Colour Cast Problem in Workflow

[Miggy Sanchez]

Hi all

I have a nasty colour cast issue/problem in my production workflow for a regular client.

A brief summary of the workflow:

HDMI signal out of camera into Black Magic's (BM) Ultrastudio Express.

From the BM Ultrastudio Express, I take a signal via Thunderbolt to stream over Internet on 2014 MBPro. The signal on this i7 MBPro is clean and their are no colour issues whatsoever.

From the BM Ultrastudio, I take another signal via an HDSDI cable and connect it to a Blackmagic H264 Recorder, which plays out and records on a 2014 i5 MBPro. It is here that I have the colour issues.

Most of the time the connection to the Blackmagic H264 from the Ultrastudio works perfectly. But on occasion, during a record the colour cast issue appears.

When this has happened, I have turned my camera off/on, and it is has usually "solved" the issue. For example, last week, I filmed 16 quarters of football. The very 1st quarter, the issue appeared. I turned camera off/on, and the following 15 quarters recorded perfectly!

But today, on a job, my usual off/on "work around" did not solve this problem.

Twice during live action, the H264 record started perfectly, only to lose a colour channel 4-5 minutes in. The streaming signal out of the Ultrastudio Express was fine.

What is going on here???

I am using a cheapish HDMI cable out of the camera. Might this be the issue?

Initially I thought the HDMI cable might be the issue, but why is the signal out of the Ultrastudio Express into the MBPro I use for streaming unaffected?

Any help or advice much appreciated. I am always trying to lift my game and love learning from all of you here.

Cheers
M