A command-line utility to configure Blackmagic DeckLink devices on Linux.

This tool allows you to manage settings for DeckLink cards without a graphical user interface, which is particularly useful for headless servers.

• List available DeckLink devices.
• Display the current duplex mode for each device/sub-device.
• Set the duplex mode (full or half) for a specific device/sub-device.
• List available hardware profiles for a device.

• A Linux system (tested on Ubuntu).
• Blackmagic DeckLink card installed.
• Blackmagic Desktop Video driver installed.
• Blackmagic DeckLink SDK. You can download this from the Blackmagic Design website.

A Makefile is provided for easy compilation. Before compiling, you may need to edit the Makefile to set the correct path to the DeckLink SDK include directory on your system. By default, it's set to Blackmagic DeckLink SDK 14.4/Linux/include relative to the project root.

make

This will produce an executable named bm-cli in the project root.

To install the utility for all users on the system, run:

sudo make install

This will copy the bm-cli executable to /usr/local/bin.

To uninstall:

sudo make uninstall

The utility is operated via commands like mode and profiles.

./bm-cli mode

./bm-cli mode <device-index>

Example:

./bm-cli mode 1

./bm-cli mode <device-index> <full|half>

The utility will automatically select the correct hardware profile to match your selection.

Example:

# Set device 1 to half-duplex
./bm-cli mode 1 half

# Set device 1 to full-duplex
./bm-cli mode 1 full

This command is useful for debugging and understanding the capabilities of a particular device.

./bm-cli profiles <device-index>

Example:

./bm-cli profiles 1

The device index corresponds to the order in which the devices are detected by the system.