Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro card

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
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kpeek
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Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro card

#1

Post by kpeek »

Comment: If allowed, I would have entitled this post:
Getting Meetinghouse Webcast (MW) software encoder to work with BlackMagic Design Intensity Pro (BMDIP) card
I think that the word “Design” is used in the name of this card only occasionally. Card may also be referred to as BMIP, BDIP, or BIP.

Error messages:
I had everything installed and I thought I was ready to webcast, with my Windows 7 home Premium 64-bit, computer running MeetingHouse Webcast (MW) encoder version 3.0.1.116, with a Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro (BMDIP) card version 3.2 installed. But I soon began to see a series of error messages including the following:
Meetinghouse Webcast has stopped working (then the button to “close program”, and additional “details” not shown here).
Then, when attempting to restart MW, I would get this message:
Error adding None with None. Cannot create device, The device may be in use by another program....
But wait, then there I got the following error message in MW:
Error loading job...And error occurred in while saving your settings. The specific device does not exist on the system...


Driver selection is critical:
With the help of Mike in webcast tech support at the Global Services Center (GSC), we came to believe that the WM software was having a hard time finding and retaining the right video and audio drivers. But I think we also came up with a work-around solution or a “fix”, that will get your MW software up and running if you also have this problem (which may only be needed for this particular version of MW specified above).
My problems began when I selected the “wrong” video and audio drivers. It's not that I chose drivers for the wrong devices (when I wanted the BMDIP video and audio drivers). I did select drivers for these devices. But the problem was that Windows copies these drivers and creates what appears to be other drivers (with a name probably suggested by BMDIP shown later in this post). So after you install the BMDIP software, you end up with what appears to be two new video and two new audio drivers, with two refer to each device. Select the wrong one, and you are going to have problems.

If I recall correctly, this is what happens when you install the BMDIP drivers and software (and it has been noted by another contributor that you cannot install just the drivers for the BMDIP, because it requires that you also install their user-control software called “Black Magic Media Express” plus other programs all together. And you must have the BMDIP drivers installed so given that you have no other choice, go ahead and run the BMDIP installation software.)
During or just after the driver installation program runs its course, you will have an opportunity to rename the drivers installed by BMDIP which I did do, and you should too. But I would recommend that you rename the new video and audio drivers at installation, something like the following, respectively: “BMDIP video-do not select in MW”, and “BMDIP audio-do not select in MW” (without the quotation marks of course).
But Windows 7 will also automatically, create driver names for these new drivers (maybe through the WDM, “Windows driver model”?) So after you complete the driver installation program, it will appear that there are two new drivers for each the new video and audio device. That's four software drivers, actually referring to only two devices (which are of course the new BMDIP video and the new audio devices).


Now select the right drivers in MW:
Now when you start the MW software, you will have the opportunity to select video and audio devices. Whatever you do, DO NOT select the drivers that you either accepted as the default drivers names during the installation program, or the names that you entered, as I recommended above. Instead, for video and audio (respectively) select the following drivers names: Decklink Video Capture, and Decklink Audio Capture (named by the driver installation program, and hopefully not renamed something else by you).

At this point MW will appear ready to accept some additional information from you and start your webcast. So let's review. On the main start up page for MW, the drivers that appear to be selected for use for use by the video and audio capture pull down menu (next to the label, “Live Input Devices” on the middle left part of the MW program window) should read: “None”, and “None” (without the quotes). This may seem a little strange, and maybe it is, but nonetheless, this is the right display in this menu.
Additionally, there is a small picture icon near the very bottom left portion of the MW program window where you can (and should) see a small window with a video image coming into the computer that you wish to broadcast from your camera or video feed. (You did connect your camera didn't you?)
Anyway, when you press that small “gear”-looking icon just beneath the image coming from your camera, it should have the following drivers selected for video and audio (respectively): Decklink Video Capture, and Decklink Audio Capture (named by the driver installation program, and not by you, as mentioned previously). There, you should be ready for a successful trial webcast now.

Just to reiterate, the driver names in the menu from the gear icon below your video, should NOT be the same as the driver names that appear slightly higher up in the MW software window under the menu item: “Live Input Devices”. As I mentioned previously, those should read: “none” and “none”. DO NOT change these or you will have problems! If you have not followed these instructions through your driver installation process, you might need to undo some damage, already done so read on.


