[David Hansen]

Much obliged.

Dave

[David Hansen]

Thanks Gary.

Yeah, sorry. I should have known the HPX170 was only four channels.

Interesting about the Ki Pro though. Their literature claims: “24-bit SDI embedded audio, 8 channel, 48kHz” Guess that’s meant to be forward-looking?

Dave

[David Hansen]

Perhaps I didn’t clarify enough.

I began running the Intensity Pro somewhere around release 3.1. Based on the advice on your own website, I built my sequences using Blackmagic 8 Bit (2Vuy) and NOT Apple’s built in codec. Ever since 3.3 your codec (2Vuy) seems to have been eliminated from the lineup.

Just to prove my theory I recently downloaded the 3.5.1 drivers. Again, no sign of the codec I used to build my sequences. If I now open up my Final Cut project it will give me an error that says “Codec Not Found. You may be using a codec without the corresponding hardware.” Beyond that, it won’t even open the specific timeline of those sequences. If I try to double click them, I get a memory error.

I repeat, there is NO Blackmagic 8 bit codec in the lineup for the Intensity Pro. I only get Blackmagic RGB 10 bit. I bought this product for editing uncompressed 8 bit.

So it appears my only hope it to switch back to 3.2, swap out every single sequence with a different codec and then re-render. Then re-upgrade the driver? Sorry, but that’s just poor.

And wasn’t your 8-bit codec supposedly better than Apple’s, and without the questionable support for HD? Again, I got this from your site.

Dave

[David Hansen]

Interesting. That makes sense. Even though the downconvert and the 59.94 setting are both NTSC specific, I wasn’t picking up on the correlation. I also didn’t realize the HDMI connection was downconverting.

Do all your cards with breakout cables operate this way (passing the downconvert to all ports) or is it a feature of the Intensity alone?

I’ll check out the new gear. Thanks for the advice.

Dave

[David Hansen]

Thanks Luke, I may have to talk to a support person, but doing my best to understand in my own research. I’m still new to HD, so it’s been a crash course in HD quirks, piled onto an already confusing SD landscape. So many NTSC sins we’re still paying for…

I think part of the trouble comes into the whole 24-over-60 format of 720p. There’s weirdness in that formula that I may just have to live with. I’ve tried your suggestions but only seem to make notable differences when selecting 60p vs. 59.94p, the difference of which I am clueless on. QT tells me my clips are 60p. And a 60p setting in FCP gives me HD the way it’s supposed to look; just no NTSC output. A 59.94p setting gives me crisp NTSC (albeit desaturated) but a really blurry looking HD output. I get that 59.94 is an NTSC standard, so that makes sense. Why I get blurry HD is confusing.

My biggest concerns are color correction and clean interlacing, thus using a CRT production monitor over an LCD TV. I might just have to find a workflow that switches between the two. Then again, the desaturated NTSC doesn’t help, so I might have to correct twice.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Dave

[David Hansen]

Well… this apparently has something to do with interlace vs. progressive scanning. At least that’s my take so far.

I’m in FCP, editing 23.98fps 720 60p DVCPRO-HD. It’s a full-screen beauty on my HDTV when the video playback setting is set to 720 60p. Makes sense. But since my NTSC monitor is interlaced, I think it’s bugging out when it receives this as a progressive scan. (??) When I switch the playback setting over to 720 59.94 it works. I get signal via HDMI and analog. Trouble is, my HDMI output gets smaller and softer and crappy looking,’cause that’s not what the footage was shot at.

So how do I get the best of both worlds? I can’t be the only one out there who’s run into this, no?

Open to suggestions.

Thanks,
Dave