720p50 & Blackmagic SD-Downconversion

[Juergen Hansen]

Hi,
I am new to EX3 and 720p50.

I want to use 720p50 material in Final Cut Pro (6.0.4, MacOSX 10.4.11 PowerPC G5 Quad) and monitor this on my broadcast SD-Monitor, while editing.
I have a Blackmagic Design HD Extreme (Driver 6.8.6), but somehow I have the feeling, that Blackmagic can not downconvert the 720p50 signal into SD, so that I can see it on my monitor.
I would appreciate any help - I tried all possible set-ups in Final Cut Pro, but either it doesn't work (on Blackmagic support I found an old article, referring to driver version 5.4.2 quote: "HDTV720/50p down conversion to PAL is not currently implemented as there is currently only 1 deck which supports the rare HDTV720/50p standard.") - but I hope, this is outdated.

Thanks for your help and all the professionalism in this Forum!
Jürgen

[Evan Meades]

Jurgen, best to contact BM on this. I even ring them here in Oz as they are always very helpful!

Evan

[Barry J. Anwender]

I have a Multibridge Extreme 6.8.4 and from day one, BlackMagic support has been immediate and bar none. Questions I've had over the last four years (initially on the PPC-G5-Quad and now on the MacPro 3.2-Octo) have been communicated by e-mail , in all cases a reply within the day or the next day (given the time zones). Cheers!

[Juergen Hansen]

Hi,
thanks for your input. I have received now information from Blackmagic support in regard of the SD-Downconversion of 720p50 material - not actually encouraging.

This is the quote from Callum McClay, BMD technical support consultant:
"Over night I have done some further investigation into this problem with our USA support office, and it actually turns out that we do not support 720p50 down conversion on any platform at this time. The software down converter supports down conversion of 720p60/59.94, but does not support the 50 Hz frame rate at this time."

Even in the age of HD there are still limits between NTSC and PAL world, unbelievable.

[Barry J. Anwender]

Hi Juergen, that is unfortunate. It seem BlackMagic Design is going with the industry trend made clearer last week at the CES.

Here is quote on two trends summarizing the state of 720P in HDTV, CES: Eleven HDTV trends | Macworld

720p Fades Away. I don't expect 720p to disappear completely. This not-quite-Full-HD high-def resolution will always hit a super-low, entry-level price for the manufacturers aiming to provide ultra-affordable 42-inch displays. But many manufacturers are dropping 720p entirely, or limiting them to specific models in the below 30-inch category. Sony, for example, has just two 720p models left in its new arsenal: The 32-inch Bravia KDL-32L5000, and the 26-inch KDL-26L5000. Of its new models, Sharp only has 720p in 19-inch and 26-inch televisions.

1080p Becomes King at 32-Inches and Up. No, it's not ubiquitous yet, but this is the logical converse of 720p fading away: 1080p at 32-inches and up. But it's an encouraging trend to see—given the growth of Blu-ray disc. It's my opinion more people will be using even small-size HDTV's to view 1080p content. After all, why should you have to downscale picture quality just because you have limited space in your living room/den/bedroom?

[Juergen Hansen]

Hi Barry,
I don't think, 720p will fade away - at least not in Germany - there, the main public broadcasting stations ARD and ZDF (like CBC in Canada) have agreed to have 720p50 as their HD standard (for production and broadcast). Of course, this leaves many options for producing - but it is a strong statement for German broadcasting (my clients).
Interesting, that the industry for consumers is going in a different direction (like you have pointed out) - but maybe also public broadcasting in Germany will change its path in the future. After all, it is "only" tax payers money they are burning....

Still, unfortunate, that Blackmagic Decklink is not supporting the 5o Hz frame rate - they assured me, it's just a software issue.