[Asaf Blasberg]

Dear Anthony,
I have investigated this issue to the nth degree all day today, and my results are quite interesting. I have Premiere Pro CS6 (Windows) version, and an Intensity Pro card from Blackmagic that allows me to output to a broadcast monitor. I have it connected to a broadcast monitor and an HDTV via HDMI. I set my Hyperdeck Shuttle to DNxHD Quicktime format like you. I recorded color bars from my camera and recorded first to DNxHD, and then uncompressed. When I looked at both of the files in Quicktime, I saw exactly the same issue that you saw… the DNxHD looks a little “washed out”… however, when I brought both files into the Premiere timeline and played them back in on my broadcast monitor it was exactly the same, no washed out colors at all. It was dead on correct. It is definitely some kind of a Quicktime / Avid gamma bug, and I honestly wouldn’t worry about it so much.

With regards to further testing, here’s the real kicker. When you export your sequence (File -> Export Media), you have this big dialog box that shows you a “preview” of what you will render…. in my timeline i had the first few frames of dnxhd, and then immediately next to that some frames from the uncompressed quicktime…. when i was switching frame by frame back and forth in the Render preview window, i could see the shift in the colors that you noticed; however, in the timeline as i mentioned above, it’s exactly the same! Very very WEIRD 🙂 …. but the funny thing is this — if you render to every possible codec like H.264, H.264 Blu-ray, or MPEG-2 DVD, there is no color shift at all and again it is perfect.

There is obviously something weird going here but i’m happy because my final renders are *correct*..i also noticed that regardless of this issue, the Quicktime player does seem to have washed out colors for every Quicktime file i play back on Windows… but when I’m on a Mac the colors look very nice and saturated… the only render that did exhibit the change in colors was when I tried to render to an uncompressed AVI, but if I rendered to an uncompressed Quicktime file, the problem was NOT there…

Then I went to the Apple Store to see if i could see the gamma shift… there was absolutely NO gamma shift… then i loaded the two clips in Final Cut Pro X and it was perfect… so what this tells me is that the Hyperdeck Shuttle records colors properly…

Hope this helps…. So as long as you render your final sequence you should be fine…. as i mentioned before above, the colors are correct when played back on a broadcast monitor **and** in the program monitor of Premiere itself (on the computer monitor)…

-Asaf

[Asaf Blasberg]

okay thanks! and one quick question – which version of the drivers if you don’t mind me asking? 🙂

[Asaf Blasberg]

Chad:
Did you test the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle with Flash Media Live Encoder 3.2? Is this the program you use?
Many thanks,
Asaf

[Asaf Blasberg]

One more thing I forgot to ask you — did you test the intensity with premiere pro cs5.5?

[Asaf Blasberg]

one thing to add p.s. – i just called lenovo, they basically said that the slower processor still has the same specs as the faster processor – 6gbps bus speed, same sandy bridge chipset… but again without testing this “lower” model with the intensity i’m taking a risk! 🙂

[Asaf Blasberg]

Hey Chad,
Thank you so much for this. Now the model that you have goes for about $1,500. However, Lenovo makes a T420s for $1,100 that has these specs:

2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M4GB (1x4GB) RAM

I am wondering if the Intensity Shuttle will work with the slower processor? Because it seems that the chipset is the same? I’m really worried about this 🙁 let me know your thoughts….

[Asaf Blasberg]

Thanks so much for that response Danny. Saved me a lot of time 🙂 I have the Lenovo T420, i’m trying to see if i can exchange it at the computer store for a T420s which Chad said worked, the only problem is I don’t know which version of the T420s he used (processor speed is the only thing)…….

[Asaf Blasberg]

hi chad,
what processor did you choose for your lenovo t420s? i5/i7? I have the 420 without the usb 3.0, but the 420 and 420s have the exact same chipset… i wonder if i could buy a caldigit usb 3.0 express/34 adapater.. would it work!??

[Asaf Blasberg]

Hi Christian,
I have the exact same problem. This is awful and I don’t know how to fix this. I have FCP 7.0.2 — anybody know what’s going on?