[AG-TECH] VIC errors with BlackMagic Intensity Pro

[Douglas Kosovic]

Hi Michael,

> I'm trying the AG3.2 Bundled installer on Win7 32-bit with a BlackMagic
> Intensity Pro card and a Sony HDR-HC9 camera connected via HDMI.  I've got
> the VideoProducerServiceHD configured with the following:

Just a few comments inline for the settings :

> Resource: Blackmagic-Intensity Pro
> Start Priority: 5
> Stream Name:  Blackmagic-Intensity Pro
> Port: HDMI

The list of ports is returned by the Blackmagic driver.

> Encoding: MPEG4 or h264 (same problem with both)
> Standard: HD-720p-60  (there are many choices, same problem with several)

The list of standards is returned by the Blackmagic driver, it needs to match what the input signal is, otherwise you'll get black. 

> Bandwidth: 3000
> Frame Rate: 30
> Quality: 75
> Capture Size: Large
> Encoding Deinterlacer: off

As the software de-interlacer uses a bit of CPU, an option was added to enable/disable it. You won't need it for progressive inputs like 720p-60, but if you see interlacing artefacts for interlaced inputs like 1080i, 480i, etc, you might need to enable the de-interlacer

> Processor usage: All

Processor affinity is set to all. Multi-threaded codecs like x264 will then use a thread per CPU core.

> Large Size/Scaler Resolution: none

As encoding 1920x1080 is very CPU intensive, for VIC's blackmagic grabber, I added a software scaler option to allow scaling to 960p, 720p, 576p or 480p before encoding. With slower CPUs, you might be able to get good performance with 720p and below scaling.

The "Large Size Resolution" is to do with VIC's DirectShow grabber, you can now select the capture resolution of the device if 'Large' is selected. As it was similar to the "Software Scaler Resolution" option of the blackmagic grabber, I lumped them together in the AG video services.

> Is there documentation for these settings?
> 
> When I enable the VideoProducerServiceHD, VIC crashes with the following
> error:

This VIC bug was fixed late last year but wasn't rolled into a new all-in-one installer yet. Grab a newer version from:
   http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/ag3/windows/NodeServices/

> invalid command name ""
> invalid command name ""
>     while executing
> "$cmd [expr round([$qscale get])]"
>     invoked from within
> "$qscale instate {!disabled} {
> 			set cmd [$qscale cget -command]
> 			$cmd [expr round([$qscale get])]
> 		}"
>     (procedure "init_grabber" line 59)
>     invoked from within
> "init_grabber $V(grabber)"
>     invoked from within
> "if ![have grabber] {
> 		set DA [$videoDevice attributes]
> 		set DF [attribute_class $DA format]
> 		set DS [attribute_class $DA size]
> 
> 		# first, see if d..."
>     (procedure "transmit" line 3)
>     invoked from within
> "transmit"
>     ("after" script)
> 
> 
> Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
> 


Cheers,
Doug