multi input capture device?

hey all, looking to see if any of you have used a multi input capture device with TD before. I’ve used the Blackmagic intensity numerous times with great results, but a new project has arisen where there is a need to be able to get multiple device streams into a computer and into TD.

Anyone had any luck with a specific device in the past? Magewell and Blackmagic look like they have a few options but wanted to post before spending money to buy one of these.

We’re a big fan of bluefish cards here at Obscura these days:

[url]https://bluefish444.com/[/url]

I’ve used the Datapath and Blackmagic Decklink cards to capture multiple SDI inputs in TD without issues - both have native driver support in TD and both will work.

Blackmagic cards takes sometimes a bit of fiddling with driver settings before you’ve got it working. Blackmagic cards have ~3 frames latency in TD.

Datapath is much more expensive than Blackmagic but has really low latency, and Datapath cards can provide frame sync across all inputs & cards, if you need it.

datapath.co.uk/video-capture-cards

blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink

Since i’ve not used a device with multi capture capabilities within TD I have a probably quite obvious question. With these devices the Video Device in TOP will allow me to select with capture of the many you want to use I assume so I can have a VDI TOP for each of the captures I wish to have?

Correct.
You can select which input you need with the ‘device’ parameter on the Video Device In TOP.
So the idea is you place one Video Device In TOP for each of your inputs.

I can vouch for Blackmagic cards. Affordable and works. Like mentioned above, driver can be a bit finnicky, but not really the end of the world considering the cost.

thanks for the incite on a few of these products. Like I mentioned I’ve used the intensity pro’s from blackmagic a bunch of times with touch so i get the oddities of the cards in general. I’ve yet to use any cards that have multiple inputs so the advice is appreciated.

Ive used the Blackmagic Quads quite a bit and they work exactly as you discussed and nettoyeur mentioned. Separate Video Device In TOP for each channel, then they’ll appear as different device numbers in the dropdown. The bang-for-buck on the new 8 lane Blackmagic card is pretty hard to beat.

I’ve used Datapath cards from the vision sc series. The SDI,DVI and DP cards are rock solid and low latency.