Blackmagic Design - Leading the creative video revolution
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Windows XP
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Analog Video Input Processor Amplifier
We now include a Proc Amp tab in the DeckLink control panel.
Proc Amp can be used to adjust gain level controls for any cards with analog
input, i.e. the DeckLink SP and DeckLink Extreme. We have decided to add this
control due to variations in video output from analog tape decks.
This is also a reason why SDI is preferable to analog video, as it does not
suffer from the potential gain variance issues which can be seen with analog
components.
Preserving Blanking Data or VANC
To preserve VANC data when capturing, this can be enabled in the DeckLink
control panel. Now you can use up to 3 video lines at the top of a captured
QuickTime™ (Mac & Windows) or AVI (Windows only) movie file to store any 3
lines from vertical blanking. This allows 3 line timecode, VITC, vertical interval
test signals, subtitle info or any other VANC data to be preserved between
capture and playback. Software applications can also access these lines if
required.
This uses standard QuickTime™ and AVI files, so applications such as After
Effects® and Premiere Pro® will be compatible. This works on all standard or
high definition DeckLink cards. You can select if you want 1, 2 or 3 lines to be
used.
Although an extra metadata track to the QuickTimeTM/AVI file would be
desirable, it would not be compatible with some video applications. We also
thought about making the movie file 3 lines larger in the vertical resolution.
So for example, 1080 would become 1083. However these files would be
incompatible with normal files so it is not a good solution. So we thought that
most people don’t miss a line or two from the top of the image and it would be
beneficial to include this feature and use a line or 2 or 3 for that blanking data
storage.
The great advantage is we don’t need to know about the data structure of the
VANC data, as we just capture the lines. So if there is some special data that
you want to use, that’s no problem, as we just capture the lines intact, put them
in the top lines of the movie file. We then put the lines back into the vertical
blanking when playing back the files.
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