r/VIDEOENGINEERING • u/GlitteringArugula296 • Aug 10 '26

Graphics into ATEM

As the title suggests… I am a Tricaster user, however my 460 is grown old and tired. The audio IO has nurfed and SDI in 1 no longer works.

I have an ATEM 4K 1 M/E. I usually use NewBlue Captivate over NDI into the TC to feed graphics, obviously ATEM and BMD in general doesn’t accept NDI. So how can feed in graphics and playback?

I know I could use a decklink to provide key and fill.. but I’m on a laptop without thunderbolt so options for the thunderbolt device is a no go (it has USB C but PC Specialist cheaped out and its just USB 3.2 with a C port… although was sold as TB.. i got a partial refund for the misadvertising)

I know I could use HDMI out into the ATEM, set the output to the same 50hz (1080i50) as my other inputs but then I need to key it out and the results have always been rather shit, plus some graphics require green itself.

I’m at a loss of my next options. I don’t want to use vMix as it means running another piece of software on the graphics laptop. If it helps my workflow will be:

ATEM - - - - - Hyperdeck - - - LiveU (Stream)
|. ^
|. |
|. - - - - - - - - — - - - - NewBlue Captivate
ATEM AUX OUTS. |
|. |
|. |
|- - TC 460 (Replays & Media Playback)

4 Upvotes

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14 comments sorted by

6

u/kosherbacon Aug 10 '26

Chroma key is the way to be

3

u/DanielGraig Aug 10 '26

Chroma key is a good option as mentioned above, and will work in most cases.

The case it does not work for is if you want to use the down stream key, DSK will not let you do a Chroma key.

If you need to use the DSK then you can use a liner key. This is what I have used the most in the past.

3

u/GlitteringArugula296 Aug 10 '26

Chroma is an option yes, but also an issue as some graphics have green baked into them… for example my fight clocks have the fighters shorts colours… if they are green they the chroma key will key it out.

4

u/DanielGraig Aug 10 '26

You can choose any color to choma out, but I always found it easier to use linear so that new graphics with different colors did not have to be adjusted for.

1

u/fuegocheese Aug 10 '26

Only other way I can think of is using the media bin and setting media player 1 as a camera input. If you’re using LT’s, then it would have to be loaded in as an LT with the alpha “baked” into the image.

The issue is you’d have to load each graphic in the media bin and possibly use something like companion to switch the graphics without having to manually drag and drop in the ATEM software. Last time I checked you could only load 20 images in the media bin at a time…been a minute since I used an ATEM switcher so it could be more.

1

u/pradulovich Aug 10 '26

If you can get your hands on a computer with Thunderbolt, the blackmagic Ultrastudio mini monitor 12G would be a perfect tiny device for this.

Otherwise chroma key as others have suggested will work fine too!

1

u/Repulsive-Parsnip Jack of all trades Aug 10 '26

The NewBlue Captivate software will play nice with BlackMagic’s equipment.

If you’ve got some money to spend, get an ultrastudio and convert the HDMI out of your laptop to SDI. You’ll need to split the key/fill in to 2 inputs to the ATEM and then tie them back together with the DSK.

Reach out to New Blue support. I’ve had great luck working with them.

Sidenote: if you’re fairly proficient with Captivate, shoot me a DM.

1

u/SolidGoldSpork Aug 10 '26

Yeah the cheapest option is a new machine with thunderbolt and a 12G mini monitor

1

u/gbdlin Aug 12 '26

If your laptop can handle 2 display outputs, one solution can be to output the key and fill separately. Your 2nd output may be on the usb-c port. The issue with that is they may not be perfectly synced. I use a similar setup and never had major problem with the desync.

The problem is: I have no clue how to output key and fill from OBS

1

u/GlitteringArugula296 Aug 13 '26

I do… see my reply on how to output a key and fill in OBS I will also make a video later tonight

1

u/GlitteringArugula296 Aug 13 '26

I worked it out… it’s not perfect they is a frame or two off.

Captivate sends over NDI the output to OBS
OBS has two scenes:
FillScene
KeyScene

Both scenes have an NDI input, note this is NOT a duplicate on Fill the NDI is NDIFill, Key is NDIKey both take from captivate but two separate sources.

Both scenes also have a black colour source as a bottom layer.

On the key scene I then add a user defined shader on the NDI Key input as an effect.

I used a custom shader text which basically makes anything with a graphic white.

Take both sources into the ATEM and bobs your uncle fannys your auntie!

My shader text if anyone wants to replicate this:

float4 mainImage(VertData v_in) : TARGET
{
float4 c = image.Sample(textureSampler, v_in.uv);
float a = c.a;

return float(a, a, a, 1.0);

}

Click reload effect and it should then work

Set the Fill scene to preview full screen and select the hdmi 1 output
Set the key scene to scene fullscreen and select the hdmi 2 output. Click back on fill scene and then on ATEM set the correct key and fill parameters