Undoing the damage already done:
So, you have seen one or more of the error messages above, and selecting the correct drivers and mentioned above has not worked. Relax, this may help.
Each time MeetingHouse Webcast (MW) runs it creates a “job” file which is supposed to tell MW which drivers to use, and many other things I am sure. But this is a problem because it gets confused about what drivers to use (even though you have told it previously), especially if you have made more than one selection in at least one driver window in MW. This is because now the job file will confuse MW and it won't make the proper driver selections in the future, regardless of how you might change these in the MW menus.
So, you must delete the job file which is called: Broadcast.job.xej In my version of Windows 7 (Home Premium SP1). That file (in of Windows 7) is in the following file directory:
C:\Local Disk\Users\MyUserName\AppData\Local\Meetinghouse Webcast\
(Note: that “MyUserName” will not be the same as your user name, so don't take that string of characters literally, but instead insert your user name here instead.) And if you have not changed your Explorer folder file viewing preferences [in “Folder Options”] to select “show hidden files, folders or drives”, then you won't be able to navigate to, and “see” this file in your Windows Explorer to delete it. But you might still be able to find it by searching for that file by name, in the small search box of your Windows Explorer program window [in the upper right corner, which I had to do].
When you find that file, (“Broadcast.job.xej”), delete it, hard! Then delete it again from your Recycle Bin, hard again because your mad at this thing.
Now reboot your computer!

When you restart MW, if you have not made the drivers selections recommended above, make sure that you select the drivers I now recommend for video and audio, in MW which should be, “None”, and “None” respectively, in the “Live Input Devices” pull-down menu. And then in the device driver menu that pops up when you click on the gear below the image you want to display, make sure you have select the following drivers for video and audio, “Decklink Video Capture”, and “Decklink Audio Capture”, respectively. (Sorry for the repetition, but this may save you from having to go back and read this all again).


If this does not fix things for you:
(I did this with Mike's advice from GSC but at that time neither of us was sure if it was necessary or not) so if this did not fix your problems, you may need to also delete a “process” in Windows 7 called: BMDStreamingServer.exe *32. To do this you will need to start your “task manager” in Windows program, by pressing control-Alt-Delete and then selecting “Start task manager”. Then select the “Process” file tab, find the process just mentioned, select it then press the “End Process” button near the bottom right corner of that program window.
Now go and delete that “job” file mentioned a few paragraphs ago from the directory also mentioned previously, and then again from the recycle bin.
Reboot your computer, again. Now select the right drivers for MW (mentioned for a second time, a few paragraphs ago) if asked by MW, unless they already appear to be correct.


The “fix” is in:
Hopefully, all is well and you can enjoy your broadcast. If not then you may have other problems and may need to call the Global Services Center.


Drifting off topic a bit regarding USB “Video capture” and “Video Grabber” devices:
And just for fun, here are some thoughts about this repair and my previous experience with a USB, “video capture” or “video grabber” device (mine was labeled “Encore”). I tried one of these $19 USB devices and it worked pretty well (with a video composite input).
Don't know why I could not get the two RCA audio inputs to work, but they wouldn't. This particular computer did not have a working “line-in” either and so I had to use the microphone input (and had to turn down the microphone sensitivity in the computers software, way, WAY down.) And that actually worked okay too.
But wanting to improve on things and create a proper “line in” device on my computer that could handle my “line level” audio output from my audio mixer, I installed a USB sound card too. And that also worked well and with excellent audio quality. But that audio was delayed by a full 3 seconds with respect to the video. However, I could correct this with the audio synchronization (sync) tool in VLC media player. But VLC was not stable enough for me, and Windows media player (WMP) was more stable, but did not have an audio sync tool so I started messing around with changing USB ports for my USB devices.
Well, the MeetingHouse Webcast software encoder (MW) started acting funny, freezing up VLC and even WMP, so that is when I ditched the whole thing and went with Black Magic Design Intensity Pro (BMDIP) card. But after fixing the problems with MW and BMDIP described above, I now think that I might have been able to fix my other computer running MW with the USB video capture device installed, with the fix/repair described above for the BMDIP. Try it and if it works, a working USB device can save you hundreds of dollars over the BMDIP. Or maybe use a USB video capture devices to configure a second computer with MW as a backup encoder.


Well, good luck and good bye to all

PS: Note that these problems may all be solved with some future version of the MW software. And a church employee may make comments about this post to correct, extend, delete, or otherwise completely transform these remarks. So check for these things before trying this repair.

PPS: Also, please keep this forum category focused on getting MW to work with the BMDIP card and don't drift (as I did about USB video grabbers, in my last remarks) from this subject. There are plenty of other subject categories more appropriate for your other great ideas!
nicholascrosby
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#2

Post by nicholascrosby »

Is all working well?

I am considering picking up a Blackmagic switch and feed that into an Intensity Pro card, capture and encode from there. So ... any advice or opinions you have on the card would be appreciated!
kpeek
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#3

Post by kpeek »

We had a very successful stake conference broadcast to other buildings using this card a few weeks ago. I only used it for this purpose, and just one time so far. But the card is very flexible allowing a wide variety of inputs and outputs, allowing future upgrades (to High Def.) And I have been thinking about buying a card like this, from this company for years and so have noticed that many others have been very pleased with cards from this company over that time as well. And this company appears to have tried to accomodate customer preferences for a long time, and at a competitive price (at least when compared with Osprey).

