Blackmagic cards

Blackmagic cards are an option to capture high definition contents, both camera and laptop sources. Depending on the card installed and the input type you should be able to configure it following these instructions.

Driver installation

Note: The project concerning gstreamer plugin for 10.10 has been discontinued and the plugin has been included on an official gstreamer package. We recommend upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 in order to use Blackmagic cards.

Blackmagic has partial support for Linux. To install their driver you should download the latest one on:
[http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/]

Choose Linux, your card series and your Model and press Search. Download the latest Desktop Video for Linux.
To install it, run as root the following commands:

apt-get install libjpeg62
dpkg -i <name_of_driver_package.deb>
modprobe blackmagic

There is a full guide on how to install the driver and other information on:
[http://blackmagic-design.com/media/3397979/Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_9.2.txt]

Check if the driver and the card are loaded and ready

Run on a terminal:

lspci | grep Blackmagic
lsmod | grep blackmagic
ls /dev/blackmagic/*

You will receive messages like:
02:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Blackmagic Design Device a11b
blackmagic 2082944 1
/dev/blackmagic/card0

Input configuration

Posible inputs can be listed using:

gst-inspect0.10 decklinksrc

Depending on the card in use and the input select you should be able to select:

Connection

Depending on your card connectivity you should be able to choose between:

sdi
hdmi
optical-sdi
component
composite
svideo

Example input = sdi

Mode

Choose a number depending on format and framerate:

0-4: sd
- 0,1,3: ntsc
- 2,4 : pal
16-18: 720p
5-15:1080
- 5-9,14,15: 1080p
- 10-13: 1080i

Example input-mode = 1080p

Audio

Choose an audio format or leave in auto. On the galicaster plugin for blackmagic we included the option none to avoid recording audio.

auto
embedded
aes
analog

Example audio-input = auto