At this week’s NAB show in Las Vegas, Blackmagic Design (http://www.blackmagic-design.com) announced the DeckLink HD Extreme 3D, a new model of its broadcast capture card with new 3D support, hardware up, down and cross conversion, 12-bit hardware architecture, 3Gb/s SDI, support for up to 1080p60 in SDI, component analog and HDMI connections, as well as full SD, HD and 2K support for US$995.
DeckLink HD Extreme 3D is ready for 3D workflow using both interleaved/side by side and dual stream capture and playback. Interleaved 3D allows the left and right eye to be interleaved as fields into a single video connection and file, so customers can edit using current editing software.
Dual steam 3D allows customers to use the DeckLink HD Extreme 3D dual link SDI connections to capture and playback two streams, one for the left eye, and one for the right eye. The two streams are recorded into two separate media files. Dual stream 3D is higher quality because each eye is full resolution video, but dual stream is less compatible with current editing software, according to Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty. To solve this problem, Blackmagic Design’s Media Express has been upgraded to handle both interleaved and dual stream 3D for capture and playback of 3D media for a complete 3D solution, he adds.
With SDI, HDMI and analog video capture and playback, combined with balanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio, DeckLink HD Extreme 3D lets customers connect to all decks, cameras and monitors. DeckLink HD Extreme instantly switches between SD, HD and 2K.
It includes a new up, down and cross converter so customers can edit in SD and play out HD, or edit in HD and play out SD. The cross converter lets customers edit in 720p and output in 1080i, or edit in 1080i and play back in 720p.
DeckLink HD Extreme 3D is also based on a new internal hardware design with support for 12 bit SDI video and full support for video rates up to 1080p60 via SDI, HDMI and analog component. For developers, two DeckLink HD Extreme cards can be sync’ed together with a cable for dual card operation.
The DeckLink HD Extreme 3D comes with a software developer kit for Mac, Windows and Linux systems. It’s compatible with Final Cut Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Fusion and more.
