intensity pro Issue

[Valentin Lormeau]

Guess i’m a special case.
I messed up again with drivers, and it works almost fine now, i’m crossing fingers, but i got a audio sync problem now, and it’s quite a mess.

[Rodney Relosa]

Hello,

I’m also building a capture machine using a BlackMagic Intensity Pro. This is mainly to record my Street Fighter IV matches on my 360.

I love the video quality but I’m also getting the audio sync problem. I’m not done configuring my system so I don’t need specific help yet. But I would appreciate it if you can continue posting your experiences while I also do the same.

Here’s my system for reference:
C2Q @ 2.83GHz
4GB RAM
MB: Asus PQ5-EM
VC: Intel X4500HD (integrated)
OS: Windows XP 64 Pro
HD: WD 1TB (x2)

Right now I’m just optimizing my system, learning to use the hardware/software, and creating my test cases for easier testing.

An unusual thing about my setup is that I’ve setup my drives as a Matrix RAID. There is a 250GB mirrored volume used for the OS and 1TB striped volume used to store the captured data. I’m hoping this won’t cause major problems

A question came to mind and if anyone can answer I would appreciate it.

Is there a way to turn off the preview in Media Express?

[Rodney Relosa]

After more learning and testing I have resolved my problems and can now capture at 720p @ 59.97, MJPEG, with no dropped frames and audio is in sync.

Here’s a run down of my encounters and what I did to address them.

* Pass-thru only works if Media Express is active. Kind of risky to have my video disappear in the middle of an SF4 match. So I got an HDTV Audio/Video Splitter (VOPEX-HDA-2). So my video/audio can be sent to the TV & Intensity Pro at the same time.

* Media Express was dropping frames. I tried different settings, uncompressed & MJPEG, optimizing settings and a small preview. Most of the time it was only once during a 2 min session but it would be enough to get the audio out of sync. In the end I abandoned using Media Express. Maybe with the upcoming update I’ll give it a try again.

* I switched to VirtualDub (v1.9.1) but started getting dropped/inserted frames. VirtualDub was pretty complicated so I devoted more time to setting it up. In the support forms, users phaeron & squid_80 gave tips on how to properly setup VirtualDub to capture in 720p. They said to go to Capture|Disk I/O and change the number of chunks to 64 and the chunk size to 2MB. Doing this and using MJPEG was what allowed me to finally do captures without dropping frames and getting audio in sync.

So all said and done I’m happy with the setup, now all I need is a LAN box, a motorized LCD screen and I’ll have a nice portable HD capturing system.

Hope this helps anyone trying to build the same setup.

[Valentin Lormeau]

hehe, i see i’m not the only one out there getting an intensity pro for SFIV matches encoding 🙂
First let me thank you for the splitter model, seems to be a good bargain for its price, i’m ordering one ASAP.
i didn’t have time to look up for a solution after my last post here, so the card is taking dust on my desk, but Virtual Dub seems to be the solution, plus i’m pretty familiar with it, so i will test it today and write some feedback to let you know, i do hope it’ll work.
Thanks again.

[Valentin Lormeau]

Ok, it’s been a while, and it’s working perfectly with Vdub now, i can manage to encode 30 minutes of matches without a single dropped frame, and my cpu usage peaks at 70%.
Thanks again for the tips, it’s working now 🙂

[Joe Beckwith]

I’m having audio problems as well. I’ve always used VirtualDub to capture, even with other capture cards. For some reason when I capture, the audio sounds all garbled like it’s underwater, and it’s super out of sync. I’m thinking the reason is my computer just can’t handle it.

I capture MJPEG compressed @ 29.97 fps (I know I’m supposed to do it at 50-60 fps but it’s the best my comp can do).

I’m getting a new processor, motherboard, and more memory in a little bit… so I guess I’ll see if that solves the problem.

In the meantime, anybody have any ideas?

(I tried all that was mentioned in the previous posts).

[Joe Beckwith]

Here’s a good example of my problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_payHwAW5U

The audio is really messed up and lags way ahead of the video.

My computer specs:

Intel Pentium 4 550 3.4 GHz
Intel D915PBL Mobo
2GB DDR2 Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB

The new parts I’m getting are as follows:
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX
ASUS M4A78 PRO Mobo
6 GB DDR2 Memory
Same GFX card.

Will this upgrade solve my problem or does the issue lie elsewhere?

[Rodney Relosa]

Hello Joe,

You didn’t say if you were using an Intensity Pro but since you replied in this thread I’ll assume you are. You also didn’t detail your storage specs. RAID0 or single drive?

Not sure if the upgrade would solve your problems. With my setup(C2D 2.8GHz, RAID0) I could record 1280×720@60fps. If it’s a compatibility issue, your new setup might work. If it’s a configuration issue then it won’t.

It would be nice to know what your storage specs are and if during a capture session you’re getting any “dropped frames”.

[Joe Beckwith]

Yes, I am using an intensity pro. I have a single drive. I do get dropped frames when recording at any framerate (60, 50, or 29.97).

I currently capture in 29.97 fps because it’s easiest on my system and produces the best quality for bitrate.. anyway, this is the problem I get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_payHwAW5U

The audio is all slowed down and garbled, and also is unsynced.

Any ideas? My system specs are listed in a previous post.

—

Also, on a separate note, how do I use the “record hdmi video/rca audio” feature. I tried plugging in the hdmi cord to the pci card and connecting the red and white audio cables to the little component adapter thing, but then it wouldn’t let me record video.

[Valentin Lormeau]

This is exactly the same problem i got a few month ago.
Are you using the laster MEdia Express and drivers ? They seem to be much more power demanding.
Start by using Virtual Dub to capture your video with the settings mentionned above.
Go to Capture then Disk I/0, set chunk in buffer to 64 and chunk size to 2 mb like Rodney Said.
Then, go to Capture then Timing, and check “Do not resync between audio and video stream”, i had a desync case with this option not checked.You have some other things to configure like codec and you can capture the easy way. Media Express was using all my CPU while recording, with Vdub, it peaks at 80%
it should go smoothly.
i’m waiting for your feedback.