BlackSpout feedback

[Eric]

Hi everyone, I'm starting this topic as the "official" place for comments about BlackSpout. BlackSpout is a standalone Windows utility I developed which lets you capture input from any Blackmagic device and transfer it in real-time to any application with Spout Receiver capability (Magic or otherwise). To maximize efficiency, BlackSpout uses the GPU as much as possible.

My inspiration for this project was the Black Syphon utility (http://vdmx.vidvox.net/blog/black-syphon), which has the equivalent functionality for OS X.

News, announcements, and download links for BlackSpout are in this topic: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=201

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your comments.

Eric

[j4s0n]

Mixed results on different computers.
BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle USB3
Magic ver. 1.51 on both systems.

Desktop: Works great, near real-time performance from HDMI input @ 720P
Win7 Pro x64
AMD 1090T 6 Core @ 3.5 GHz
8gb 1600MHz RAM
nVidia GTX 750 1gb - Driver ver. 335.23
BlackMagic Driver: 10.1

Laptop: Works, but serious lag, seems to get worse over time. No lag if not using BlackSpout (Intensity Shuttle source directly in Resolume)
Win7 Pro x64
Intel 3rd Gen i7 Quad Core @ 2.5 GHz
24gb 1600 MHz RAM
nVidia GTX 660M 2gb - Driver ver. 344.60
BlackMagic Driver: 10.1.1

[Eric]

What version of BlackSpout are you using? (It's at the bottom of the README.txt file.)

I did make a small improvement with lag. Try the newest version (0.11) and let me know if it works any better.

[Reigel]

Hi,

I desperately try to get live input from my Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4k.
I want to bring in the output screen of another computer via HDMI. This works in Resolume. But I would like to do it in Magic.

So I start Black Spout, the card is recognized correctly, I specify #1 (HDMI) and set mode to 9 (1080i60) which is the mode where Blackmagic Media Express shows me the input. Then Black Spout window opens but is entirely white.

Within Magic I can choose Media/VidCap. In the module there is only one choice: Blackmagic WDM capture. But no picture at all. Magic window stays black.

Where am I wrong? What can I do?
I already tried all other modes with no success.

Some info on my system: Win 8.1., Intel i7 4770 on ASUS Z87 PLUS, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 970
Magic Window is set to 1920 x 1080

Best
Reinhard

[Eric]

Hi Reinhard, sorry about those troubles. Have you tried a progressive (non-interlaced) input resolution with BlackSpout? Such as 720p or 1080p? Those might work better. I don't have a BlackMagic card at the moment and I can't remember if I implemented support for interlaced resolutions like 1080i.

[Reigel]

Hi Eric,

thanks for answering.
And yes, I tried all possible resolutions incl. lower ones progressive and interlaced.
The Blackmagic card only responds to my other computers HDMI output in 1080i60.
But as said: This works with Resolume.
Maybe I should try some tweaks on that senders graphic resolutions? I did not dare to do so since I received a picture with MediaExpress.

Hope to find a way and any help ist much appreciated.

Best
Reinhard

[Eric]

If you are using the HDMI output from the graphics card of another computer, try setting that computer's desktop resolution to 1280x720. Then select 720p with BlackSpout. This is exactly how I tested it on my computer, and it seemed to work well. Let me know.

[Reigel]

Hi,

I now tried with different resolutions, also 720p. No luck. I can see BlackSpout in Media but screen stays black.

Best
Reinhard

[Eric]

So you are plugging the HDMI cable directly into the output of your computer's graphics card, right? Can you right-click on the Desktop, select Screen resolution, and show me a screenshot?

Also, is your capture machine (the one you are using to run BlackSpout) a laptop or a desktop? And does it have integrated Intel graphics in addition to the Nvidia graphics?

[Reigel]

OK. Here we are.
I post 3 screenshots: One is the regular windows screenresoltion window. The second is NVidia control center. Third one is HWInfo to show a summary of the computer and details of the card.
I could provide a HWInfo of the receiver also. Should I?
You see that windows shows just 1920 x 1080 as native resolution, NVidia says 1080p30 native resolution. BlackMagic Desktop Video Utility recognizes incoming video as 1080i60 and so does rsolume and shows the video.

Both machines are desktops as You can see in the HWInfo shots. Integrated Intel graphics is off on both machines. HWInfo does not show an option to select the graphics.

So I hope You can see something.
BTW: I already switched machines. No difference.

