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Activity Forums Blackmagic Design AVCHD to Intensity to MBP

  • AVCHD to Intensity to MBP

    Posted by Andrew Rice on October 18, 2007 at 2:33 am

    Thats a mouthful, and I am wondering what people think of this setup. It would look like this:

    AG-HSC1U to Intensity Pro card which is in a MagmaExpress Box ( see it here https://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox1/index.html) and finally into a MBP 2.4Ghz Intel processor.

    These are the questions:

    1. Will this setup let me record “live” and if so, does that give me better footage then if I record to the AVCHD codec? In other words, am I bypassing the compression by going directly out the HDMI port?

    2. If I can only transfer AVCHD files will this give me much better resolution, considering it will be 4:2:2, this is appealing, but if the ending file is uprezed from AVCHD how good can it be?

    3. Is the worth the $1000 for the card and box? Maybe I am better off selling the HSC1U and buying a new camera…?

    Thanks for any input.

    Andrew Rice
    Kenai Productions
    http://www.kenaiproductions.com

    Blast1 replied 18 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Blast1

    October 18, 2007 at 3:46 am

    A bit expensive for one slot.

  • Colin Mcquillan

    October 18, 2007 at 7:29 am

    Hum.. .. with your express expansion card slot occupied with the MagmaExpress Box, are you going to be left with adequate drive speed through your left over FW800/400/USB2.0 ports to capture a live stream of uncompressed footage?

    No.

    Colin McQuillan
    Vancouver BC

  • Andrew Rice

    October 18, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    I was hoping that the capture would happen through the Intensity Card, and thus, through the express card slot. It seems like the bandwidth is there according to Magma, and I am not clear if the Intensity card actually allows for live capture.

    The cost is about $1000, but a new camera winds up costing around $5000, so while it might be expensive for one slot, the main thing I am concerned with is the quality it will produce…then I will determine if it is worth the expense, and the headache of dragging that gear to each shoot.

    Andrew Rice
    Kenai Productions
    http://www.kenaiproductions.com

  • Blast1

    October 18, 2007 at 9:03 pm

    [Riceman] “I am not clear if the Intensity card actually allows for live capture.”
    Yes it does, if you had two card slots you could add a second card and use On Air to have live switching, but are you going to try to capture uncompressed or to the MotionJpeg codec?

  • Andrew Rice

    October 19, 2007 at 4:43 am

    I would like to capture to the best quality possible, so probably uncompressed, but I am not sure what that means exactly…in terms of data rates and storage. Remember I am acquiring images with an AVCHD camera, the AG-HSC1U.

    I am still wondering if the HDMI out bypasses compression within the camera, and is therefore pulling the information directly from the CCD’s.

    Andrew Rice
    Kenai Productions
    http://www.kenaiproductions.com

  • Blast1

    October 19, 2007 at 9:01 am

    [Riceman] “I am still wondering if the HDMI out bypasses compression within the camera,”
    I know the sony cams output HDMI before compression to tape, I would assume the panasonics are the same.

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