Hello!

I'm building a 6 or 7 camera HDMI setup, and have a few possible paths. Looking for any gotchas that I can avoid. All start with the Emerald reference system.

Option 1:

two Magewell quad HDMI cards instead of one

Total cost: around $2700, not including cables

Option 2:

one Magewell quad HDMI, one Magewell dual HDMI

Total cost: around $2400, not including cables

Option 3:

One Magewell quad HDMI, two Blackmagic Intensity HDMI capture

Total cost: around $2200, not including cables

Here's the thing, though: I have one run that's over 30 ft. So I'm concerned about signal loss. And this system will also be used once a year for a show that has two cameras at 100ft from the system. I read that there are optical HDMI cables that can do 300 ft, but I'm not sure about it. However, the next option seems like it might work:

Option 4:

One Blackmagic Decklink Quad 2 PCIe 4 Lane - each connector can be either input OR output, meaning up to 8 inputs; 6 HDMI to 3G-SDI converters

Total cost: around $2400

The question: does the last one sound like it will work? If it does, it gives a lot of flexibility, and up to 8 inputs for $300 less. And, if I upgrade cameras, the system would still be viable.

Thoughts?

@ Eliot Hochberg

I am almost done a build that was going to be based on the Emerald specs.- but after some research I went with the Ruby specs with a i5 processor as the gaming 5 motherboard is a little more flexable in features for the same price when I was shopping for parts. Also will be easy to just add an i7 down the road to upgrade.

Just a heads up that the Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming 3 and Gaming 5 share lanes withe PCI-e and M.2, so in both cases each motherboard will only give you one x4 PCI-e after you install a GPU card in the x16 slot.

The specs also say if you place a card in the x8 PCI-e slot it makes the x16 slot a 8 also... Not sure how that will work as vmix recomends the
Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming 5 with the BMD Quad 2 which is a x8 card. I am new to PC builds, but I would figure you want the GPU running at full x16?

-sheldon

I just posted the question about x8 card support also... as I am not sure if it works or not.

-sheldon

That was a technical reply they gave!

So as I understand it, you can have x16 in PCIe 2.0, and in that event, there would be bandwidth issues. But because that board does PCIe 3.0, the two cards have to share their connections, but despite having half the data lanes due to the throttle down of the x16 port, since it's twice as fast, there is no issue?

And a little research shows that it's hard to find a faster combination, one assumes for cost reasons.

Does that sound right?

@ Eliot Hochberg

Looks like an awesome vMix system for what you have in mind.


Ice