. At NAB 2004, Blackmagic launched DeckLink HD Pro, a 10-bit/12-bit Dual Link 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 video capture card for Mac OS X and Windows XP systems. DeckLink HD Pro was upgraded to PCI Express in February 2006, making it an uncompressed HD Dual Link 4:4:4 card that also handles 4:2:2 video and SD. I recently tested two Blackmagic products-DeckLink HD Pro and Multibridge Extreme-on an Apple Power Mac G5 Quad workstation. When Apple introduced Power Mac G5 PowerPC-based workstations in quad and dual configurations in October 2005, it also migrated the bus architecture to PCI Express, sending all the vendors who had been making PCI and PCI-X cards scrambling. Blackmagic Design was one of the earliest to respond, quickly offering PCI Express versions of its popular cards. read more...

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