27 February 2006 — Number 071

Differences between the three DeckLink HD Pro cards.

 

Following are the primary differences between the three current DeckLink HD Pro cards:

  • All cards have component and composite analog video monitoring.
  • All cards have genlock, trisync and wordclock.
  • All cards have two channels of SPDIF/AES input and output.
  • All cards support software down conversion1 from HDTV10802 and HDTV7203 to SD.
  • All cards support software cross conversion4 from HDTV720p to HDTV1080i.


  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 is a PCI-X card.
  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 is a PCI-X card.
  • DeckLink HD Pro PCIe is a PCIe card.


  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 has one HD/SD-SDI input and one output.
  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 has two HD/SD-SDI inputs and two outputs. The two inputs & outputs are required when connecting to a HDCAM SR deck in dual link (4:4:4) mode. If the user is only working in 4:2:2 mode, then only a single input and output need to be connected to the deck and the spare output can be used for HD/SD-SDI monitoring, eg via HDLink and an LCD display.
  • DeckLink HD Pro PCIe has two HD/SD-SDI inputs and two outputs. The two inputs & outputs are required when connecting to a HDCAM SR deck in dual link (4:4:4) mode. If the user is only working in 4:2:2 mode, then only a single input and output need to be connected to the deck and the spare output can be used for HD/SD-SDI monitoring, eg via HDLink and an LCD display.


  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 works with 4:2:2 SD and HD material.
  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 works with 4:2:2 SD and HD material and also 4:4:4 (RGB) material.
  • DeckLink HD Pro PCIe works with 4:2:2 SD and HD material and also 4:4:4 (RGB) material.


  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 supports software down conversion.
  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 supports both software down conversion as well as HDTV10802 hardware down conversion. The HDTV1080 hardware down conversion (available on newer versions of this card) enables the user to perform multiple intensive tasks simultaneously, eg 3-way color correction and HDTV1080 down conversion at the same time. Other cards can perform both of these tasks but not at the same time.
  • DeckLink HD Pro PCIe supports software down conversion. The Multibridge Extreme should be considered if hardware down conversion is required on a computer with PCIe slots.


  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 outputs SD on both SDI and analog outputs when performing software down conversion.
  • DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 can perform simultaneous HDTV1080 and SD output on newer versions of this card. This is useful if you want to work in HD but only have an SD monitor. The monitor can be an SDI or analog monitor.
  • DeckLink HD Pro PCIe outputs SD on both SDI and analog outputs when performing software down conversion.

Notes:

  • 1 Software down conversion is supported on Mac OS X but not on Windows XP.
  • 2 HDTV1080 down conversion refers to down conversion from HDTV 1920 x 1080 to either NTSC or PAL frame sizes.
  • 3 HDTV720 down conversion refers to down conversion from HDTV 1280 x 720 to an NTSC frame size. HDTV720 down conversion to PAL is not currently implemented as there is currently only 1 deck which supports the rare HDTV720p/50 standard. HDTV720 down conversion requires DeckLink Macintosh 5.1 (or newer) drivers and is not supported on Windows XP.
  • 4 Software cross conversion is supported on Mac OS X but not on Windows XP.

  • The DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 card has previously been referred to as DeckLink HD Pro Single Link.
  • The DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 card has previously been referred to as DeckLink HD Pro Dual Link. The DeckLink HD Pro PCIe is also a dual link card

 

Back...