But I have not used the card enough yet to really give it a thorough test or evaluation. But for this one event, it performed flawlessly. But you will want to make sure your computer performs flawlessly before installing the card, and that is is fast enough for it as well. (I have an intel i5 Sandybridge chip and motherboard, which was pretty hot in 2012).

I like the fact that it uses one PCI-e slot too, since most newer computers have one, and I don't need it for anything else. The OEM drivers installed without a problem and I like their software as well. In fact I plan to buy one of these cards for myself and transfer home videos from my webcams (digital and analog) to DVD in the future, as others have done successfully which they reported in their reviews on other sites.

I might mention something else here. The card does come with the dongle (which plugs into the back of the card after you install the card in the computer) and it has a variety of wires hanging from it which allows you to plug a wide variety of inputs and outputs into those wires and thus into the card. But some buyers (on Amazon at least) buy a spare dongle (about $20) and so I did the same thing. I have not found the original dongle to be faulty, but the wires do appear to be fairly delicate and maybe this is the part most likely to fail. So I bought a spare dongle too, which might come in handy if I lose the thing after unplugging it after use. (Or maybe I just wasted $20, we'll see.)

Overall, I would recommend this card. I believe it will compete with the best of the cards out there (at a lower price) and that it will not become obsolete for many years. And given the commnets made by the LDS tech (Kurt Olsen, during the Q&A) that made the podcast about video cards and broadcasting dated Aug 3, 2012, (which you can view from the church web site here: https://lds.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3EIw1lVi9iVUccc ), it sounds like they are favorable disposed toward this card as well.
ksteurer
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#4

Post by ksteurer »

We purchased the Blackmagic Intensity Pro card as well. We have it installed, and the PVC broadcast system is recognizing it as an audio and video source, however, we can't determine how to actually capture video with it. The signal coming from the camera in the chapel is an s-video signal, so we bought a converter to convert s-video to component video (green, red, blue). We haven't tried it yet, but I will try it out this week. The other option is to buy a converter box from s-video to HDMI. They are a bit expensive, so we are hesitant not knowing if it will work. How have people been getting the audio / video signal into the video card and is PVC recognizing it?
thanks
Keith
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Mikerowaved
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#5

Post by Mikerowaved »

ksteurer wrote:We purchased the Blackmagic Intensity Pro card as well. We have it installed, and the PVC broadcast system is recognizing it as an audio and video source, however, we can't determine how to actually capture video with it. The signal coming from the camera in the chapel is an s-video signal, so we bought a converter to convert s-video to component video (green, red, blue).
I hope you can return your signal converter, because it's not needed and might end up degrading the signal slightly. Way down on Page 60 of the manual is a connection diagram showing how to directly connect an S-Video signal to the breakout cable using an optional S-Video to dual-RCA cable. (NOTE: This is NOT the same as an S-Video to RCA Composite cable!)
Page 60.JPG
(78.24 KiB) Downloaded 831 times
The solution is also buried in a Support Note on their website. You can buy one of these cables from places like B&H for under $8.

The Intensity Pro that I bought 2nd hand had the optional S-Video cables included and I've used them off and on with great results. You just have to remember to toggle your input mode using the Control Panel applet.
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ksteurer
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#6

Post by ksteurer »

Thanks for the information. I think we can try what you have shown in the diagram. Next question: How to I get to the input mode toggle (Control panel applet)? We are using a Windows 8 computer so life is more difficult in general. The video card came with a DVD that had about 10 programs on it. No explanation for which program is for which card, or piece of hardware. I don't even know if we have the right software installed beyond the core installation of the video card. The instructions online are written by computer folks for computer folks, so we are struggling to understand it all... Perhaps we should call them directly if they have a customer service #.
thanks in advance for your help!
Keith
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Re: Meetinghouse Webcast Encoder & BlackMagic Intensity Pro

#7

Post by Mikerowaved »

If you're using Windows 8.0, then hit the WIN and X keys together and you should see "Control Panel" listed among the other pop-up menu items. For Windows 8.1 (recommended), you can right-click on the Start button to see the Control Panel listed. Once in the CP, I recommend switching to the large or small icon view, rather than the rather lame (IMO) Windows default of category view.

The BlackMagic CP applet was apparently written for several different cards, so some options will be greyed out. Other than the basic input and output selections, I would keep the tweaking of other settings to a minimum. For what we do, the defaults work just fine.

If I recall, there was no way to install just the drivers, so you end up getting quite a bit of stuff. If you decide to call their very knowledgeable support staff (408-954-0500), they will know nothing about PVC or the Meetinghouse Webcast software, nor will they WANT to know about it. :) They will expect you to have their BlackMagic Media Express program open and available for troubleshooting purposes. I've found that if everything works OK with that program, it will also work with the church's software. Media Express can be a little tricky to use the first time, but they are used to walking people through it, so don't let that keep you from calling them.
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