blackmagic design had launched GREAT and AFFORDABLE hardware, with drivers for linux. From intensity ($200) you can build a cheap linux-based blackmagic capture box, but wouldn`t be great to go PRO and have the codec on KDENLIVE to edit those videos?

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/

MLT already support Linsys SDI hardware with a completely open source solution from kernel modules through MLT module. Linsys is sold through Computer Modules and DVEO, and is not too expensive. If you want Blackmagic Design, then code and contribute it, or pay someone to do it.

If I want to buy a linsys system and then capture Y/C and Composite YPbPr, I should get a Datavideo, or kramer conversion box to do the job, how much this will cost to the editor? U$S 800 maybe or more. Let´s say we want to capture one day HDMI from AVCHD cameras or other HD source, KDENLIVE+Linsys+Conversors is far more expensive than a BLackmagic intensity PRO, which costs U$S 200.-

I can´t CODE anything but I am a Video editor and until last november I worked in a company selling TV products, now I am an independent editor and responsible for my own inversions. Linux is a GREAT oportunity to low many production costs, and we could say he have the FREEDOM to choose FLOSS software to do our job, but if that freedom COSTS MORE MONEY, and you won´t get the most of your inversion you won`t use it. I have written a KDENLIVE tutorial, love the software and I see how much it has improved but I can´t believe how comunities want to take distance from proved-profesiona-tools. Stallman keeps saying the hardware manufacturers must create opensource tools to work with, and many companies HAD, like MATROX, BLACKMAGIC and many others but developers keep ignoring those options. I had this SAME discussion with the cinelera comunity 2 years ago.
How many EDITORs are out there and would LOVE to have this tiny and cheap multi/capture box? am I the only one trying to forsee a profesional applicable Kdenlive?

Thanks.

Intensity pro - Small Pci-E card.
HDMI Input/Output.
Composite
Componet YpbPr.
Y/C (using a cheap adaptor cable watch the intensity PDF)

[img]http://www.blackmagic-design.com/images/intensity/intensitypro-230.jpg[/img]

Intensity shuttle (external USB 3.0 capture/preview out box)
HDMI Input/Output.
Composite
Componet YpbPr.
[img]http://www.blackmagic-design.com/images/products/intensity/hero-smokey.jpg[/img]
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/techspecs/

The Linsys support was contributed by a business, and they provided hardware and offered the source code under GPL in exchange for a feature development, which I generously agreed to so that I could make this option available for Free. The MLT plugin currently does not support capture; output only. I do not even know if the Blackmagick Design SDK allows source code using it to be publicly distributed. For example, I have worked with Bluefish444 and while the drivers and SDK source are provided, they require a non-disclosure agreement and my code that uses it may not be distributed publicly.

We are not ignoring options. The problem is that there is not enough developers to make awesome progress (some fans would counter-argue that we do). I have a lot users asking for a lot of things, but I have commitments to people who are paying me leaving little time to make broad and deep progress. What can I say? I guess not everything in life can be free. I would like a free house and food for my kids so I can work on MLT and Kdenlive without having to worry about those occupational commitments that consume so much time and energy.

P.S. Here is an option for capturing analog HD on Linux:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR

I get that,

but it`s not capricois, it`s CHEAP, and the GPL vs non-GLP arguments prevents any tool to become profesional in video editing. if you have a hardware and GPLed software seems impossible to have a working solution.

I hope all this non-sense in the future be solved someday, in the meantime, if you have many ols macs and you want to use them with you new Blackmagic systems and having codec compatibility, there are no Open solutions, you mus trash those old systems. you can´t use a new system with that either, should you buy on of these cards? just $200 looks nice for students and semi-profesionals, well, in linux you can capture and use it, but there are no tools to edit.

I would love to see Kdenlive for some profesional usage, could be inserted in many workflows.

In a couple of months, I will start a Kdenlive course for those who want to learn to edit (part of a government initiative), but Kdenlive will be a cheap/partial solution, to learn audiovisual language but on the professional arena, they won´t be able to use Kdenlive. Open source tools has the unique oportunity to become more compatible than commercial tools because you don`t need to buy a company to get their technology (some millions) or codec compatibility or make patent arrangments, just sign some agreenment I guess (I don`t know how that limits the openness of this software), well it`s a price to pay.


Marcos Caballero
http://www.anubis4d.com.ar

The PCIE version seems to be supported under Linux:

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/downloads/software_readme/DeckLink_Linux_7.6.3.txt

so you can probably capture the video with the vendor's software and then edit with Kdenlive?

so far... there is NO app supporting the codec for editing (which is free for windows and mac on the website) so if developers doesn`t want to support it, at least somekind of middleware should be used to read those files (NOT CONVERT, that would be stupid).

«if developers doesn`t want to support it»

Please read again what Dan said:

«We are not ignoring options. The problem is that there is not enough developers to make awesome progress (some fans would counter-argue that we do).»

If you pick any week and count the number of different developers commiting to kdenlive and MLT during this time, the fingers of your left hand would last by far.

It is rather about can than about want.

Also, do not forget that today you can also use FireWire with analog/DV converters and camcorders that have analog input.

Hm, if I remember right, in the past, Mplayer could use binary windows codecs, so this could be a way to convert the captured video into something Kdenlive can eat?

Don't see why conversion would be stupid? It can be done in a lossless way.

a documentary I`m editing right now has 80 hours of footage, almost 1 TB of video... do you really think that conversion is an option? Firewire is going OUT, in many news workflows faster-than-realtime is needed, so tapelless is the way to go to avoid capturing. The old time converters are on its way out an the blackmagic codec is very well spread in the industry (semi-professional/broadcast)... DV is on its way out (90`s technology)

I had a look at the Blackmagic SDK and it seems possible to work on some integration with Kdenlive. HDMI capture would for sure be a great feature for Kdenlive, I am also thinking about stop motion features that might be possible by capturing from a digital camera's HDMI output. I will make some tests with that card in the next weeks.

An FFmpeg developer also just started to work on Blackmagic capture support for FFmpeg (1), so it looks like we might have a working solution in the near future.

(1) http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2010-October/098137.html

Edit: from what I read, the SDK gives access to raw frames, there is no Blackmagic codec in Linux. We have the raw video and could encode with FFmpeg.

Someone asked me to make a Blackmagic SDI output module for MLT (for TV playout server) and sent me a card. I said I would work on as priorities permit. If the ffmpeg route does not work out, someone could work on a MLT producer for BMD, and preview, capture, and encode with it.
It seems stopmotion capture should be possible with any video input and not just one card. At least the Stopmotion Qt app works that way:
http://developer.skolelinux.no/info/studentgrupper/2005-hig-stopmotion/

The next version of Kdenlive captures from DeckLink and Intensity as well can output through it.

awesome!