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Recommendations for SDI capture devices?
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Joined: 7/22/2019(UTC) Posts: 3  Thanks: 1 times
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We're running a live music cybercast stream setup and are upgrading from our previous, very primitive system that was using a composite PTZ with an Osprey and Adobe media encoder.
We'll be using vMix and are looking for the best hardware available. We're replacing our previous PTZ with a new Sony SRG-300SE - it has the specs that will work with our oddly-lit venue. It outputs 3G-SDI at up to 1080p60 but we'll be running 1080p30fps.
Our set up is a Win 10 I7 with 16+GB RAM, Dell Optiplex 9020 with drive C ssd. (Am not sure if this particular computer has any wonky USB 3.0 issues? I know depending upon the "chipset" there can be problems?)
We'll be running audio through ProTools and combining it with video for the stream. I assume vmix can allow us to delay the video/audio to sync with each other if necessary? But low latency is what we're shooting for.
I've been going through all the options for capture cards and here's what I've discovered:
USB options..
Anywhere from $200 (MOKOSE USB3.0 HDMI/SDI Video Capture Card) to $459 (Magewell USB Capture SDI 4K Plus) -- (assuming that running a 1080p input on a 4k card gives us even lower latency?)
Other options: Magewell USB Capture SDI USB 3.0 HD Video Capture Dongle Model XI100DUSB SDI
Non-USB:
$775: Osprey Video 915, 1 Channel 3G SDI Video Capture Card with Loopout
$309: Magewell Pro Capture SDI Video Capture Card
$899: Magewell Pro Capture SDI 4K Plus Video Capture Card
And then there are various blackmagic cards.. we just ordered a DuoLink 2 and have been having problems getting it recognized on OBS (which is what we're using now) and support from BDM is proving to be cumbersome. So I'm losing my faith that the Blackmagic products are the way to go and am considering other options.
Anybody have experience with any of these products and can make recommendations?
My priorities are: reliability and latency. I assume the tradeoff between USB vs PCI is performance vs ease of use (with USB not requiring any drivers and more universal compatibility?)
Thoughts? Comments? I don't mind paying more for a better quality product if I will have less trouble with it.
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Joined: 5/13/2014(UTC) Posts: 518   Location: Manchester, UK Thanks: 2 times
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Originally Posted by: mkrewe  USB options..
Anywhere from $200 (MOKOSE USB3.0 HDMI/SDI Video Capture Card) to $459 (Magewell USB Capture SDI 4K Plus) -- (assuming that running a 1080p input on a 4k card gives us even lower latency?)
Other options: Magewell USB Capture SDI USB 3.0 HD Video Capture Dongle Model XI100DUSB SDI
Non-USB:
$775: Osprey Video 915, 1 Channel 3G SDI Video Capture Card with Loopout
$309: Magewell Pro Capture SDI Video Capture Card
$899: Magewell Pro Capture SDI 4K Plus Video Capture Card I would expect all of these to give the same quality, certainly the Magewell & Osprey products, but I wouldn't expect a 1080p source into a 4K card to give lower latency then into a HD/2K card. What's your theory behind the lower latency? I don't know Mokose but I have used Osprey products and am a reseller for Magewell, so have done plenty of testing with their products. I would also say that you should be able to get the same quality via a Blackmagic card, but that they can be less user-friendly to use in terms of software driver/settings, and that you should also consider AJA and Yuan's range of capture products.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 7/22/2019(UTC) Posts: 3 Thanks: 1 times
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Quote:I would expect all of these to give the same quality, certainly the Magewell & Osprey products, but I wouldn't expect a 1080p source into a 4K card to give lower latency then into a HD/2K card. What's your theory behind the lower latency? I assume the hardware computing power to encode a 4k stream is more powerful/faster than the hardware rated for a 2k signal, so it should be able to perform the encoding faster, therefore with lower latency. Quote:I don't know Mokose but I have used Osprey products and am a reseller for Magewell, so have done plenty of testing with their products. I would also say that you should be able to get the same quality via a Blackmagic card, but that they can be less user-friendly to use in terms of software driver/settings, and that you should also consider AJA and Yuan's range of capture products. Mokose appears to be a Chinese "no-name" manufacturer of a generic SDI/HDMI=>USB encoder. I saw somewhere else that it actually tested pretty decent, and for $200 might be worth a try? Don't know if it's really "mission critical" grade stuff though, and was hoping someone else may have some experience with it? I'm also curious what peoples' experience is with USB vs PCI cards? It seems the advantage of USB is no drivers needed, but the disadvantage may be that not all USB interfaces are as stable? I'm definitely interested in any other manufacturers you may recommend. Do you have any links, or any details on what you're using and your experience with it? I used an Osprey composite capture card that worked flawlessly for years, so my experience with them is good, but their SDI card is also the most expensive. Wondering if it's really worth the money?
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Quote:Mokose appears to be a Chinese "no-name" manufacturer of a generic SDI/HDMI=>USB encoder. I saw somewhere else that it actually tested pretty decent, and for $200 might be worth a try? Don't know if it's really "mission critical" grade stuff though, and was hoping someone else may have some experience with it?
It might be better to spend $200 on a used Magewell USB Gen2 SDI capture device from an eBay seller that has a 30 day return than gamble on some of those no-name, knock-off devices. I bought a Magewell XI100DUSB HDMI capture device used, and it's worked great for years. I also bought one of those cheap no-name, knock-offs brand new. It stays in my glove compartment as a desperation backup because it is very unreliable. Usually it does not work. Whether it's a USB capture or a PCIe card, a new Magewell device is a good investment if you plan on continuing to be involved in streaming. And as Zenvideo mentioned, also take a look at AJA. Their cards are very reliable and work easily with vMix.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 7/22/2019(UTC) Posts: 3 Thanks: 1 times
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Thanks for the info - I will check them out!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 5/13/2014(UTC) Posts: 518 Location: Manchester, UK Thanks: 2 times
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Originally Posted by: mkrewe Quote:I would expect all of these to give the same quality, certainly the Magewell & Osprey products, but I wouldn't expect a 1080p source into a 4K card to give lower latency then into a HD/2K card. What's your theory behind the lower latency? I assume the hardware computing power to encode a 4k stream is more powerful/faster than the hardware rated for a 2k signal, so it should be able to perform the encoding faster, therefore with lower latency. The "encoding" for generating uncompressed video output from an uncompressed SDI input is pretty trivial in processing terms, so the bottleneck is in passing the data over the PCIe bus. 4K cards usually need 4x PCI lanes against a single lane for 2K/HD resolution. So the question would be whether 1080p into a 4K card would be spread across the 4 lanes or whether the lower resolution modes would default to using the simpler approach of using a single lane? I don't know the answer to that, but either way the transfer time is comfortably less than a single frame - if it wasn't then frames would get dropped! The bigger issue generally that of whole frames getting buffered at some stage of their journey.
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