Thanks and good luck.
Reinhard

Screensholt_Sender.jpg (79.12 KiB) Viewed 20740 times

Screensholt_Sender_NVidia.jpg (105.89 KiB) Viewed 20740 times

HWInfo.jpg (171.9 KiB) Viewed 20740 times

[Eric]

Ok thanks that helps. And did you try setting the BMD HDMI output to a progressive resolution (720p or 1080p)? As I mentioned before, I don't think 1080i will work.

[Reigel]

Yes, I tried (nearly) all possible resolutions. 1080p60 as well as 720p60 connects and I can see it in BMD Desktop Video Utility and in Resolume. But BlackSpout window shows a white screen and Magic VidCap shows the device but no picture.

Best
Reinhard

[Eric]

Ok, thanks. Unfortunately I'm not sure exactly what's going on. I'll have to think about it a bit and see if I can come up with anything.

[puck]

Hi There,

Love the potential of this! However having the similar issues as above ...
after running BS and choicing input/res etc ... black spout will open and close
instantly or load to just a white screen ...

I'm running the latest version of spout v2.02 i think ...

using BM intensity shuttle usb and also have tried the thunderbolt version ...
widows 8 pro 64
have tried with touch designer and premiere pro ...

thanks!

puck.

[Eric]

Hmm, sorry about that. Where are you getting your input signal from? What format is it in?

[Dannington]

Hi, i'd love to use Blackspout for some realtime texture replacement. Unfortunately i'm having the same problem as the previous poster - white screen only using BlackSpout.exe in any mode. I'm using a BM IntensityPro 4k as a source using the latest drivers (Desktop Video 10.8.2 / Windows 10).

Could it be that I need an older driver perhaps? Do you know which version you're using?

If you see this post i'd be eternally grateful for any help!

Dan

[Eric]

Unfortunately I'm dependent on BlackMagic to send me specific demo units to test with -- I don't have any right now. I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any guarantees.

[guishade]

hello, this interface is super usefull but having some trouble, (white screen) was working a few months ago, is posible to have the source of this? thanks

[Eric]

Have you tried using the VideoCaptureDS module in Magic? It works with most BlackMagic cards, and then you can use Spout to send it somewhere else.

[Slavi]

Hi,

I am yet to test it, but I just wated to say:

THANK YOU ERIC !!!!!

Or should I say EPIC .

From the post above, I see that there are some things to be improved, but the fact you put the effort on making such software speacks greatly about Magic in general! As a person who had extreem strugges with making such thing happen on Windows, I am beyond gratefull for your work.

Thank you once again!!!

[jesse]

First off, I want to say a huge thank you for building the BlackSpout tool. I have used it extensively in a variety of live settings and it's worked flawlessly. This is a really vital contribution to the community and there are many of us out there using it.

I've encountered a slight hiccup in my intended use of BS and wonder if you have any thought on what could be the issue. I'm currently using a Razer Blade Pro laptop with a built in GTX 1080 card. I have a 4-camera system captured at 1080p60 via a Blackmagic Duo 2 card mounted in a Sonnet Thunderbolt 3 PCIe enclosure, which gives stable performance at low latency. The incoming frames are passed out via four instances of BlackSpout and this is quite stable and responsive.

I've recently upgraded to an eGPU scenario (Akitio Node Pro with a GTX 2080 ti). Unfortunately this seems to cause an issue that I can't troubleshoot any further. BlackSpout opens as usual, and I see a capture image in the BS preview window. However, the downstream Spout app (I've tried SpoutReceiver, Touch Designer, Max) receives only a black frame. It appears that the 1920 x 1080 metadata is being passed properly, but the texture data itself is not.

I wonder if this is an issue with the version of Spout that you've compiled BS against? I have tried using SpoutSender, the example app that comes with Spout, and it passes frames as expected while using the 2080 ti card. Any thoughts on this would be highly welcomed! I currently have Spout 2.06 installed.

[Eric]

I’m not sure, but if you have TouchDesigner, why wouldn’t you use that for capture?

[jesse]

There’s an advantage to offloading the capture to a separate process, which I’ve been doing for a while with great results. It also allows me to be flexible in how I’m routing the video signal rather than tying it to a specific platform.

[Eric]

That makes sense I guess. BlackSpout isn't being developed any more because the equivalent functionality was added to Magic (via the VideoCaptureDS module), which I suppose you could use in the same way as a separate process if you want. Multiple instances of Magic can be run at the same time.

[jesse]

Ok thanks for the reply. It's a shame that BS is no longer maintained but I do understand.