Intensity Pro compatibility?

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Mike,

Please open your Blackmagic control panel and it should show Preference settings for your Intensity Pro and there should be some menus and other options you can click on that are active. If the control panel does not include the text Intensity Pro and the menus and all other options are grayed out and inactive, then the card is not functioning. That could be a hardware problem or perhaps the drivers have not loaded correctly.

If possible, it would be helpful to test your Intensity Pro in one of the other workstations which currently is working with an Intensity Pro. This will help establish if the card is dead or is working. Regardless of whether or not you have conducted this test, I would suggest you then contact your closest Blackmagic Design office for further help so they can give you some suggestions over the phone and help diagnose the problem.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Mike Wilson]

Thanks Luke. I did all the things you suggest – including call to west coast Blackmagice Design office. Their advice was that Intensity Pro does not work with motherboards set up for SLI graphics card configuration – even if you are not actually running in SLI mode.

I have browsed the Blackmagic support pages and searched for any cautions about SLI compatibility. No such warnings show up in any of my queries. My graphics board (QuadroFX 3700) is on the supported list.

Mike Wilson

[Joshua Helling]

Mike,

Generally speaking there may be problems with motherboards that have slots that are dedicated specifically for SLI or Crossfire usage. But this is by NO MEANS a carte blanche statement.

On some motherboards these slots are configurable. On some these slots autodetect the difference between SLI and Universal PCI-e cards requireing no direct input from the user. In some cases the motherboard sees the card as a graphics card and simply doesn’t work properly. It is a very complex situation and one that is not adequately explained by saying SLI slots don’t work with BMD boards.

This issue occurs less often recently as PCI-express becomes more and more mature.

Generally you want to look for a PCI-e slot that is a 1x, 4x, or 8x configuration that is not SPECIFICALLY setup for SLI configurations (such as are very popular on gaming motherboards).

Given the above is not your case we should be able to get this (should but not always) setup running. Seeing a black screen definately seems to be more of a driver install issue, app issue or setup issue than an incompatibility issue.

So…questions I have for you.

Your issue seems to be with input (best guess from your post). Given that your input seems to be black this generally indicates two things.

1. Hardware Settings: If the input is not set correctly your capture screen will be black. An example, you are trying to capture component but the input setting is set to HDMI. Anything coming into Component in will be ignored and your capture screen will be black. To check/set this click on Start -> Control Panel -> Decklink/Intensity: Check the input setting.

2. Wrong Format Expected: The BMD control panel sets the hardware input, but the application controls the format. So if you are sending SD video into the input and your software is set to 1080i60 then the result will be a black screen on capture.

As you can see both of these issues will cause a problem with capture. Simplest way to check is to first check your hardware settings to make sure the right type of input is selected, then confirm your source is outputting a supported format. Finally ensure that Media Express is set to take that format.

That is the first round. If it is still an issue I would like to have myself or someone on my team check your driver install to make sure that is taking. But that is much easier to do over the phone. If you are leary of calling again, feel free to use this thread as a reference. 😀

Sincerely,

Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.