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EvilAsh80  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, November 2, 2021 11:50:16 PM(UTC)
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Im thinking about buying the Sonnet iiie and combining a Decklink Quad 2 and perhaps a Decklink Quad HDMI recorder. Does anybody have any experience with this combination? Is it stable?

Thanks
raugert  
#2 Posted : Wednesday, November 3, 2021 3:14:00 AM(UTC)
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I use exactly that combination (Sonnet Echo Express iii with Decklink Quad 2). It works well with my Asus ROG laptop.
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scanscan on 3/6/2024(UTC)
IceStream  
#3 Posted : Wednesday, November 3, 2021 7:51:57 PM(UTC)
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Of note, Thunderbolt 3/4 has the equivalent bandwidth of a PCIe x4 lane and so using a x8 card like the Decklink Quad 2 will have "limited" results (will be fine for up to 4 full HD sources, but more than that will start to exhibit issues).


Ice
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Metroplex Mobile Studio on 12/1/2021(UTC)
dwalzer  
#4 Posted : Sunday, November 14, 2021 7:17:23 AM(UTC)
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I've been testing a Decklink Quad 2 in an Echo Express SE IIIe connected to an Acer Predator Helios 300. I have it configured as 6-in 2-out. For a while it seems to work fine with all 8 channels going, but randomly crashes with errors of the "Error HRESULT _EFAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component" variety.

I'm going to swap out the Quad 2 for a couple of Duo 2's and see if it performs better.

Regarding the bandwidth usage, Sonnet tech support sent me the following:

Quote:
The Decklink Quad 2 Card is a PCIe 2 card that will connect to the PCIe bridge at PCIe 2 x8. The PCIe bridge will connect to the Thunderbolt controller at PCIe 3 x4.
PCIe 2 x8 bandwidth = 4GB/s
PCIe 3 x4 bandwidth = 4GB/s
BETech  
#5 Posted : Sunday, November 14, 2021 11:41:47 AM(UTC)
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PCIe 3.0 x 4 yields 3.94 GB (Gigabytes) per second, or 31.52 gb/s (gigabits per second) bandwidth.

Eight channels of HD-SDI from a capture card would require a bandwidth of 1.45 gigabits x 8 = 11.6 gigabits per second, plus a little overhead.

Like Richard (Raugert), I have a ASUS laptop with the Sonnet Express IIIe, but with 2 x Decklink Duo 2 cards, and there are no issues,
plus the advantage of full size video BNC connectors and some redundancy should one Decklink card fail.

Keep in mind that in some computer systems, the Thunderbolt port may be shared with other peripherals internally within the computer.
ie. a SATA or NvME drive, graphics card etc.

This will affect the bandwidth available to the thunderbolt port.
Check your motherboard manual for more information.
thanks 2 users thanked BETech for this useful post.
sinc747 on 11/23/2021(UTC), Metroplex Mobile Studio on 12/1/2021(UTC)
Metroplex Mobile Studio  
#6 Posted : Wednesday, December 1, 2021 2:05:47 PM(UTC)
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Thanks... I am waiting on my Sonnet Express IIIe, My plan is to install one DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder and one DeckLink Duo 2. This thread was helpful.
EvilAsh80  
#7 Posted : Wednesday, February 16, 2022 12:16:49 AM(UTC)
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Thanks!
Jazzy XIII  
#8 Posted : Saturday, March 12, 2022 4:00:54 PM(UTC)
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Hi,

I have a Legion 7 (i7 11800H / 32gb ram)

According to a calculator, the output video bit rate of my cameras (1080p50 4.2.0 8 bits) is 2 Gbit/s (0.25 GB/s)...(I rounded off)

Is this rate realistic?

The thunderbolt 3 speed is 40 Gbit/s (5 GB/s), so in theory with 20 cams, we've reached the limit!

