Two Sub Device Full duplex

[v2k]

How does one setup Two Sub Device Full duplex? It looks like multi output has been removed as an option from 1.9.5

Trying to setup with an input device and 2 output devices as below.

input 1: SDI 1: DeckLink Pro 8K (1)

output 1 keying none: SDI 2: DeckLink Pro 8K (2) output 1 keying external: SDI 3/4: DeckLink Pro 8K (3)

GameObjects: all set to DeckLinkInput - on index 0 DeckLinkOutput - on index 1 DeckLinkOutput - on index 2 - does not find device, nor does it show up in explorer

• Unity version: 2022.2
• AVPro DeckLink version: 1.9.5
• Operating system version: Win10
• Cables used: in SDI 1, out on SDI 2, and 3/4
• Desktop Video version: 12.4

DeckLink 8K Pro (3) and DeckLink 8K Pro (4) do not show up in the explorer:

[v2k]

Sorry, 2 devices is correct, but what I want in the scene is something like:

Device 1: DeckLink 8K Pro (1) in/out (SDI 1/SDI 2) Device 2: DeckLink 8K Pro (2) out (SDI 3 + 4)

decklink input external on DeckLink 8K Pro (1) decklink output external on DeckLink 8K Pro (1)

SDI 1: decklink input (Device 1) SDI 2: decklink output (Device 1)

decklink output external on DeckLink 8K Pro (2) SDI3: key (Device 2) SDI4: fill (Device 2)

Not sure how to set this up with AVPro DeckLink. It's also confusing that each DeckLinkInput and DeckLinkOutput component has its own Device Profile setting. That's a global setting on the card itself, why is this on each component? Seems like this should be all configured via the DeckLinkSettings component?

[Chris-RH]

hmm, we've done it before, just trying to remember how :D

[RichRH]

Hi @v2k,

Before I look further into this, yeah, I agree that the device profile settings should be global within the plugin - I believe this may be legacy catching up with us. What I tend to do is use Blackmagic's 'Desktop Video Setup' app to setup the profile I require then just use device indices on the inputs/outputs within our plugin.

Cheers,

[v2k]

I would rather have the plugin set the profile on the device for the application; especially if each application has its own device profile. i.e. set the Blackmagic card's profile, then configure each subdevice. Ideally one would use Desktop Video Setup to verify and debug; not to configure the card's profile.

It would be nice if the "Device Selection" on the input and output components mapped to the subdevice names; or were pulled from Blackmagic instead of searching by name/index.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[v2k]

Do you have a method for this? I have it running in 2 SubDevice Full Duplex, and it works with keying None. But if I set one of the outputs to External keying, it seems to break.

2 sub full duplex; 2 keying None outputs:

2 sub full duplex; 1 keying None output, 1 keying External output:

[v2k]

Changing this from None to External on one of the outputs seems to break everything; no input, no output; nothing. Restoring it to None restores everything.

Looking to have 2 sub full duplex; 1 output is None keying, other is External.

[v2k]

I was able to repro this in your sample; indeed 2 Sub Full Duplex does not work with External key. It works with 1 Sub Full Duplex. Here are the slightly modified sample scenes to show this:

SampleExternal2SubNoGood.zip

[v2k]

Curious if anyone is able to investigate this issue?

[v2k]

Bump.

[RichRH]

Hi @v2k,

Apologies it's taken a while to get back to you.

Thanks for providing your modified sample scene - I downloaded and tested "TwoSubFull" on our DeckLink 8K Pro and in its current form I only get input into SDI 1, internally looped-through to output on SDI 2 (default behaviour as expected) and nothing on SDI 3 or 4.

However, I spotted that the 'Device Index' for the 'Output' device was set to 0 (the same as the 'Input' device) and changing that to 1 provided the expected output - key on SDI 3 and fill on SDI 4.

Does this work for you?

Cheers,

[v2k]

Hey @RichRH

Thanks for looking into this. It looks like that may have been related to the issue. External keying needs two SDI ports, and if Device 0 is input and output, there is only 1 for output. So it can only do None for keying. I added a second output for Device 1 with External keying and it appears promising. I'll do further testing with this.

[v2k]

Here's the setup I have now:

Input: Device 0 Output: Device 0 (Keying None) OutputKeyFill: Device 1 (Keying External)

I ran into some spamming errors with the multiple outputs. In DeckLinkManager.cs I had to comment out Ln 327 to false:

        void LateUpdate()
        {
#if true
            // If multiple outputs are active then attempt to sync Unity to them
            // RJT TODO: Would be far nicer to have a single point of control for Unity update speed so could
            // look at migrating non-multi-output/'DeckLinkOutput::SetUpdateFrameRate()' here too?
            if (DeckLinkSettings.Instance._multiOutput)
            {
    #if false // true   // Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of all output rates
                {
                    // Determine LCM (if multiple outputs)
                    // RJT NOTE: We also add (/subtract) any changes made in 'DeckLinkOutput::AdjustPlaybackFramerate()'
                    // to compensate for buffers becoming too empty (/full) but don't factor this into the LCM or
                    // target framerate could be all over the place!
                    int targetFramerate = -1, compensateFramerate = 0;
                    foreach (DeckLinkOutput output in _outputs)
                    {
                        if ((output.Device != null) && output.Device.IsStreamingOutput)
                        {
                            targetFramerate = ((targetFramerate < 0) ?
                                output./*OutputFramerate*/TargetFramerate :
                                SCD(targetFramerate, output./*OutputFramerate*/TargetFramerate)
                            );

                            compensateFramerate += (output.OutputFramerate - output.TargetFramerate);
                        }
                    }

                    // Lock Unity to this rate
                    Application.targetFrameRate = (targetFramerate + compensateFramerate);
                }
    #elif false // ?
                {

                }
    #endif
            }
#endif
        }

[v2k]

Upon more testing, this works, but decimates performance. I'm testing on a 1080i@5994 signal. It's pretty much unusable with multi-outputs. I tried with and without setting SyncToInput on the outputs.

Disabling or removing either of the 2 output components restores performance.

With the sample, it might be too lightweight to notice the performance impact. The health status goes from solid green (with a single output) to flickering from green to yellow with the configuration described above.

[v2k]

Found a bug causing a restart of an output device, this seems to have resolved it.