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In the film editing space workstations use dedicated video I/O hardware which fully circumvents the display/video stack of the OS to be able to input/output exa

In the film editing space workstations use dedicated video I/O hardware which fully circumvents the display/video stack of the OS to be able to input/output exactly the pixels you want in exactly the format you want (something that's essentially impossible using OS facilities, much less in a cross-platform manner). This seems like a very good application for those cards (they're not particularly expensive, around 200 bucks [1]). [1] https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs/W-DLK-32 https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs... (4K, PCIe) https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techspecs/W-DLUS-13 https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techsp... (less than 100 bucks, but only 1080p on Thunderbolt) (SDK: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-and-playback https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-a...)

lolpython 5y ago
What is this equipment called? It sounds like the opposite of a capture card. edit: looking at your updated post, it is called a "playback card."
- greenknight 5y ago
  Yep. Used heavily for editing works, colour grading works for tv / film, sound works. Pretty much anything professional, they will discard what the GPU is doing (and inbuilt audio) and use these sorts of external devices. This way, you know EXACTLY what the program is computing, nothing else.
NavinF 5y ago
Could you give an example of such a card? (model/name) Also what’s the use case where they can’t export the video and transfer it as a file or byte stream?
- buildbuildbuild 5y ago
  These are great: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techspecs/W-DLUS-13 https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techsp... Use case: live (minimizing latency), no compression, compatibility with other gear.
- fragmede 5y ago
  https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-and-playback https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-a... The cheapness of greenscreen effects makes it pretty cheap to use in TV shows a lot these days though.
buildbuildbuild 5y ago
A good suggestion if you have the budget. NDI is also incredible for this. But small producers rely heavily on built-in I/O on their computers, and I suspect that the market share from small/amateur streamers using Apple products outsizes Apple’s revenue from large shops today. Big productions can afford Decklinks and media servers like Disguise D3.
- MayeulC 5y ago
  They surely have enough money to buy macbooks, and something like this is a fraction of the cost (seems about 10%). Of course, I'm also confident that software workarounds will exist in the meantime.
- ridaj 5y ago
  Small producers spend lots of money on equipment in that range of cost, even for ancillary things like lighting and cables. I think it's a great recommendation.
  - thepasswordis 5y ago
    There are a lot of guys out there with 2016 era macbooks (cause it still has HDMI) running it into a projector to do visuals at small clubs and things like that. Maybe some of those guys scraped together enough money to buy one of the new macbooks (since it got HDMI back). Being forced to spend another $200 to get rid of a stupid orange dot would really sting.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      2015 was the last MacBook with HDMI. Anyways I agree with you but it's true there is a lot of the richer professionals too - those who buy the new maxxed out MacBooks.
      - DenseComet 5y ago
        Incredibly, the new Macbook Pros released this year have HDMI, a SD card slot, and MagSafe.
vbphprubyjsgo 5y ago
Booting Linux and displaying some graphics on DRM-KMS sounds much saner.
- CoastalCoder 5y ago
  I'm guessing the downvotes are because your suggestion seems like a pretty big departure from these users' existing setups. I think the migration costs (including the learning curves) might seem like a poor tradeoff.
  - cyberge99 5y ago
    And the fact that linux on new Macbook Pros isn’t feature complete yet.
dkonofalski 5y ago
I'm 100% certain that most professionals are already using these for performance displays. I don't know a single person that doesn't use these cards for exactly this reason. We even use one for presentations/events at movie theatres just to make sure that nothing is going to put an errant pop up on the display.
- odiroot 5y ago
  How do you operate them? Do they show up as another graphics card?
  - dkonofalski 5y ago
    No. If they did, that would defeat the purpose. Usually, they have their own setup software or routing software. Something like Blackmagic, for example, is supported directly from certain apps. Others let you route windows to the output. You still need a graphics card for these to work. They only handle the video input and output.
    - odiroot 5y ago
      Ok. I'm on Linux and want to play a movie with VLC through this thing. Do I need the Blackmagic app to act as a bridge or something?
      - dkonofalski 5y ago
        I'm not terribly familiar with Linux use of hardware I/O devices so my guess would be yes unless Blackmagic (or someone else) makes some kind of Linux kernel extension that would allow you to manually specify that or VLC has built-in support for external I/O devices. Edit: Just checked because I was curious. The default installs of VLC do not include Blackmagic support but you can compile versions from the source for Linux that include it (if you also download the support files from Blacklink first).
      - dnet 5y ago
        Not sure about VLC, but ffmpeg has great support for Blackmagic, you just have to download the Blackmagic SDK, compile ffmpeg with Blackmagic support (and the SDK in path) and then you'll have a separate input/output device available in ffmpeg. The other great thing about this approach is that this way audio also takes a dedicated, integrated path, bypassing OS layers and maintaining sync with much less effort.

