Blackmagic Desktop Video User Manual Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test measures the read and write performance of storage media in video frame sizes. Disk Speed Test is included with your Desktop Video software and can be downloaded free from the App Store for Mac OS.

Access the Disk Speed Test settings by clicking on the ‘settings’ gear icon, located just above the ‘start’ button.

Select Target Drive

Click ‘select target drive’ and ensure you have read and write permissions.

Save Screenshot

Click ‘save screenshot’ to save a screenshot of the results.

Stress

The stress level can be set between 1GB and 5GB. 5GB is the default setting and will provide the most accurate results.

Disk Speed Test Help

Click ‘Disk Speed Test help’ to launch the PDF manual for Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.

About Disk Speed Test

About Disk Speed Test displays which version of the Disk Speed Test software you are running.

Start

Click the ‘start’ button to commence the test. Disk Speed Test will write and then read a temporary file to the selected target drive. Disk Speed Test will continue writing and reading until you stop the test by clicking the ‘start’ button again.

Will it Work?

The ‘will it work?’ panel shows common video formats and displays a check mark or cross to indicate if disk performance is adequate. Be sure to do several test cycles to reveal any video formats for which the disk performance might be marginal. If a video format exhibits a check mark switching between a cross, it indicates that the disk storage cannot reliably support the video format.

How Fast?

The ‘how fast?’ results panel shows the frame rates your drive can achieve and should be read in conjunction with the ‘will it work?’ panel. If the ‘will it work?’ panel shows a green check mark for 2K DCI 24 using H.265, but the ‘how fast?’ panel shows that a maximum of 24fps will be supported, the disk storage performance is too marginal to be reliable.