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Intensity Pro question
Saw the Intensity Pro at NAB and it look like the perfect way to get into HDV without breaking the bank.
I also see it is compatible with the Cineform products.What if I am given some HDCAM tapes to edit? Can you get a HDMI signal out of a HDCAM deck, or via a coversion box?
Or is SDI the only way to get HDCAM captured?If so, what card would you need?I edit in Premiere Pro.
Thanks
Mike
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9 Replies
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I think I answered my own question. Need SDI to get non-HDV into a computer (assuming HD tapes).
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Hi Mike,
Current HDCAM decks do not include HDMI output. I would recommend against using Intensity to connect with the HDCAM deck as it will be a messy solution. You would need:
1. ProVTR Device Control Plug-in and Cable for device control of the deck.
2. an HD-SDI to HDMI converter for capturing from the deck.
3. an HDMI to HD-SDI converter for outputting to the deck.
4. the Intensity or Intensity Pro card.
The total cost of this solution is more than that of a professional SDI-based solution which is designed to work with the HDCAM deck.If you’re going to be using a HDCAM deck, I would recommend you try the simplest solution with the least technicalities. The DeckLink HD Extreme (US$995) will enable you to capture from, output to and control the HDCAM deck. You can choose to capture in 8 or 10-bit uncompressed formats or else choose to capture to a compressed codec to save space on hard disks.
You can also use the DeckLink HD Extreme to capture from the component analog outputs of your HDV camera. The DeckLink HD Extreme drivers include a software switch to enable capture from unbalanced HiFi level audio so you can capture directly from the camera without the need for any expensive converters. The only thing you may need are some inexpensive BNC to RCA adapters for video and XLR to RCA adapters for audio. Total cost of these adapters should be under $35.
The Multibridge Eclipse is due to be released in July and includes SDI, analog and HDMI inputs and outputs for $3495. This is a higher price but includes connections to virtually any video hardware imaginable. If you simply need to connect to the HDCAM deck and the HDV camera, then I would suggest you look at the DeckLink HD Extreme which has a lot of capabilities at a very attractive price.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
We got a component to hdmi to do like this.. from a live feed and a digi deck.. no go. The converter was HDCP complient and the intensity didn’t like it.
Hope there is a firmware fix coming.
s
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Thanks for the info and the clarification. Company websites are a bit lacking in how exactly to do things.
Is there any need to use a intermediary codec such as Cineform, or does the Decklink HD Extreme’s compressed codec suffice?
Mike
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Hi Mike,
It can be tricky trying to work out exactly what you need when connecting to multiple pieces of video hardware and it’s always wise to ask questions before purchasing, as you have done.
The Cineform codec is not required to use DeckLink HD Extreme as it comes with both uncompressed and compressed codecs. However Cineform now provide capture support with DeckLink cards if you want to use their codec. The choice is yours and obviously uncompressed video is most desirable in terms of quality and not having to worry about generational loss but you need plenty of disk storage and fast disk arrays to work in uncompressed 8 or 10-bit formats. Alternatively you can capture to the DV or MJPEG codecs which are included with the DeckLink and Intensity drivers and these use much less disk space and you can even capture and play back with a single hard disk.
DV can be used for standard definition and MJPEG is a full-resolution codec which can be used for both standard definition and high definition and is great quality. We don’t charge anything extra for the codecs and so you can share your files with anyone else who has downloaded the drivers and installed the codecs from our web site.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Hi,
Please post this question in a new topic and provide more details of what equipment you were using and which video formats you were attempting to use.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Is the MJPEG the Decklink HD Extreme uses the same as the Intensity?
So could I capture HDCAM or whatever HD format to the MJPEG or compressed codec, or Cineform, and forgo a RAID, or do you need a RAID regardless?I saw some demo’s of using a firewire800 drive for HD, but NAB was information overload, and I forget which vendor was shoeing this (Media 100 I think).
Thanks again for the great info.
Mike
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Hi Mike,
Yes, the codecs in the Intensity, DeckLink and Multibridge drivers are the same, including the MJPEG codec. This means you could use a DeckLink HD Extreme to capture from the HDCAM to a single hard disk using the MJPEG codec and you’ll only need a Firewire 400 connection to the external hard disk. You can then take that drive to another system which has an Intensity card and use the same MJPEG material 🙂
While you can capture to a single disk, it would be preferable to use a Firewire enclosure which contains two disks which are RAID’ed together. Most manufactures make both 1 and 2 disk versions of their Firewire drives and the 2-disk models are obvious as they are both thicker and heavier than the 1-disk models.
The extra bandwidth in Firewire 800 is nice to have but Firewire 400 is far more common and less expensive and is perfectly adequate for MJPEG capture and playback. If you really need extra speed, consider copying the captured material to an internal 7200 rpm SATA II disk with 16 MB of cache.
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design -
Thanks again. Nice to see Blackmagic has a person monitoring this board, and you give good info, not just company propaganda!
Mike
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