Blackmagic DeckLink Input Via Flatpak Installer

MicahBP

MicahBP

New Member
Hey guys,

I've searched the OBS forum, Blackmagic's forum, the web, YouTube and called BMD support. I can't seem to find a proper answer to this.

I have a Decklink Quad HDMI 4K that is installed properly with Blackmagic's software but there's no input into OBS. Obviously I OBS is a Flatpak and thus pretty sand-boxed.

My question is this... how can I get input into OBS from my Decklink card?! If I can find a proper answer I would love to make a YouTube video for anyone else who is having the same problem. This is crazy lol
 
MicahBP

MicahBP

New Member
UPDATE: Shout out to the guys on the OBS Discord, but you basically have to install via the OBS PPA on the OBS website and it works flawlessly! Great community over there and I appreciate their help!!
 
K

Kotts

New Member
MicahBP said:
UPDATE: Shout out to the guys on the OBS Discord, but you basically have to install via the OBS PPA on the OBS website and it works flawlessly! Great community over there and I appreciate their help!!
Click to expand...
Came here to say this. It is a problem wit Flatpack and Snap. The sandboxing doesn't allow for atypical kernel-level inputs (such as those provided by Blackmagic's drivers.)
 
P

prahal

New Member
Kotts said:
Came here to say this. It is a problem wit Flatpack and Snap. The sandboxing doesn't allow for atypical kernel-level inputs (such as those provided by Blackmagic's drivers.)
Click to expand...
no, this is not a problem with kernel-level input. All communication to the Blackmagic hardware is done via /dev/blackmagic which is available to OBS flatpak has it has device=all enabled for device access (which means all devices file are available, that is everything under /dev).

The issue is that OBS cannot redistribute the blackmagic libraries.
And the OBS flatpak does not even build the OBS decklink plugins (
decklink.so
decklink-output-ui.so
decklink-captions.so
).
So, even adding the decklink libraries to the flatpack OBS library path (for example ~/.var/app/com.obsproject.Studio/config/obs-studio/plugins) does not help on its own.

There even was experimental https://github.com/flathub/com.obsproject.Studio/wiki/BlackMagic-Support which was working.

So OBS cannot ship a functional plugin because the Blackmagic license does not allow it. The only way out is for blackmagic to provide a plugin of their own.

The only argument against flatpak I saw were that it would prevent GPU acceleration (I believe this is false) and remote (network cluster ?). I doubt any of this is true, either way even if flatpak does not allow this currently I doubt this is by design, they ought to have open a feature request against flatpak for years now.
 
C

CGSB

New Member
Just wanted to confirm that on Debian Trixie, with the Flatpak version of OBS, Decklink cards (at the least the Decklink 4K Extreme 12G) will work, as long as you have given OBS all the device access permissions, thus negating the sandbox, but this shouldn't be much of a surprise with regard to Flatpaks generally.
Go to the Blackmagic Decklink webpage here: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/capture-and-playback
Then download the most recent Desktop Video Manual from the middle column under Latest Support Notes.
The Linux section is deceptively brief, with the bulk of the instructions being found in the ReadMe located in the Desktop Video tar.gz (located in the left column under Latest Downloads as the same page you download the Manual). Make sure you click the Linux icon for this one, and then note you DO NOT need to fill out the form, the bottom left contains "Download Only" in a sickly, emaciated font, as not to draw your attention.
Get through the various levels of containers until you find the ReadMe file. It is structured oddly skipping back and forth between Debian and RPM based (Fedora) instructions with some sparse, less than helpful instructions(?) for the, "Other" distros randomly througout. I found it helpful to delete all of the instructions not pertinent to my use case (Debian) so that I would have one continuous document that wasn't jumping from distro to distro the entire way down. Read the Known Issues at the very bottom of the document firts. You may be disqualified out of the gate and be wasting your time in even making the attempt (see CET/IBT). The FAQ towards the end is basically the check to ensure you built and installed everything properly, not an actual FAQ, so don't let the naming fool you, you need to do the confirmations provided in that not-a-FAQ section. Follow the instructions and requirements to the letter throuoghout or it will not work. Secure Boot and the MOK security kabuki threatre are NOT optional. You too must embrace the saftey and piece of mind they will bring you. Be thankful. All is well.
Absolutely no plugins are needed from any random githubs or other outside code. I can only speak to the Debian side of things.
Enjoy your recording and or streaming and interesting new boot up scrolls.
 
C

CGSB

New Member
Did not know about the editing time limit (why?). This is a more structured version to hopefully help people that run into this vs the paragraphs above.
Just wanted to confirm that on Debian Trixie, with the Flatpak version of OBS, Decklink cards (at the least the Decklink 4K Extreme 12G) will work, as long as you have given OBS all the device access permissions, thus negating the sandbox, but this shouldn't be much of a surprise with regard to Flatpaks generally.
  1. Go to the Blackmagic Decklink webpage here: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/capture-and-playback
  2. Then download the most recent Desktop Video Manual from the middle column under Latest Support Notes. The Linux section is deceptively brief, with the bulk of the instructions being found in the ReadMe located in the Desktop Video tar.gz
  3. Download the latest Desktop Video tar.gz file (located in the left column under Latest Downloads on the same page you download the Manual). Make sure you click the Linux icon for this one.
    • Note: you DO NOT need to fill out the form, the bottom left contains "Download Only" in a sickly, emaciated font, as not to draw your attention.
  4. Get through the various levels of containers until you find the ReadMe file. It is structured oddly skipping back and forth between Debian and RPM based (Fedora) instructions with some sparse, less than helpful instructions(?) for the, "Other" distros randomly througout.
    • Note: I found it helpful to delete all of the instructions not pertinent to my use case (Debian) so that I would have one continuous document that wasn't jumping from distro to distro the entire way down.
  5. Read the Known Issues at the very bottom of the document first. You may be disqualified out of the gate and be wasting your time in even making the attempt (see CET/IBT).
    • Note: The FAQ section prior to Known Issues is basically the check to ensure you built and installed everything properly, not an actual FAQ, so don't let the naming fool you, you need to do the confirmations provided in that not-a-FAQ section. Follow the instructions and requirements to the letter throuoghout or it will not work. Secure Boot and the MOK security kabuki threatre are NOT optional. You too must embrace the saftey and piece of mind they will bring you. Be thankful. All is well.
Absolutely no plugins are needed from any random githubs or other outside code. I can only speak to the Debian side of things.
Enjoy your recording and or streaming and interesting new boot up scrolls.
 
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