Confused how decklink cards work with CasparCG and similar software?
Contributed by TV 2 Danmark A/S: a first draft: Guide: Decklink configuration and use in CasparCG (or similar software) · CasparCG/help Wiki · GitHub
Open for feedback on form, language, content, errors, formatting etc.
Looks quite good, The only thing that can be confusing for beginners is, that you use <device>2</device> in the example for the first channel. How you describe it is correct. But I think users will not get the point.
All else is good. Thank you very much.
By using device 2 I can show how it maps to SDI 3, which a big part of the explanation. SDI 1 and Device 1 are always mapped like that, so it missed the point.
It is REALLY hard to explain how the inputs show up as devices.
@didikunz can you confirm that audio is being mixed/added on top of the “clean” signal when doing internal keying?
AFAIK that is not the case, as the card does not touch the incoming audio.
And yes, I understand why you use device 2. But this will give a lot of questions from beginners, along the line "I did everything as wirten and do not get any output in BNC 1 
Yeah, thanks for the feedback anyways. I’ll give it a think.
One solution would be to add a section with a complete config, step-by-step setup of the connectors and a sample drawing of a normal use-case: 1 in, 1 out + 1 key/fill out.
Thank you Jesper, great work and very helpful
Do you know what happen if there are two card? I guess the “device” number of the second card will be simply shifted by the number of “devices” of the first
I can verify the deckling guide for the 8k pro model if you want, happy to contribute
for the “complete config” I was thinking about a tittle interactive js graphics, maybe is easier to understand than a complete description
It simply add channels. It depends on the PCIe bus layout what card it uses as the first. So if you have two cards with 4 channels the first is channel 1-4 and the second 5-8.
All contributions are welcome! #opensource
Thanks didikunz,
are you referring to the channels to be defined in the config?
I’m curious about the “device” number referring to the guide
so if if first card has device:1-5-2-6-3-7-4-8 with no F+K binding I guess the second will have device:9-13-10-14-11-15-12-16.
What if the first card has F+K binding?
so if the first card has device:1-2-3-4 because the 5-6-7-8 is consumed by the bindings, the will still have the same device number? [device:9-13-10-14-11-15-12-16]
just to know if the device number is defined no matter of the F+K settings
I was referring two Duo cards with four outputs each. Seeing it from the Caspar side it is not out of order (like:1-5-2-6-3-7-4-8 for a Quad 2) that is only the case when it comes to BNC connectors. So please do not mess up channels in Caspar with connectors. Other ways it will be confusing.
I’m pretty sure they will contine 9, 10 etc.
The reasoning is that the device IDs are married to a certain device, they never shift or move.
sorry for the confusion, I was just ignoring the Caspar side, since the channel will be assigned manually in the config file
To make it very clear: If you have two Decklink Quad 2’s and set them as simple output (no fill & key) on the first Quad 2 you get channels 1-8 and on the second channels 9-16. I once tried that. The first card is always the one in the “lowest” PCIe slot. Sometimes you can see slot numbers printed on the motherboard or in the manual.
The channel will be assigned in the config the way you order them. The topmost channel in the config will be channel 1. Regardless the device number you assign it to.
And I’d say 9-16 won’t be affected by the configuration of the first one, you can never have “5” appear on the second card, since “it is still there, just not configured to any connector” if paired with 1.
That is correct. You get a “gap” the second card starts at 9 (with two Quad 2) regardless how many pairs you build on the first card.
yes, thanks, I’m familiar with the channel management, probably I should have mention that before.
I usually have 2 channel F+K and the third one as screen preview
but I wasn’t aware at all about the device ID, only the sdi number
It was not primarily to correct you, but there are a lot of users reading this topics, so we need to keep it as clear as possible.
yes, of course, I understand now.
I wasn’t thinking about all the users, experts and newbies.
You are right, I will try to be more clear in the future, thanks