lolpython 5y ago

What is this equipment called? It sounds like the opposite of a capture card. edit: looking at your updated post, it is called a "playback card."

greenknight 5y ago
Yep. Used heavily for editing works, colour grading works for tv / film, sound works. Pretty much anything professional, they will discard what the GPU is doing (and inbuilt audio) and use these sorts of external devices. This way, you know EXACTLY what the program is computing, nothing else.

NavinF 5y ago

Could you give an example of such a card? (model/name) Also what’s the use case where they can’t export the video and transfer it as a file or byte stream?

buildbuildbuild 5y ago
These are great: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techspecs/W-DLUS-13 https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techsp... Use case: live (minimizing latency), no compression, compatibility with other gear.
fragmede 5y ago
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-and-playback https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/developer/product/capture-a... The cheapness of greenscreen effects makes it pretty cheap to use in TV shows a lot these days though.

buildbuildbuild 5y ago

A good suggestion if you have the budget. NDI is also incredible for this. But small producers rely heavily on built-in I/O on their computers, and I suspect that the market share from small/amateur streamers using Apple products outsizes Apple’s revenue from large shops today. Big productions can afford Decklinks and media servers like Disguise D3.

MayeulC 5y ago
They surely have enough money to buy macbooks, and something like this is a fraction of the cost (seems about 10%). Of course, I'm also confident that software workarounds will exist in the meantime.
ridaj 5y ago
Small producers spend lots of money on equipment in that range of cost, even for ancillary things like lighting and cables. I think it's a great recommendation.
- thepasswordis 5y ago
  There are a lot of guys out there with 2016 era macbooks (cause it still has HDMI) running it into a projector to do visuals at small clubs and things like that. Maybe some of those guys scraped together enough money to buy one of the new macbooks (since it got HDMI back). Being forced to spend another $200 to get rid of a stupid orange dot would really sting.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    2015 was the last MacBook with HDMI. Anyways I agree with you but it's true there is a lot of the richer professionals too - those who buy the new maxxed out MacBooks.
    - DenseComet 5y ago
      Incredibly, the new Macbook Pros released this year have HDMI, a SD card slot, and MagSafe.

vbphprubyjsgo 5y ago

Booting Linux and displaying some graphics on DRM-KMS sounds much saner.

CoastalCoder 5y ago
I'm guessing the downvotes are because your suggestion seems like a pretty big departure from these users' existing setups. I think the migration costs (including the learning curves) might seem like a poor tradeoff.
- cyberge99 5y ago
  And the fact that linux on new Macbook Pros isn’t feature complete yet.

dkonofalski 5y ago

I'm 100% certain that most professionals are already using these for performance displays. I don't know a single person that doesn't use these cards for exactly this reason. We even use one for presentations/events at movie theatres just to make sure that nothing is going to put an errant pop up on the display.

odiroot 5y ago
How do you operate them? Do they show up as another graphics card?
- dkonofalski 5y ago
  No. If they did, that would defeat the purpose. Usually, they have their own setup software or routing software. Something like Blackmagic, for example, is supported directly from certain apps. Others let you route windows to the output. You still need a graphics card for these to work. They only handle the video input and output.
  - odiroot 5y ago
    Ok. I'm on Linux and want to play a movie with VLC through this thing. Do I need the Blackmagic app to act as a bridge or something?
    - dkonofalski 5y ago
      I'm not terribly familiar with Linux use of hardware I/O devices so my guess would be yes unless Blackmagic (or someone else) makes some kind of Linux kernel extension that would allow you to manually specify that or VLC has built-in support for external I/O devices. Edit: Just checked because I was curious. The default installs of VLC do not include Blackmagic support but you can compile versions from the source for Linux that include it (if you also download the support files from Blacklink first).
    - dnet 5y ago
      Not sure about VLC, but ffmpeg has great support for Blackmagic, you just have to download the Blackmagic SDK, compile ffmpeg with Blackmagic support (and the SDK in path) and then you'll have a separate input/output device available in ffmpeg. The other great thing about this approach is that this way audio also takes a dedicated, integrated path, bypassing OS layers and maintaining sync with much less effort.