[Marc Sparks]

I don’t have an Intensity, but I can tell you that in my Windows 7 experiments, the only thing I haven’t been able to make work were a few peripherals that wouldn’t work with Vista 64 either. (The problem was the lack of x64 drivers, not the OS.)

I’ve even run a few pieces of software that I really expected to have to run in Virtual XP mode, or not at all, such as Lightwave 7, which uses a dongle for security. In fact, I think it wasn’t working in Virtual XP mode, but I got it working fine in Win 7.

That doesn’t mean your Intensity will work right out of the box, but it’s certainly worth a try. It seems to me that the jump from Vista to 7 isn’t a huge leap, and if there are any problems, they will probably get fixed easily. It’s not like switching from XP to Vista, or from CS3 to CS4, which had major hurdles.

[Marc Sparks]

No one knows anything about this? Oh well. The more I read, the more I think I’ll need a real sound card.

What I’m considering now will raise my budget, but I’m really focusing on workflow. The Delta 1010 has 8 analog ins and 8 analog outs, and their software has a great patch panel and mixer. I can run the 6 channel out from the HDLink Pro(or from the Decklink if budget dictates) to channels 3-8 on the Delta. These can be set to pass through mode, so they come directly back out channels 3-8. I can hook these up to my surround amp. When I need to work in surround mode in Acid, I just open the patch panel and switch from pass through 3-8 to WAV 3-8. Then, it’s just a matter of directing Acid to WAV 3-8, rather than 1-6.

You can set the Delta to mix down everything to 1-2, so there will still be a dedicated 2 channel out for non-surround mixing.

I imagine this might set things microscopically out of sync for monitoring, but if I get the HDLink, the Decklink analog outs will still be free for feeding a Betacam deck.

I’d still appreciate any input on this…maybe I’m complicating things too much in trying to keep my workflow simple. Why can’t I just use the Delta for audio output?

[Marc Sparks]

I’ve since read a few things that indicate that Decklinks are not suitable replacements for sound cards, but I’d still like some input from people with experience with the Decklink Studio.

I hear the main problem is that you can not record audio through the Decklink unless video is present. Someone said that your audio would be put in a video file and you would have to strip it out. This seems odd to me…I would think an ASIO driver is an ASIO driver. I can see if the card requires a video signal to activate the input, but you should still be able to choose the audio input in any ASIO aware software.

I should note that this is Windows…I’m on XP now, but might move to Vista 64 (or Windows 7 64 depending on how long this project take me.)