Blackmagic Design's new Intensity HDMI Editing card...

Now THIS looks pretty darn cool for HDV / MacIntel peeps (not for PPC). No Long GOP capture! Uncompressed / DVCProHD! $249 !!! Aja will have to follow with something soon, or else:

[www.blackmagic-design.com]

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Uncompressed and no long GOP IF AND ONLY IF you capture directly from the camera and bypass tape. The GOP compression happens when you go to tape.

And since it is PCIe only, that means tethering it to a Quad or MacPro. Not very convenient for field shooting.

(Just to rain on parades)


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Most people will use this card to monitor out HDV. That is what is cool about it. Monitor your HDV on a 50inch plasma

Michael Horton
-------------------

Quote

And since it is PCIe only, that means tethering it to a Quad or MacPro. Not very convenient for field shooting.

Yikes...you're kidding, right dude? What tape?? Import direct from camera / edit DVCProHD. Who said anything about "field shooting"?? For $294? You really don't think this is AMAZING? Not much to complain about, IMHO. I hope Aja comes up with something even more amazing (they always do).

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

OK...didn't know you were thinking a studio setting. One G5 per camera.

I admit is is darn cool and a great price. Just capturing uncompressed video and bypassing GOP has it's limitations. I wanted to point them out.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Its not PCIe only. At least I think not. BM is sending me a eval unit for my G5. They asked whether I had a G5 or Mac Pro

Michael Horton
-------------------

Mike,

BM Website says no PPC support.

Shane,

Bypassing GOP has what limitations? It can't be nearly as many limitations as actually using native HDV / Long GOP. Did you read the specs & stuff on that website? You can do DVCProHD (which is the flavor of the month when converting HDV). That eliminates the need for a $1500 Kona card or a $1000 BM card and it looks like you can log & batch everything. BTW...the card also comes with a LIVE SWITCHING software...did you see that on the website? Wouldn't that be cool on a live "field shoot"? There's a lot there...gotta read it. For $294, it's almost a no-brainer-here's-my-credit-card.

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

i don't think you can log and batch capture, if there's no tape involved?
isn't this for taking a feed direct from the camera and capturing it as some flavour of HD *while you are shooting*?

This is the PR they sent out the other day. Short version of what is on their web site:

Blackmagic Design Inc. today announced Intensity is now available to customers worldwide. An ultra low cost HDMI capture and playback card, Intensity users can now capture high quality uncompressed video direct from the HDMI connection on HDV cameras.

Intensity is an incredibly small HDMI capture and playback card that instantly switches between 1080HD, 720HD, NTSC and PAL video standards. Once Intensity is plugged into compatible PCI Express Windows or Mac OS X computers, users get the amazing quality of uncompressed video via HDMI from cameras, decks and set top boxes, enabling them to playback to any HDMI big screen television or video projector for editing in SD or HD with real time effects.

?The availability of Intensity gives tremendous opportunities to creative users everywhere who want to take high quality, uncompressed video out of low-cost HDMI cameras," said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design Inc.. "Our innovations in high definition editing products, generate significant savings for cost-conscious editors using Macs and PCs for post production.?

Intensity utilizes the same technology found in Blackmagic Design?s famous professional video capture cards that are used on award-winning feature films, documentaries and television shows. Users can capture to disk arrays for high speed uncompressed video, or when disk speed and space is tight, choose from a range of professional compressed codecs that go well beyond the quality limitations of HDV.

Customers recording to HDV tape also benefit from HDMI uncompressed capture and editing. Once the HDV footage is recorded uncompressed via HDMI, and graphics and effects are placed, the edited video will retain full HD resolution and color depth. This high quality editing can be viewed in real time via the Intensity HDMI video output on large screen televisions or video projectors. Because Intensity's media files are fully compatible with Blackmagic Design's DeckLink and Multibridge capture cards, users can even play-out to broadcast tape decks by moving content to a DeckLink or Multibridge based system.

Intensity is fully compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro®, Apple Final Cut Pro?, Adobe After Effects?, Adobe Photoshop? and any DirectShow? or QuickTime? based software application. Intensity works with almost any video software.

Blackmagic On-Air 2.0 for Live Editing
Also immediately available is Blackmagic Design's popular On-Air 2.0 software which is available for use with PCI-e capable Macs. Two HDMI video cameras can be connected for live mixing, when used with two Intensity boards plugged into the same computer. On-Air 2.0 supports auto-sync of video inputs, so users don't need expensive cameras that feature genlock. On-Air 2.0 features "genlock-less" operation so any camera with HDMI outputs will work as an incredibly low cost solution.

Intensity Product Features
- HDMI in for capture from HDMI video cameras and HDMI HDV decks.
- Uncompressed video capture and playback
- Edit with Apple Final Cut Pro on Mac OS X, or Adobe Premiere Pro on Windows XP
- HD and SD Professional Compression codecs (Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro)
- True 64 bit 1 lane PCIe support.
- Instantly switches between HDTV 1080i/59.94, 1080i/50, 720p/59.94, 720p/50, NTSC and PAL video standards.

Availability and Price
Intensity has a recommended retail price of only US$249 and is available immediately worldwide from Blackmagic Design authorized resellers.

