AJA IO XT vs. Ultrastudio 4k

CitizenCaine

Hi at all,

is that Capture device as i mentioned above cabaple for millumin?

I prefer that box about its two Thunderbolt-Ports for Daisy-Chaining. I like to have two different Inputs. One for a Live-Camera feed, a second device for a Computer-Input for Powerpoint.

Thanks for reply in advance.

Greets

CitizenCaine

Millumin

Hello @CitizenCaine,

Millumin became recently a third-party developer for AJA. They sent us an AJA Io XT.

The AJA capture cards already work greatly with Millumin, through the Quicktime components developped by AJA.
However, the Io XT is also capable to output, but Mac OSX doesn't support this capability directly : so we need to use the libraries from AJA directly, like FinalCut or Premiere are doing.
Such native support is expected to come in the next months in Millumin.

About daisy-chain, it's working, but we'll run another test with an AJA Io XT and a Blackmagic Intensity Shuffle. I'll share the result later this week.

Best. Philippe

CitizenCaine

Hi Philippe,

very interesting. Thanks for your answer.

After daisy-chaining two AJA IO XT i´d like to connect the Matrox TrippleHead to go for a softedge projection.

Into these wide projection i´d like to show the live camera feed and a external computer with powerpoint.

Native support would be great, for low latency. Do you think this year or the next year for native support?

Greets

CitizenCaine

Millumin

Hello @CitizenCaine,

As said in my previous message, native support is expected to come in the next months in Millumin : I mean between december 2013 and february 2014.

Today I run several tests : at the same time, I got input from another computer and daisy-chain to another monitor (warning : I didn't output through the Io XT, but directly plug the monitor to the daisy-chained Thunderbolt port). It worked perfectly, and latency was between 100 and 200ms (I didn't measure it exactly).

Over the next months, we'll run deeper tests, and work on native support to improve latency and being able to output directly from Io XT (no daisy-chain).

Best. Philippe

renaud

Hello @CitizenCaine,

I often need to work as you do with 2 two different inputs, one for a camera feed and a second one for a PowerPoint or Keynote feed.

I work with a MBP 15 retina on which I plug a BlackmagicDesign Ultrastudio via thunderbolt for the camera feed, and an Epiphan DVI2USB3 via usb for the ppt / keynote feed, which leaves the second thunderbolt free to plug the Matrox Triplehead2Go. As Philippe added native support fo both BlackMagic Design and Epiphan devices in Millumin, this setup works seamlessly with very low latency.

Alternatively, I have made tests with a piece of software called syphon2network over Gigabet Ethernet for the PowerPoint feed, and it worked surprisingly well, though with maybe 200 ms more latency (but we know latency is not as important for the ppt feed as it is for the camera feed).

Best regards,
r

Bart

Howdy,

I've made several tests with the AJA Io XT and Millumin.

First, yes, you can run the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle daisy chained to the AJA Io XT; it works, with low latency, and Millumin sees two different inputs. So you can work with the two devices together. That's a good news. Don't forget to "keep hot" the AJA Io XT :-)

Then, I've made some quick tests about the output through the Io XT, using Max/MSP. It appears that you cannot output simultaneously the input and an another video (coming from Millumin, for exemple). You have to choose, between the live input or streaming from the computer, as the AJA. This means that you can't capture video, add filter on the the video, and send it back to the HDMI output of the AJA. What you will get will be the clean video source coming from the camera.

Of course, I might be wrong, and I need to make new tests to be sure. Maybe this will work with the native support in Millumin...

One solution is to use the Echo Express SE II from Sonnet: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpressse2.html

You can put together to Intensity Pro from Blackmagic (if these devices can work together to create two different inputs) inside and get an extra thunderbolt output for daisychaining. The compatibility seems pretty cool, for a lower price than the AJA Io XT... http://www.sonnettech.com/support/charts/thunderbolt/index.html

Cheers,

Bart

CitizenCaine

Hi guys,

now i testet Millumin with the following capture cards and with a matrox tripplehead 2go DP Edition at the end of the thunderbolt daisy chain:

with Ultrastudio 4k

with Aja IO XT

with a MacBookPro late 2012 with Mavericks on it

I´m still surprised how low the latency with the new Ultrastudio 4k is. Did not made exact measures how low the latency is. I ordered the new mac pro and still waiting for it. Then i make measurements.

With the Aja IO XT the latency is reasonable higher. Ok for Powerpoint, as there the latency is not so important.

But some bugs with running the AJA IO XT and the Ultrastudio 4k together. Most times Millumin doesn't recognize the Inputs of the IO XT at startup in conjunction with the Ultrastudio 4k. Could be problems on a event, if Millumin crashes and for a restart of Millumin.

But one problem with the Ultrastudio 4k in the moment. It doesn't recognize a MacBookPro connected at the HDMI Input for example. The AJA IO XT does it well. Maybe someone of you know the reason for it? Maybe it has something to do with HDCP???? I don´t know.

The Idea behind it, to buy another Ultrastudio 4k. To have two fast Inputs. One Camera- and one Computer Input, until the AJA IO is fully supported. Does anybody tried it with more than one Ultrastudios with Millumin?

Greets

CitizenCaine

Millumin

Hello @CitizenCaine,

Indeed, the Ultrastudio 4k doesn't display the MacBookPro via HDMI probably because of HDCP the problem is the same with Intensity Shuffle). You should try with another port than HDMI.
Be sure to ask Blackmagic support about this issue.

Also, about the daisy-chain between Ultrastudio 4k and Aja IO XT : maybe the problem comes from the limited bandwidth of the Thunderbolt V1. Capture cards use so much bandwidth to transmit data to computer, especially the Ultrastudio 4k, that can capture at 1080p60 (where the Intensity Shuffle can only go up to 1080p30).
Again, please ask Aja or Blackmagic support about this, especially about bandwidth.

Best. Philippe

CitizenCaine

I found a solution for the Ultrastudio 4k. To use a cheap MiniDisplayPort to HDMI cable from the bay helps. Without any adapter between. The Desktop Video Software 10.0. doesn't helps. It´s buggy. The input signal is indeed displayed on the internal monitor by the Ultrastudio 4k but not captured.  A downgrade of the software to 9.9.3d helps here.

The answer from Blackmagic was following:

The Ultrastudio 4k will detect RGB over HDMI. However it will automatically convert it to YUV on input.

The problem may lie with the use of the MiniDisplayPort to DVI then converting DVI to HDMI.

Greets

CitizenCaine