About DeckLink Software
This software includes everything you need to set up your DeckLink card for any task in your facility. This software supports all models of DeckLink video capture cards.
What's new in DeckLink 7.9.4
- Fixed blackburst genlock issue with DeckLink Studio
- Fixed channel 4 analog audio output being out of phase with DeckLink Studio
Macintosh Specific Improvements
- Fixed Premiere Pro CS5 issue where SD 16x9 captures were captures as 4:3 aspect ratio
- Improved Edit to Tape behaviour for DeckLink Studio, DeckLink SDI and DeckLink SDI Fiber
- Improved batch capture behaviour in Premiere Pro CS5
Mac OS Specific
Minimum System Requirements for Macintosh
- OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard and QuickTime 10 or later
- A suitable PCIe slot - PCIe x1 lane cards should work in any slot. PCIe x4 lane cards require a x4 lane or faster PCI Express slot.
- 4 GB of system memory
If using a Mac Pro, it is recommended to use PCIe slot 4 for DeckLink capture cards.
Third Party Software Support
- Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
- Adobe After Effects CS5
- Adobe Photoshop CS5
- Apple Final Cut Pro 7
- Apple Motion 4
- Apple Soundtrack Pro 3
- Apple Color 1.5
- Apple DVD Studio Pro 4
- Apple Final Cut Pro 6.0.5
- Apple Motion 3.0.2
- Apple Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2
- Apple Color 1.0.2
- Apple DVD Studio Pro 4.2.1
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- Adobe Photoshop CS4
- Steinberg Nuendo 3.2
- Digidesign Pro Tools 8
Installing DeckLink Software
The drivers install components in to applications including Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. If you have installed the drivers prior to installing any of these applications, we recommend that you uninstall and reinstall the drivers. This will ensure that all relevant components are installed in their required locations.
To remove the Blackmagic software out of your system, simply run the "Uninstall Multibridge" utility which is included on the CD or disk image.
Windows Specific
Minimum System Requirements for 64-bit editions of Windows
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 , Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7
- A suitable PCIe slot - PCIe x1 lane cards should work in any slot. PCIe x4 lane cards require a x4 lane or faster PCI Express slot
- 4 GB of system memory recommended for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Please refer to recommended system specifications on the Blackmagic Design support page.
Minimum system requirements for 32-bit editions of Windows
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7
- A suitable PCIe slot - PCIe x1 lane cards should work in any slot. PCIe x4 lane cards require a x4 lane or faster PCI Express slot
- 4 GB of system memory recommended for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Please refer to recommended system specifications on the Blackmagic Design support page.
Third Party Software Support
- Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
- Adobe After Effects CS5
- Adobe Photoshop CS5
- Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 v4.2
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- Adobe Photoshop CS4
- Eyeon Fusion 5.3
- Eyeon Fusion 5.3.1
- Eyeon Fusion 6
- Steinberg Nuendo 3.2
- Autodesk Combustion 4
- Autodesk Combustion 2008
Installing DeckLink Software
If you have a DeckLink card, plug your card in before running the installer. When you restart after plugging in your DeckLink card, Windows may show the Found New Hardware wizard for a Multimedia Device Controller, cancel this wizard. Running the installer without a DeckLink card plugged in installs the Blackmagic codecs so that you can share video files with DeckLink users.
If you had a previous version of the DeckLink software installed, use the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel for Windows XP or use Programs and Features control panel in Windows Vista and Windows 7 to remove it before installing this version, and restart.
Double click the DeckLink installer and follow the instructions that appear. See the DeckLink User Manual for more detailed instructions.
During the installation process, Windows might show three warning messages saying the driver has not been certified by Microsoft. In this case, select "Continue Anyway" so you complete installation of the software correctly.
Linux Specific
Supported devices
- PCI Express based DeckLink cards (older PCI based cards are NOT supported)
- Intensity, Intensity Pro
- Multibridge Pro, Multibridge Eclipse
Minimum system requirements
Basic system requirements:
- 32 bit x86 running Linux Kernel 2.6.9 -> 2.6.36
- 64 bit x86_64 running Linux 2.6.9 -> 2.6.36
For uncompressed capture and playback a RAID or other fast storage is needed. It is also recommended to use a filesystem that is optimized for large sequential I/O such as XFS.
