SDI and HDMI parallel use possible?

Hi! We use Pearl-2 (rackmount) to produce livestreams and to capture camera-sources and for live editing.

While I am very happy with two-source live switching, I’ve run into problems using more than 2 sources:
This week I have to capture a lecture within the university and I’d like to use two SDI cameras and add the slides of the lecturer via HDMI from a MacBook. I tested the setup recently and while I’m switching live from one SDI source to the HDMI source, everything freezes for 1-2 seconds and the audio stops within that time. I also noticed that the recorder is always starting a new clip after these souce changes.

Is the Pearl-2 limited to two sources while switching live or is it maybe a hardware issue of our machine?

We use the latest fimware; The channel is set to 1080p, Camera 1 is 720p50 (scaled to 1080p in the layouter), Camera 2 is 1080p, HDMI also 1080p.

1 Like

I’d recommend doing a factory reset of your unit to ensure it’s not a software glitch after the firmware update. Pearl-2 can support up to 6 video sources simultaneously. If the issue persists, please reach out to us in support at info@epiphan.com

Hi, thanks for getting back. I did a factory reset but this didn’t solve the problem. But I recognized that it wasn’t a problem of switching from SDI to HDMI. When I set everything to 720p it worked fine, it appears just when switching from a source in 1080p to another source in 720p (vice versa).
But I guess Pearl2 should be able to switch these different formats without problems…?

Should I still reach out to support or do you have another idea?
Thanks so far.

This sounds like it could be an encoding setting possibility. Ensure that “Use current signal resolution as frame size” is unchecked and select a manual frame size.

When that feature is checked, if a signal source is a different frame size, it stops all recording/streaming function, re-detects the new signal standard, and resumes its last recording/streaming state.

That does the trick!! Thanks a lot! Sorry, I thought I’d unchecked it in the beginning but I must have missed it.
Thank you for this support!