This information includes everything product developers need to know for building native
2K SDI equipment. Of course, all Blackmagic products can be updated, so if the television
industry adopts an alternative SDI-based film standard, we can add support for that too!
Frame Structure
Transmitted at 23.98, 24 or 25 frames per second as a Progressive Segmented Frame.
Active video is 2048 pixels wide by 1556 lines deep.
Total lines per frame : 1650
Active words per line are 1535. One word consists of a 10-bit sample for each of the
four data streams, i.e., a total of 40 bits. See the diagram named Blackmagic 2K Format
- Data Stream Format.
Total active lines : 1556
Total words per line : 1875 for 23.98/24Hz and 1800 for 25Hz.
Fields per frame : 2, 825 lines each
Active lines located on lines 16-793 (field 1) and 841-1618 (field 2).
Transport Structure
Based on SMPTE 372M Dual Link mapping and SMPTE 425M-B support for mapping
SMPTE 372M into a single 3 Gb/s link.
Timing reference signals, line number and line CRC insertion is the same as above.
During active video, 10-bit Red, Green and Blue data is sent in the following sequence:
Optional ancillary data is inserted into both virtual interfaces.
At present, only audio data is included: as per standard HD audio insertion (SMPTE
S299M) the audio data packets are carried on data stream two and audio control
packets are carried on data stream one.
Data stream 1: Green_1, Green_2, Green_3, Green_5...Green_2047
Data stream 2: Blue_1, Blue_2, Green_4, Blue_5...Green_2048.
Data stream 3: Red_1, Blue_3, Blue_4, Red_5...Blue_2048.
Data stream 4: Red_2, Red_3, Red_4, Red_6...Red_2048.
Blackmagic 2K Format – Vertical Timing Reference
This diagram shows the vertical timing details with line numbers and Field, Vertical and
Horizontal bits for the Timing Reference Signal codes.
Field 1
F
1
0
V
1
1
LINE #
1650
1
Field 2
F
0
1
V
1
1
LINE #
825
826
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
2
...
14
15
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
827
...
839
840
Active
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
...
792
793
Active
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
841
...
1617
1618
Developer Information
0
0
1
1
...
825
1
1
1
1
...
1650
107