Licensing
Some applications use the QT UI framework (http://qt.digia.com, http://qt-project.org) under the terms of the LGPL version 2.1. The QT dynamic libraries, built from unmodified source are included in the application bundle. A copy of the LGPL is included in the Blackmagic application support directory. The support note at http://www.blackmagicdesign/support provides further details including how to obtain the QT source.
Supported distributions
This release has been tested on:
- Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop/Server
- Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop/Server
- Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop/Server
- Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, 9.04, 9.10, 10.04, 10.10
- Fedora Core 10/11/12 & 13 (See known issues)
- OpenSUSE 11.1
- CentOS 5
Several different package formats are supplied:
- Native package (.deb) for Ubuntu and Debian based distributions.
- Native package (.rpm) for RedHat and RedHat based distributions.
- Tarball for expert/custom installation (or re-packaging).
Software dependencies
The driver package requires some additional libraries and packages including:
- dkms
- opengl (recommended)
- kernel-headers (or source) (for currently running kernel)
- gcc, make
- glibc 2.8
All packages above are included in most modern distributions. Consult your distributions documentation for more information. If your distribution doesn't include DKMS you can download it from http://linux.dell.com/dkms/.
NOTE: Fedora users may have to add the "updates" repo to find DKMS (link).
NOTE: OpenSUSE users may have to add the isv:dell repo or download DKMS manually.
Installing DeckLink Software
Ubuntu, Debian and Debian distributions
Installation from Graphical User Interface
Locate and double click the downloaded Debian (end with .deb) package. Once the Package Installer window appears click "Install Package".
You need to reboot your system in order to activate the driver.
Installation from Command Line
Locate the downloaded driver Package. At the command prompt type:
# dpkg -i <name_of_driver_package.deb>
If there are messages about missing dependencies ensure that install those first.
You can type:
# modprobe blackmagic
to load the driver once the package is installed.
RedHat or RedHat based distributions
Installation from Graphical User Interface
Locate and double click the downloaded RPM package (end with .rpm) package. In the "Install" dialog window, click Install. You may be required to enter your root password to continue. Since the package is not digitally signed you may get a warning about a "Missing Security Signature".
You need to reboot your system in order to activate the driver.
Installation from Command Line
Locate the downloaded driver Package. At the command prompt type:
# sudo yum install --nogpgcheck <name_of_driver_package>.rpm
Once finished you can type:
# modprobe blackmagic
to load the driver once the package is installed.
OpenSUSE or OpenSUSE based distributions
Installation from Graphical User Interface
Locate and double click the downloaded RPM package (end with .rpm) package. In the "Install" dialog window, click Install. You may be required to enter your root password to continue. Since the package is not digitally signed you may get a warning about a "Missing Security Signature".
You need to reboot your system in order to activate the driver.
Installation from Command Line
Locate the downloaded driver Package. At the command prompt type:
# sudo zypper in <name_of_driver_package>.rpm
Once finished you can type:
# modprobe blackmagic
to load the driver once the package is installed.
Other Linux 2.6 based distributions (Experts Only)
No native package exist to support these distributions at the time of writing. It's however possible to install the driver manually by downloading the tar.gz archive.
Before you begin, ensure that your system satisfies external dependencies listed in section 2.
Once the archive is extracted follow these steps:
# sudo cp -R <extract_dir>/usr/src/DeckLink-7.9.4/ /usr/src # sudo cp <extract_dir>/usr/bin/* /usr/bin # sudo cp <extract_dir>/etc/init.d/* /etc/init.d # sudo cp <extract_dir>/etc/udev/rules.d/* /etc/udev/rules.d/ # sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/blackmagic # sudo cp <extract_dir>/usr/lib/blackmagic* /usr/lib/blackmagic # sudo cp <extract_dir>/etc/xdg/autostart/* /etc/xdg/autostart/ # sudo ldconfig
There are two ways of installing the driver onto your system, manually or via DKMS. By using DKMS the driver will be automatically be updated for you when you upgrade to a new kernel. If your distribution doesn't include the 'dkms' package, you can obtain it free from the following website.
In either case ensure that you have the kernel header files installed for your current kernel. Check for the directory /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/.
For installing the driver using DKMS do:
# dkms add -m DeckLink -v 7.9.4 # dkms build -m DeckLink -v 7.9.4 # dkms install -m DeckLink -v 7.9.4
To activate driver once installed:
# modprobe blackmagic
Or installing the driver manually:
# cd /usr/src/DeckLink-7.9.4 # make
If there are any compilation errors, please check that you are running a Linux 2.6 kernel with version 2.6.23 or higher. If you still have problems please contact us.