Taking into account the overload, is it possible to push to 8 inputs + 4 outputs,
if I install 3 PCIe 2.0 (x4) cards in Sonnet Echo Express IIIe ?
(2 quad HDMI 1.4 + 1 quad SDI)

It will only be one pc for replay and overlay
and the stream is made by a 2nd pc which receives the signal from pc 1 via NDI

Thanks
D.R. Lynn  
#9 Posted : Saturday, April 2, 2022 7:00:21 AM(UTC)
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Also thinking of doing this with 2 4xSDI Duo and an 4xHDMI
Tone13  
#10 Posted : Saturday, April 30, 2022 9:18:27 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Metroplex Mobile Studio Go to Quoted Post
Thanks... I am waiting on my Sonnet Express IIIe, My plan is to install one DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder and one DeckLink Duo 2. This thread was helpful.


I’d be very interested to hear how you go with your two cards in the Sonnet enclosure.
Tone13  
#11 Posted : Sunday, May 29, 2022 9:40:37 AM(UTC)
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tomtailford  
#12 Posted : Wednesday, November 22, 2023 10:24:31 PM(UTC)
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Having just bought a Dell G16 7630 and Sonnet SEIIIe - I'm thinking that the Quad 2 won't work.

I was trying to find out about PCIe lanes on the Dell G16 7630 laptop - which wasn't obvious from the Dell manual: https://dl.dell.com/cont...anual.pdf?language=en-us

However, I there was info about the Chipset: https://www.intel.com/co...pset/specifications.html

Which to me suggests there is only x4 mode available for PCIe lanes.

So even with the Sonnet SEIIIe, I'm not sure I'm in luck if I want 8x I/O - although maybe it would work with 2 or 3 BMD cards.
Kayo33  
#13 Posted : Thursday, November 23, 2023 2:50:27 AM(UTC)
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it's best to rely on the number of lines for less risk.
2 x decklink duo 2 cards would be safer.
a 3rd decklink card (mini recorder hd or mini monitor hd) or duo 2 would work, but maybe not on all ports.
tomtailford  
#14 Posted : Friday, November 24, 2023 9:23:52 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Kayo33 Go to Quoted Post
it's best to rely on the number of lines for less risk.
2 x decklink duo 2 cards would be safer.
a 3rd decklink card (mini recorder hd or mini monitor hd) or duo 2 would work, but maybe not on all ports.


Further to this - I had confirmation that my Thunderbolt port on Dell G16 is limited to 4x.

Does that mean I can use TWO 4x PCIe cards or is it likely going to encounter some issues as the single card will have already used all the lanes?

Thanks,

Tom
Kayo33  
#15 Posted : Sunday, November 26, 2023 6:09:31 AM(UTC)
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you can use several cards
the important thing is that they are 4x maximum

the speed of all connected video ports must not exceed the maximum speed of the Thunderbolt 3 port (40 gbps = 5 GB/s)
you can even add a 3rd card in 4x (or 2x or 1x)

in theory :
thunderbolt 3 (4x) = pcie 2.0 x4 + pcie 2.0 x4 + pcie 2.0 x2 = 5 GB/s

depending on resolution and framerate, you may not be able to use all the ports on the 3rd card.

examples:

if in 1080p60 4.2.0 8 bits, the throughput of each i/o is around 0.5 GB/s
the thunderbolt port can handle a maximum of 10 i/o

if in 1080p30 4.2.2 10 bits, the throughput of each i/o is around 0.25 GB/s
the thunderbolt port can handle a maximum of 20 i/o

it's all theory
it's in practice that you'll see the limits.
niemi  
#16 Posted : Sunday, November 26, 2023 9:55:24 AM(UTC)
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Okay, so recapping the thread:

The Decklink Quad 2 Card is a PCIe 2 card that will connect to the PCIe bridge at PCIe 2 x8. The PCIe bridge will connect to the Thunderbolt controller at PCIe 3 x4.

PCIe 2 x8 bandwidth = 4GB/s
PCIe 3 x4 bandwidth = 4GB/s

PCIe 3.0 x4 yields 3.94 GB (gigabytes) per second, or 31.52 gb/s (gigabits per second) bandwidth.

Eight channels of HD-SDI from a capture card would require a bandwidth of 1.45 gigabits x 8 = 11.6 gigabits per second, plus a little overhead.