Michael Horton
-------------------

So, I still don't get it. Is it tapeless ingest only?

i *think* this is what it all means:

? you can record as HDV to tape, then capture that as some flavour of HD via an HDMI output.
it's still HDV converted to DH,
like if you captured from a DV tape to uncompressed.

this is a pretty good thing, but you have still captured the footage as HDV with all the artifacting issues inherent.
but hey, it;s about 5% the cost of other similar solutions out there
(im thinking the convergent or miranda boxes that take the HDV signal from the FW out of the camera / deck and feed an HD signal into the HD capture card of your choice)

? also, in a studio environment you could bypass the tape, and HDV compression, and capture HD direct from the chip.
not many people will get much use out of this
but some one will make a cheap studio based VFX style picture (think "sky captain", or even "star wars" for that matter) for next to nothing

? you can monitor your HDV as HD
this is good

i wish the pr blurb was a bit clearer..

nick

The PPC support is coming.

Philip

ok, so what HDV decks have HDMI outputs?

(specifically for my needs, the filmmakers i've been working with are using the sony Z1,
so i;d need a deck that can play back tapes from that camera)

No decks yet, but the new Sony HVR-V1U has one. Put two of htem with two Intensity cards, and Blackmagic's On Air software and instant HD Studio (two camera).

Couple of other 1 CCD HDV camcorders have them and some of the AVCHD camcorders have them too.

Philip

Quote

Couple of other 1 CCD HDV camcorders have them and some of the AVCHD camcorders have them too.

Damn. My HDR-HC1 doesn't have an HDMI port (iLink HDV-DV / USB / Component Out / AV Out). Oh well.

I wonder...HDMI is just for the video I/O, right (not familiar with this technology yet)? Can you control the deck / camera through this port or do you control the camera via FCP with the iLink port like in HDV capture or through a USB port?

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

AFAIK, no deck control, but i think it includes audio... I'm learning too. Waiting for the PPC drivers for the Intensity card, so I can test.

Philip

Ya know... I and Philip were a bit confused about this card when it was first announced. I think BM needs to re- write not only their PRs but the Intensity page. We should not be arguing about what this card does.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Are we arguing? Well...that's not good.

Happy Holidays, everybody!!!

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Well, not arguing, just not understanding. That's not good.

Michael Horton
-------------------

here's a link i found:
it may well be old news for many here,
but it's all new to me

[www.hardwaresecrets.com]

some quotes:
"HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a new kind of digital audio and video connector that promises to replace all connectors currently used by DVD players, TV sets and video monitors. The idea is to use a single cable instead of several cables when connecting your DVD player to your TV set, for example."

"The greatest advantage brought by this standard is the use of digital connection for both audio and video"

"HDMI supports higher resolutions than DVI, including resolutions not commercially released yet (in theory it supports double the highest resolution available today in HDTV sets)"

Nick Meyers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i *think* this is what it all means:
>
> ? you can record as HDV to tape, then capture that
> as some flavour of HD via an HDMI output.
> it's still HDV converted to DH,
> like if you captured from a DV tape to
> uncompressed.
>
> this is a pretty good thing, but you have still
> captured the footage as HDV with all the
> artifacting issues inherent.
> but hey, it;s about 5% the cost of other similar
> solutions out there
> (im thinking the convergent or miranda boxes that
> take the HDV signal from the FW out of the camera
> / deck and feed an HD signal into the HD capture
> card of your choice)
>
> nick

That's not what they're claiming:
<i>
...new cameras being released such as the Sony HDR-HC3 with built in HDMI video output, allow access to the raw uncompressed video from the CCD directly. That provides incredible quality. Or if you're capturing off HDV tape, you can still enjoy editing video in full resolution, so your graphics and effects look sharp, because only uncompressed video eliminates the horizontal scaling that?s required when rendering HDV footage with graphics and effects.</i>

So they're saying that this HDMI out is the same as HD-SDI output? Except you still have to hook up the firewire for control. I can see using this set-up for studio greenscreens as it is 4:2:2 chroma subsampling instead of 4:2:0 (or whatever HDV is) but beyond that, I don't see a whole lot of utility beyond monitoring. And pretty specific monitoring (1 camera, no decks so far) at that. Who's gonna lug around their tower? I suspect that's why it's $249.

i know we're all editors here, but you just chopped out the bit where i went on to say as much

actually i could get great use out of the card.
if i were to cut another film shot on HDV,
i would capture as DV, edit away, add text & fx and make preview versions easily.
then when locked off, compile at HD res.

or as Joe points out, migrate to DVCProHD from the get-go.

and if there aren't many decks around with HDMI yet,
i could get one of the cheap cam-corders, and use it as a deck.
just like i did when i started with DV

Hi all

The JVC BR-HD50 HDV deck has HDMI out.

This capture card sounds great.

Ed

Just tried my HCI out via Component to the 2405 monitor. This is not going to HDV & I think you can get adaptors from component to HDMI so maybe there's a possibility.

If Apple in January start offerin the Macbooks with HDMI ports we may have a system for in the field providing the drives are fast enough.

Dave

OOOooooo....adapter from Component to HDMI...good idea, but that leaves out the audio that would have to be ingested some other way. I would love that for my HDR-HC1.

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

There's also a rumor that Studio Displays as well as the 24 inch iMac will be announced on Jan 9 with HDMI connectors.

Dave