# sudo cp blackmagic.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers # sudo depmod -a
Reboot your system or:
# sudo modprobe blackmagic
To active the driver once installed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check that the driver/device was loaded successfully?
You can check that your computer find your device by entering the following from a terminal:
# lspci | grep Blackmagic 02:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Blackmagic Design Device a11b
You should see entries like the above if the device was recognized by the system.
To test if the driver is loaded properly, type:
# lsmod | grep blackmagic blackmagic 2082944 1
If you get no output, that means that the driver is not loaded.
Also check that the device file: /dev/blackmagic/card0 is present. If it is not, and the driver appears to be loaded, the UDEV rule (/etc/udev/rules.d/20-blackmagic.rules) may not be installed properly.
The TestPattern application does not output anything?
Make sure the installed driver's firmware version matches that of your cards firmware. See section 3.3 for details.
How do I update a cards firmware version?
Installation from Graphical User Interface
If the Driver package was installed correctly, the firmware update utility should popup automatically when a card needs its firmware updated.
If not see section 3.3.2 on how to update manually.
Installation from Command Line
First check if your card really needs updating by issuing the following command from the terminal:
# BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater status /dev/blackmagic/card0 [DeckLink HD Extreme 3] UPDATED /dev/blackmagic/card1 [DeckLink HD Extreme 3] NEEDS_UPDATE
Cards listed with NEEDS_UPDATE can be upgraded by typing:
# BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater update <card_id> (1 in this case)
Or if runnning under an X window enviroment simply type:
# BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater update_gui
Which will launch the GUI firmware update tool.
The driver crashed my system
Look for kernel output messages in dmesg and /var/log/messages.
TestPattern is flashing black every second
This is by design to demonstrate audio/video sync.
The RPM package installed, but the driver was not loaded.
Try the following command:
# dkms build -m DeckLink -v 7.9.4
This should allow you to determine what the problem is. A common cause is a version mismatch between the installed kernel image, and the kernel source/headers. If they do not match, simply bring either the source/headers or the image update to date, and reboot your system.
Once the system is back up, the driver should be built for you at startup.
Known issues
Multiple Blackmagic PCI cards in the system on 32 bit platforms
Multiple cards may not work very well on 32 bit platforms, due to limited amount of kernel space memory (from the vmalloc).
Possible solutions:
Reconfigure kernel to allow more vmalloc memory, or use 64 bit Linux if possible.
Driver fails to build against certain version of linux-rt
Some versions of the linux-rt patchset may be incompatible with the driver.
Fedora Core 12 (and higher)
Some PCI-e cards (1x lane cards) does not function properly by default under Fedora Core 12, including DeckLink SDI and Intensity Pro. To work around this please add kernel boot paramter "pcie_aspm=off" to your bootloader (for GRUB in /boot/grub/menu.lst).
SLES10 (2.6.16 kernel)
Due to licensing of some symbols in the 2.6.16 kernel, the DeckLink serial device is not available. The serial functionality of the DeckLink devices is accessible through the DeckLinkDeckControl interface in the API.
SLES10 and later driver "blacklisting"
To start the driver at boot on SLES10 or later, the line "blacklist blackmagic" must be removed from /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.unsupported
2.6.36
The 2.6.36 kernel has some interface changes that breaks the DeckLink driver, it will be supported in a later release.
Additional Information
Please check http://www.blackmagicdesign/support for additional information on third party software compatibility and minimum system requirements.
© 2001-2010 Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. Blackmagic Design, Blackmagic, DeckLink, Multibridge, HDLink, Videohub, and "Leading the creative video revolution" are trademarks of Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd., registered in the U.S.A and other countries. Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. Eyeon Fusion is a registered trademark of Eyeon software. Steinberg Nuendo is a trademark of Steinberg software. Autodesk Combustion is a trademark of Autodesk software.
Some applications use the QT UI framework (http://qt.digia.com, http://qt-project.org) under the terms of the LGPL version 2.1. The QT dynamic libraries, built from unmodified source are included in the application bundle. A copy of the LGPL is included in the Blackmagic application support directory. The support note at http://www.blackmagicdesign/support provides further details including how to obtain the QT source.
Updated December 21, 2010.