With a Decklink Quad 2 Card connecting to a Thunderbolt controller at PCIe 3 x4, this should leave almost two thirds of the available bandwidth for overhead.
Kayo33  
#17 Posted : Sunday, November 26, 2023 7:40:53 PM(UTC)
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x4 cards are preferable

with a quad 2 (x8) it's like asking 8 cars with a quad 2 (x8) it's like asking 8 cars to arrive at the same time on a 4-lane highway
there will be an accident


dawlzer, above, shared his experience

Originally Posted by: dwalzer Go to Quoted Post
I've been testing a Decklink Quad 2 in an Echo Express SE IIIe connected to an Acer Predator Helios 300. I have it configured as 6-in 2-out. For a while it seems to work fine with all 8 channels going, but randomly crashes with errors of the "Error HRESULT _EFAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component" variety.

I'm going to swap out the Quad 2 for a couple of Duo 2's and see if it performs better.


Following the raw SDI speeds (I'm rounding off), with an installation with 3 x Duo 2 cards (= 12 sdi ports) on the Sonnet echo express IIIe

3G-SDI = 2.97 Gbps = 0.4 GB/s
12 SDI ports = 4.8 GB/s

HD-SDI = 1.45 Gbps = 0.2 GB/s
12 SDI ports = 0.2 x 12 = 2.4 GB/s

This means that for a Thunderbolt 3 port = 5 GB/s

with 3G-SDI, the maximum is 12 ports

in HD-SDI, we could add a 2nd Sonnet with 3 x duo 2 cards in daisy chain and get 24 SDI ports

All this is in theory
You'll have to check it out in practice, because it also depends on the configuration of the PC you're using.
niemi  
#18 Posted : Monday, November 27, 2023 8:26:30 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Kayo33 Go to Quoted Post
x4 cards are preferable
with a quad 2 (x8) it's like asking 8 cars to drive side by side on a 4-lane motorway
at one point or another, there will be an accident


The Quad 2 is a PCI Express 8 lane generation 2.

PCIe 2 x8 bandwidth (4GB/s) equals PCIe 3 x4 bandwidth (4GB/s). The Quad 2 PCIe 2 card will connect to the PCIe bridge at PCIe 2 x8 and the PCIe bridge will connect to the Thunderbolt controller at PCIe 3 x4.

If this is correct, then there should be should be plenty of room on the highway. Of course far from all laptops will run this well, but unless some of the facts above are outright wrong, then from a perspective of capture cards, enclosures and Thunderbolt specs, it should be doable.
Kayo33  
#19 Posted : Tuesday, November 28, 2023 2:06:59 AM(UTC)
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the most important thing is the number of lanes, before the bandwidth
but try
niemi  
#20 Posted : Tuesday, November 28, 2023 7:16:03 AM(UTC)
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I had a chat with Sonnet, and it appears this logic holds IF the Sonnet Enclosure has a bridge chip:

Quote:
The Quad 2 is a PCI Express 8 lane generation 2.PCIe 2 x8 bandwidth (4GB/s) equals PCIe 3 x4 bandwidth (4GB/s). The Quad 2 PCIe 2 card will connect to the PCIe bridge at PCIe 2 x8 and the PCIe bridge will connect to the Thunderbolt controller at PCIe 3 x4. If this is correct, then there should be should be plenty of room on the highway. Of course far from all laptops will run this well, but unless some of the facts above are outright wrong, then from a perspective of capture cards, enclosures and Thunderbolt specs, it should be doable.


One of their smaller and more popular ones, Echo SE I, doesn't have a bridge chip. The Echo Express SE III and IIIe have one, and so should work with the Quad 2.

This is what the Sonnet support wrote:

Quote:
There is no bridge chip in the Echo SE I. There is a physical x8 connector to mechanically support a x8 card but since Thunderbolt is x4, the card will connect at PCIe 2.0x4. This means the resolution or number of video streams will likely be limited. That is why the products that are recommended (for BM Decklink Quad 2) are the ones that have multiple slots, therefore have a bridge chip.
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