EXT hardware capture brings a live SDI or HDMI feed from a Blackmagic DeckLink card into Pulsar as a streamable row. Use it when your source is a camera, switcher, or playout device wired into a capture card.
How to open it
Add an EXT row from the main window. (See Rows and sources for how rows work.)
Open the row's Hardware Settings window — all the controls below live there.
Stream a DeckLink feed to SRT
Add an EXT row and open Hardware Settings.
Leave the vendor on Blackmagic DeckLink and pick the device with a green signal indicator.
Set the input and format in Blackmagic Desktop Video; Pulsar auto-detects whatever you select there.
Choose your Audio Connection (Auto / Embedded / AES/EBU / Analog), then click Apply.
Enable a Stream, set the SRT destination, and click START. See Outputs — SRT / NDI.
Bring in a 10-bit HDR feed
Tick HDR (BT.2020, 10-bit) — this forces 10-bit capture.
Choose PQ — HDR10 or HLG under HDR Transfer.
Click Apply. See Encoding, bitrate & colour for more on HDR.
Key controls
Control | What it does |
Hardware Vendor | The capture-card vendor — Blackmagic DeckLink. Changing it re-scans for devices. |
Capture Device | Picks the card. The indicator shows green (signal), yellow (no signal), or red (in use by another row). |
Scan for Devices | Re-runs discovery after you plug something in or change cabling. |
Audio Channels | 2 (Stereo), 8, or 16. |
HDR (BT.2020, 10-bit) | Tags the feed as HDR and forces 10-bit. |
Apply | Saves and re-scans. On a live row, the pipeline restarts to pick up the change. |
On DeckLink you set the input and format in Blackmagic Desktop Video and Pulsar auto-detects them.
Tips & gotchas
Capture is INPUT-only. Cards don't pass a feed back out. To drive a monitor as well as Pulsar, use a splitter or loopback and capture the input.
Red "In use" means another row has the card. Free it from the other row, or pick a different device.
Applying on a live row briefly interrupts it — changing key settings while streaming restarts the row.
HDR forces 10-bit and overrides the Bit Depth control. Orbit viewers receive an SDR stream.
Capture is developed and verified on macOS.
Related pages
Rows and sources
Outputs — SRT / NDI
Encoding, bitrate & colour
Orbit streaming
Monitoring and preview
Troubleshooting
Glossary